MSI Z87 G45 BIOS is inaccessible, but boots Windows?

adavidtree

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Sep 1, 2013
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I recently put together a middle-of-the-road gaming pc for myself with the following specs:

MSI Z87 G45 Gaming Motherboard
Intel Core i5 4670k
Nvidia GTX 760
8 gb Corsair Vengeance RAM
SSD + 1 tb HDD, so on and so forth...

This rig worked beautifully for me for about a month before I started noticing problems regarding the bios. Upon boot, I started getting no MSI splash screen and no option to enter the bios. If I press DEL like I normally would to enter, the screen hangs black.

Normally, I would just think that there is either something wrong with my bios and reset it, but (and here's the kicker) if I do not press DEL to enter bios upon boot, after a good 20 - 30 seconds, Windows will boot.

I wasn't even sure if it was possible to have an inaccessible bios AND be able to boot Windows, but I guess I've now learned that it is.

Anyhow, I just picked up an upgrade to my CPU cooling system so that I can begin tweaking my CPU clock (hence the 'K' i5), but clearly I can't do this without a bios.

Am I missing something here?

(I've tried using the board's 'Clear CMOS' button, as well as removing the battery and doing a hard CMOS reset - no good. I can't access the bios under any circumstances, even if i don't have any 'extra' stuff connected: SSD, HDD, disk drive.)

Thank you!
 
Solution
Pray for more storms! Just kidding.
Hard to say what's wrong.
Try powering off the computer, unplugging the power cord and pressing the power button for 30 seconds or so.
Or leave it as it is, since working now.

adavidtree

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Sep 1, 2013
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After clearing CMOS, booting gives me a black screen (no output to monitor). After shutdown and reboot, I get black screen followed by boot into windows. I've tried a USB and PS/2 keyboard.

I should also mention that I have reflashed the bios after this problem began occurring and updated to the latest version (1.3) at the time of this post.
 

adavidtree

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Sep 1, 2013
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So, today there was a pretty severe thunderstorm in my area and I unplugged my computer for a few hours to avoid power surges. When I plugged it back in and booted, voila! My BIOS was back semi-consistently using the same DVI setup as before and without me touching a thing.

What gives?
 

adavidtree

Honorable
Sep 1, 2013
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Alright, well temporary success! But thank you for the help, I'll keep playing around with it.