Z87 Motherboard Won't Enter Bios

[CristyCE]

Hello! My motherboard has been acting weird every since I bought in in May, but it has finally gotten to the point where it looks like it may be completely useless. I want to try as much as possible to figure out the problem, or I will be forced to send it in for a replacement with the lifetime warranty.

I have a Z87 Mpower motherboard. When I turn on my computer, it will be display the A2 error in the bottom right hand corner of my monitor. I turn off my computer and reset CMOS, then turn my computer back on. I will still see the A2 error, but then it will go to a screen that shows all my ports and devices plugged in with the options, "Press F1 to Run SETUP" and "Press F2 to Continue." Pressing F2 does nothing. If I hit F1, on the bottom left of the screen "Entering Setup" will pop up, but it never does go to the setup.

I've tried removing the battery for more than 15 minutes, making sure cords were plugged in properly, powering off everything, switching the bios (I have a backup bios)... Nothing seems to do anything. I can't access the bios, nor enter Windows 8. Any advice on what to do, or is my motherboard just defective?

Thanks for any help! This is really frustrating. Also, not sure if this is relevant, but it started acting like this when I did an update (for just Windows, I'm assuming since I was prompted when shutting down my computer) then shut down after the update was complete.

[patio]

Did you flash this BIOS ? ?
Did you try another CMOS battery ? ?
How was the BIOS backed up ? ?

[CristyCE]

Sorry, not sure what you mean by flashing the BIOS. I'm not too experienced with computers.

I haven't tried another battery (that is the CMOS battery, right??), but from day one my motherboard has been weird. Wouldn't the battery be an unlikely culprit? I bought the case, motherboard, RAM, and power supply (EVGA 500B) all at same time at a Microcenter.

There is a built-in back up BIOS in my motherboard. I activate it by flipping a switch, so I can easily switch between them.

When the A2 error first started appearing, BIOS was still accessible after clearing CMOS, and F2 would run Windows 8. However, when accessing the BIOS setup it often froze (the temperatures and time weren't updating in real time; it would instead refresh every X amount of seconds). Also, not all information would be displayed in the setup like it should, and keyboard commands weren't all being responded to by the system.

Admist trying to solve this, less than two weeks ago I was removing and then putting everything back in when I broke the original CPU cooler. I replaced it with a Cooler Master Hyper T4 cooler. After installing it to the motherboard and plugging everything back in, my motherboard accessed the BIOS and loaded Windows 8. I shut down my computer and reboot it three times to make sure it wasn't a fluke. A few days later (two Fridays ago), I shut my computer down like normal. The next day, the problem resurfaced. This is where I currently stand.

I also apologize for the slow response; I had to resort to using my iPad to type this up.

[DaveLembke]

Admist trying to solve this, less than two weeks ago I was removing and then putting everything back in when I broke the original CPU cooler.

Curious as to how this got broken? Was the board dropped, crushed, or something pried against the cooler that broke it?

[CristyCE]

The original CPU cooler had these plastic screws in each corner, and I just twisted them with enough force to break it. Because of that, the cooler couldn't make full contact and thus started overheating. I was eventually going to upgrade it anyway, so it's not so bad. My current cooler doesn't use those plastic screw things, thank gosh.

[DaveLembke]

Ok... I would actually take advantage of the 2 year warranty that this motherboard has then. MSI boards are known to be hit and miss as far as good and bad boards.

http://us.msi.com/page/warranty/

For RMA replacement I would state to them that it has the A2 error and its non functional, and resetting CMOS doesnt help.

You will need to carefully remove your CPU, RAM, CPU cooler setup, and other addon cards and send them the bare board back. Its usually a 1 for 1 where they will send you a replacement board as soon as they receive yours. In some situations they may be able to send you the replacement board before you send yours back although through this process they would probably secure the replacement board via credit card or payment and then give you a refund when the dead board is received. The last motherboard I had to send back to manufacturer was not a MSI, but was a Foxconn and it took 2.5 weeks to get a replacement board. They offered an ability to get a replacement over night but I would have to pay for overnight shipping as well as I could secure the replacement board with credit card until they receive the DOA board. Overnight shipping was going to be $119 for a $55 motherboard and so I declined this offer for sooner.