2 Dead Motherboards?

Mining & Hardware
#1

I bought used motherboards and I can’t get either to post. One is an Asus B250 Mining Expert and the other is a ASRock H110 Pro BTC+.

I tried the ASRock first and I could not get a video signal from anything but there was a red light on the M.2 SSD (Crucial MX500). I thought the SSD might be incompatible so I pulled it from the board. My understanding is that I should be able to get to the UEFI without a drive. Is this correct?

I have tried both the video out on the board and a graphics card hooked up to the X16 slot.

I have also tried the ASUS, with the MOBO and CPU power and with a single graphics card int he X16 slot. again, nothing. The fans on the CPU cooler and the graphics card both start spinning on start-up.

Without a storage device, I should still be able to get to the BIOS right? I was planning on just running a linux srt up from a USB stick, but I can’t get anything to show up on the monitor. What else can I check.?

I did buy both of these used off two different people. Did they both sell me dead motherboards?

#2

Yes, without a hard drive you should still be able to boot up to the bios. If the fans are spinning, then your power supply is running. It’s fairly rare for the actual motherboard to be the thing that dies from my experience. If you are using incompatible parts, that could certainly be an issue. What memory and CPU are you trying to use with them? Did they come with the board or were they sold separately?

#3

Both board each came with their own CPU, cooler and Memory installed. They were both Celerons like the G3930 or similar and both have 8GM of 2400 DDR4.
PSU was also purchased used, a EVGA 1200 P2. That seems to be powering up just fine. GPUs are all brand new 1660 Supers.

I also notice that they keyboard doesn’t seem to light up when connected to the computer.

#4

well, I had a similar issue with a couple BioStar boards. Turns out that it was the bios was not recognizing the CPU and wouldn’t even post to the BioS. I took them to my local shop and for 50.00 he upgraded them both. Just because they came with CPUs doesn’t mean they actually are set up. compatible with isn’t the same as upgraded to. just my 2 cents. The fans would spin on card and cpu but that was it.

#5

Does anyone know of a place in the Denver CO area that I can take these? The only place I can think of is Micro Center.

#6

You don’t have local PC repair places? In Seattle area they are everywhere. they are usually small and offer virus removal and stuff like that.

#7

remove cpu and check number go to h110 and asus manual cpu compatible and check or cpu are in list if in list check ram board possible can be wrong ram not match cpu, second think can be check bios jump pin or is not lost or not pluged in to bios reset.

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#8

also check or cpu pins are not damage remove cpu and watch carefully or any pin is not bended. i have similar use with h81 seller send my wrong ram board not boot

#9

if i good remember b250 and h110 use same tape cpu and ram so you try to swap in case everything is fine,pint not demage,ram match,bios reset off. plus make sure you have plug and cpu power cable, from other forum i seen couple of person post boards not working but in photo can see is not connected cpu power. second before do some change in bios make sure you have nothing elsd connected just psu ram and cpu no ssd or gpu. on my h110 if in bios selected onboard video no video output on gpu only from dvi plus if you mining on os keep onbord video just change run gen2 it more stable and second mining os flash not in usb stick but in ssd from usb you lost performance as usd very low read speed

#10

Thanks. I don’t see a cmos reset jumper on the b250. But I checked on the H110, it was in the correct position. I haven’t pulled the cpus and coolers since I didn’t have any thermal paste. I will pick some up so I can pull them. I can verify that everything is compatible once I know I can put it back. I will also check the ram.

When I was trying to troubleshoot, I just had the 24 pin and Cpu power plugged in. I also added vga power when I tried a gpu. I didn’t have any storage devices plugged in as I just wanted to see if I could get to the bios.

Honestly I am half tempted to just keep this rig at 6 GPUs and just get a standard b450 and a mid-tier Ryzen so can also mine Monero. I was eventually only going to upgrade this rig to 6 or 8 GPUs anyway.

For now I will pick up some thermal paste so
I can pull everything from the board and check cpu and pins. If I still can’t find anything, I will look for a local repair shop.

If you have other ideas, please keep them coming.

1 Like
#11

The Celeron’s you describe are the Kaby Lake and are compatible with your motherboards.
The G3930 is only compatible with Windows 10, but that’s not you problem.


Coffee Lake processors like the G4930 are not compatible with your motherboards as they require a 300 series motherboard.

What to do: remove all video cards and plug monitor into motherboard video output…VGA or DVI.
HDMI or displayPort don’t boot by default from motherboard (I have a motherboard with all 4 types).

Monitor should have an Amber light before computer boots. If the Monitor led turns green, it saw a video signal. You should get the motherboard logo on screen as computer boots, at which point you can press (del) to enter bios, F12 typically to enter boot menu.

If you must, plug only one video card into x16 slot and repeat.

Finally, memory sometimes needs retraining. If the cpu fan starts, then stops and maybe repeats, it is training the memory. This process if fan continues to start if allowed to continue will eventually boot to the bios or display set bios to defaults. Using only 1 memory stick during this process speeds up the training time.

Good Luck, that’s all the info I can provide.

#12

I believe one processor is a G3930 and the other is a G4400. Everything is diconnected from the board excpet for 24 pin and cpu power cables. H110 only has DVI which I connect to a monitor and B250 only has HDMI which is what I used to test.

I have tested using not graphics card and using the mobo video out and with a graphics card in the x16 slot trying both the output of the mobo and the graphics card.

When I power on, CPU fans spins continueously and case fans spun continuously (before I took it back out of the cast to troubleshoot.)

At this point I am going to go pick up a brand new Biostar B250 since everything should be compatible between the three boards and start swapping pieces around to test variousl pieces.

#13

Just going to remind you. I believe your CPUs are compatible but your bios is just too outdated to boot up, and you should either get an older used cpu to get to BIOS to update them both or… just sayin

#14

Did you actually clear the CMOS or just look at the jumper positions? Pull the battery for a bit if the one doesn’t have jumper pins.

#15

Thats a good point. How would I be able to tell what version of the bois is installed if I can’t get a signal from it? I just don’t know how to tell what CPUs I would need to be able to update.

#16

I did try clearing the cmos on the H110 with both the jumper and removing the battery. I did not do that on the B250. I will try tonight when I am swapping parts around.

#17

Most MBs have the stock Bios version Printed on it or one of its parts.

#18

I have post.

From what I could tell, bot CPUs should have worked on both mobos. So I swapped the CPUs and now I can get to the BOIS. I preferred the H110 only becasue the m.2 eliminated the SATA data and power cables since I prefer windows. So now I have to go pick up a small SSD so I can get this rig up and running.

I haven’t given up on the H110. I have a few things to try. I am running the DVI out into an adapter to HDMI. Maybe these adapters don’t work or the board doesn’t like it. Also I never got lights on my usb keyboard so maybe the board doesn’t have USB drivers or something. I will borrow a ps/2 keyboard and mouse from my work and give those a try. Other than that, I am not sure what else to do. I know the stock bios supports both CPUs and the G3930 that was on this board works now that I switched it to the B250. Either way, I am excited to finally get to assembling my first rig. It is only going to have 4 GPUs, but it’s a start.

#19

reset bios to default usb light not iluminate if in bios is not set run light on startup second you need to check bios ans selelct what you need like example onboard video or gpu video i recomend use onboard video plus disable unsused components like audio and other stuff you dont need

#20

second thing can be cpu dont have onboard video can be olso reason why you dont get video try plug gpu and run dirrctly video prom gpu reset bios with jump couple time if it his problem you shut see bios plus for bios you dont need keyboard or mouse as if mobos dont have ssd or usb with windows or linux partition to boot bios start automatical as not recognize boot