Computer unresponsive

Rhavin

My desktop pc during normal browsing suddenly gave a blank screen (no output) and was totally unresponsive. The only way of stopping it was to plug it out and though it starts with fans and everything spinning, it gives no output to screen and the buttons on the case can't turn it off. External devices such as keyboard and mouse are also unresponsive.

Specs are:
Asus M5A97 motherboard
AMD FX-6300
AMD 7770 graphics card
OCZ 600w PSU
Generic hard drive and sandisk 60gb ssd
windows 7
8gb G.skill RAM

Another long term problem with this is that although I get a Asus boot screen, it won't allow me to enter the bios. Once I press DEL/F2, it will then give a blank output to screen. I assumed this was something to do with the graphics card and motherboard not co-ordinating but maybe its related?

Thanks for any help.

degsie

Try the ASUS troubleshooting guide:

http://support.asus.com/Troubleshooting/detail.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=M5A97%20PRO&os=&no=978

If you are getting 'beep' codes then that may help to pinpoint the problem. Open the case and have a good look around. Is there any charring or a burnt smell? Are all the components fully secured? It could be a lot of things from the GPU to the PSU etc. Remove everything bar the CPU, memory and graphics (attached to monitor) and try to power up.

Rhavin

I've tried a few things like removing everything unnecessary, resetting CMOS and I had a spare PSU so I tried that. I don't have a motherboard speaker so couldn't diagnose from POST beep.

The PSU powered up the peripheries and showed the Asus screen, however when I attach the ssd to boot into windows, I get a black screen.

So I'm assuming now that the old PSU is toast?

As mentioned before I can't enter the bios because that's the way its always been since I got this (its not my build).

So now I think I need to reinstall the bios?

the_syco

Rhavin wrote: »

So now I think I need to reinstall the bios?

I'd be real careful about this!

If you have an optical drive, burn a Knoppix live CD to a disc, and see if that boots okay.

yoyo

If you could borrow another PSU to test it that would be my advice. A dodgy PSU can cause all sorts of weird stuff like this to happen. Never do a bios update on an unstable system, because of course the system will likely fail mid update and then bye bye motherboard..

Nick

Rhavin

I'm pretty sure the spare PSU I have is grand. I think the OCZ 600w one must have caused all the problems.

That Knoppix OS looks very interesting, I will try it out.

OK stupid question now, how do I do a bios update. Do I just burn the .ROM file to usb, disconnect everything else and let it boot from USB?

yoyo

Rhavin wrote: »

I'm pretty sure the spare PSU I have is grand. I think the OCZ 600w one must have caused all the problems.

That Knoppix OS looks very interesting, I will try it out.

OK stupid question now, how do I do a bios update. Do I just burn the .ROM file to usb, disconnect everything else and let it boot from USB?

What does the changelog for the bios update from the Asus site say? No need to do a bios update unless necessary. Try another PSU, to rule out power issues, then a live CD to rule out SSD issues

Nick

Rhavin

OK, won't do that yet. I'm using a TV as a monitor. Could the bios and the tv resolution be incompatible? Unfortunately I've no PC monitor to try it with and I don't know where I'm going to find another PSU.

the_syco

Rhavin wrote: »

OK, won't do that yet. I'm using a TV as a monitor. Could the bios and the tv resolution be incompatible? Unfortunately I've no PC monitor to try it with and I don't know where I'm going to find another PSU.

If you can see stuff on the TV screen from the computer, it works.

Rhavin

the_syco wrote: »

If you can see stuff on the TV screen from the computer, it works.

But then why can't I enter the bios?

Also PSU was toast. Got a lend of another one from work and that sorted it out.

degsie

From the interwebs

The issue for you guys not getting a display is a handshaking problem between your GPU and monitor. The only resolution supported by UEFI is 1280X1024. If for some reason your GPU and TV/monitor don't handshake at that resolution, you'll see the splash screen but either get a garbled display or no display in UEFI. You'll also find you're fine when in Windows (for obvious reasons).

There is no fix for this from our side. The GPU VBIOS and monitor native resolution are where the problem lies. If the display you've connected does not handshake correctly with the GPU for whatever reason, it will likely default to its native resolution, and if that's anything other than 1280X1024 you've got a problem displaying UEFI. This happens with some TVs, projectors and monitors with certain GPUs. Older displays are more likely candidates for such problems, as are very high res monitors that use new conections ( DP 1.2 daisy chaining two monitors can create problems) . I suspect a VBIOS update from the GPU vendor might help, but chances of GPU vendors making specific VBIOS versions for this are unlikely. Only workaround is to connect a display that allows you to see UEFI or try using another method of connecting the GPU to the display (DVI instead of HDMI for example). Obviously, the latter is not a guaranteed workaround, as it depends how the display and GPU handshake on that output, too.

The problem is your TV.