Booting issue

[Robbie]

Hi again people,

Noticed since I had my PC (about 1 week now) I think about 80% of the time when I boot after a system shut down it seems to turn on fine but I get no display on my screen and my keyboard and mouse seem to get no power, to resolve it I just press the reset button and it boots up fine, no error messages or anything.

Although it's not a massive problem it is quite annoying and wondering when the problem could be and if there's anything I can try to fix it. I'm not sure what problem might occur if i keep resetting it if its still booting or anything.

Thanks in advance for any useful ideas!

 

[pengipete]

Can you just confirm a few details...

By "system shutdown", do you mean that you used the ShutDown option in Windows start menu or has the PC just gone to sleep?

When you switch-on, do the fans spins and power light come on on the PC case?

Are you using a wireless keyboard and mouse - if not, are they connected to USB or PS/2 sockets?

How is the monitor connected - DVI, HDMI, Display Port or VGA?

Does the PC beep when you turn it on - if so, does it beep once or several times?

 

[Robbie]

Can you just confirm a few details...

By "system shutdown", do you mean that you used the ShutDown option in Windows start menu or has the PC just gone to sleep?

When you switch-on, do the fans spins and power light come on on the PC case?

Are you using a wireless keyboard and mouse - if not, are they connected to USB or PS/2 sockets?

How is the monitor connected - DVI, HDMI, Display Port or VGA?

Does the PC beep when you turn it on - if so, does it beep once or several times?

Hello mate, thanks for the reply,

Ok, by system shut down I do mean by the start menu "Shut Down" button.

When I switch it on the fans all spin and the lights all come on (It look's completely fine).

I'm not using wireless, both my mouse and keyboard are connected to the back of my PC using USB.

Monitor is connected via HDMI.

I'm sure it beeps when I press the on button (may have to 100% confirm this tonight when I boot up), and I think it's only the one beep.


Like I said after I press reset it does exatly the same thing but I get screen output and my mouse/keyboard comes to life. Any ideas whats going on?

 

[pengipete]

Not yet but if there is a single beep it means that the PC is actually getting into the Power On Self Test (POST) and that suggests a problem getting power to those devices. We'll have more to go on when you confirm that it does beep but for the moment the only thing that springs to mind is a "problem" that I read about on some previous Asus motherboards that only occured when the PC was shutdown and switched off at the PSU - the "cure" for that was to wait a few seconds after switching on at the PSU.

Check for the beep and post back - in the meantime I'll have a dig around to see if this is a known problem. (I suspect there'll be loads of people on the usual forums blaming the PSU but I'm going to ignore that - for now).

[EDIT]

Can you also confirm what BIOS version you are using and whether there are any overclocks?

 

[Robbie]

Ah thanks mate.

Now that you mention it I did switch off at the PSU a couple of time's that might be the cause..

I didn't switch off the PSU last night so when I get home i'll see if it happens and post back.

 

[pengipete]

I've been reading around and there appears to be a known problem with Rampage III and cold-booting. It's not universal - affects some people and not others - and there are a number of suggested "cures" from updating BIOS, through replacing the CMOS cell to (gotta love this one) disabling on-board sound ??!!??

My own suspicion is that - for whatever reason - the board needs to "warm up" - either literally or virtually in terms of getting juice into those difficult to reach places. I'll keep looking and talk to you tonight.

 

[Robbie]

Hey ya Pete,
Thanks so much for looking into the problem. By cold-booting you mean just booting after a shut down?
I have no idea what a CMOS cell is so i'll leave you to enjoy that on your own lol.
So do you think that if I left it like that long enough it would boot finally boot? Because I think I left it for like 5-10 minutes last time when I got fed up and pressed reset.

Good news though, booting tonight had no problems. It booted up fine, after about 5-10 seconds after pressing the on button it make one beep and the usual start up screens flicked onto the screen and my mouse/keyboard came to life. So I'm just hoping it was only happening because I was turning off the CPU switch at the back of the PC (screw trying to save power!).

Should I try and update my BIOS anyway, or just leave it as is?

Many thanks for your hard work Pete +Rep

 

[pengipete]

Cold booting means the first boot after switching on the PSU. It refers to the notion that the board (or at least some components) warms-up slightly due to the trickle of current that runs through the board even when the PC is switched off at the front. It's also got an extended meaning that not heat related - basically that some components aren't receiving sufficent power early enough from that cold boot.

Leaving the PC after switching on at thr front wouldn't help. What may work if cold-booting is a problem is to wait a while after switching on the PSU before press the power button on the front of the PC. It won't always help but it's worth trying. A better - if not entirely acceptable - solution is to leave the PSU switched on. It's not going to use much power - around a couple of watts.

The CMOS cell is the small, round battery that motherboards use to store basic settings. Put simply, the first time you use the motherboard, it checks to see what basic hardware is attached - CPU, drives etc - and stores details of them in a small memory chip. The battery is used to prevent that memory from going blank when the mains power is removed. The most obvious sign of a failed CMOS cell is when the system clock resets if the power is switched off at the wall or PSU but if the cell is simply low on power ut can cause lost or corrupted settings in BIOS.

Regarding BIOS - tell me what BIOS you currently have and I'll try to find out if a newer version is proven to help. I won't automatically recommend updating to the latest as sometime a slightly older one is more suitable for a specific problem.

 

[Robbie]

Interesting...

Thanks for the info.

I'm currently running BIOS version: American Megatrends Inc. 1102, 23/09/2010