Boot problem, hangs up on bootsplash screen

[Helkyn]

Hi all

 

First, let me tell you that I am french, and as such, do not blame me if you've got some problem of understanding. I'll do my best to depict my poor situation.

 

I recently bought a DFI nf4 motherboard (NF4 Ultra-D to be precise), with a core venice amd64 3500+. RAM modules are coming from an ancient comp, that is, a 1Gb 3200C2 Corsair modules. My PSU is a 20 pins ATX.

 

Installed all the components together, and turned on the machine. Problem starts here: I never get past the bootsplash screen (with DFI lanparty written on it), but, I still get the "one beep" ok right after it.

 

Tried many things. Putting the ram modules in orange or yellow slot, fake reboot, clear CMOS (jumper and more "complex" method), but didn't solve the issue. Boot hangs up on bootsplash.

 

Concerning diagnostic leds, the last one is lit when boot crashes; according to manual, the boot process hangs up on VGA detection. Still, I only have one PCIex GC with me, and don't have another one to spare in order to test it elsewhere. Same problem happens with a simple PCI card though.

 

All power supply slots on mb are connected, except the fact that I'm using a 20 pin ATX PSU, 365W enermax.

 

Right now, I'm stuck with it. I'm posting this issue on the forum in order to get some help, since I can't clearly locate the problem, whether it's coming from RAM modules, VGA card, or 20 pin ATX PSU.

 

Thanking you in advance for any help you may bring

[StephenC]

Welcome!

First you will need to create a signature. See my signature for link. A few things. First your PSU is underpowered for your motherboard. Plus it has a native 20 pin ATX connector. This is not good on these boards as well. See link in signature for recommended/approved NF4 PSU's

[John Peni El]

If you have any USB devices connected, disconnect them and try it again. Mine will post but hang at the same point yours is if I have the external HD connected to the USB port. I disconnect it and it and viola! it boots up fine. I can reconnect it after booting and use the drive no probs so I know it's not the drive itself. Still no word on this from DFI guys, but it seems a few peeps here are having this issue with various USB devices. May not be the problem in your case, but it was worth a shot

[Helkyn]

Alright

 

Thanks a lot for all this advices.

 

I'll give it a try today, I'm currently at job so won't be able to create now a descent sig with all the correct specs (don't know all of them by heart).

 

Anyway, I'll start looking on recommended PSUs

 

If you have any USB devices connected, disconnect them and try it again. Mine will post but hang at the same point yours is if I have the external HD connected to the USB port. I disconnect it and it and viola! it boots up fine. I can reconnect it after booting and use the drive no probs so I know it's not the drive itself. Still no word on this from DFI guys, but it seems a few peeps here are having this issue with various USB devices. May not be the problem in your case, but it was worth a shot

 

+1 , correct. Just asked my bro to plug off all usb devices, and POST was ok.

 

On my way to buy a descent PSU, will see if it changes anything.

 

Again, thanks a bunch for the tip

[Diverge]

If you have any USB devices connected, disconnect them and try it again. Mine will post but hang at the same point yours is if I have the external HD connected to the USB port. I disconnect it and it and viola! it boots up fine. I can reconnect it after booting and use the drive no probs so I know it's not the drive itself. Still no word on this from DFI guys, but it seems a few peeps here are having this issue with various USB devices. May not be the problem in your case, but it was worth a shot

 

Look into +5VSB current specs, USB devices use +5VSB voltage (as well as some motherboard circuits), and if the rated current is exceeded, over-current protection kicks in: http://www.formfactors.org/developer%5Cspe..._public_br2.pdf

 

This is one spec that is often overlooked when choosing a powersupply. One difference between the previous ATX spec for power supplies (ATX12V 2.01) and current spec (ATX12V 2.2) is a change from a 2.0 amp min on +5VSB to a 2.5 amp min +5VSB.

[Psitech]

I'm having the exact same problem. I wish someone from DFI would officially give some info on this. Hopefully they can put a sticky up about it. I never got any official dfi help and ended up setting up an rma with newegg. I fought with the splash screen hang for about 4 days and tried everything and still no go.

 

My suggestion would be to unplug everything from the board other than the mainboard power, ram, and graphics card. Clear the cmos and remove the battery and let it sit for about 30 minutes.

[SageI]

First thing to do is to go into BIOS and disable the boot splash screen and see if your PC is trying to tell you any thing.

[superflyguy]

You can also do two other things:

1) Post ya bios in ya sig!

2) try flashing to 623, there are three versions 623-1, 623-2 and 623-3. Choose the right one for your memory chips.

 

I could not do anything until I flashed to 623-3. Then whoosh, install was a breeze (once I'd figured out that WinXp+Sp2 did not like a Raid0 SATA2 drives on SATA2 ports. Just installed WinXp+Sp1 then updated to Sp2 from there. BOL!!

[Psitech]

How is he going to get into the bios or flash his bios if he can't get past the splash screen?

[Worm]

How is he going to get into the bios or flash his bios if he can't get past the splash screen?

You don't need to. The flash program is on the floppy. DFI and ASUS motherboards are the only two (that I know of) that are programmed to read data from the floppy drive even if the machine itself appears to be totally dead when powered up.

[Psitech]

You don't need to. The flash program is on the floppy. DFI and ASUS motherboards are the only two (that I know of) that are programmed to read data from the floppy drive even if the machine itself appears to be totally dead when powered up.

 

 

You mind telling me how to do this?

[Worm]

You mind telling me how to do this?

Sure. Go to DFI's BIOS download page here and download the executable version you want to use i.e. N4D623-3.EXE.

Insert a blank floppy in the drive and execute the file you downloaded to create a BIOS upgrade program. When that completes, eject the floppy, insert it in the dead machine and then power it on. Provided it displays the 4 LEDs, the BIOS program should commence. After the flashing process completes, eject the floppy, go into the BIOS and load "Optimized Defaults" (there's no need to clear CMOS).

 

I had a similar problem when I first built my own system. The machine appeared to be totally inaccessible with all 4 LEDs lit and a message on screen saying "No Signal Check". Angry provided me with a download link to BIOS v615 (which I'm still running) and by using the method described above, I was able to get up and running.