Lockup at startup - possibly motherboard/gfx?

[iainmacleanny]

Hi,
Wanted to get some advice on troubleshooting a problem Im having.
Basically I have a pretty old system (specs below), its been pretty stable however as of yesterday I can no longer get it to boot. Basically:
* Booting to Win7 - it bluescreens & resets.
* Restore mode (off harddisk) freezes
* Safemode freezes (just afterloading AVG drivers)
* Restore/setup on the Win 7 disk freezes.

I've tried disabling the hard disks (1 is RAID 0, second regular SATA) and removing the memory. I've reseated everything. No luck still seeing the same problem, I suspect its either the motherboard or the gfx card as I can remove/replace the other component parts (Hard disks, I just disabled the disk from the BIOS but could unplug to be sure).

So questions:
* Has anyone seen anything like this or have advice on troubleshooting?
* If it is my mobo, I presume I should try to stick to the same brand/chipset in the hope I can recover the raid 0 harddrives? Anyone got experiance moving raid 0 from Asus?
* If it is my mobo, any recommendation on upgrades that would be compatible with my memory, disks & gfx?
* If it is the gfx cards, any advice on upgrades? Would like to spend <$200 & be backwardly compatible to my existing mobo...

Thanks in advance and sorry if some of these questions have been answered elsewhere...
Iain



CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad QX6700 Extreme Retail (4x2.66GHz 1066FSB 8Mb)
Memory: Corsair Twin2X CM2X1024-6400C4PRO
Graphics: XFX Nvidia 8800GTX 768MB PCIe HDCP
Case: SILVERSTONE TJ07 Black CASE (NO PSU)
Motherboard: Asus Striker Extreme 680i SLI (1333 FSB Conroe)
CPU Cooling: Zalman CNPS9700 LED Aero Flower Cooler (All CPU)
Hard Drive: 150Gb Raptor X 10000 16mb E-SATA(2x)
Storage HD: 250Gb Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 7200 8mb SATA II
Sound Card: Creative 7.1 X-FI ExtremeGamer Fatal1ty
OS: Windows 7
Cooling: Antarctic Cooling (3-5 Fans digital controlled+VGA|HD Cooling)
PSU: Enermax Galaxy Modular 1000W PSU

The cpu fan + PSU are relatively new.

 

[Guest]

excuse me but i do not understand:
1 is RAID 0, second regular SATA
or
I just disabled the disk from the BIOS

???? a RAID is for more than 1 disk and really unplugging the HD is the only way to be sure it not flonking up the system.

it really seems a HD problem and not a grfx or mobo issue.

 

[iainmacleanny]

Yes sorry not very clear, it is a set of drives in raid 0 AND a standalone drive.

So I removed the hard disks and 1 memory stick (which I also alternated to be sure). I reset the BIOS to factory defaults and exactly the same behaviour (booting from win7 disk, stops on the splash screen right at the start - no windows logo yet).

I've swapped out the gfx card with a faulty card - no actual output, & based on how it boots & how long im pretty sure its getting stuck in the same place.
So I think I have ruled out:
* Memory
* Hard disks
* DVD drive
* Keyboard/mouse

And *probably* the gfx cards. So its either the motherboard or perhaps the cpu?

Any ideas at all would be greatfully received...
Also if I have to does anyone have advice on replacing my motherboard whilst being able to keep my raid drives that and what is the minimum i can upgrade (i.e. mobo, cpu but retain my memory (DDR2) gfx card, drives - unless it doesnt make sense).

Many thanks in advance...
Iain