Is it my Motherboard??

[gonesy]

I purchased a Motherboard from Ebay…bad move I can hear you cry! I have had nothing but trouble and am wondering if it could be just coincidence or if it is in fact the Mobo.

The trouble…I keep getting the dreaded blue screen for memory dump even though the comp has been running for a while with no probs. It will then not boot at all, the power comes on and the hard drive light stays permanently on. I can switch the blessed thing on and off till the cows come home but nothing. The only way to get it to work is to leave it for a while and then try again and then, if I am lucky, it will start but for how long is anyone’s guess. Sometimes the thing just freezes and again will not restart. This is an ongoing problem. I have tried changing my graphics card as it also started to go wrong when I installed my new 8800GTS but to no avail. Is there any way I can test the Motherboard to see if its that or something else. I installed the board myself and am wondering if I have done it right and its not my building skills that have effected a tits up scenario.

Motherboard is an ASUS P5N32-SLI SE DELUXE

Any advice is gratefully received, thanks

 

[WazzaUK]

You didnt give us much to work with... ie. Motherboard model, CPU, memory, video card, PSU, HDDs, Case

yeh ebay not first choice for hardware shopping.... You didnt say whether it was "used" or not.... Try running it with some memory that you know is "good". Id never even consider buying a "used" component unless from someone i know etc.

 

[roadrunner197069]

Sounds like bad memory and possibly a bad cmos battery.

 

[cfvh600]

What power supply do you have in your machine? Make/model? Power ratings?

 

[gonesy]

sorry for the lack of info, here's a bit more:

CPU Intel Core 2 Duo E6700
Ram 2gb Economy
500 Watt XPower True
2 X Diamond Maxtor 250 GB with 8MB Cache
BFG 8800GTS 640MB Graphics (Have replaced with 7300SE to see if it was card trouble)
Motherboard was used although it looked as new when opened with all the packages intact.

Hope this helps.

I am on the computer now and it seems to be fine, but who knows how long it will last??

 

[o1die]

For a sporadic problem like yours, I would start over. Take out the board, and reconnect all power supply leads and remount the board and cards. It could be a short somewhere or maybe a leftover standoff in the wrong place.

 

[roadrunner197069]

Run metest86 on the ram please.

 

[gonesy]

Ok so here's where I am now.

I was on the comp for about an hour with no probs at all then I ran Memtest as requested and, yep, you guessed it, the blue screen of death came calling. So, I thought, aha! its got to be the ram! I then removed the ram and replaced it with a single stick of Samsung 512mb ram and.....nothing, nada, ah heck all, wouldnt even boot to splash screen. All seems a little familiar. I changed the graphics card from the top PCI slot to the bottom one and still nothing. Waited about 10 mins and tried again and this time it came back to life. Beacause I had moved the graphics card it then said I had to restart the computer, guess what?? yep you gussed it, didnt even get to the restart stage before Mr Blue Screen reared its ugly head AGAIN!! thats where it is now, sleeping in a quiet corner waiting for me to dare go wake it up again. Lucky I have 2 comps and this is a bit old and not of high spec so really need the other one. Is it time to give up and change the motherboard???

HELP!!!!!

 

[roadrunner197069]

Sometimes after you change ram you have to reset the cmos or you get weird behavoir. Try one gig of your other ram at a time. Check the Bios and make sure your ram is set at the right volts and speed the manufacturer specified. You are definately having ram issues. Im pretty sure the 1g and the 512 run at different speeds and without a cmos reset it will have problems.

 

[gonesy]

Ok will clear the CMOS. Silly question though…..if I am having a ram problem would it not be the case that the comp would not boot at all? Why does it run perfect for a period of time and then just stop? As you can see I am a little new to this so a bit of advice would be gratefully appreciated. Thanks

 

[gonesy]

Ok have cleared the CMOS and attempted to reboot the comp and.........nothing! doesnt even boot to splash screen. Power on, hardrive light on, screen blank, nothing at all???

 

[sunny27]

with the kind of config u've got dont u think 500watts is a bit too less for ur needs??
get a better psu rated over 600watts from some good brand like antec,corsair,coolermaster.
as for ur bsods change ur mobo battery and even better flash ur bios

 

[Zorg]

with the kind of config u've got dont u think 500watts is a bit too less for ur needs??
get a better psu rated over 600watts from some good brand like antec,corsair,coolermaster.
as for ur bsods change ur mobo battery and even better flash ur bios

Coolermaster is junk.

 

[truehighroller]

Here is my setup and my power supply spec.
GA-P35-DQ6
E4400 @ 3.2~Ghz 9x 355
2 Sticks of 1Gb Ballistix Tracer DDR2 1066 @ 1180~Mhz = 3.33
2 Western Digital 160Gb 16Mb Cache drives in RAID0
ASUS EAX1900XTX @ 702/837 Flashed
Philips SATA Burner
Antec 900 case big heatsinks and fans
My power supply is a ZUMAX 550w with 38A combined rails and has no problems powering all that.
Check online for a good wattage calculator. If you are going SLI or Crossfire then yes get a 700W but, if not 500W will work. I got my 550W because it was a good spec Power supply with the rail ratings and all.

 

[roadrunner197069]

Your gonna have to try one stick of ram at a time resetting cmos every time and unplug the power from the psu each time as well, until you find a Ram that will boot up. Could be your Ram isnt compatible.

 

[truehighroller]

You can trouble shoot it by taking everything out of it and starting with the basics, only the stuff you need like, Motherboard/Processor/Power Supply/Screw Driver. You are going to have to know the beeps and what they mean and have a beeper hooked up to it if one isn't built into it already. Then you flick it on see what it bitches about and go from there. The screwdriver is to ground out the power on button. Don't use a monitor at first just, what you need to start it up. If you can turn it on and off just fine without the memory in it even though it will beep at you for the memory and the video card and the mouse because you won't have it installed/plugged in whatever if, you can do that turn it on and off without any issues with out the memory then you have found your issue probably""". I would start plugging stuff back in and see how far you can get with out it repeating the whole I'm now gonna work crap again. One piece of hardware at a time. You need to know what beeps it is giving you as you go though so, you can plug in what it is asking for as you go. I hope you get my drift here. You might have a bad power button. I have seen it plenty of times. You might just not be using the right memory. If you do these steps carefully and pay attention to how I said to do it you should be able to figure out what the issue is. If it is a bad motherboard then ship it back DOA to the manif. if you can I would think you would be able to though.

 

[99vw]

After looking around I see that ur power supply only has 17amps on the 12v rail which isn't enought to push your 8800gts and as you stated it didn't start happening untill you got the 8800.
I would look into the PS first, maybe you could barrow a friends PS to test it?

 

[gonesy]

I have substituted the 8800 for a 7300 with the same result! The confusing thing is why does the comp run, sometimes for about an hour with no problems at all, then bang, off it goes, dont even boot at all. Then leave it for about 20mins and it all works again for another short period of time. I have swapped memory and everything else I have been advised to do but my sneaky suspision is that its the Ebay motherboard that is breaking down. The ram I am using is compatible with the Motherboard and I had it in another comp with no hassle at all. If it was the ram would the comp run perfect for an hour then just die??

 

[gonesy]

After looking around I see that ur power supply only has 17amps on the 12v rail which isn't enought to push your 8800gts and as you stated it didn't start happening untill you got the 8800.
I would look into the PS first, maybe you could barrow a friends PS to test it?

This is my power supply:

Output Characteristic

Model/Output +3.3V +5V +12V -5V -12V +5VSB Combined Power

ATX-500TD 36A 36A 20A 1A 1A 2A 500W

Regulation ±5% ±5% ±5% ±5% ±10% ±5%

Connectors

Universal 20 + 4 Pin Main ATX Power Connector X 1
4 Pin + 12V Power Connector X 1
6 Pin Power Connector for PCI Express Graphic Card X 1
Peripheral Connector (4 Pin for HDD, DVD … etc) x 6
Floppy Connector (4 Pin) X 2
Serial ATA Power Connector X 1
AC Power Cord X 1
Screws X 4
24 Pin + 8 Pin adapter for AMD ATXGES X 1

 

[99vw]

OK well I guess my source was wrong and your psu has 20amps on the 12v rail. However, I still dont belive that is enough to run your system. Also for your question about why it will work for 20min and then shut off. It could be that the psu is able to run your system fine untill you do something cpu or gpu intensive which puts more load on the psu causing it to crash.

Although as you said you also tried the 7300 so it could just be the board. But regardless if it is the board, you will still most likely need a new psu for the 8800.

 

[gonesy]

Ok here's where I am now.......Have put the 8800GTS in a lesser computer.....AMD Sempron 3.4 with 1GB of 400mhz ram and a 400W PSU on a K8 motherboard and guess what?? Have had the system running all day, played high spec games, Prey, Call of Duty, Oblivion with absolutely no trouble at all. With all due respect I dont want to go out and spend £60 to £70 on a new PSU only to find it makes no difference. I think I will plump for the Motherboard and change that. Thanks for the advice everyone, gratefully appreciated. I will let you know what happens!

 

[Oslove]

Something that has not been mentioned yet is the cpu temperature, did you use a quality thermal grease, was the hsk & cpu throughly clean iysophol alcohol, did you put sufficient on though not to much & evenly spread with a plastic card not fingers.
Try & find out cpu temp I use PC Wizard 2008 a freebie do a Google search for it.

Ensure all plugin connections are clean.

Keep Smiling & trying

 

[Oslove]

The harder the cpu works the quicker it will heat up, high end games against emails.
Nearly all boards have a built safety system of shutting down when the cpu is to hot.

I even had a 240 household fan blowing into the case to cool things down when I had similar problems, after reseating the cpu & using good thermal grease temp dropped by 15C.

 

[truehighroller]

I told him what to do earlier post. Do a diagnosis test on it and see where it starts screwing up. I am in college for this stuff and already had a decent amount of knowledge before college and have a custom built pimped out machine. I do know what I am talking about you know. My guess is that it is the mother board but, be safe and test everything from the ground up. It can only take maybe an hour to do.