Dead mobo or psu on its way out?

Chronictank

Chronictank

Chronictank

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Joined
12 Jan 2006
Posts
2,547
In a bit of a conundrum;
Spec:
Intel C2D [email protected] (reset to stock)
DFI Ininity 975x Bios 12/01/06
GEIL 4GB PC6400 800MHz DDR2 Dual
Ati 3870 X2 @ Stock
Intel 80GB ssd
WD Velociraptor
Seagate 1TB
DVD DL R/W drive
DVD drive
OCZ GameXStream 700w Silent
Windows 7 64 Ultimate

The symptoms:
Everything has been fine up until yesterday (6 months or so trouble free).
Machine does not post but all the internal lights are on, the fans spin up (sort of will come back to this) and you can hear the hdd's trying to spin up too.

Now the fan on my gfx card (3870x2) spins up then slows down as if there isn't enough power and just keeps doing this.
The hard drive spin up then slow down as well and the lights on the DVD drives blink on and off

The HDD activity LED also remains solid orange.

Things i have tried:
To rule out settings on the motherboard;
reset cmos
re-sit cables

To rule out power problems;
Skeleton system - unplugged everything except CPU, GFX and 1 stick of ram
Swapped gfx card - Replaced the 3870x2 with a 8800GTS
Unplug for 30 seconds

This lead me to have a guess at the PSU wasn't the issue (at least as far as i can test) and the only other thing i can think of which would cause this is the motherboard

Thanks in advance for advice
 
I feel your motherboard has bit the bullet.

Is it possible to test any components on another machine.
 
I had a bad PSU one time, I would press the power button, fans would start, then stop after half a second, just so they move..

I've had a bad MB, all fans started but nothing on screen.

I wouldn't rule out the PSU, by lowering the amount of power needed was a good idea, but maybe it's just not really working at all..

But may need more information on the fans.. if they are spinning constantly, at any speed.. are they connected to PSU or MB?
 
If you want to check the PSU... navigate to the Corsair homepage > Techinical Resources > Techinical Support > select Power Supply > any uk PSU and you will see half way down the page a paperclip test!

It's simple and straightforward and you don't have to strip everything out :)
 
Essexraptor said:
Or your welcome to "borrow" it just for elimination purposes
Click to expand...

Thanks for the offer mate it's really appreciated

I do have an AM2 rig i can grab the PSU from i will give that a go first (been avoiding this as i thought it was a good idea to cable tie everything to the case for airflow >< so is a lot of effort to take it all out again)
Doing a bit more digging i found on the DFI forums that taking the CMOS battery out might resolve the issue.

I have tested all the other components and they are fine (thankfully), jsut finished a 4 hr memtest on the memory

I don't think the paperclip test will show me anything really, good spot though :)
The internal fans spin up, LED's in the PSU are all on (bright and consistent)

AaronS said:
But may need more information on the fans.. if they are spinning constantly, at any speed.. are they connected to PSU or MB?
Click to expand...
Half and half, All the fans except the Graphics one spin constantly as normal
the case and top fans are straight to molex (with sensor to the board)
CPU is straight to the board
They are all Noctua NF-S12's, 120mm

It is just the 3870x2 which spins up then slows down, then spins up and slows down repeating this process repeatedly.
Occasionally it will try and run the fan full speed then ramp down again

All the mounts are rubber/plastic so the board cant be shorting on the case

Cheers guys, i think it may be the motherboard which has had it :(
 
Last edited:
Chronictank said:
Thanks for the offer mate it's really appreciated

I do have an AM2 rig i can grab the PSU from i will give that a go first (been avoiding this as i thought it was a good idea to cable tie everything to the case for airflow >< so is a lot of effort to take it all out again)
Doing a bit more digging i found on the DFI forums that taking the CMOS battery out might resolve the issue.

I have tested all the other components and they are fine (thankfully), jsut finished a 4 hr memtest on the memory

I don't think the paperclip test will show me anything really, good spot though :)
The internal fans spin up, LED's in the PSU are all on (bright and consistent)


Half and half, All the fans except the Graphics one spin constantly as normal
the case and top fans are straight to molex (with sensor to the board)
CPU is straight to the board
They are all Noctua NF-S12's, 120mm

It is just the 3870x2 which spins up then slows down, then spins up and slows down repeating this process repeatedly.
Occasionally it will try and run the fan full speed then ramp down again

All the mounts are rubber/plastic so the board cant be shorting on the case

Cheers guys, i think it may be the motherboard which has had it :(
Click to expand...

You have reminded me of something that you very much might like to try.. the CMOS battery could be dead, I haven't seen it in years, but the time a while ago when I saw it the PC did about as much as yours is, on screen had a error from BIOS... just an idea.

You changed the GPU, so it seems that the GPU isn't the problem.. when you changed it the fan did the same thing?

Screen is still blank?

Sometimes taking the battery out can be more powerful than a simple CMOS reset, although I haven't seen any difference myself so far.
 
Just an update in case someone searches a similar thing

I tried all the above with the CMOS battery to no avail (tried it before swapping components in case it was my overclock)

The motherboard was the cause, same thing happened when i plugged in another power supply.
When the board was changed everything is working again

Thanks all for the suggestions
 
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