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Gigabyte hangs in bios

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I built my father-in-law a computer about 5 years ago using a Gigabyte MB GA-8I945GZME-RH. He recently called me to tell me that it wasn't working. I discovered it was hanging in the BOOT process and I could not go into the BIOS. Thinking that it was some hardware item, I disconnected everything except the on-board video, keyboard and mouse. Same problem... I had installed only one 1-MB memory stick so thinking that might be the problem I ordered another one and get the same problem with just the new one or both installed. I have also cleared the CMOS by 1-removing the battery 2-shorting out the two jumper pins by the battery and 3-unplugging the power and pressing the power button for a while (did that first). I have been working on this for about three weeks now, off and on, and have occasionally been able to get into the bios by repeatedly pressing the F9 key during the boot process. I have set everything to the default settings or auto but the thing still won't boot. Any ideas? I would greatly appreciate any help.

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I put in a new battery and got the same result. I checked the voltage using a multimeter and the new one was less than 3 volts. I got a 3rd battery which had a voltage over 3 volts. I got the same results with all three. I then decided to try it without a battery, none at all, and got the same result. By this time I had disconnected everything from the MB except the power, power switch connection and the monitor. I even disconnected the front panel LEDs.

I am thinking that there may be a problem with the MB or CMOS or memory even though I bought a new 1 GB RAM strip. I guess there could have been a power surge or a capacitor or something on the MB could have gone bad.

Is there any way to test the RAM (DDR2 PC2-5300 CL=4 Unbuffered Non-ECC DDR2-667 1.8V, 128 Meg x 64) I guess I could try to ask someone who is using the same memory to try it in their computer or vice versa. I'm not sure how I could find someone with the exact same RAM though.

Any more ideas? Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Motherboard Authority

put the battery in then use only one stick of memory at the time with the hdd connect and the graphic card try the hdd in all the sata ports on the board,but if you could test the drive on another system could be it

teh_gerbil said:
Are you using a USB keyboard, or a PS/2 one?

Try a PS/2 one (not an adaptor)


Or... Flash the BIOS using..
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/246530-how-...

with the BIOS from..

http://www.gigabyte.co.nz/products/product-page.aspx?pi...


Thanks for your suggestion but the computer will not boot at all so I have no access to the hard drive, CD drive, USB ports, etc. so there is no way to flash the BIOS. Oncein a while I can get to the BIOS but nothing past that.

Any other suggestions?

BerylLee said:
Could be some damage on cpu.


You could be right. I don't know how to find out though. Maybe I should take the processor of the MB and re-seat it. What do you think?

scout_03 said:
put the battery in then use only one stick of memory at the time with the hdd connect and the graphic card try the hdd in all the sata ports on the board,but if you could test the drive on another system could be it


Thanks for the suggestion. I tried all combinations of the two memory sticks in the the two slots; each one in each slot alone (all four possible combinations) and one in each slot and then reversed. Computer still will not boot. When it starts the POST it hangs right after it finds the memory. I have a photo of the monitor so you can see what I get. Is there any way to post it here?

I have disconnected the hard drive so the test should indicate that. When the hard drive was connected it was not detected nor was the keyboard, or mouse, etc. It just stops at this point.
Motherboard Authority

reconnect the drive retry then add the keyboard and mouse after press dell to enter bios setting to see if everything is detect,do you have a spare power supply to made a test

It could be the PS but I don't have a spare. I did check the voltage on the 4 prong connector to the MB and it was fine. There is no easy way to check the main PS connector to the MB because you can't turn on the computer if that connector is not plugged in. Maybe I should invest in a new PS. I'll probably need one sometime down the road. I'll look around here I may have an old computer that has a compatible PS. Thanks for your help. I'll let you know what I find.

cpu seemed working fine because you can boot up with it ..
the peripheral devices could be the cause in the next check.
post showing stopped in detecting those devices .. hdd, ssd, usb, opt rom ..

I tried a "new" PSU and got the same results. Since then I have contacted Gigabyte support and they indicate that since in hangs during the POST the problem may be with the motherboard. It is out of warranty and the repair charge is $45 plus $10 shipping each way for a total of $65 which is exactly what I paid for it five years ago. And there is no guarantee that Gigabyte will be able to fix it but I'll still have to pay for the service. I'm thinking that I'll get a new motherboard that is compatible with the CPU and hopefully with the RAM (wishful thinking I know) and maybe the hard drive will work without having to format it and start from scratch.

I really appreciate all the suggestions everyone had made. I'll keep working on it and will let you know how it comes out. I'm almost 100% sure it is a problem with the motherboard as everything else has been eliminated so now I start my search for a new motherboard...

Its ppbly ur ram causing it, it's at the memory test it freezes. try take out one of ram sticks and if it still freezes, change with the one u took out to find the bad stick.

scout_03 said:
you could try to put the motherboard driver directly on the hdd so when new board arrive maybe you wont have to format it


Thanks for the suggestion. Chipsets on both boards are are Intel but they aren't the same. See below:

Chipsets (old MB)
North Bridge
Intel 945GZ
South Bridge
Intel ICH7

Intel® 945P Express Chipset (new MB) consisting of:
Intel® 82945P Memory Controller Hub (GMCH) with Direct Media Interface
Intel® 82801GB I/O Controller Hub (ICH7)
8Mbit Firmware Hub (FWH)

Since they are both 945 series I think I'm going to try the old drivers before I install the newer ones. If that fails I'll go with he newer
drivers. What do you think?

scout_03 said:
maybe you will need the new driver yes you could wait when you get the board to see if windows show it correctly


I read the "Read Me" instructions and to install the driver the OS has to be installed and running. I guess some kind of generic driver comes with the OS to make that possible. In any case it will be interesting to see how this all works out. Once again, thanks for your help.

I ordered a new motherboard ($49) but failed to notice that it didn't have built in video as the old one did so that delayed me a little. The "new" video card ($14) arrived yesterday so I installed everything and it fired right up. The motherboard came with a CD that contained most of the drivers I needed and I was able to download the rest from the Internet. Everything is working perfectly now. Thanks to everyone who made suggestions and helped me determine that the motherboard was the problem. Total cost for everything (motherboard, video card, 1GB RAM) including shipping and tax was $83.
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