DFI Expert CANNOT boot.

[n1ce_hat]

Hi folks I have an issue on my hand and it sounds bad.

 

Sig is pretty much accurate, the PSU is different (500w Delta power), but I have tried it with two PSU. I am attempting this with a 300GB SATA Seagate, 80GB WD IDE, and a 80GB Maxtor IDE (not all connected at the same time). Video is a GeForce2 PCI because the 6600GT died a horrible, horrible death.

 

CPU is an Athlon 64 X2 3800+.

 

ALL SPEEDS STOCK.

 

On to the problem. It occurred when I moved the motherboard out of it's case and then put it back in the same case. Booting XP off a CD works fine, those bootable technician CDs work fine. When you install XP off the CD, when the installer restarts to load XP setup i get the message "error loading operating system." That was achieved using either the WD 80GB IDE or the Maxtor 80GB IDE, both wield the same results. The jumper settings are fine, the drives show up in the BIOS, appear to be normal, and I get the same problem with 1 or both drives.

Oh what fun this is. I tried installing windows on a Seagate 300GB SATA HDD to spice things up a bit. I now get the message "A disk read error has occurred, press ctrl+alt+del to restart."

 

I have tried clearing the CMOS, that was obvious. I cleared the hell out of it, POST says 'checksum bad' afterwards so it has been cleared. I had the 4/06/06 BIOS originally so I flashed it with the 11-2005 BIOS, same problem, then flashed the 12-2005 BIOS, no diff. Flashed on the 4/06/06 BIOS again. Flashing was ALL done using a 3.5" floppy drive and the process was completed with no problems.

 

I have tried this with 4x512MB DDR400, 1x512MB DDR400, and each one of those 4 sticks one at a time in various slots not changing anything.

 

I have a PSU tester and it tests perfectly. PSU is new.

 

Was there anything I missed? I have tried a million BIOS settings and nothing changes. Everything was just peachy until I carefully removed the motherboard from it's chassis.

[uberbob]

I am having the exact same problem. This morning while reading a website on how boot sector and bios viri could be on a rise, my computer blinks off and restarts, and gets stuck at the DFI lan party logo. I turned the computer off and unplugged it from the wall, and then left to go to work.

 

Now, I'm back and I have tried both my defualt and back up PSU (PC Power and Cooling 1kW, and Antec 550w NEO HE), both PSUS, test out with my tester. I have unplugged everything from the mother board, except for fans, pc speaker, on button, led status lights and video card (nforce 7950 gx2). After clearing the bios I get to post screen and get stuck at the line where it lists my CPU (amd x2 4400). So, on the debug lights the far left light stays on, and I only get 1 beep from pc speaker, all this with just mobo, video card (with its sli connector), 1 stick of memory in 2st slot, and PSU and its 3 power cables (24 pin, 8 pin, fdd connector).

 

Bios is currently 04/06/20006 nf ck804 6a61fd4ec-00

 

I can't even hit del or esc to go to setup or boot menu respectively. Also I have tried 2 different ps2 kbs.

I have replaced the bios battery.

I also noticed I no longer see the dfi lanparty boot screen.

 

What could be wrong?

[Devil 07]

I've experienced a few problems like that when I was initially setting up my Expert board. Make sure in the BIOS under "Advanced BIOS Features" that you have the drive you installed your OS on first in the list under "Hard Disk Boot Priority". I tried a bunch of different hard drive configurations when getting this thing going and it always seamed to jumble the list of drives in the boot priority menu. This may or may not help, but I know for me if the proper drive wasn't selected, I got something similar to the "error loading OS" message.

[uberbob]

It won't even let me into my bios is it dead?

[Devil 07]

do you still have the original CMOS battery? The Expert is a pretty old board by now, I can't say a new battery will help solve your problems, but it couldn't hurt. Batteries by nature have an internal resistance that gets greater over time. The voltage put out by the battery doesn't change, but the rising internal resistance makes it seam as though its "going dead" and putting out less voltage.

[uberbob]

oooh good idea, I will go to target right now and get a new one.

Except that it gets to the initial post screen where it only lists my processor and it never gets to the mem test.

[Devil 07]

electronics can act really strange when they don't get enough juice. often not repeating a problem, but appearing to be random at times.

[uberbob]

i took the battery out and it booted and stoped after listing my processor, so it could be the battery. im going to go buy one now and try it.

wish me luck

[Devil 07]

Hopefully that will work for you. we have a few, shall we say "vintage" 80's reverbs at work, and a few of them started having these strange problems. once we replaced the battery on the logic board they started working correctly again. Good luck to you.

[uberbob]

well i had to buy not 1 but 2 of the replacement batteries. Now I have a fresh one and a spare. And still no change in boot problem. I have tried the memory in every slot, the mobo knows when theres no mem or no video card. 2 different psu and still the same result.

[radodrill]

@ uberbob: this isn't the exact same situation as what the OP is experiencing; as his board is passing the POST just having issues accessing the HDDs, while in your case the board doesn't even pass the POST. As such, you really should have started a new thread.

 

Have you tried the PSU(s) in another rig to verify that it works? A PSU tester isn't an accurate way of checking the functionality of a PSU as it only checks it under no load; even dead PSUs can appear to be OK under no load.

 

You may also want to try an extended clear CMOS (link in my sig).

[uberbob]

YEEEEE HAWWWWWWW

 

well heres how i fixed it

I took the processor out, dropping it onto my 7950 gx2 in the process and bending one of the outer most pins on the bottom of my cpu.

 

I bent the pin back into place and recovered the cpu with the silver stuff (so exicted that its back and work i cant remember what the stuff is called) and reseated teh heat sink (stock) and plug the power back in and rebooted and POW all the way through post. YE HAW i so pumped.

 

So what I have learned. Reseat your CPU carefully. I hope that fixes other ppls problems.

 

 

WELL CRAP

 

Went and plugged everything back in and what do you know it did it again.

So I went backwards. I unplugged all my usb devices, mouse ipod cable, printer cable, bluetooth antenna. And viloaa it works. Could a faulty USB device cause my mobo to not boot?