EX38-DS4 pre-post restart loop

[rockit711]

specs

Q6600
ASUS 3870x2
4GB (2x2gb) Adata ddr2 800


the computer just turns on, runs for about 2 seconds then powers down for 3 seconds before repeating until power plug is removed. nothing appears on monitor.

it was working fine a week ago, didnt change any settings before this started happening.

i have already tried clearing the CMOS and trying just one stick of ram at a time (tried each of the slots). no luck.

this board already had the exact same thing happen under exactly the same circumstnces 2 months ago and was RMA'd and returned as 'repaired'.... would rather not have to RMA it again if it cn be avoided.

any suggestions of what can be done to get it working?




also.. i cannot get into the bios or do anything on the computer at all as it restarts well before anything can be done.

also when the PSUs 8 pin plug is rempved from the mobo it doesnt restart but it doesnt do anything else either..

thanks.

[mxcrowe]

Re: EX38-DS4 pre-post restart loop

Man, it sounds like BIOS is completely borked. If clear CMOS doesn't work, I'm not sure what else you can do. You might want to wait for LSDmeasap to reply first, but it sounds like you may be in a bad spot.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: EX38-DS4 pre-post restart loop

Well of course for starters if you remove the CPU power plug nothing will happen.

What caused this?

That being said, do you have a floppy ALREADY installed? If not then you may have to RMA again

Did you properly clear the CMOS? Shorting the pin for a few minutes is not enough, nor is removing the battery for a short period.

I unplug the PSU from the wall and put a jumper on the clear CMOS pins for about 20+ minutes. Then remove the jumper and plug the PSU back in with only one stick of ram in slot one. Then start the system.

If this does not work then you will need to RMA the board again. Have you tested your ram to be sure it is still ok on another board? Could be the issue as well.

If you do have a floppy (MUST BE ALREADY INSTALLED) then you can do a blind flash >>>
Award 6.0 BIOS - BootBlock Recovery

[rockit711]

Re: EX38-DS4 pre-post restart loop

im just testing clearing the CMOS now (i only followed the motherboards manual on that so i gues i might not have done it long enough)

i have a floppy, but the thing doesnt stay on long enough to do anything. i put the disk in the drive turn it on and it just restarts again as was happening before.

i dont have any other DDR2 boards to test the ram in, but i find it unlikely that both sticks could have simultaneously failed, especially when they worked the first time it was RMAd with this problem..

if i end up returning it ill ask the people at the shop to test the RAM aswell though, they should have a spare board to test it in.

[rockit711]

Re: EX38-DS4 pre-post restart loop

tried clearing the CMOS properly, it didnt work:(.

got some new info though.

the first time i turn it on after it hasnt been used for a while it gives me about a second or 2 more before restart.

is that just because its doing a cold start? or something else...

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: EX38-DS4 pre-post restart loop

Ahh yeah sounds like you will need to RMA then

It would work and not reboot if you had a Floppy already installed previously as it would boot right to it. Although you would not be able to see the screen, it would be working. That is why I said Blind Flash.

If you do not have one, since this is your second RMA. You should buy a floppy and always keep it installed and set as first boot device. They are only $7 brand new at newegg or less on ebay used

Ya not likely both ram's failed unless you overvolted them. Have you tried each one by itself in slot one to see if it will boot?

Can you get in the BIOS if no hard drives are connected. And do you have a older PCI or PCI-E card to test out as well?

Could also be your PSU killing things or not working right. What is it, and do you have another to test with?

[rockit711]

Re: EX38-DS4 pre-post restart loop

ill try the floppy (didnt know that it could work).. i did have a floppy in it before this all started happening (i removed it along with practically everything else while i was troublshooting all the components so hopefully that will work..


the PSU is SHAW 860W (bad i know), but i have tested it with another PSU and nothing changed(PSU was my first guess both times)

i cannot get into the bios at all.. regardless of hardware plugged in/not plugged in.

i have tried ram in every combination possible (one stick at a time in each slot, repeated for each stick of ram)

unplugging everything except CPU and RAM has no effect (no error beeps etc.), the only thing that gets a POST beep is running with no ram, and then i just get the first part of the error signal before it restarts.


yep looking like RMA is the only option (assuming the blind boot fails)

will see if the blind boot works *crosses fingers*

[rockit711]

Re: EX38-DS4 pre-post restart loop

well, i couldnt follow the procedure on that website as the BIOS i needed wasnt in the file formats that were necessary, however i followed gigabytes DOS bios flash with no luck. there was a click and a whir from the floppy drive but it reset again before anythign happened..

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: EX38-DS4 pre-post restart loop

Yes you can use that page. You will need to extract the BIOS file (.F#), and rename it to bin that is all, it is a bin file anyway. Is that the format issue you meant?

If not what did you mean

[rockit711]

Re: EX38-DS4 pre-post restart loop

yeah that was the issue, thought of doing that but wasnt sure.

but it wont boot off a boot disk anyway...

i had a boot disk setup and Gigabytes flash program on it which should have done exactly the same thing shouldnt it?

if not then i guess ill try it again (.. still missing the awardflash.exe though..)

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: EX38-DS4 pre-post restart loop

A blind flash floppy should run fine. I use winrar to extract from the Exe downloaded BIOS files. Here you can get winrar 3.71 trial, about halfway down page >>>
WinRAR archiver, a powerful tool to process RAR and ZIP files

You will use the Flash895 util instead of awardflash it is the same

Then right click the BIOS exe files and choose extract here. You can try both way with reg BIOS name .F and try with renamed to .bin Just edit the batch file accordingly.

It will appear as nothing is going on if it is working. Just dont shut down your PC. If it reboots in a few seconds as normal then it is not working

No, nothing will do the same as the linked blind flash setup. You do have to make the batch file and such though on a different pc of course.

And ya know since you removed your Floppy it may not work right, was the board working when you removed it or was this after it failed? It should work as long as you didn't remove it while the board still worked

Good luck, Hope you do not have to RMA. On a positive note I hear RMA has only been taking a few weeks here lately