PC won't boot, can't even get into BIOS

[imported_Zor]

I originally posted this on the Tech Support board, but it seems it may be a hardware issue so I'm gonna post it here....

In anticipation of a CPU upgrade I was installing some software updates today. I downloaded Nforce 4 drivers from Nvidia's website (Nforce 4 v6.86)and installed them for the A8N-SLI deluxe motherboard (Asus website said this was necessary before upgrading the BIOS). I installed the drivers and was prompted for a reboot, which I declined in order to flash the firmware on my DVD burner (NEC3520A flash program that works within windows). Again, prompted to shutdown the PC to finish the firware update on the DVD player. I shutdown and waited a few seconds to start up again.

Upon reboot the PC goes to the startup screen, but hangs. I see on the screen: "Main processor: AMD Athlon 64 FX-53 processor" and the usual "Press DEL to enter setup, F8 to enter boot menu" at the bottom of the screen. No messages about Ram, HDD's, etc. other than the BIOS version number at the bottom of the screen.

I've tried several reboots, but nothing. I can't imagine why the DVD firmware flash would be causing a problem. Is it an issue with the Nforce chipset drivers I installed? I've tried getting into BIOS and Windows Safe Mode, but no luck with either. I'm not sure what else to do if I can't even get into the BIOS to change the settings to boot with a bootable cd/dvd and I don't have a floppy.

Really stuck here any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!


Win XP Pro
Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe
Nforce 4 drivers v6.86 for Win XP/2000

 

[shroud72]

Start pulling things out that aren't needed. Disconnect your DVD Rom drive and just keep your boot HD plugged in. See if that works, if not take out all but 1 stick of ram and try again. PC's can be very tempermental sometimes and even though you don't have a video problem even sometimes reseating your video card will do wonders.
Once your able to get back into the bios and the PC will boot start adding things back one at a time until you find out whats causing the problem. Good Luck.
Its also worth checking to see if all of your fans are spinning and if lights are being lit up on the mobo. Can you hear your HD spin and do you see the normal PC lights on your DVD Rom and can you open and close it? If any of these issues are present it could be a possible power supply issue as well.

 

[imported_Zor]

I disconnected the DVD drive still no boot, bios, etc. Then I disconnected a USB cable (attached to an IDE to USB drive enclosure with no HDD present) connected to the front of the case and was able to boot and was sent directly to the windows boot select menu. My USB keyboard did not work (it's still connected) so I let it finish the countdown which then attempted to load windows normally.

Windows did not load, but instead went to a blue screen saying windows was not loaded due to an error and gave me the following error message:

0x0000007E (0xc0000005, 0xF6F36F76, 0xF78A63F8, 0xF78A60F4)

So it looks like there is some sort of USB problem which may have been caused by the Nvidia Nforce chipset drivers. I guess I need to dig out an old PS2 keyboard and see where that leads. Maybe i can get into safe mood and uninstall the chipset drivers. Maybe replace them with an older version from Asus' website. This will have to wait until I get home from work this evening.

Am I on the right track here? Anyone have any suggestions, ideas, etc.?

 

[AndrewL]

Originally posted by: Zor
I disconnected the DVD drive still no boot, bios, etc. Then I disconnected a USB cable (attached to an IDE to USB drive enclosure with no HDD present) connected to the front of the case and was able to boot and was sent directly to the windows boot select menu. My USB keyboard did not work (it's still connected) so I let it finish the countdown which then attempted to load windows normally.

Windows did not load, but instead went to a blue screen saying windows was not loaded due to an error and gave me the following error message:

0x0000007E (0xc0000005, 0xF6F36F76, 0xF78A63F8, 0xF78A60F4)

So it looks like there is some sort of USB problem which may have been caused by the Nvidia Nforce chipset drivers. I guess I need to dig out an old PS2 keyboard and see where that leads. Maybe i can get into safe mood and uninstall the chipset drivers. Maybe replace them with an older version from Asus' website. This will have to wait until I get home from work this evening.

Am I on the right track here? Anyone have any suggestions, ideas, etc.?

Yah it pisses me off when usb keyboards wont work. I think they should all come with backup ps/2. Whenever everything wont work and you want to fix it yourself you nee
d to go find 10 components you dont have/are hard to get anymore.

Anyhow ive been having strange problems lately where sometimes my comp will boot sometimes it wont. Ive dealt with this kinda ****** alot so let me know how things go. Unfortunately I dont have much to add. Whats been said/what youve said is what you should do first.

 

[shroud72]

Since now you can get past the bios screen try to run memtest on it to see if your memory is good.
http://www.memtest.org/ try to boot it with a floppy, usb memory stick or dvdrom drive and see what happens.