PC doesn't start unless I remove the power cable and reconnect

[skoka]

Hi,

I have built a PC with ASUS M2A-VM motherboard, AM2 3800 CPU, 2GB RAM, One Video Capture Card and a Sound Card. OS: Vista Home Premium.

When ever I shutdown my PC or when my PC goes into a standby mode it sometimes does not startup when I press the power button. Note that it does not happen always when cold starting. It does happen a lot when starting from standby.

I have to remove the power supply cable or switch off the SMPS and then wait for about 20 seconds (anything less than 10 seconds doesn't seem to work) before pressing the power button on the PC for the PC to start.

During Cold Start: When the PC is completely turned off, pressing the power button powers the PC for only a second or so. The CPU fan rotates and then everything stops. I have to remove the power cable for 20 seconds and then reconnect it for it to start up properly.

Start from standby: When PC is in standby mode, pressing the power buttons does nothing. I have to remove the power cable and reconnect it after 20 seconds to start up the PC.

I think it is not related to the OS. I have also upgraded to a server level PSU (500W). My suspicion is the BIOS but I am not sure what I should look for. The last time I upgraded the BIOS it is has royally screwed up everything and even failed to recognize my SATA II HDDs. Therefore I am wary of any BIOS upgrades unless it specifically solves the problem.

I would greatly appreciate any help.

 

[mpilchfamily]

I don't think any changes to the bios will help here. Sounds like a problem with the motherbaord itself. You might have to replace the board.

 

[amdfansftw]

this needs to be moved to the mobo section of the forums. your board is doing something screwy. i would just RMA it if it hasn't been over 30 days and you got it from the egg they do in house RMA's.

 

[skoka]

Unfortunately it is not easy to do RMA here in India. I would have to give it to them and they would take about a month or so to confirm that there really is a problem. Are we sure it is the motherboard and not some settings in the BIOS?

BTW, the moderators please move this thread to the appropriate forum?

 

[Toadster]

try the cmos battery

 

[skoka]

Well i guess there's no harm in trying the CMOS Battery though the motherboard itself is fairly new, only about 4 months old.

But as I think again, if it is the CMOS battery then all my BIOS settings would have been lost. Right? Or does it keep a copy of the BIOS settings in an EEPROM?

 

[Toadster]

Originally posted by: skoka
Well i guess there's no harm in trying the CMOS Battery though the motherboard itself is fairly new, only about 4 months old.

But as I think again, if it is the CMOS battery then all my BIOS settings would have been lost. Right? Or does it keep a copy of the BIOS settings in an EEPROM?

a flaky battery (or contact) can sometimes cause erratic issues - it may not be totally bad, so i may have enough charge to keep the settings in between reboots

 

[Xvys]

I just built an AMD X2 system with a Biostar TX7050-M (nvida chipset) mb and it does much the same thing. It posts past the startup bios info, but Windows won't load the computer if it was already on. I must turn off the ps for 10 sec, or I just get a blank screen. Then after 10 minutes the Windows startup screen comes on, but it just goes into an endless Windows loading loop. If I turn off the power, then restart the computer, Windows boots up properly every time?

 

[skoka]

OK. I have replaced the CMOS battery and I still run into the same problem occasionally. Any other suggestions?

 

[Deanodarlo]

I don't know if you've got this sorted, but I recently had a boot issue and it turned out to be the +5vsb line coming from the PSU.

If it goes bad, you can get all kinds of weird boot and standby issues.

Read here:

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2150996&enterthread=y

 

[skoka]

I have replaced the PSU and I still run into the same problem.

 

[BassBomb]

It is the motherboard, there are wierd issues with recent Asus boards in regards to flakey startups

If you click the power button normally, how long have you waited to see if it boots?

 

[Zap]

I think it may be worth flashing the BIOS.

I've encountered one of these problems before and it was with an Asus board, a P4S800 running a mobile Celeron.

 

[skoka]

Originally posted by: BassBomb
It is the motherboard, there are wierd issues with recent Asus boards in regards to flakey startups

If you click the power button normally, how long have you waited to see if it boots?

It doesn't really matter how long I wait. Even if I wait for a minute it just does not power on though I see the green LED on the USB powered case built in card reader. I have to unplug the power cord and wait until the LED turns off (about 5 to 7 seconds) before I plug in the power cord again. Now it will boot normally.

The strangest thing is that even though I unplug the power and replug it all contexts of my Windows Vista is intact (i.e; as if it has just woken up from a suspend mode). I wonder if it is going into hibernation. I have enabled S1 and S3 states.

Oh, BTW, This is my second Asus M2A-VM motherboard. The first one just did not output any display after posting the BIOS.

 

[skoka]

Originally posted by: Zap
I think it may be worth flashing the BIOS.

I've encountered one of these problems before and it was with an Asus board, a P4S800 running a mobile Celeron.

I am a little wary of updating BIOS unless I know that it is resolving a known issue or it is the last resort to solve an issue that I just cannot live with.

I have burnt my hands real bad a few months ago when I had to re-install Vista as Vista refused to load after a BIOS update for this motherboard. (I had a tough time getting a floppy disk drive and a working floppy to downgrade the BIOS).