Will not boot, will not allow access to BIOS

This is not a BSOD, but I could not find another forum that fits my situation. If I need to take this question elsewhere please let me know.

I am trying to resurrect an old PC of my Dad's. It is an old i3-530 CPU on a ASRock H55M Pro motherboard. I believe I updated it from Windows 7 to 10. Not for sure though.

This morning I tried booting it for the first time in 8 (?) years. At first I got the mobo splash screen, but would not load windows. That time I was able to enter the BIOS. I was looking for the boot drive. Anyway I made no changes, canceled and rebooted. This time I did not get the splash screen. More like POST information. A couple of options which I could not get to do anything. No option to access the BIOS. See pic.

I have built a few computers. I have never not been able to access the BIOS. I would consider myself a novice at troubleshooting things like this. Can someone offer a starting point.

Attachment 265766

Unplug all hard disks, etc and see if you get into bios. Could be a faulty peripheral causing the issue
ASRock > H55M Pro

SIW2 said:

Unplug all hard disks, etc and see if you get into bios. Could be a faulty peripheral causing the issue
ASRock > H55M Pro

Disconnected the sata cables to both the primary and secondary drives. I get that same screen. There are no cards in expansion slots. Other than the cpu there are only the two sticks of ram on the mobo.

Try pressing F2 or Del. If that gets you into BIOS setup, press F9 to restore defaults, then F10 to save and exit. Also, the CMOS battery may need to be replaced.

Ben

Does the POST go past the DRAM info??? If not, that could be your culprit...

Well, I pulled both DIMMs out so absolutely nothing was plugged in to the mother board other than the 2 power lines from the power supply. I tried booting up and now I don't even get a picture on the screen. This is an HDMI connection. Video is via onboard the i3-530. Something really funky going on.

Maybe it's telling me to put it back in the closet and forget it.

You need at least 1 module or it won't boot! Try one and then the other one to find out if which one is failing.

xaccell said:

You need at least 1 module or it won't boot!

Will try. Did not know that.

- - - Updated - - -

xaccell said:

You need at least 1 module or it won't boot! Try one and then the other one to find out if which one is failing.

That did it! I did as you said and installed and tested one DIMM at a time. Each time it booted up and I could access the BIOS. I then connected up the boot drive and it booted to Win7.

I am in the process of updating to Win10 now. Thanks for all the help.