Question PC not booting/Doesnt POST/Blackscreen unless CMOS is reset in which case it only boots into BIOS

strafe555

Junior Member
Feb 25, 2023
10
1
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Hi, I really hope someone here can assist with this as I have tried various things and my knowledge has hit a wall and I have reached the limits of my experience. I scoured the internet for fixes to my problem but was unsuccessful which is why I am making this thread as a last cry for help. I will list below the things I have attempted to do in order to fix this so far and at the end, I will list my specs.
First I will describe a short timeline of what led to this happening. This is a brand new PC that I assembled this month, all the parts are brand new excluding the CPU, RAM and a couple of HDDs I use for storage, along with 1 m2 SSD nvme. The pc was working fine until yesterday where it could not boot from sleep mode. I have not used sleep on this PC before this instance and upon returning home after a few hours I pressed buttons on the keyboard, the PC lit up as normal however there was nothing on the display, I then suspected a monitor issue/cable, more on this in a bit. I have also acquired a new nvme v2 m2 SSD 2TB that I installed windows 10 on prior to this and the most recent addition was a RAM stick of 16gb 3200mhz ddr memory. The PC worked fine and recognized the RAM and there were no issue with the boot or anything. I also overclocked my CPU prior to this slightly and there were again, no issues.
Now on to where the problems began. After attempting to wake the PC up from sleep mode, it was giving no display, the monitor simply had no signal going into it, no backlight or mouse showing, nothing.
I tried hitting the restart button, and same thing, no matter what I did, the display simply would not turn on. I then started to troubleshoot the monitor and hdmi cable. I tried swapping the cable, and the same result happened. I tried unplugging the hdmi and plugging in my other monitor into the motherboard graphics via DVI just in case, still nothing.
Once I restarted the BIOS by removing the CMOS and shorting the pins, did the computer display light up and gave the 'press f1 to enter settings' message, this is so far the only instance where anything happens display wise. This made me rule out the possibility of any monitor or cable faults as it is clearly working, the issue lies somewhere deeper.
Once I am in the bios after pressing F2, I am able to update it, change settings and so on, but no matter what I do, once I press save and exit I will boot into a blank screen again. This also applied by trying to override boot into the windows from boot menu.
A quick rundown of the fixes attempted from here onwards:
  • Removed the new RAM stick and tried turning the pc on
  • Left only 1 RAM stick and tried turning the pc on
  • Updated BIOS successfully (2806 version)
  • Reversed update to 2083 version as the update produced the same result
  • Reset BIOS to default (already accomplished by resetting bios and updating it but still)
  • disconnect all usb devices
  • disconnect HDDs from MB
  • replaced the CMOS battery
  • reconnected front panel switches again
And that's everything I can think of so far, again these are brand new parts and I highly doubt that this is a PSU issue. It just doesn't make sense that the only response I get is upon a CMOS reset. I have also read that ram voltage could affect it but I have already tried running with only 1 stick. I have 3 RAM sticks 2x 8GB running at 1.2V and 1x 16GB new stick I just got which has 1.35V. The auto BIOS setting sets this at 1.2V seemingly, however I have tried running it with one of the 8gb sticks already alone in different slots. (don't think I've tried all 4 slots yet but they are recognized in the BIOS no matter what RAM configuration I try.
PC specs:
CPU - Ryzen 5 1600
GPU - RTX 3060 zotac
RAM - 32GB DDR4 (2x 8 sticks and 1x 16gb stick) 2x8 2400 MHz and the 16gb states 3200mhz but in BIOS it actually runs in 2133Mhz for some reason
Storage: 2x HDD (storage and the other still has old windows installed in 1 partition) 2x M.2 SSD nvme (1 windows)
OS - Windows 10 64 bit PRO
PSU - 750w cooler master bronze

UPDATE!!!!

GUYS

I think I have narrowed down the issue,
it might be related to the GPU firmware for displayID that nvidia made a tool for, it affects two series of cards in the 30xx series, namely the 3080ti and the 3060 (which I have).

However my problem is I do not have a spare PC to replace the GPU and update this using the tool, is there any way to do it via another method?

Jayztwocents made a video about this on youtube, however I initially thought it does not apply to my case since I do not even have an option for primary graphics in my bios, so no way to check if it is defaulting to cpu or gpu or whatever. But the symptoms I have read others faced leads me to believe that it might be this.

Motherboard: ASUS Prime B550-A
Any help would be greatly appreciated bros, if I think of anything else I will update the main post.

UPDATE 2:
I WAS ABLE TO GET INTO WINDOWS on my old boot from the HDD, this eliminates a hardware fail, now I just wonder what was causing the issue. I did copy/paste most of my files from the appdata folder and some other documents from my original C drive into the new one not sure if that caused the issue, I will now reinstall windows on my ssd

UPDATE 3:
NEW PROBLEM
Upon making a bootable USB windows installation media and formatting the ssd with the windows installation, the pc still wont boot to usb when placing it at the top of the boot order. I managed to get into it by overriding the boot in the bios however once the PC restarts after windows gets ready I am once again left with a black screen. Thus unable to complete the installation.
 
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In2Photos

Platinum Member
Mar 21, 2007
2,445
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Sounds like something may have happened to the Windows install. Download the Windows installer to a USB and try to repair the existing Windows installation. We can address the RAM issues when you get the system back to working.
 

Tech Junky

Diamond Member
Jan 27, 2022
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First thing that comes to mind is since it's AMD which HDMI port are you using? The MOBO or the 3060? The idea coming to mind is when resetting the BIOS is which output is being selected by you whether you indicate the onboard or the dGPU will make a difference.
 

strafe555

Junior Member
Feb 25, 2023
10
1
11
Could possibly be a Windows Power Plan issue.

Hi, could you elaborate on this a bit, not sure how I would go about fixing this since I cannot enter windows, the only power plan settings I changed was to remove fast boot in the settings in windows

Sounds like something may have happened to the Windows install. Download the Windows installer to a USB and try to repair the existing Windows installation. We can address the RAM issues when you get the system back to working.

Hi, not sure how I would go about installing this since I can't boot into anything past the bios screen. Also the fresh install of windows was a few days ago and it was working just fine until I put the windows to sleep yesterday. More details on this in my main post

First thing that comes to mind is since it's AMD which HDMI port are you using? The MOBO or the 3060? The idea coming to mind is when resetting the BIOS is which output is being selected by you whether you indicate the onboard or the dGPU will make a difference.
I am using the GPU hdmi connection, I have also attempted to remoe the hdmi connection and try with a DVI setup on the second monitor, still no picture. (i am not able to use hdmi on the mobo connection since my IO shield stuck two prongs into the hdmi port that was unnoticed when installing the IO shield)
 

In2Photos

Platinum Member
Mar 21, 2007
2,445
2,687
136
Hi, not sure how I would go about installing this since I can't boot into anything past the bios screen. Also the fresh install of windows was a few days ago and it was working just fine until I put the windows to sleep yesterday. More details on this in my main post
I read the post. How did you install Windows a few days ago? With a USB drive? Do it again, but this time tell it to repair the installation. I believe you aren't getting past the BIOS because the system doesn't recognize any boot device.
 

strafe555

Junior Member
Feb 25, 2023
10
1
11
UPDATE!!!!

GUYS

I think I have narrowed down the issue,
it might be related to the GPU firmware for displayID that nvidia made a tool for, it affects two series of cards in the 30xx series, namely the 3080ti and the 3060 (which I have).

However my problem is I do not have a spare PC to replace the GPU and update this using the tool, is there any way to do it via another method?

Jayztwocents made a video about this on youtube, however I initially thought it does not apply to my case since I do not even have an option for primary graphics in my bios, so no way to check if it is defaulting to cpu or gpu or whatever. But the symptoms I have read others faced leads me to believe that it might be this.
 
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strafe555

Junior Member
Feb 25, 2023
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1
11
UPDATE 2:
I WAS ABLE TO GET INTO WINDOWS on my old boot from the HDD, this eliminates a hardware fail, now I just wonder what was causing the issue. I did copy/paste most of my files from the appdata folder and some other documents from my original C drive into the new one not sure if that caused the issue, I will now reinstall windows on my ssd
 

strafe555

Junior Member
Feb 25, 2023
10
1
11
UPDATE 3:
NEW PROBLEM
Upon making a bootable USB windows installation media and formatting the ssd with the windows installation, the pc still wont boot to usb when placing it at the top of the boot order. I managed to get into it by overriding the boot in the bios however once the PC restarts after windows gets ready I am once again left with a black screen. Thus unable to complete the installation.
 

strafe555

Junior Member
Feb 25, 2023
10
1
11
Go into your BIOS and try disabling legacy compatibility (often called CSM).

CSM is off by default I'm afraid.

the main issue I am currently facing is the fact that I can only boot into windows on my hdd via boot override, also accessing the usb bootable stick via the boot override but when windows requires a restart to finish the installation I am back at square one since it will not boot again normally. changing the boot menu does nothing in allowing me to boot normally so far
 

solidsnake1298

Senior member
Aug 7, 2009
302
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When you installed the OS, were there any prompts about whether it was a GPT or MBR partition you were installing to? If you have CSM off, the partition MUST be GPT. If it is MBR then CSM must be on.
 

strafe555

Junior Member
Feb 25, 2023
10
1
11
When you installed the OS, were there any prompts about whether it was a GPT or MBR partition you were installing to? If you have CSM off, the partition MUST be GPT. If it is MBR then CSM must be on.

ok so when I originally installed it I did not make any changes I just selected the unallocated space and let windows do the rest. Windows installed as normal and everything worked fine until I put the PC to sleep mode on saturday and it would not wake up. Now it does not POST unless I remove the cmos or short the jumpers thereby prompting the f1 to enter bios setup.

Alongside the above fixed that I attempted I have since attempted a couple of more things

I was able to boot into a usb stick to do another clean install of windows, via boot override, and I formatted and cleaned the drive, this time I made sure to format it to gpt, I even removed my other m2 ssd and disconnected the hdds, selected to install and it got to the step where windows must restart to continue and upon doing this, it will once again not POST after this restart. no matter what I do to the boot settings,

I have also attempted to switch out the psu. this did nothing to fix the issue.

I have also again attempted to boot override into my windows on my hdd (my previous windows installation before getting the ssd) this time it just boots into windows repair for some reason, but nevetheless my main issue is the fact that the pc will not post unless cmos is removed and it will not boot into windows unless overriden. Now I have attempted to boot override into my new windows before I formatted it to install it again and nothing happened, so in addition to whatever is causing this problem, it seems like there was indeed something wrong with that windows installation (even though it worked fine before)

any further suggestions are welcome, anything short of replacing the MB as it is brand new and I do not have funds right now to get a new one or test another one. Although since I am able to enter the bios and /or windows SOMEHOW (through override boot) this suggests that it might have something to do with the bios setting after all, they are at a default right now.

I have not tried flashing/updating it since I originally did so earlier in my troubleshooting
 

solidsnake1298

Senior member
Aug 7, 2009
302
168
116
I had much longer post written up, but I noticed that the Ryzen 1600 is not on that motherboard's supported list. But that doesn't explain how it had worked prior, or at all really.


You should try downgrading the BIOS to an OLDER version, like version 2403 or 2006. A lot of motherboard manufactures had to cut support for older Ryzen CPUs in newer BIOS revisions due limited flash capacity and the sheer number of Ryzen SKUs due to AM4's long life. High end boards had more capacity to support the full range of Ryzen CPUs.

Also, for my clarification, do you have a Ryzen 5 1600 (Zen) or a 1600 AF (Zen+)?

****Edit: This board has a larger 256Mb ROM so it SHOULD have the capacity to support all Ryzen CPUs. But you should still try downgrading the BIOS to 2403 or 2006.
 
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solidsnake1298

Senior member
Aug 7, 2009
302
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116
Also, have you tried putting this new SSD in another computer? To eliminate the SSD as the source of the problem? If it is the CPU/MOBO, putting the SSD in another computer should result in it booting and completing the Windows install. If the problem follows to this other computer then the problem is the SSD.
 

strafe555

Junior Member
Feb 25, 2023
10
1
11
Also, have you tried putting this new SSD in another computer? To eliminate the SSD as the source of the problem? If it is the CPU/MOBO, putting the SSD in another computer should result in it booting and completing the Windows install. If the problem follows to this other computer then the problem is the SSD.

ok so thank you for this. Flashing the bios to version 2403 did work in terms of booting into bios without the need of shorting the jumper or removing the cmos battery, it will now boot into bios upon every restart.

However I am now trying to install windows again and I am facing a new problem. This time when the computer restarted to finish the installation of windows on step 2. I am again faced with a black screen however this time there is video input showing, the backlight of the monitor is lit up but it hangs there.

Do you think this is a bios issue or something else? Should I go further back on the BIOS version?

Many thanks
 

strafe555

Junior Member
Feb 25, 2023
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1
11
Might as well try version 2006. But I'm also wondering if simply reflashing the latest version would have worked just as well.

I tried reflashing it to 2806 at first, did not work, then tried 2803 (i think this was the default bios the mb came with) and it did not work.

However after looking into this further, I can't help but think that the nature of the problem is different now, I am booting into bios every time successfully now, so the PC is able to POST, which leads be to believe that whatever compatiblity issue was with this CPU was resolved, the thing is I do not have a windows now since I tried installing it earlier in my troubleshooting and therefore had to format the ssd. But now I am unable to complete the installation due to this black screen after the mandatory restart on the step 2 of a fresh windows installation. Every time I boot, I place the usb on top of the boot order, clean and format the drive in the windows setup (removing the earlier partitions set by the failed installation) and every time it boots to a black screen on the mandatory restart (i believe it does this without the asus splash screen) but the backlight is on and so is the keyboard/mouse rgb which means there is video input.

Any other suggestions at this point before I go ahead with the 2006 bios change?
 

strafe555

Junior Member
Feb 25, 2023
10
1
11
Since the USB is in the top of the boot order are you removing it during the reboot?

No, I did not try to do this yet, I belive that the pc automatically does this during the installation. Once I am in bios again after the failed install due to the restart hang/freeze I can see that the ssd becomes top on the boot priority.

Also I installed windows last week just like this without the need to remove the usb at any point during the installation.

Could this issue still be related to the cpu compatibility or something else....
 

QuasaRea

Junior Member
Jan 18, 2024
1
0
6
Similar case - solved thanks to

ASUS - ROG STRIX X570-F GAMING AM4 Motherboard
Zotac RTX 3080 Ti AMP HOLO 12G

In my case there was way out:
After full power down (turn off PSU), turning PC on, resetting CMOS the UEFI screen would load.
If I go in and out saving changes it will boot to windows.
Making any change in UEFI would cause return to vicious cycle.
So for last 10 days I was clearing my cmos to boot into windows.

I hope asus have save the penny on replacing hardware IDs rather than adding those to existing mapping