Area-51 R2, not booting, no screen to see bios

Question

Been having the monitor going into power saver issue very frequently and was able to get it working by cycling power and unplugging monitor well that no longer works and I think the problem is deeper now. I need help please.

problem now: PC will not show screen and keeps going into power saver. Other issues noticed is mouse does not light, NIC card does not have its light on, DVD will not eject dell diagnostics disk I tried to boot from. I found the button Battery at 1.2V.

Things I have tried or done:

1. replaced battery with new
2. swapped video cables
3. swapped monitors
4. swapped GPU (1080TI) to my R5 and problem traveled to new PC, Tried the 2080ti in R2 but did not work
5. cleared CMOS
6. swapped memory
7. swapped PSU
8. swapped SSD to R5 to verify it was still working and was able to access.

Memory, PSU, monitor, monitor cables from R2 all worked in R5 except the STRIX 1080 ti. PSU from R5 worked in R2. both PSU starts computer with lights and fans but will not boot SSD or show anything on monitors.

I'm at a loss as what the issue is. With all the troubleshooting I have done I'm convicted it is not the monitor but maybe the graphics card however that does not explain the other issues so maybe the motherboard. power is getting to the GPU and motherboard though as the fans and lights are on.

Any ideas?

redxps630 · Answer

do you have a very simple low end gpu to test video of R2?  If the entry level card works in another pc but you can not use it to see any video in R2, it seems the motherboard is having issue.

r72019 · Answer

Try F12 on boot, ePSA built in diagnostics.

r72019 · Answer

'do you have a very simple low end gpu to test video of R2?  If the entry level card works in another pc but you can not use it to see any video in R2, it seems the motherboard is having issue.' He already tried the GPU in a new PC.

r72019 · Answer

'swapped GPU (1080TI) to my R5 and problem traveled to new PC' Sounds very much like a failing GPU issue and switching over to Intel onboard, thus, the black screening.

topsock · Answer

I will have to look in my shop but most are for much older and not pci. I will give it a go if I have one.

redxps630 · Answer

it seems A51 R2 OEM X99 board made by MSI for Dell is prone to NO POST issue based on multiple user report in the last 6-12 months.  This is not a very old model, circa 2016-17.  Other Dell models of this era or older do not have so many reported occurrences of No post apparently. And often times reset CMOs jumper or replace CMOs battery or any other attempts are to no avail.  Now it is a great looking board.  Is it because the board is prone to brick when overclocked?  curious whether the most common root issue is the CMOs or something else.

topsock · Answer

I found an old working GPU (Nvidia 9600GT) and it too did not allow the R2 to post. I also swapped the mouse and keyboard to basic no frills and still nothing. The motherboard must be the issue. We did loose power the night before but that PC was not on as I always turn off PCs that are not in use due to having so many laying around. I did not do any updates to bios either.

I do not see this older MB having dual bios. Everything seems to power up just no post so screen goes to power saver automatically.

r72019 · Answer

If you moved the 1080ti from the old PC to the R5 and the problem transferred to the R5, I'm not sure why you're thinking it must be the mobo. Intermittent black screening during use is a different problem from no post black screen so not sure which problem transferred.

markburv · Answer

Difficult to see, I think the tests with the R5/R2 are only since he couldn't boot the R2. Are you trying to convert the R2 to an SSD boot instead of HDD?

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Area-51 R2, not booting, no screen to see bios

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