PC problems

[LordFerret]

Ok, well, looking at the manual for your motherboard;

The LED codes you listed,

"0S" is undefined

"D5" is defined as "No Space for Legacy Option ROM initialization"

"DS" is undefined

"05" is undefined

So, "No Space for Legacy Option ROM initialization" it is. A few Google searches on the subject suggest your BIOS is corrupted. That would make a lot of sense considering your description of failed boots.

Go check that motherboard battery. It's located pretty much dead-center of the motherboard, right behind the PCIEX1 slot ... as defined in the manual for your motherboard, page 7. Note that removing this battery will effectively clear the CMOS values; If you can, get into your BIOS setup screen before doing this, make some notes and record all of the settings.

How long since you last changed that battery (if ever) ?

[Exerminator2000]

never, and also, its pretty much the default values

- - - Updated - - -

and of course its behind my dang noctua cooler which is the size of my gamecube e_e

[LordFerret]

It's worth the effort.

I'd put a new one in... if you've gone that far to take it out, might as well slap a new one in!

[GeneralVeers]

Do this right away, Exterminator, if you haven't already:

One at a time, pull each hard drive out of your current rig, plug it into another computer (as a secondary drive, not as the boot drive) then power up to see if this other computer recognizes the drive. If it does, MAKE A BACKUP OF EVERYTHING YOU CAN.

This will do two things: first, it will verify whether one of the hard drives is the problem. Second.....well, I already explained the second one in capital letters.

Next thing to do: grab another hard drive, preferably a blank one if you have one. Plug it into the suspect computer, do a normal OS install, and see if the problem keeps cropping up with the fresh hard drive. If it does, you know the problem is hardware. At a guess I'd say your motherboard is going on the fritz, but you should do this test anyway to verify for 100% certain where the problem is. Even if it already seems obvious, test and make sure. Because once in a while, what seems obvious will turn out to be wrong.

[PB666]

Ok, well, looking at the manual for your motherboard;

The LED codes you listed,

"0S" is undefined

"D5" is defined as "No Space for Legacy Option ROM initialization"

"DS" is undefined

"05" is undefined

So, "No Space for Legacy Option ROM initialization" it is. A few Google searches on the subject suggest your BIOS is corrupted. That would make a lot of sense considering your description of failed boots.

Go check that motherboard battery. It's located pretty much dead-center of the motherboard, right behind the PCIEX1 slot ... as defined in the manual for your motherboard, page 7. Note that removing this battery will effectively clear the CMOS values; If you can, get into your BIOS setup screen before doing this, make some notes and record all of the settings.

How long since you last changed that battery (if ever) ?

batteries typically last 7 to 10 years in my experience. If he seldomly uses his computer it might last 5, his board is not that old. The could be a loose screw lying on the board. My bets are still on the power supply, his symptoms sound almost exactly like the problem i was having a while backnafter i added a new vid card, it was a cheap-.... .......... power supply.

[LordFerret]

I see a number of potential problems, but where to start? It's not like I have the thing here in front of me - that would be a different story.

I've seen system funkiness from a bad CD/DVD drive, where just removing the drive solved all the problems. Then there's also the problem with the USB3 ports, which, actually, that D5 error code relates to ... one of the things I read about that last night had to do with where (which USB ports) the mouse and keyboard were plugged into.

As WedgeAntilles points out, it very well could be a drive issue; Although for testing such things, I have a universal adapter where swapping the drive out isn't required (just unplug the drive cables and power and plug in the appropriate adapter connects, then plug it into a USB port on another machine).

[PB666]

I see a number of potential problems, but where to start? It's not like I have the thing here in front of me - that would be a different story.

I've seen system funkiness from a bad CD/DVD drive, where just removing the drive solved all the problems. Then there's also the problem with the USB3 ports, which, actually, that D5 error code relates to ... one of the things I read about that last night had to do with where (which USB ports) the mouse and keyboard were plugged into.

As WedgeAntilles points out, it very well could be a drive issue; Although for testing such things, I have a universal adapter where swapping the drive out isn't required (just unplug the drive cables and power and plug in the appropriate adapter connects, then plug it into a USB port on another machine).

Right, my USB3 Wifi is plugged into a USB2 port, the computer will not boot, it hangs during the USB boot seek after the memory test.

As for the drive, you can unplug the drive and try to boot from a bootable USB drive like Mubuntu.

Being the nurse of about 15 machines under my control I can rank the boot fault issues

1. Power supplies about 8 cases over thirty or so builds, 6 cases of failure (vacuum cleaner, blown caps, storm or surge related faults , two unknowns)- all over 4 years of age, 2 cases of inadequacy

2. CPU failure - almost all failure to boot, period. 6 of 8 were AMD- most of the K6-2 variety, 2 of 8 were Intel. Both were pre-Prescott or Prescott. With CPU throttling dead CPUs should not occur unless you are doing math intensive or gaming full time. Never had a failure that was cleanly fan related, although suspect a couple of times. It one thing I always check though because fan failures can be expensive, give a little tug on the fan to make sure it is connected, The Intel fan mounts on newer models are screwball and can loosen if the locks are not turned properly. If I have a really higher performance system, I generall buy a new fan and keep the OEM fan as a backup.

3. Drive failure - many years ago - 4 all IDE or older, I can also add 2 more easy repairs due to drive cable failure or failure to seat. Never had a failure of a drive built after 2000. Never had any cable problems with serial cables.

4. Battery failure - 3 all over the age of 7 years, mostly benign, most mobos will boot to bios fine with a dead battery, but you might have to change the bios settings, everytime to get to the OS.

5. Memory faults - 2, 1 was due to unmatched memory type (2 manfs of same spec were incompatible for unknown reason), the other fault was memory just plain old.

6. Mobo - failure, 1 dead fault, 1 hung up after posting video bios. Old motherboards >10 years do not like to be tampered with. Another fault was due to improper seating of Mobo because of a bent pin-out, removed pin-out and problem resolved.

7. USB incompatibility - 1

8. Mobo vid failed, so added video card and repaired

Edited September 16, 2015 by PB666

[Camacha]

Finding a problem is pretty much always a process of elimination like I described here. For better legibility, I will not quote myself, but post the text integrally:

Finding a fault is always a process of elimination. Start with the usual suspects and work your way down the list from there. Hard drives, software and GPU's break down relatively often and are easily (temporarily) exchanged or circumvented. CPU's almost never break without abuse and motherboards seem pretty sturdy too, while RAM and PSU's are somewhere in between. [...] You can get some pretty weird stuff when things get damaged. Ideally you are able to replicate the problem easily as this makes testing a whole lot easier.

I would start with the things easily and cheaply done:

- Eliminate any peripheral devices and internal devices not needed. Only attach your keyboard, mouse and monitor and remove anything non-essential: internal drives, card readers et cetera. The idea is to run the system as bare as possible to see whether the problem is in the core components. Of course, return anything that is on non-standard settings (overclock for example) to its default. Recheck, or better, reattach all needed cables to confirm they are correctly attached.

- If you have got an old HDD lying around, try to install the OS on there and see whether you still have the problem. A fresh installation on the SSD will exclude software faults, but not the hardware of the SSD.

- Test your RAM overnight with MEMtest. As a seperate test, take one stick out, see whether the problem persists, then switch sticks and do the same. If at all possible temporarily test with RAM from a system that is know to work without incident. After that you can test`with one stick to adhere to the bare bones strategy.

- Swap out the GPU for another one, any one that will fit, or use the IGP and see whether the problem persists.

- See if you know anyway that will let you swap out his PSU for a day. Did I see you mention you have a decent A-brand PSU? That is a prerequisite for a problem free system.

If you still have problems at that point you might want to take a look at the motherboard and CPU. If you worry about the VRM's or other components, you could either clock down your system or put airflow directly on it. If the problem disappears, something funky is going on there. Beyond that it gets hard to test things without actually swapping out the motherboard and CPU.

With some logic and a methodical approach you should be able to identify the source of the problem I have collected a stack of old parts just for these purposes over the years, it is very useful to have some stuff to swap and test with and for example an old GPU typically costs hardly anything at all.