Recovering Gigabyte 7NF RZ after BIOS change! I wonder if someone can give me any advice. My friend has a Gigabyte 7NF RZ with a Sempron 2200 (I think it is that) CPU and because his readings showed it only had a 994 mhz speed he tried to alter the settings (not flash it) in the BIOS. He said he changed some settings but he can't remember which ones,now on boot up NOTHING happens; and obviously he cannot get into the BIOS. He has now brought the PC to me. I have reset by shorting the CMOS pins and removed the battery. But alas this never sorted it! ................he claims ONCE he got a quick display (2 seconds) on the monitor of the BIOS but then nothing. Now he gets absolutely nothing at all. I have also changed the power supply, graphics card and monitor. I have now totally rebuilt it up again all to no avail. On start up I get NO Bleeps and just the CPU fan spinning. I have also removed the RAM/CPU/Graphics card but still no bleeps Is it possible to cock up the motherboard without flashing the BIOS but just by changing settings? Any tips/advice would be welcome Many thanks in advance

He may have cooked the CPU with the settings changes. If so, the computer might behave that way.

I kinda doubt the CPU fried. If all he did was change a few BIOS settings, I don't see why you'd go thru the hassle of changing the PSU, video card, RAM, etc. It would help if you knew which Sempron he has. I'm guessing that the FSB is/was set to 100MHz instead of 166MHz. The Sempron 2200+ has a multi of 9x, so that would have put the speed at 900MHz, or thereabouts. He probably has a Sempron 2400+ which has a multi of 10x & his board probably underclocks the FSB slightly, so instead of 100MHz, it runs at 99.4MHz. There's a switch (CLK_SW) on the board that has to be set for the FSB...it's to the left of the NB chip, just above the AGP slot. It's probably set to OFF when it should be set to ON. That will allow FSB settings above 100MHz. He should also have the latest BIOS (version F4), but you won't be able to address that until you get it to boot again. To clear CMOS, you don't have to remove the battery, but you do have to unplug the power cord. Just move the jumper to the clear position, wait a few seconds, then move it back to the normal position again. Plug in the power cord & try to boot up...if you're successful, run thru ALL the BIOS settings & correct them as necessary. Do NOT use default settings because they are NOT good performance settings.

Thanks for your reply. From what I can see it appears that the Motherboard is faulty now. I tried all the different options and I still get absolutely nothing. No Bleep(s) and nothing on the monitor. Thanks for your time and comments

If all he did was change some BIOS settings, it's very possible that the board is good. Try the minimal hardware approach. Remove all cards but video, use just one stick of RAM, disconnect all the drives (floppy, optical, HDD), unplug all external devices except the keyboard & monitor. Double check all other connections, then try clearing CMOS again & see if it'll boot. If not, you still have to rule out the parts that are left...it *might* be the board, but it could also be the CPU, RAM or PSU. If you have an old PCI video card laying around, give it a try.

Have changed the AGP to PCI graphics, changed power supply, and used different RAM. Surely if the CPU or anything else was faulty I would still get at least one bleep.

You will not get any beep(s) with a defective CPU. The CPU needs to be running to put out the beep(s).