ASUS/AMD-QUAD.No beeps, no video. Lessons learned.
- From: JClark <jclark@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 22:24:28 -0400
ASUS boards which are listed as socket AM2+ compatible may in fact be
shipped with outdated BIOS, making them impossible to boot with the
AMD Quad processor and therefore not AM2+ compatible out of the box.
The older BIOS does not recognize the AM2+ processor, therefore
resulting in the board behaving as if there were no CPU installed.
Hence the absent BIOS beeps.
Having just spent an inordinate amount of time and some extra money
solving this apparently common problem, I want to share my experience
and perhaps save someone else some of the grief I went through.
I chose an ASUS Socket AM2+ board (M2N32-SLI), bought the AMD 9600
phenom quad processor and set up the rest of the system with
compatible memory, etc. I was disappointed to see the fans turning but
no BIOS beeps and of course, no video. I checked everything many
times, reseated the CPU, checked that a speaker on the case was
functioning, changed the memory slots, etc. I assumed the board was
bad and returned it. I replaced it with a similar ASUS AM2+ board
(CROSSHAIR), tried again, same result. Now I assumed the processor was
bad. Wrong again.
To get the system up and running, I bought a socket AM2 (not plus) CPU
(Athlon 64 X2) and put it on the board, and to my surprise it booted
right up. This enabled me to flash the BIOS (downloaded on another
system) to the latest version. Now I was able to replace my "temorary"
AM2 CPU with the AM2+ Phenom, and everything was fine.
Explanation: The ASUS AM2+ boards now sent out from the factory may
indeed be AM2+ compatible, but the ones on the resellers' shelves are
probably not, even though the model numbers are as such. With these
boards, you are in trouble because you can't even flash the BIOS
unless you put an AM2 (not plus) CPU in temporarily to do that. I
don't know any way to avoid around borrowing or buying another CPU to
get the BIOS upgraded, unless maybe ASUS will send you a new BIOS
chip.
There are countless articles with (for me) worthless and complex steps
to take to solve the "no beep, no video" problem, most of them having
to to with extreme CMOS resetting and memory re-configuring methods.
But I didn't find anything in my internet searches addressing the
outdated BIOS explanation, so I had to learn it the hard way.
Hope this helps some people.
Jack
.
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