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intel mobo unresponsive after slight OC, cant reset bios

T

TSCrv

Senior member
Ok, everything was working perfectly untill i upgraded my intel D915GVWB mobo /w 3.0 p4's ram... was running generic 512mb ddr400 memory in bankA slot0... added some kingston 512mb ddr333 to bankB slot0, everything fine and dandy untill i started poking around in the bios.

when i started poking around i decided to turn the onboard video cards memory to use the maximum, (didnt specify) and also went into memory config. what i did was went from cas 2.5 to 3, and bumped all the memory to run at ddr400 speeds instead of ddr333....

no video ever came up again, not even post beep codes.... now for my troubleshooting

tried to reset bios, but mobo lacks reset bios pins, (uses normal, maintnance, and recovery settings, where the clear cmos has the holes, but no pins in them)

took the slow memory out, nothing, left the cmos battery out while i did different jumper configs w/ no power connected, letting each setting sit for about 20 seconds. also shorted the 'would be' clear cmos and regular operation pins

now the fun stuff... after a night sitting with no power or battery, still no post. so i pulled some corsair memory out of my system and plugged it into bankA slot0, the corsair memory is the one that has activity lights, which have saved my ass in troubleshooting many times.

when started up, i get the usuall middle few lights to stay solid, but only for a few seconds, then no activity at all.... if i run with no memory i get beeps, the usuall on off on off, but unlimited amount of beeps, not 3 meaning memory according to manual....

my guess is either i fried the sucker by A the memory, or B shorting the clear cmos pins that werent factory installed (the middle pin did in fact have power going to it),,.... i have also tried making a bios recovery disk, and followed their instructions to the letter, but it doesnt even attempt to read the floppy, unless im missing something.

my electronic and logic skills are fairly high, but my bios/OCing skills are not... is it possible that the bios is locked into running the memory at cas3 or whatever i set it at and i ignored the other timings which makes things inoperable?

im out of ideas, its not the power supply, tried 3 different ones and measured them, all withen acceptable ranges. (one time i wasnt getting post and it was because i didnt have the 12v connected, i made sure it was this time)

noob needs help!!!
 
Definitely a bios reset needed.
With these types of mobos you gotta try it a few times, I know from personal experience, you need to turn the PSU on then take a flat screwdriver and short those two points a few times to make sure, then turn the PSU off then back on and try to boot.

D
 
Try pressing the "Ins" key while powering up. Do not let go of the key until you see display on the monitor. As soon as you see display let go of the key and then press "Del" key to enter bios. You might have to do this 3-5 times.
 
Originally posted by: Jiggz
Try pressing the "Ins" key while powering up. Do not let go of the key until you see display on the monitor. As soon as you see display let go of the key and then press "Del" key to enter bios. You might have to do this 3-5 times.
Click to expand...

never heard of that but just exuasted that method with all the different ram ive got.... :|
 
Hi, Some MBs wont reset the BIOS SETUP in only a few seconds by taking the battery out. Leave it out 2-3 hours. Some take about that long. Haven't seen a MB without battery jumper for many years. Luck, Jim
 
I was going to say BIOS battery myself.

Usually 30 seconds does it. Unplug the power from your PSU first, then unplug the "watch" battery on your mobo. After a minute or so, stick it back in.

You can try the 2-3 hrs thing if you want, but I never had one take that long. Once the battery power is cut to the BIOS chip, it should lose all the saved settings you created. Then, when you put power to it again, it will have no choice but to use the default settings.
 
the battery has been out overnight, the board was on an esd mat with no battery, no power cables, absolutly nothing connected to it anywhere except cpu and hsf....

here goes another 6 hours with the batter being out while at work, to make sure i didnt miss anything 2 nights ago

if the bios is reset to defualt, it uses default memory timings correct? (stupid question, but my mind is doubting it)

./sigh
 
Originally posted by: TSCrv
Originally posted by: Jiggz
Try pressing the "Ins" key while powering up. Do not let go of the key until you see display on the monitor. As soon as you see display let go of the key and then press "Del" key to enter bios. You might have to do this 3-5 times.
Click to expand...

never heard of that but just exuasted that method with all the different ram ive got.... :|
Click to expand...



Some mobo like Asus, Abit and Gigabyte will default the bios during boot up when the INS key is held down during power up. So maybe your's doesn't. How about dismounting the CPU and then remove the cmos battery for about 20 secs and then re-install and see if that will help. If this does not do it, then try dismounting the bios chip (I believe it is socketed on this mobo) and then remove the cmos battery. If this does not make it boot, the bios could have be either damaged or corrupted.
 
ive tried the insert method with all the combos i can think of, with ps2 keyboard (no usb in stock atm) cpu and battery have been setting out during dinner, tried some more tests, and still nothing...

the cpu is good, but what i dont get is how it throws beep codes while it has no ram, so it has to be doin something.... the ram is good also....

would getting some beefy ram that can handle whatever timings i set the sucker to possibly help? preferabbly before i drag out my $6k solder station and pop the bios chip off....

hmm, slight brainwave, could i flash a, say chip of the same size to the intel chip, from a gigabyte board? i know its possible with older boards, but never thought it could work with all the new bios flashers.... reason being is i have a few dual bios boards that are essentially bad, bootable in dos, but are too unstable for anything beond that

back to toiling away with this sucker
 
Hi, If several hours didn't reset the BIOS SETUP then that's probably not the problem.

A little INFO: The CMOS Setup circuit has capacitors to store enough energy to keep your setup for a while without the battery. Exact time depends on the guy that designed the MB. It's to give you time to change the battery without losing the SETUP. Some designers realized that you might want to take the battery to the store with you so made the time several hours others made it just long enough to change the battery.

Hope this helps, Jim
 
Originally posted by: JimPhelpsMI
Hi, If several hours didn't reset the BIOS SETUP then that's probably not the problem.

A little INFO: The CMOS Setup circuit has capacitors to store enough energy to keep your setup for a while without the battery. Exact time depends on the guy that designed the MB. It's to give you time to change the battery without losing the SETUP. Some designers realized that you might want to take the battery to the store with you so made the time several hours others made it just long enough to change the battery.

Hope this helps, Jim
Click to expand...

it did occure to me that the caps could be storing the charge, but i dont see any rated high enough to hold a charge for more than 8 hours.. so i fugured t hat wasnt the option.... guess its time to find where i stashed my meter and start probing around....
 
ive tried tracing circuits to 2 different chips, 1 being the generic flash chip, and one not... and have tried toggling voltage to those pins, no luck, even toggleing the transisters right near the output of the battery didnt help.... (with battery in of coarse)...

im getting the feeling the ram i got cant handle whatever the timings are at, so when i go to work today ill snag a piece, even tho we only carry the cheap stuff... my coarsair mem is unresponsive 5 seconds after powerup....

./sigh
 
Hi Again, CMOS draws practically no current except when changeing logic levels, so very small capacitors give very long times. Jim
 
ive shorted every electrolytic cap on the board, and as a desperate measure, also shorted every pin of the flash chip and bios rom to ground, with no luck.... im starting to wonder if its safe to say the sucker is toasted.... also the battery has been out for 6 hours plus
 
heh, pulled up the pinouts of the bios chip and the flash chip, ... well all roads, err traces lead to the flash chip... since i dont think i got nething left to lose ill replace it...
 
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