P35 motherboard on the fritz, upgrade mobo or full upgrade?

[rhaezor]

Dilemma: Replace my mobo only or replace mobo, cpu and RAM?

My Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L rev2.0 board has gotten a bad case of the cold boot-itus. It's to the point of rediculous now. Whenever I turn my computer on in the morning it refuses to even post, just the fans go full speed and it sits there. I have to cycle the power with the PSU switch on the back multiple times for it to even come on, and then the BIOS settings are reset.

I ran memtest over night and 0 errors.

Based on the system below, do you think its wise to just replace my motherboard, or are PC games currently already maxing out my specs?
I've been out of the loop of gaming for a while but looking to make a return.

My current system:

GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX All Solid Capacitor Intel Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128059

Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Conroe 2.66GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80557E6750 - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115029

XFX PVT80GGHD4 GeForce 8800GTS 320MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150173

Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model BL2KIT12864AA1065 - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148069

OCZ StealthXStream OCZ600SXS 600W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready Active PFC Power Supply - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341010

 

[AMDThunder]

Could be your PSU. If it is, be careful you don't fry anything else by continuing to use it.

What's your budget?

 

[rhaezor]

The PSU is less than 2 years old, along with everything else. I've been searching for resolutions to this problem for over a week and the p35 chipset has a well complained about cold boot issue that effects different brands of mobos.

I don't really have a hard number for my budget, I go for the best price to performance ratio hardware. My two biggest factors in what I choose is stability and price. 2 fps difference is less important to me than a rock solid system.

 

[swifty_morgan]

I have the same board. I also had problems off and on with it. One day I decided the north branch was getting too hot. I pulled the board and put an after market cooler on it, re-installed, and haven't had any problems with it. One of two things come to mind. A short or the NB was indeed getting too hot. Problem solved for me.

 

[rhaezor]

but if the problem only happens during a cold boot, how would that be effected by the NB being too hot?

 

[swifty_morgan]

"2 things come to mind"............... a short ? How hard is it to pull the board and put it back in ? A high solder joint could be coming in contact with the mother board tray or something could be loose.... or because I replaced the NB cooler, that could have been causing problems. ( heat or short ?? ) I only posted to give you an idea. It's hard to fix a box over the net. Could be anything.

 

[jaguarskx]

Is there an updated BIOS that corrects the issue?

 

[Onus]

Check / replace your CMOS battery.

 

[rhaezor]

I will give my cmos battery a look. My date and time have never been reset so far, which is good I suppose.

Without fail every morning I would have this problem, but last night I tried raising the voltage of the northbridge chipset by +.1 and this morning my PC booted up with no issue. Not sure if this was just a fluke or if tonight when I get home from work if it will boot right up again without issue. I will report what happens.

Thanks

 

[rhaezor]

rats, the issue occurred again tonight. not sure why it booted ok this morning after i raised the nb voltage +.1...perhaps just a fluke.

 

[swifty_morgan]

Did the voltage increase stay ?

 

[smithereen]

Good point! Check that.

 

[rhaezor]

the voltages stayed even after the several power cycles. i have never overclocked my cpu but yesterday i tried that (just a small oc 2.66 o 2.75ghz) and this also stayed.. i'm thinking it's not a cmos battery issue if my settings stick and i've never had date or time get screwed up. i'm going to see if my ram settings revert back to auto, although i'm not sure what good that will do since i've ran a memtest overnight with no errors. i'm starting to think something on the motherboard is going bad that only effects cold boots. not sure if my power supply could effect this, it's a pretty good one.

 

[rhaezor]

ok this morning my voltages stayed the same but my small cpu overclock settings and my ram settings were reverted back...doesn't make any sense.