DEL to enter Setup or ALT F2 to enter EZ Flash

Two problems which may be linked.

When booting the pc goes into setup menu i.e
press DEL to enter Setup or ALT F2 to enter EZ Flash.. To boot to windows I
hit DEL to eneter setup then immediately exit this then boots to Windows
and all works fine until I reboot.

I have tried many bios changes but still the same. the bios version is 1005,
In cant change to 1007 because ALT F2 does not work and nothing happens.
Ive tried reseting mobo by removing battery but no good.

This mobo has always been like it from new Im thikning its a faulty Mobo


my system is
asus A7V8X-X
AMD ATHLON XP2400
Samsung 256 DDR333 PC2700
Geforce 64 MbB MX400
60gb maxtor 7200
windows xp pro


Olrac

 

It is normal for Asus motherboards to display the message you say that you
see. Have you tried simply doing nothing when you see the message to see if
if will boot into Windows? Or is there some other error message displayed
too?

Sick Willie

 

No, It just hangs on that screen and theres no error message.

Olrac

 

If it is hanging on that screen, there is something during the POST that is
making it hange. Do you have it set to auto detect the IDE drives? If so,
has it done so, or is it hanging before this? If not, set it up that way in
the BIOS and see what happens.

Sick Willie

 

I have the same frustration but it is not a permanent problem. After about
three months of almost faultless operation I started to have the start up
problem. It will probably occur one out of every five bootups from cold. A
touch on the front reset button solves the problem and the computer then
goes through the full cycle and boots up.

My set up is a little different but not appreciably so.
A7V8X-X
XP 2600+XP running at 2083mhz
Asus GeForce FX5200 126mb
PC2700 256MB DDR x 2
Units runs stable at 48C/34C with four case fans and one processor fan -
quiet too.

The boot up problem is a pain though. I have gone through all of the
standard clean ups and try to keep my computer as clean of adware as I can.
Because the problem is intermittent and solved by just a touch on the reset
button I'm at a loss myself. I'm beginning to suspect a problem in the PSU
but when it's running all the voltages seem to be correct and stable. I
look forward to hearing how other users have solved the problem.

Michael Bird

 

Does it freeze "Detecting IDE drives" ?
Keyboard looks dead ?

 

Locks on the Asus lighning fork.
After pressing TAB goes to posting page and locks after
"PNP Init Completed"
Then have to go through the Bios Setup routine and computer will boot up.

Only other change that I have noticed is that I am getting a lot more
pop-ups than I did before and 'Gain" is trying to load on a regular basis.

Michael

 

Locks, or stops? By that I mean can you at that point enter setup or do you
have to reset to enter?

Sick Willie

 

After the PNP Init Completed screen have to press DEL and go through setup
steps to complete booting up.
If I press the front reset button it will go through the booting up cycle
without going through setup.

Michael

 

Have you loaded setup defaults?

 

What do you mean by go through setup steps? Do you have to change anything?
Can you just exit setup without making any changes?

Sick Willie

 

No changes are made to the setup, I just enter setup by hitting "del" then
exit .

Olrac

 

Same here exactly.

Michael

 

But, are you hitting f10 (or picking save) or hitting escape and picking
discard? If the former, it should be restarting the POST, the latter is
skipping the POST.

Sick Willie

 

I am scrolling across the top menu items and then to "exit and save"
I have tried resetting to default menues and even removed the battery
backup.

I think now the problem may be due to my KVM Switch http://www.maplin.co.uk/
product code A64AF.
My other PC on this KVM Switch is similar spec to the one that dont workl
but the Mobo is an Asus A7V8X- L but this works fine through the KVM.

Olrac

 

Try setting it to not halt on any error and see what happens. On Asus
boards, this should be on the 1st page along with date/time, etc.

Sick Willie

 

I can now get past this first screen "DEL to enter Setup or ALT F2 to enter
EZ Flash" by disabling the "quick power on self test" but then ist goes into
a long memory test which I can skip by pressing Esc.
Although its better it still aint normal. does this point to a memory
problem?

olrac

 

As a matter of fact, it very well could. Even when you do the quick POST,
the machine does take a look at memory. I have seen machines that had bad
memory hang at this point. However, if you disable the quick POST and test
the memory, you should find that it fails.

Sick Willie

 

No, the memory has tested OK.

olrac

 

I would still try a different stick.

Sick Willie