computer won't turn on, motherboard doesn't respond to 'start' button being pressed

[sbeacher]

I have a Maximus VIII Hero, it is a newer board. Nothing shows up on the QCode LED. The lights that come on are the LEDs on back of the motherboard, the "START" and "RESET" buttons, and that animated LED on the heat sink that gets covered by the GPU (and that light does animate)

[Alaxang]

Your best bet is to wait for the speaker to get the beep codes. Most of the time if you succeed with installing a jumper across the PSU power up pins and get volts out it's NOT the PSU. Nothing gets "Kick Started".*

There are actually a lot of causes that could stop your machine from posting, just have to narrow it down and sounds like you have a good start. *Could be ram, CPU or MOBO at this point. The beep codes are an invaluable tool. The newer boards with Qcodes are even better. You may not have lightning much in SoCal but having worked there in the Critical power industry there are plenty of grid issues! The grid wasn't planned out very well in its infancy and now there are just too many darn people there. I learned my lesson to stay off the freeway after getting stuck on the 405 and 5 more than once for hours on end and this was just congestion, no accidents. Only place I've been pulled over for going 75 in a 55 because I was going too slow and ticketed for "impeding the flow of traffic". Where I come from you go 20 over you are going to jail for wreck less driving. Not there! I was in the far right lane going 75 with cars blowing my doors off! Far left lane was approaching 100 mph. After all that I just stayed on local roads. No trouble and you actually get from A to B faster during peak traffic!

Good luck �� *

Sorry for my poor English, maybe I shouldn't have use the word kick start on the motherboard. What I am sharing was my past experience with Seasonic X series PSU and the symptom TS is having is very similar that is why I am trying to show him the workaround. There is nothing wrong with his motherboard, it has something to do with the PSU capacitors.

The funny thing is when I brought the PSU to the distributor to RMA, they tested the PSU and there was no issue shown with their test kit but the moment I bring back the NEW PSU and plug in my system, I don't have the issue anymore haha. This issue had happened for 2 times (gaps between 6-8mth each) before the 3rd RMA PSU stop giving me this issue and lasted for 1yr and a half.


To TS: one simple test to try out if it is indeed the PSU that is the main culprit. - try to remove the power cord from the PSU and leave it unconnected for say 10-20min (objective is to drain any residue charges from the PSU capacitors). After that connect back the pwr cord and on the psu and try to press start on your casing ON button or start button from the motherboard - your system should be able to run but the same problem will still comes back after you shut down you system.

[sbeacher]

I tested the PSU under load (pluged the x61 directly into the PSU, the fans spun up and then I took readings on the 24 pin with the multimeter) Values are all within range.

Thinking it's the motherboard. If so this will be the 2nd Asus product I've had that's failed if (I had a router die) Now to wait another damn day for this motherboard speaker to show up.

[sbeacher]

Alright I tried a working PSU and still nothing. Took the entire motherboard out of the case in case something was shorting it somehow and put it on the box and same thing. Attached the cpu speaker I got and there are no beeps at all. I wasn't 100% sure which way to attach the speaker if the red wire goes to the thing marked "speaker" or the 5v line or what but I tried it both ways and still nothing.

HOWEVER, after I removed my cooler and my m.2 SSD and my processor I was trying to put the CPU cover back on I could not figure out how to get it to close with that stupid plastic cover that the motherboard came with which says on it "Save this if you need to return the board". I fiddled with it for 5 minutes or so and then gave up and took it off and realized trying to get that thing on that a bunch of the pins are now bent on the damn motherboard! Is ASUS going to deny my RMA because of the bent pins? I'm gonna be so mad if they do. I"ve spent a week without my computer cause of this crap. There is no instructions for how to put it back on and I couldn't figure out if it's supposed to be on top of it or underneath (I kept trying underneath)

I was pretty chill about this until now and if my RMA is denied as a result I am gonna be pissed.

[sbeacher]

Just contacted ASUS and they are telling me they'll repair the board for $153.30. It will cost me over $20 to ship it in. I think I paid $185 for this new. What a joke.

I am so mad, mostly at myself but also that there are no instructions on how to put that stupid socket cover back on. I now see you're supposed to just close the CPU lock and push it ON TOP but the thing is indented in such a way I just assumed you put it in as a placebo for the CPU and locked it into place.

And on top of that I wasted a whole week ordering a multimeter and a dumb motherboard speaker, neither of which helped really other than to confirm it was my motherboard which just died for no reason.

[sbeacher]

An update if anyone cares. I got a brand new motherboard and rebuilt my system and it works fine so it was definitely the motherboard. I didn't even have to reinstall windows (though I probably will at some point just to be safe) as it booted up fine. I was thinking I was going to have to boot into safe mode and try to remove drivers but everything worked. I had to reactivate windows, that was about it.

What do I do with the bad motherboard? Recycle it?

[Nate152]

Hi sbeacher

Sorry to hear you were having trouble but it's good to hear you have a working system. I don't use the new cpu installer tool in fact I didn't even know what it was at first.

There's not much you can do except sell the board cheap for parts or recycle it as you suggest, it's hardly worth having Asus repair it for almost the cost of a new motherboard and to purchase a new one would be likely faster than sending it in for repair.

[sbeacher]

Just to be clear it wasn't the CPU installation tool that messed it up it was the plastic cover (that I guess is similar? I don't know I never even opened the CPU installation tool) that the motherboard comes shipped with.

The only pros of this is I went ahead and upgraded to a z270 board which doesn't have a lot of the bloat that the Maximus VIII had (sata express, ps2 ports) and the new board has dual m.2 slots. But still, if I was going to upgrade anything it would not have been my motherboard and definitely not after only a year.

[XYchromosone]

Your best bet is to wait for the speaker to get the beep codes. Most of the time if you succeed with installing a jumper across the PSU power up pins and get volts out it's NOT the PSU. Nothing gets "Kick Started".

The psu may still be the culprit even if the voltages are correct, it may be not able to put out enough current. And the kick start method mentioned does work under certain situations as explained by Alaxang. I actually have a maximus viii ranger with the same symptoms and the "kick start" method is the only way to start the system.

[MajDroid]

I believed the issue here is with the seasonic X750. ( I used to have this issue with my seasonic X1250 previously and had mine rma 3 x ). Symptom : the motherboard standby lighting remain on but when you press the power button on the casing or the motherboard will not kick start the CPU.
Workaround: (use either methods )
1. U can try pressing the ON button either from the casing or motherboard simultaneously "together" with the PSU ON/OFF button (at the back of the PSU) and somehow it will kick start the motherboard/CPU after a while (like pressing ON/OFF ON/OFF ON/OFF at the PSU together with the on button at the casing)

or

2. You power down the PSU or remove the power cord to your supply and try to plug it after 5min or so for the capacitor to drain off. Usually it will kick start the motherboard but the same problem will comes back the 2nd time you off your CPU and leave it on standby mode.

Let me know if the above works for you. if it does, then time to RMA your PSU. or change to another model or brand altogether.

I know this is an old thread but your post saved me, thank you very much