Blinking white prompt on boot. Derp. Repair/Replace?

[at0m]

I think my HTPC is toast. When I start it up, instead of seeing the BIOS status, I get a blinking white prompt (just a blinking white underscore, or whatever). Mobo is toast, you think?

If so, I'm looking to replace it, debating getting an Atom/ION setup. Anyone have any experience? For about $200 I can get a decent new processor, graphics, and RAM, but I'd like the thing to be able to do Bluray playback & full 1080p playback of stuff off the HDD.

[CaffeinePowered]

Isnt there a jumper you can set on the board to flash the BIOS/CMOS with a backup? I know some Asus boards that I've owned had that feature.

[at0m]

Its a Foxconn. I tried resetting BIOS to defaults with the jumper, and I've still got nothing. And the BIOS flashing utilities I have all boot off of a CD/USB, but you have to get the BIOS up in order to do even that. So I've got a pretty expensive paperweight sitting under my TV atm.

I think I'll pull the large-capacity HDD tonight and back it up to get my ex to STFU, but I'm still stuck with a nonfunctional box until I either figure out how to recover the mobo, or replace it with something else.

[at0m]

No ideas? Guess that means I'll be replacing it after all :/

[at0m]

Bought a new mobo/proc/vid (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6813131653) and some matching RAM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6820227582), hopefully it'll do the trick. If I manage to resurrect the old rig, I'll probably turn it into a router. We'll see.

[Kirby]

If I manage to resurrect the old rig, I'll probably turn it into a router. We'll see.

This is where my pfsense box came from, all I got for it was additional PCI NIC's

[at0m]

New rig works like a charm, although most of my old case is now cavernous empty space. MiniITX is a _shitton_ smaller than MicroATX.

Didn't even bother reinstalling Windows 7, just loaded the drivers for the Atom board and was back up and running. Good times. I haven't played a Bluray on it yet but it played back some H264 1080p stuff with no problems. Normal windows browsing is _slightly_ slower, though.

Now I just have to figure out wtf happened to the other motherboard.

[Kirby]

New rig works like a charm, although most of my old case is now cavernous empty space. MiniITX is a _shitton_ smaller than MicroATX.

Didn't even bother reinstalling Windows 7, just loaded the drivers for the Atom board and was back up and running. Good times. I haven't played a Bluray on it yet but it played back some H264 1080p stuff with no problems. Normal windows browsing is _slightly_ slower, though.

Now I just have to figure out wtf happened to the other motherboard.

I was about to post about asking why browsing windows is slower and stuff and where's the video card and blah blah blah. Then I remembered this is a HTPC, so I'll just post a random picture instead.

[at0m]

Yeah I need to put XBMC or something on there and reorganize my media, but for now I just use a bluetooth mouse & keyboard and the windows desktop in 120DPI :x

[at0m]

Uninstalled Norton and tried to get Kaspersky running, and now I'm getting BSOD's and my wireless ethernet adapter isn't working properly. Damnit, I'll have to pull all the media off, reformat & reinstall anyways.

Although half of the error codes relate to problems with a HDD. I'm going to be pissed if one of my 2TB drives is starting to flake out on me.

[Kirby]

Uninstalled Norton and tried to get Kaspersky running, and now I'm getting BSOD's and my wireless ethernet adapter isn't working properly. Damnit, I'll have to pull all the media off, reformat & reinstall anyways.

Although half of the error codes relate to problems with a HDD. I'm going to be pissed if one of my 2TB drives is starting to flake out on me.

Plug 2TB drives into good PC, check them. >_>