A problem that never seems to get solved...

SCOPE WULF · 24 Dec 2009 at 13:18

Hello,
I have a problem & have come to a point where i just dont have a clue what to do next...Okay, im experiencing a problem that it seems hundreds of people also seem to keep having but know one really seems to find an answer to. When i turn my pc on it will spin up the fans, hardrive's, optical drive and the mobo lights come on, as do the graphics cards (but all red fault lights) but it just wont post. Now the first time this happend i chkd everything in the normal way (adding & removing components) and thought it must be the mobo as everything else seemed fine, RMA'd it and tested fine, soo rebuilt it all and was fine & then same thing happend, i purchased a new mobo....fine for a week then same thing again. Eventually i found a post online about unpluging the power lead and holding the 'ON' button on the case down for 1 min, it worked! stoked...then it went again ...did same thing, fixed..then it went again.
I have tried different RAM in different configerations, got a new mobo, tested my CPU in a different pc, tried a different graphics card, different hard drives, os's...just the PSU left but it seems fine, when i get the pc running it has no probs, ive ran Prime95 for 24hrs no probs, games, Intel burn test all sorts of stuff & just left it on idle for a few days. It seems to go if i turn off any other way other than through windows, like via the case or if im in the BIOS and adjust settings and restart it sometimes goes. Or if i have not used it for a couple of days a& turn it on normally. I have emailed Be Quite! about my psu to see if they will replace it, any advice would be most gratefull as im pretty new to all this & starting to lose patience!
Here is my current full spec:

Asus P5Q Pro Turbo
Q6600 @ 3.2ghz
Titan Fenrir cooler
650W BeQuiet Modular PSU
8GB Corsair Quad2x DDR2-6400
1GB Sapphire HD4870 TOXIC
40gb Kingston SSD v series
1tb Samsung F1
x3 Akasa 120mm LED fans
Xigmatek 140mm LED fan
Kaze Master Fan Controller
Antec 300 case

cheers

wozencl · 24 Dec 2009 at 13:36

...
Okay, im experiencing a problem that it seems hundreds of people also seem to keep having but know one really seems to find an answer to.
...

The problem you're experiencing is a symptom that hundreds of people have encountered, the problem could be any number of things. A computer not POST'ing can be down to any number of issues as most people who have been through the trauma and scoured the internet looking for some fix will testify.

Unfortunately there isn't a simple quick fix that will work for everyone.

I had the same symptom - I replaced the PSU, tried numerous reseats of components and RAM and eventually RMA'd my mobo. Problem solved.

My nightmare:
http://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=3b67c57419627dcb02bd5b92c638aa55&topic=129399.0

You're on the right track now as you've started to eliminate compoments being at fault.

Just to be sure you should run the PC with mininal components. One stick of RAM, just CPU and using onboard VGA if possible. Clear the CMOS and make sure you RAM settings are correct - getting 4 x 2Gb can be tricky from what I've read.

In my opinion if you can eliminate the PSU then I'd be definitely looking at the board again. Did you include a fault description when you RMA'd the board? I made sure to include a novella detailing all the steps I took, I couldn't be sure that they wouldn't just plug it in once, see it POST and then send it back to me.

EDIT: I've just checked the ASUS website and the CPU you've got has been supported since BIOS version 0205, might be worth checking if you can.

happy_2008 · 24 Dec 2009 at 13:55

Seems like you tried everything else bar the PSU, give that a go

SCOPE WULF · 24 Dec 2009 at 14:10

Thanks for the response!
Yea i informed where i got my mobo from what the exact problem i was having was, didnt overly trust them in the end hence i purchased a new mobo which i downloaded latest BIOS for. Tried with the minimum components and different components other than PSU as i dont have a spare (just been swapping stuff out of my Dell 530). Just seems odd that when it does post and boot its fine, surely the psu would show have problems while it running? The whole 'holding down power switch while psu power lead unplugged' working makes me think that its somehow storing power which needs to be expelled or something...guess ill see if a new PSU sorts it, nothing is over 6 months old

wozencl · 24 Dec 2009 at 14:22

Just to be sure you've tried it with one stick of RAM? The only reason I ask if most of the people with similar issues online have had to POST with one stick and bump up the voltages before adding the rest.

glafond
Yes I have reseated everything a few times, with board #1 and board #2. I will try the black dimm slot Idea with a single dimm. I have done a single dimm before but I'm pretty certain it was in the yellow slot as per the manual. Again, thanks for everyones input. I have done a lot of it already, but fresh perspectives always help.

glafond
Just an update. After fiddline with the memory for an hour or so, and after checking many a forum, I got everythign up and running. It seems that this board is rather finicky with memory. I had to run my memory off of a single channel to get the board to post. I am hoping now that it has posted that I will be able to upgrade the bios version and run my 4 gigs on 2 channels. Thanks again for everyones help!

KarnEvil
Hi,

No, I didn't set it, but both of them worked fine separately. Now I put them back together and the PC didn't POST again. To test the slots I've also tried one module in each slot and in DIMM_A1 and A2 it worked fine, but when I placed it into DIMM_B1 or B2, it wouldn't POST. Does this mean that B1B2 slots are faulty or is it normal?

Thanks a lot in advance!

SCOPE WULF · 24 Dec 2009 at 16:59

wozencl said:
Just to be sure you've tried it with one stick of RAM? The only reason I ask if most of the people with similar issues online have had to POST with one stick and bump up the voltages before adding the rest.

Just tried it again with one stick in each different slot just to be sure and no luck, struggling to find a working phone number for Be Quite! also which does not help things...not the best time of year to be trying to contact companies i suppose!

scotty365 · 24 Dec 2009 at 17:20

If you have a multi meter you can test it properly. There are plenty of guides around and its very easy. Antec asked me to test before RMA and it was fine!

SCOPE WULF · 24 Dec 2009 at 17:24

scotty365 said:
If you have a multi meter you can test it properly. There are plenty of guides around and its very easy. Antec asked me to test before RMA and it was fine!

Not really sure how to use one tbh!

Ill check online & see about picking one up Monday..

MeMeMeMe · 24 Dec 2009 at 19:11

Hmm, i had a similar problem at the start of the week. Shut down was slow, so I shut down manually by holding the power button down.

The next day it wouldn't start, but after googling, turned out to be a power management problem and disconnecting power, holding the power button down for a minute, then reconnecting power cable and booting up solved it.

I know you did that. You have me worrying that my event wasn't an isolated event now!

Good luck with your problem.

scotty365 · 24 Dec 2009 at 23:59

disconnecting power, holding the power button down for a minute, then reconnecting power cable

This is a good way to overcome some simple problems - its worked for me several times

EsaT · 25 Dec 2009 at 14:33

SCOPE WULF said:
The whole 'holding down power switch while psu power lead unplugged' working makes me think that its somehow storing power which needs to be expelled or something...

Only disconnecting/switching it off fully shutdowns PSU.
Otherwise 5V standby is always on keeping certain functions of motherboard always on.

mick4545 · 25 Dec 2009 at 17:48

I'll lay a fiver on the power supply.

SCOPE WULF · 26 Dec 2009 at 07:13

mick4545 said:
I'll lay a fiver on the power supply.

Yea, just wish i could find how to contact BeQuite! about a replacement, all there telephone numbers had a dead dial tone and they have not responded to any emails. Im a bit dubious about RMA'ing it to where purchased in case they find no problem and charge me £20 for the privilege (like they did with my MOBO) :mad:

SCOPE WULF · 26 Dec 2009 at 07:50

Right so just tried powering up again and it booted up perfectly, restarting and shutting down is fine too, i last tried on the 24/12/09 and it just would not post even trying the power switch hold down method, i have not changed anything at all. Know doubt it will go again soon but it does seem strange how leaving it for a day fixed it. Might have a word with the girlfriends brother who is an electrician, see if he can throw any light on the subject. Ill try the multimeter too.

SCOPE WULF · 26 Dec 2009 at 08:05

(UPDATE)Just shut down pc again - through Windows, then powerd off psu and then turned off at mains socket. Then tried starting up and the problem occured again.

reygjabla · 26 Dec 2009 at 11:12

Try resetting your OC to stock settings and find out if the problem is still there.

SCOPE WULF · 26 Dec 2009 at 12:52

reygjabla said:
Try resetting your OC to stock settings and find out if the problem is still there.

Yep, tried that when it first started happening, thought it may have had been something to do with how my asus mobo tests itself by powering up then down and up again when its got a OC setting, had no effect unfortunately. It does not do this test when it is just powering up and not posting. Cheers for the suggestion though.

SCOPE WULF · 30 Dec 2009 at 20:41

Just picked up a cheap(ish) psu to test my system with (OCZ Fatal1ty 550w). Gave the BeQuite! one another blast just before i did and it had miraculously healed itself again, tried turning on and off via windows, mains, and psu itself no end of times and could not get the system to fail, left it running, downloading some Games For Windows and just checked it and it had died (about 2hrs) so plugged in the new psu and it booted fine.So i have left it running prime95 and hopefully she will still be chugging along in the morning. Ill give it a few more tests and if its fine ill RMA the BeQuite! on Monday. Ah well all this time having the guts out of my pc has at least given me chance to mod my Antec 300 case!

SCOPE WULF · 4 Feb 2010 at 06:37

Just an update, found it to definitley be the PSU that was the problem as it has been running since december perfectly. Unfortunatley i am facing a bigger problem of convincing the company i purchased from that there is a problem with it! Seems there test which consisted of Tested on 3.2.2010 from cold, displayed fine. Left PSU connected all day under load. Disconnected from motherboard and left overnight on bench, tested from cold (freezing in here actually) and it displayed first time. Did several re-boots and power cycles (inc disconnecting from board) displayed every time.' Did not show the problem! Now they want to add another fiver to the £20 and are asking me how i think they should test it, and they dont use a voltmeter when testing PSU's either...

lawz · 4 Feb 2010 at 07:54

Similar issue, everything gets power but it wont post. Believe mine is down to a capacitor on the Mobo since the issue only occurs if the pc has been off for a couple of days and gets freezing cold (huzzah for student housing....) I actually had to heat it up with a hairdryer last time.

On the odd occastion it also won't display certain info like the processor in the boot screen, and won't use the bios settings to power down some extra case fans I have installed.

Not complaining much though as the system bar the Gfx card and 2 hard drives is 3 years old and is pretty much on 24/7, though I am trying to remember to turn it off more