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help! i screwed up my computer (again) [BIOS/Hardware problems]

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BuddyC

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Last night I was playing with my BIOS, goofing around with some settings. Upon exiting and saving, my computer restarted and ...no signal to the monitor anymore. The system doesn't make any beeps (not that it does normally, but there are no beeps to help me identify the problem) and the keyboard seems upresponsive (i.e. tapping DEL to throw it into the BIOS menu and hopefully send a signal to the monitor doesn't work, no lights come on when I hit Caps Lock or Num Lock).

The settings I played with involved the speed of the FSB, default display adapter (was set to PCI, changed it to AGP) and something to do with the EMI of my CPU, Spread Spectrum Something (which I turned off).

I've looked through the instruction manual for my mobo, but found nothing helpful. Any ideas?
 
unplug the computer from the wall (or pull out the plug leading to the power supply) and remove the flat battery from the motherboard and count 30 seconds. put the battery back in, plug the computer back into the wall and you'll have a virgin BIOS to not fuck up again.

oh, and your comptuer should boot.
 
Have a look on the board for a hearing aid type battery. If there's one, flip it out of it's socket for about a minute, then replace. Any time I screw up the BIOS, that's the quickest way of flushing it.

--

Or, if you know the motherboard type there may be a jumper you can short to do the same thing.
 
Hmm, if your mobo were mine I would recommend resetting the CMOS and taking out the battery to get rid of any newly saved profile and set it back to normal, but it could be different with your mobo.
 
I love you all. Thanks.

edit: Removing the battery didn't work, but I don't have the time right now to hunt down the jumper I'll need to short.
 
Remove the battery and unplug the PSU. Wait 10 seconds. It'll work as it's the same thing as re-seating the jumper.
 
Well, shit.

I must've really screwed something up - neither removing the battery or shorting the jumper (or any combination thereof) resolved my issue.

:(
 
Well, if resetting the BIOS didn't work, something permanent happened when you fiddled with those BIOS settings. I'm not suggesting there's some serious damage, but from what you're telling me that can't be excluded (but I guess you already realize that).

Hmmm.

I had a similar problem by the way. Except my computer just died on me, while the PSU was still running. Had to get a new CPU, Mobo and memory.

I'm not an expert, but I got an idea. Take out all the parts you can, hard drives and stuff, and also the video card. You're mobo should beep if there's no video card, but I could be wrong about that. Can someone confirm this? If your mobo beeps, it means it's not broken I think.
 
8bit said:
What type of board?(Manufacturer/CPU)
Click to expand...
It's a MSI board with an Athlon XP CPU, but anything more specific will have to wait until I get home this evening.

EyezLow said:
Does it POST at all? Any beeps? How's the HD LED responding if at all?
Click to expand...
I'm not sure what you mean by POST, but absolutely no signal is sent to the monitor. Turning the monitor on gives me a "NO SIGNAL CHECK CABLE" message, and then it switches into a suspend/standby mode after a bit.

No beeps either.

As for the HD LED, that'll have to wait until I get home this evening as well. But I don't think there's any activity there, but I can't say for sure.
 
POST = power on self test

The little runthrough it goes through on boot testing the hardware. This is normally when you would get extra beeps.
 
POST = Power On Self Test. Basically the routine the machine goes through hardware-wise during the BIOS level boot process.

No beeps isn't a good sign btw.
 
That no signal check cable thing is a bit odd... my mobo died on me I think but I've never had anything like that. Maybe your video card = dead? Try some other video card and see what happens. Also try to see what happens with your computer if you turn it on with no video card in it at all.
 
sorry buddy, its dead. Stick it in the microwave with some hotdogs, fire that shit up. Then roll whats left of your microwave on a skateboard into traffic.
 
Strip it for parts and move on.

owned.jpg
 
I'll play around with it some more later tonight, but from the link 8bit posted, it certainly looks as if I somehow fried my motherboard. If it was a video card issue, or any type of hardware issue for that matter, then it should beep. I'll do everything I can, but I don't have high hopes.

Hopefully the processor/everything else is still intact, but short of stopping by the local shop and/or grabbing a new mobo, I don't know of any way to test the rest of my system components. And I don't have the money or time for that, so, crap. We'll see what MSI Customer Support has to say.

:lol =W=
 
The rest of your hardware should be fine (what did you change regarding the FSB?). In reality, your mobo is likely fine as well and you just need to buy a new BIOS chip from MSI or whatever company they point you towards.

For future reference: If your PC does nothing beyond spinning up its fans when you start it, I find the following always works:

1: Don't touch the power button but instead yank power cord from back of PC
2: Count down from 15
3: Plug PC back in and try again

if it is still not working

1: Repeat previous step one
2: Remove battery
3: Swap jumper
4: Hold in the power button for 5-15 seconds
5: Wait a few minutes
6: replace jumper
7: reinsert battery
8: Plug PC in and try again
 
BuddyC said:
I'll play around with it some more later tonight, but from the link 8bit posted, it certainly looks as if I somehow fried my motherboard. If it was a video card issue, or any type of hardware issue for that matter, then it should beep. I'll do everything I can, but I don't have high hopes.

Hopefully the processor/everything else is still intact, but short of stopping by the local shop and/or grabbing a new mobo, I don't know of any way to test the rest of my system components. And I don't have the money or time for that, so, crap. We'll see what MSI Customer Support has to say.

:lol =W=
Click to expand...


For starters... never again go into a bios.. You need to stay out..
It was probably the messing around with the FSB that fried it.
 
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