Infinite Boot Loop - A little help please?

Benevolence · Dec 3, 2013

Hey, got me a real gem here.
A Gigabyte P55-USB3 which is stuck in a reboot loop. Turns on, fans come on but restarts before POST. Cleared CMOS (every way imaginable), tested everything but the board independently. Backup bios only kicks in if I short the CMOS pins between reboots with the power still on (Which is always a little scary you know?). Already flashed F9 bios, and F10 back into M-Bios a few times, but no change. Any thoughts on this guys?

If at all possible I'd love to disable the M-Bios in some way so that the B-Bios kicks in without having to short my board with a screwdriver every time it turns off. Tried manually shorting the Mbios 5-6 pin, with no change.

Backup bios comes up always reset so no saving OC settings here. Ran IBT, Prime95, MemTest420 after shorting the pins, with no apparent damage to components.
Been running it pretty hard lately for video editing and compressor. Max temp ~50C w/ Prime95.

Gigabyte P55-USB3 (Rev2) (M F10,B F9)
Intel i7 870
GTS 450
OCZ mod-XStream Pro 600W
Tons of add-on cards (removed for testing)
Tons of drives.

ganon11000 · Dec 3, 2013

Have you flashed a Rev 1 BIOS on a Rev 2 board?

BerylLee · Dec 3, 2013

check if burnt cpu or circuit on back of mb, or bent pins on cpu socket

Benevolence · Dec 5, 2013

Not burnt CPU, I'm able to pass all benchmarking software once I boot up from backup bios. There is one missing pin, all the others I checked with a high-res pic. From the pinout, it seems like a redundant ground to the PCI controller. Only problem is the reboot loop, and backup bios not saving any settings. Capacitors look pretty good, running at pretty good temps.

ganon11000 · Dec 5, 2013

If there is nothing else you could try the latest BETA BIOS http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/28441-gigabyte-latest-beta-bios.html

mbarbantini · Dec 5, 2013

What OS are you using?

Benevolence · Dec 5, 2013

Windows 7 Pro x64. Also have MountainLion and MINT.
Ganon: I was using beta (F10) before, have resorted to (F9) because it seemed more stable. I've flashed the M-Bios with both F10 and F9 a few times now praying it will stick. Assuming all the steps I have taken, is it safe to say that the Mbios is toast? If so, I would like to take the chance of disabling it so that B-Bios pops up without the reboot loop.

mbarbantini · Dec 5, 2013

Benevolence :

This may be caused by a software or hardware failure. Is there any way you can get to see drivers and try to repair?
Do you have any backups? Have you set any restore points?
Have you checked for abnormal hardware conditions or placing?
How old is this PC? Has this happened before?
Try contacting your local pc expert if nothing works, you don't want to toast the bios with un-efficient and unnecessary resets.

Benevolence · Dec 5, 2013

Funny thing is that I am the local PC expert (A+, IC3, Net+).

This isn't a software issue, it's a corrupted bios chip issue. At this point I know that all of my hardware is A-OK, apart from the M-bios chip which I can only assume fried while tweaking my OC profile. What I want to do is find a way to skip the reboot loop and go directly to the B-bios, very wary of rebooting my editing rig over and over again with a fork.

Given that the reboot loop happens before POST, my OS and drivers/kexts have nothing to do with this, as everything checks out once I'm running off the B-Bios. As for hardware conditions and placing, I breadboarded the Mobo when troubleshooting. It's back in the case now with the same problem.

mbarbantini · Dec 5, 2013

Benevolence :

Oh well then I definitely can't help you I'm the standardest PC user out there

Maybe I could ask you to remember how this happened (what was your last action in the login before getting stuck, etc.)?

Benevolence · Dec 5, 2013

Thank you for your attempt to help mbarb, however this has absolutely nothing to do with the software that I am running. This is a motherboard-level hardware glitch that I am attempting to bypass. As stated above, I most likely fried the M-Bios while tweaking my OC settings above 4.2GHz.

mbarbantini · Dec 5, 2013

Benevolence :

You might be risking to lose your cpu if your motherboard fries itself though... Be careful with that and good luck... I'd suggest a motherboard change maybe?

Oh hold on so you were overclocking?
Maybe you over-overclocked... I should stop talking I'm not smart enough haha

One day I might be able to help

Good luck!

Benevolence · Dec 7, 2013

Thanks for taking the time guys, it's the people who contribute to the forums that make this place so special.

What I wanna know is if I surgically remove the M-bios chip, if I can safely rely on the B-Bios chip to function properly, and remember my OC settings (which will be much milder from now on lol)

ganon11000 · Dec 7, 2013

Well, all the settings are stored in the CMOS not the BIOS so unless using the backup BIOS resets the CMOS it will remember your settings.

Benevolence · Dec 7, 2013

Do you think it would solve the POST loop if I removed the m-bios chip?

ganon11000 · Dec 8, 2013

Benevolence :

The worst that could happen is you have to reattach it. I would assume it would use the backup bios since the original is "damaged".

Benevolence · Dec 9, 2013

Will try bridging the 4&5 M-BIOS pins to disable the chip, will post back here later.

mbarbantini · Dec 27, 2013

Haven't heard back in a while, was the problem fixed?

Infinite Boot Loop - A little help please?

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