Failed Initial Boot - 4 Beeps

[tkivisto]

Hello - I'm having some serious problems getting a new machine to boot.

I installed the CPU into the motherboard, both memory sticks, plugged in the power supply and plugged in the SSD outside of the case just to see how things went (on cardboard). I'm trying to put this mini ITX into an old Aopen EZ18 SFF case. I'm mentioning this because the power switch is some proprietary cable that went into an unlabeled motherboard header so instead of firing up with the case power switch I shorted the power switch pins on the motherboard.

Upon doing this, a red light lit on the motherboard and the CPU fan spun up. The motherboard beeped 4 short times and the fan spun down and the light turned off. After a few seconds, the fan turned on again and the light re-lit and 4 short beeps again and again it all powered down.

I figured it was either a PSU problem, bad RAM or CPU installation issue.

The easiest for me was to try to re-seat the CPU. I took it out and put it back in. Same problem. I took out 1 stick, same problem. I switched to the other stick, same problem. I took out both sticks, same problem.

My main PC has a 850W OCZ PSU that I plugged into the motherboard - same problem. I took a stick of 4GB from my main machine and it's the same problem.

I looked online but didn't have any luck with 4 beeps and UEFI bios. I've contacted Biostar support but haven't heard anything back yet. Any ideas?

Here are the main components:

BIOSTAR TH61ITX+RCH LGA 1155 Intel H61 HDMI USB 3.0 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000

Crucial Ballistix sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Desktop Memory Model BLS2KIT4G3D1339DS1S00

OCZ Agility 3 AGT3-25SAT3-240G 2.5" 240GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

FSP275-60CU 275 Watt Power Supply for AOpen XC Cube
(from http://www.atxpowersupplies.com/275-watt-power-supply-FSP275-60CU.php)

 

[paul878]

Did you plug in the auxiliary motherboard power connector?

 

[tkivisto]

yes I did...and the CPU fan

 

[denis280]

Reseat CPU, verify that CPU cooler makes good contact (CPUs without thermal contact to their cooler will overheat and shut off VERY fast - so fast that it will appear to be a boot failure).

 

[tkivisto]

ok, I can try that again. It seems as though the retail cooler is in good contact though with all the pins engaged in the motherboard holes but it won't hurt to try it again.

Does anyone know if the motherboard BIOS needs to be flashed to work with an Ivy Bridge processor that I could be experiencing this kind of problem as well? There are updates on the Biostar website for "22nm CPUs" but of course I haven't had a successful boot yet to check which version of the BIOS my motherboard is running. One thought I had was to try and find a really cheap socket 1155 processor and see if I can get the machine to boot...flash the BIOS...and then put in the Core i5 Ivy Bridge again.

 

[paul878]

You would have to check the Biostar web site for info on that.
You might or might not, depending on the version that is already intalled on you motherboard.

 

[tkivisto]

From the website, it just isn't clear which version is on the motherboard that actually shipped to me. I suspect it is one with an older BIOS version. It is pretty clear on the website that a new BIOS is available for Ivy Bridge CPU's now at least. I read a post on tomshardware.com that the H61 chipset will not work at all with an Ivy Bridge processor until the BIOS is updated.

Chris Angellini wrote:

Here’s the thing to remember, though. If you plan on using an Ivy Bridge-based processor in an existing 6-series platform, be sure to update to a 22 nm-ready firmware with Sandy Bridge installed before ditching your old chip. To be clear, if you buy a 6-series board that doesn't have an Ivy Bridge-compatible firmware and then try to drop in a third-gen Core processor, it won't boot up.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ivy-bridge-benchmark-core-i7-3770k,3181-8.html

I'm thinking my next step is to find a temporary Sandy Bridge processor to put in the machine and see if it will boot. If so, I'll flash the BIOS to the newest version and I'm hoping that will do the trick.

 

[tkivisto]

Just to give an update and close this one out, I found the least expensive Sandy Bridge Socket 1155 processor I could find (didn't know anybody who could loan one for 5 minutes unfortunately) and installed it and the machine booted. I flashed the BIOS to the latest one from the Biostar website and re-installed the i5-3570K and it booted fine and was recognized.

If anyone else runs into this problem, find a Sandy Bridge processor and flash the BIOS before you'll be able to even boot with the Ivy Bridge one. I guess I'm a bit disappointed that the motherboard I bought in September 2012 did not have the BIOS from May 2012 (had one from Jan or June 2011...) but I'm glad I resolved this issue.