Edit: Can't successfully Cold Boot, but can immediately warm boot successfully.

[Slikkster]

Edit: I started this thread as a "No video on cold boot", but have since found out that it's really a "No cold boot" problem. The lack of video is just one aspect of the symptoms. See my post below about the "FF" code.

I'm usually trying to answer problems here, lol, but have one of my own that I was wondering if anyone else has experienced.

Lately, I've been getting an alarm upon cold booting my Epox 8RDA3+ motherboard. My Dell FP2001 will show a green signal at first, but quickly go to amber. There's no post video at this point, and the Epox starts an alarm from the motherboard.

Once I hit the reset button on the case, a warm boot ensues, and the video pops right on as normal.

Note: I have absolutely NO problems other than this with the video card, the monitor, the motherboard, etc. No overclocking. System completely stable.

Here's what I've done/checked:

Just did major cleaning maintenance on the pc (the alarm/video problem had already been occurring, so this just hastened the need for the maintenance). I cleaned everything, reseated the video card, reseated/tightened the DVI cable connectors on both ends. Blew out all the dust, reseated other cables, etc., etc.

Did a cursory inspection of the capacitors; didn't notice any bulging or leaking. Bios reporting normal voltage to the AGP card, as well as normal voltages elsewhere.

Again, there's no instability problems at all with this pc. I couldn't be happier with the ongoing stability. It's just this recent no-video alarm on cold boot (which to me suggests a capacitor or power supply issue). By the way, a "Cold Boot" AFTER the system has been used and is "warm" does not have this problem. It's only a cold boot when the pc has been shutdown for a period of hours.

 

[btcomm1]

I realize that there doesn't seem to be any problems with the computer other then the cold boot, have you done a bios update to the computer recently? If not maybe a bios update would help the issue, however if there is something else wrong then maybe that could make it worse. It could possibly be the power switch on the case. Maybe what you could try doing is letting it cool down, then try to turn it on with a screwdriver by shorting it instead of letting the power switch do it, if you still have the same problem then, I would say it's your motherboard or power supply. I could be wrong but that's what it sounds like it is, whether it's something physical on the motherboard or a bios issue or power supply I don't know. Maybe you could email epox support or call them or whatever support option they have and see if they have gotten reports of this happening maybe they have a fix.

 

[Mutilator]

That board is a few years old isn't it? I think that was a fairly common problem a few years ago with some via and nforce2 boards... especially with Nvidia video cards. I know one or 2 of my boards did it but I can't remember what I did to fix it. Probably could do a BIOS update if there's a newer one available.

 

[Slikkster]

Ok, after some further observation, it's not a "no video" issue. It's a "no boot" issue on cold boot.

These Epox boards have LED indicators on the motherboard itself that give hex codes that change as different aspects of the boot sequence are begun. The code for a successful boot sequence is, unfortunately, the same as NO completion: FF.

When I do a cold boot, the fans come on and the drive power light comes on, but there's no ramp up of the hard drives, the video doesn't kick in, etc. Just the fans and the power light, and the alarm.

I can do a warm reset with the reset switch a nano-second after the alarm, and it boots fine. There's obviously some fault with something that's checked at cold boot and not at warm boot, or a lack of sufficient power, etc.

There's no bios update since 2004. I have the most recent. I've emailed Epox about it, and will see what boilerplate response I get.