Member Avatar for Tuckerboy

Hi,
I have a 2 year old ASUS P4P800 motherboard machine. that just started to have a problem. It stalls in the very beginning of the POST(no beeps). the screen says 'American Megatrends'
'Testing NVram.....' that's it.
Does anyone know if this failure is a motherboard problem or can the CPU be involved.
Cheers
Tuckerboy

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Short summary: the AMI message "Testing NVRAM" means the BIOS has started but is stalling while it reads/writes its nonvolatile configuration. That can be caused by corrupted CMOS/BIOS data, a weak CMOS battery, DIMM/slot problems, failing chipset components (or PSU rails that drop under load). The CPU can be involved but is less commonly the single root cause at this exact point.

Building on suggestions from , and , try this focused, safe workflow (do one step at a time and use basic ESD precautions):

  1. Prepare: power off, unplug mains, press and hold the case power button for 5–10s to bleed caps.
  2. Minimal-post test: leave CPU, CPU cooler, PSU, one known-good DIMM in the board's primary slot and video (or onboard video). Remove all nonessential devices and add-in cards. Power up and watch results.
  3. Clear CMOS properly: with power removed either use the board's clear jumper per manual or remove the coin cell for 10–15 minutes (press power button once while battery out). Then reinstall and retry.
  4. Memory/slots: test each DIMM alone in every slot (modules and slots can fail independently); note any change in how far POST progresses.
  5. Visual/PSU check: inspect for bulging or leaking electrolytic capacitors, burnt traces, or swollen VRM caps—these are common failure points on older boards. If you have a multimeter, verify the main rails (3.3V/5V/12V) under light load or swap to a known-good PSU.
  6. Reseat CPU and check contacts: if comfortable, reseat the CPU, check for bent pins or damaged contacts and reapply thermal paste.
  7. BIOS/firmware: if clearing CMOS helps, re-enter settings. If BIOS appears corrupt and the board supports an official recovery method use that exact procedure and file; avoid blind BIOS flashing—it can brick the board.

If none of the above moves past the NVRAM message, the fault is most likely the motherboard (BIOS chip or board-level failure) and professional repair or board replacement becomes reasonable.

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Member Avatar for belikemike

Unplug all your disc drives. If you know someone who has a compatable stick of ram and will let you use it for a half hour or so, replace yours and see if you can get past that point. If you can't at least you have narrowed it down to the board or processor. You can take out your processor and have it tested.

Member Avatar for BeastOverlordH6

Seeing as I got a P5P800 SE ASUS board, I also have the same "AMIBIOS." I'm guessing the board is having a lot of difficulty reading your ram (as the process should be fairly quick, resulting in "[RAM size] OK." One problem may involve corrupt memory.

This isn't a power issue, as power wouldn't affect one specific point of bootup as specified.

I'm questioning processor issue additionally, as a processor failure doesn't even boot the system most of the time.

Motherboard/RAM/Processor are possible culprits.

Member Avatar for JemB

if it wont even post it would point a corrupted bios. this may be fixable by the dreaded flashing of the bios or if you can find an identical bios chip (this should only be done by an experienced user). less likely is a damaged boot sector first see if you can get it to start up using an xp boot diskette. to make one find a pc with xp, set it to show all hidden/system files then go to root of c and copy NTLDR + NTDETECT.COM + BOOT.INI (also NTBOOTDD.SYS if you have a SCSI drive) put it in the floppy drive and fire it up. if this works boot from your install disk and overwrite to restore your system. sounds more like the first one tho

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