Major problem with BIOS / Restarting PC

[Meanbunny]

Hey guys, so recently I restarted my computer and after shutting down, upon starting back up the PC would not post. All I got was fans spinning up at 100% and no signal to my monitor. I found that the only way to get it to post was to reset the CMOS by resetting the jumper. The problem is, my CPU cannot run without randomly shutting down due to a low Vcore VID voltage so I have to up the Vcore voltage a little bit in the bios. It will not run correctly on optimal default settings. Everytime I save the bios settings, even if I don't change anything, the computer will restart and fail to post. The only way to get it to post again is if I reset the CMOS jumper. I just had to format my hard drive and reinstall windows because I was running 2 HDD's in RAID 0 and the only way to access the OS is if I set the SATA mode to RAID instead of AHCI. Since everytime I would save the bios settings and restart, the computer would not post, thus having to clear the CMOS again which would reset the BIOS to default settings and back to AHCI mode which would not allow the OS to be detected. Now since reinstalling windows I can at least boot into windows but I cannot restart my computer for any reason whatsoever, thats without even entering the BIOS. I cannot restart my PC without having to clear the CMOS.

I have tried removing the CMOS battery for an hour, I have held down the power button for 30 seconds to a minute with the power cable unplugged, I have reseated the CPU and Memory as well as run the PSA+ test and it finds no errors whatsoever.

I should also mention a few months back before my warranty expired, I had every single piece of hardware replaced by Dell, the motherboard, the CPU, GPU, PSU, HDD's, memory etc. I do believe some of these parts were refurbished so that may have something to do with it. I would think if the motherboard was faulty then why would it run flawlessly once it gets into windows when it did have the correct BIOS settings?

Anyway, I appreciate any insight anyone might have about my situation. Thanks for your time checking out my thread. Have a great day guys.

 

[Mellon Head]

It sounds like the BIOS flash chip is being corrupted when you save to it. The chip or the hardware leading to it could be faulty, and it wouldn't be detected on a scan of any kind. If that's what it is, it's not something you could fix beyond replacing the MB.

It sounds like the BIOS itself is still intact, it just can't save new parameters without corrupting. That will definitely prevent booting.

 

[Meanbunny]

Well after a bazillion restarts, it finally RANDOMLY started to reboot on its own without having to clear the CMOS. This random going back and forth between posting and not posting clearly points to a bad motherboard. Thankfully I can stay logged in as of right now so I am just going to replace the motherboard as soon as possible. Thanks for posting your ideas.

 

[gregrocker]

Did you perchance wipe the HD before reinstall with Diskpart Clean Command or more, to clear boot or other code that could be interfering?

Is the other HD which you unRAIDED still plugged in? Try unplugging it.

Then try unplugging the OD next.

For both of these tests keep all peripherals and other drives unplugged.