Hi all, n00b here, wondering if anyone can point me in the right direction please. PC (specs see below) had been working fine for months, stock speeds except for occasional oc. Have been regularly running f@hgpu for several hours at a time, GPU temps staying at a rivatuner-controlled 62 max. CPU temp around 30 - 35 at idle. Yesterday I thought I'd try folding on the CPU as well, using VMWare. It folded for an hour or so, no apparent problem, CPU temps levelled around 50. When I shut PC down, it went to black screen and there was a brief message something like "re-loading BIOS from <can't remember where - flash ??>", it went so quickly I couldn't catch it properly. Now when I turn it on, the CPU fan, GPU fan, case fans and case fan lights all come on. The SSD led lights up briefly, but I don't think it accesses the disk. DVD-Rom spins up, flashes its light and turns off again as it should. All of which makes me think the PSU, CPU cooling and GPU are probably fine. Problem is it doesn't POST, and after 10 seconds it shuts down again. It tries again 5 seconds later, repeat ad infinitum. No output to screen, and no error beeps. I haven't done full diagnostics yet - but this one's floored me as I can't see what should have changed in the hardware. All plugs are sitting nicely in their sockets as they should be ! Symptoms sound like overheating but the temp monitors suggested otherwise. Is there anything here which points to any obvious culprits please ? Worth removing the battery for a bit and trying again perhaps ? Thanks in advance for any help/suggestions. Specs Antec 1200 Gigabyte EX58-UD3R Rev 1.6, Core i7-920 D0 @ stock, Titan Fenrir 3x2 Corsair CMX6GX3M3A1600C9 XMS3 Crucial M225 128GB, Win 7 64 Home Premium, BFG GTX 295 BeQuiet ! Dark Power 650W Mod, SB Audigy 4
Good thinking thanks - I hadn't, but have now, and no joy. Tried both using the CMOS clear jumper, then removing battery for 1 min as per mobo manual. Still same problem :-(
hmm maybe try one stick of ram at a time.. I dunno what that loading bios was all about on restart all can think is maybe a stick went bad and the bios can't post
Another good suggestion, thanks. RAM seems ok, have now tried each one individually and same thing happens. With no RAM in at all, it doesn't boot but it also doesn't turn off after the 10 seconds, which probably rules out overheating. Still nothing on the screen but that might be because I've got it connected to TV by HDMI at the moment, will try it on normal monitor tomorrow.
Update: tried a different GPU, same problem. Using normal monitor now, still no display output. Have now unplugged pretty much everything except CPU/HSf from mobo, same problem. Not an error beep to be heard anywhere. Ever had the feeling your mobo's dead ??
If all that's plugged in is the CPU/HSF and you still don't get any POST beeps, then the problem is likely either with your CPU or the motherboard. I'd make sure the CPU is seated correctly in the socket. Aside from that, unfortunately there's no way to tell which one is bad short of using a replacement.
yeah could be the mb.. you try posting off a table to eliminate grounding issues? maybe worth a shot- something may have came loose during a move
It sounds like your motherboard overheated and shutdown , causing damage to it. But just incase it didn`t try this, is the speaker in the motherboard correctly i assume you have it in as you said you heard no beeps , so i presume before when it was working you heard beeps ? Power down at PSU switch remove everything except CPU and heatsink / fan (check carefully that the fan retaining pins are fully inserted, completely locked, and not cracked) one stick of RAM, in slot closest to CPU video card and monitor connector (if more than one PCIe slot, again, in slot closest to CPU) all power plugs - 20+4 or 24, 2x2 or 2x4 ATX power, graphics card power case speaker and power switch connectors keyboard (don't need a mouse at this point) place jumper on RST_CMOS pins remove jumper from RST_CMOS pins power up at PSU switch power up by depressing case power switch (or shorting the 'power' pins...) If you get video, enter BIOS with the DEL key (may need a <TAB> to get to POST screen, if 'splash' screen is enabled) Select and execute "Load Optimized Defaults" - save and exit, reboot power down reinsert other components, one at a time, testing each time after addition... Try that and come back to us.
Hi, thanks for the detailed suggestion, I'll give that a go tomorrow. Re the speaker, no you're right it wasn't on before either, d'oh ! It's been at the PC shop for the last few days - they also narrowed it down to mobo or RAM, couldn't test between the two as they don't stock DDR3. They ruled out shorting as they managed to get it not to turn off...didn't POST, but didn't turn off either. They tried various PSU's, no change. Will let you know how I get on - I sense a possible mobo RMA in the not too distant future. Thanks again for all the advice and suggestions.
..haven't had time to do all that..Gigabyte tech support replied to my query, a week after I sent it, with a less detailed version of what toxic_lemon has suggested ! I probably saved a fair bit of money by doing a self-build, compared to buying similar spec pre-built..but times like now it would be nice to have a warranty that covered everything ! Will let you know how I get on - thanks again.
Ok I've finally got round to trying it all out. Tocix_lemon I've followed your instructions, except I haven't got a monitor plugged in at the moment (surely not an issue..). So the mobo's outside the case, sitting on a cardboard box, with CPU, HSF, GPU, CPU power connections, NB fan connector, power switch and USB keyboard all plugged in. Turn it on, it all spins up, then turns off again 5 secs later. If I unplug the GPU, same thing happens, except it's all noticeably quieter of course ;-0 Surely even with no monitor plugged in, it should stay on, even it it's not going to do much else ? I've asked Gigabyte what to do next, last time it took them a week to reply so I'm not holding my breath. Worth re-seating CPU and re-applying TIM etc ? The 4 LED's on the mobo, which show CPU activity, stay lit for the full 5 secs, I don't know if that used to happen when it was working. Surprising if it's at/near full CPU load all that time ? As the Antec 1200 hasn't got an internal speaker and the mobo didn't come with a mini one (apparently some do ?), I don't think I can get hold of any useful error beeps either, shame.
Plugged into monitor, didn't prove a lot as it doesn't get as far as outputting any display. So with any combination of my 3 sticks of RAM, in any of the slots, it turns off after 5 secs. With no RAM in, it doesn't turn off, but still doesn't POST and there's no display. Probably either RAM or mobo then, as suspected. I don't know anyone who's got any DDR3 I could try out unfortunately.
Gigabyte tech support say they can't do anything else without physically testing it, so RMA it is. Thanks for all the help and suggestions !
So - mobo RMA rejected because apparently 3 bent pins in CPU socket. Probably me putting the plastic thing in the wrong way round before sending it, d'oh, that might have cost me £120 (facepalm). Thing is though, it doesn't explain the original problem. So they said RMA the ram too, and they're also asking Gigabyte whether the CPU pin thing is fixable. Am awaiting news on both. Scan seemed quite helpful really. The bit that might interest people, is just how long it can take to get these things sorted, especially if you have no foolproof way of finding out which component's gone wrong. Some of the delay's on my part, but not all. And even though I really enjoyed choosing the bits and building the rig, I'm now wishing I'd just bought something pre-built - if you ignore delays at my end, I've been without it for about 4 weeks and counting, plus I can't see it being sorted all that soon, whatever ends up happening. So for anyone out there considering custom build, do bear in mind that this could happen to you ! I'm lucky I haven't "actually needed it" in that time, but if yours is going to be more mission critical, be aware of the risk !
I had a very similar issue on my EP45-UD3R on Monday night. PC stays on almost all the time (24/7/365) but with occasional reboots etc. Been running fine all day Monday, went to use it at approx 9pm and its in a reboot cycle. Powers up, 20-30 secs later reboots, 20-30 secs later reboots etc. Now with my monitor setup, i couldn’t see the post screens (Primary output was to a tv screen which was busy showing something else...) unplugged it and actually saw what the comp was doing. Would post and throw out a Main Bios Checksum Error, then try and recover from the second bios. Half way though it reboots. Managed to download an updated Bios from Gigabyte and flash that on to the system using the onboard update tool. Set bios settings but still no joy. Took the battery off the board, and unplugged the mains, and left it till the following morning (approx 10 hours). Put battery back in, and Graphics card (it sits over the battery) plugged mains back in and hey presto... posted successfully and booted into windows. It did however post with BIOS version F4 (the original release) rather then F12 which is what I flashed it with. Reflashed it with @bios and rebooted first time with no problems... Not sure if your board is in a state to be able to do this but may be worth a go if you get the option to go into the bios to flash it?
Thanks for the suggestion, glad you're up and running again. Unfortunately I can't do a bios flash, as Scan have got my mobo and ram at the moment, plus it didn't stay on long enough (<8 secs) to output to monitor. Wish I'd tried leaving the battery out for longer - manual says 1 minute, I left it 5..but in your case it sounds like overnight made a difference. Scan have tested the ram and it's fine, so original fault was probably with the mobo (in which case I should get a replacement/refund ?), then when I returned it I added a second problem by bending the pins..hands up to that but it wouldn't have happened if the thing hadn't stopped working in the first place, I was returning an already faulty item. They were going to talk to Gigabyte about fixing the pins, I wonder what they'll say about whether I get anything back.
