Re: ASUS A7S8x-MX bios problem, maybe?
Mike Jones
ASUS A7S8x-MX MOBO with AMD Sempron 2200 CPU (@1.5 Mhz)
Maxtor SATA 500GiB HDD
NVidia GeForce 4400 AGP graphics
Everything else as built into the MOBO.
Here's the fun...
Set it all up with Slackware (12.2), NVidia drivers, etc. All running
fine and dandy on the test bed. Pulled it and set it up in a new place,
and it still ran fine and dandy. Hand's it over to user. Runs fine for a
few days, until...
Last thing one day its running fine and powers down as normal, the next
morning when the power point it's plugged into is switched back on, it
kicks off into a boot up all by itself, and when shut down, ends it's
routine with an S5 PSU+fans-still-on sleep state, not a power off.
I've wiggled things, swapped the PSU, tried different keyboards, zeroed
the BIOS and started again, tried every sane option I could find on the
BIOS setup, but all to no avail. The damn thing just won't power off on
shutdown any more, and won't wait to be told to start up. Its like going
back to an old 386 with a busted power switch!
Short of calling Derek Acorah in, anybody got any clues? ;\
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Baron
Sounds like mainboard failure.
--
Best Regards:
Baron.
Mike Jones
The machine was running fine until the move, so I was thinking that the
power cable dropping out and cutting the power while it was running might
have done something, maybe to the bios? Apart from the shutdown failure
and the power-on=power-up problem, everything else still runs fine. Its
the instant start thing that has me wondering about the bios here.
I've tried getting a flash upgrade from asus.com, but that site is a
nightmare.
If anyone has an alternative download URL for the bios file for this MOBO
it'd be useful about now.
Baron
You could try clearing the BIOS and reconfiguring it.
Though oddly enough I had a laptop today that just wouldn't shut down.
I had to pull the battery to kill it. Then if you started the machine
up again it wouldn't shut down again. I'm convinced that it was due to
viral activity. Anyway a Nuke & Pave cured it...
YMMV.
--
Best Regards:
Baron.
Mike Jones
I don't think I have a virus problem. ;)
So far I've tried it with several keyboard\mouse combos, a couple of
different HDDs, and even installed XP (Yuk!) on one of them, and replaced
the bios battery, and re-flashed the bios. Same problem no matter what.
Its not software, and its not secondary hardware. Its a MOBO glitch, and
seeing as everything works fine, just as before, /except/ the boot and
power-off functions, I'm coming to the conclusion the bios chip is barfed.
Its really annoying as this bargain-box (£30) is like new, and ran like a
dream up until I relocated it and had the (cheap'n'nasty) power cable
drop out while it was running. Now I (probably) need to try and find a
spare bios chip to match, or just replace the MOBO outright. Dayam!
Baron
If you press the power button does the machine switch off ! ie you tell
the OS to shut down and it does but leaves the power on. Now press the
power button.
> Its really annoying as this bargain-box (£30) is like new, and ran
> like a dream up until I relocated it and had the (cheap'n'nasty) power
> cable drop out while it was running. Now I (probably) need to try and
> find a spare bios chip to match, or just replace the MOBO outright.
> Dayam!
Is this board one where the BIOS chip is soldered to the M/B.
--
Best Regards:
Baron.
Mike Jones
[...]
>>
>> So far I've tried it with several keyboard\mouse combos, a couple of
>> different HDDs, and even installed XP (Yuk!) on one of them, and
>> replaced the bios battery, and re-flashed the bios. Same problem no
>> matter what. Its not software, and its not secondary hardware. Its a
>> MOBO glitch, and seeing as everything works fine, just as before,
>> /except/ the boot and power-off functions, I'm coming to the conclusion
>> the bios chip is barfed.
>
> If you press the power button does the machine switch off ! ie you tell
> the OS to shut down and it does but leaves the power on. Now press the
> power button.
Done all that, and every combination thereof. I get the same thing each
and every time, a message that everything has been put into S5 sleep mode.
Something hardware isn't paying attention to any suggestions it should
pull power, including when the thing is powered up too. It's like a relay
got stuck in the "on" position somewhere.
>> Its really annoying as this bargain-box (£30) is like new, and ran like
>> a dream up until I relocated it and had the (cheap'n'nasty) power cable
>> drop out while it was running. Now I (probably) need to try and find a
>> spare bios chip to match, or just replace the MOBO outright. Dayam!
>
> Is this board one where the BIOS chip is soldered to the M/B.
I'm not sure yet. There's a square chip in a socket which I'm hoping is
the bios chip, but I'm slowly getting used to the idea this MOBO is
borked.
Baron
> Responding to Baron:
>
>> If you press the power button does the machine switch off ! ie you
>> tell the OS to shut down and it does but leaves the power on. Now
>> press the power button.
When you do the above what happens...
Is this when you get the message about S5.
Which actually I have never seen.
> Done all that, and every combination thereof. I get the same thing
> each and every time, a message that everything has been put into S5
> sleep mode.
>
> Something hardware isn't paying attention to any suggestions it should
> pull power, including when the thing is powered up too. It's like a
> relay got stuck in the "on" position somewhere.
Ok monitor the voltage on the "green" wire in the 20/24 way plug when
the machine starts up & closes down.
>> Is this board one where the BIOS chip is soldered to the M/B.
>
>
> I'm not sure yet. There's a square chip in a socket which I'm hoping
> is the bios chip, but I'm slowly getting used to the idea this MOBO is
> borked.
If it is in a square socket I have a number of spare BIOS chips. What
is the make of the BIOS, AMI, Award, Pheonix, Intel etc.
Though at this moment I have other thoughts.
--
Best Regards:
Baron.