Stuck on BIOS startup screen DFI NF4-Ultra D

robomosk · Mar 7, 2005, 07:39 PM

It worked fine last night. I powered down no problem. I power up this afternoon, and it gets stuck on the BIOS splash screen. It POSTs and everything, but won't do anything except display that damn screen. I tried everything I could think of: reseating all the components, taking every expansion card out, playing around with the CMOS jumpers, even pulling out the CMOS battery. The last thing actually worked once. Figuring I ought not to take that opportunity for granted, I flashed the BIOS while I could, and it worked; windows booted! Then, I took it too far. I reset the machine. And it took me right back to where I was, stuck on the BIOS splash screen. Any ideas?

System:
DFI LanParty NF4-Ultra D
Athlon 64 3200+
2GB PQI Turbo RAM
EVGA GeForce 6800 GT
Thermaltake VA3000 Dream Case

Logla · Mar 10, 2005, 03:07 AM

What I would try. Reseting all the bios settings to default and removing all harware devices from the machine that aren't essential (extra hdd's and sound card etc) and seeing if the machine would boot that way. then you can start adding the other devices one by one and setting up the bios the way you need it, changing only 1-2 options on each boot.

It sounds to me like one device is conflicting with the mobo and causing this hang.

swimtech · Mar 11, 2005, 05:25 PM

Also, have you just recently upgraded this rig - or just built this one? If an upgrade, what component?

robomosk · Mar 12, 2005, 02:10 AM

It's brand new. It worked just fine for a week. It's randomly letting me into the bios now, but when it comes up, I get a cmos checksum error. I've already flashed with the latest bios posted on dfi's site, and I still get that error, if the system gets far enough along to display it.

swimtech · Mar 12, 2005, 08:35 PM

If the board does that with all your extra cards removed and a minimum of memory (and just the video card), it's likely your mainboard has gone flaky on you and will need to be replaced - bummer. It happens, but at least it's new and therefore covered by warranty.

robomosk · Mar 21, 2005, 03:27 PM

Wow, I solved the problem. You all will never believe what it was. I can't quite believe it myself, and it definitely makes no sense. It was the mouse I was using. When the mouse was plugged into the usb ports, the computer wouldn't boot. If I used one of those usb-ps/2 adaptors, boots fine. If I use a different mouse, boots fine. The kind that doesn't work is an IBM optical/wheel mouse. I don't know the model number. Could it possible be that NF4 boards hate specific hardware?

swimtech · Mar 21, 2005, 04:52 PM

Whoa, now that's one for the archives. I never would have suspected... Good one robomosk, as I'd have had that mainboard RMA'ed for sure... Have you tried that IBM mouse on another computer yet?

2800@2.5ghz · Mar 21, 2005, 05:23 PM

does that board have a socket for a four pin molex on it? if so, make sure its plugged in(might be thinking of another mobo but it requires the extra power so won't boot if the molex is not connected)

Tipstaff · Mar 21, 2005, 11:27 PM

Here's a question for you: In your bios settings is there a listing for booting to a USB device, and is it active in your boot order? If it is it could be that the IBM mouse isn't built to standards, or built a different way. It could be using a controller that has some similar aspects to a bootable USB device, and it was tricking the system into thinking it was bootable.

Now that you know what device was giving you a problem I would double check the bios setting I mentioned, and reinsert your mouse via USB. Thing is if you replace the mouse at a later date with another USB mouse then you might have the same problem again. Even so, if it screws up again then you'll be able to fall back to the PS2 adapter.

- Tip

robomosk · Mar 22, 2005, 11:31 PM

In response to the previous two posts, first, yes, I have the 4-pin molex plugged in. However, I am only using a 20-pin power connector to the board. As you may know, nf4 boards require (maybe only suggest?) a 24-pin power connector from the power supply. I didn't know this when I bought the board, so I didn't think to look for a power supply that supported this. I don't see why this would matter, because I read that the extra 4 pins were more for SLI than anything else, althought nobody seems to be entirely clear on this.

Secondly, I did check the boot options, and there was an option for "Boot from other", which was enabled. There was no mention of an "other" in the actual boot order, but I disabled this option anyway just now, and yep, the mouse works. The DFI board also has a jumper for mouse booting, and I think it's set to "off", although their documentation is weird on the subject of jumpers, so I can't be totally sure. But disabling "boot from other" fixed the problem, in case anyone else runs into this.

Either way, I bought a logitech mouse today, and it works just fine, even with the boot from other option enabled. I think I agree with you about the mouse not being designed quite right, but the BIOS shouldn't be allowing it to boot from anything but the hard drive, so I don't know. The IBM mouse belongs to a friend of mine, and he uses it with an ASUS P4 systems and has no problems.

robomosk · Mar 23, 2005, 12:15 AM

Actually, it didn't work. Scratch that. The computer still doesn't boot with the IBM mouse plugged in. I don't know what happened the first time, but it was a fluke.

swimtech · Mar 23, 2005, 10:52 AM

Shoot that mouse!

BD11goal · Apr 1, 2005, 05:20 PM

by chance, do you have an ipod? i always flip out when i forget to unplug my ipod on a reboot because it locks up on the POST screen until i unplug it.

OHaraE · Apr 5, 2005, 09:49 PM

I have the same motherboard model exactly and my processor is a P4 2.8 Ghz and I have a microsoft wireless keyboard and mouse combo.

I was just reading thru since i had typed "stuck in bios" into google and found this.

After readin this, I rebooted my system with unpluged mouse(usb), but left the keyboard(10pin). and voila my system rebooted perfectly!

I think that the wireless transmissions between the mouse/keyboard and th esignal carrier/broadcaster/hub is screwing with my SATA cable during boot up period only since that is when the peripheral hub probably shoots out extra juice during boot up sequence. This is my hunch!

Ed

what do you think?

wokrs everytime like a charm now...tested 4 times in a row so far! so good! Yes!