Cold boot problems

mame · 7 Feb 2008 at 11:54

I'm having problems only on a cold boot and the following happens: fans and LEDs come on for about 3 seconds then shuts down again, sometimes this loops twice. The PC will then POST but with all default settings in the bios so losing my overclock. I then manually set everything and its fine and can be retstarted as many times as i want (has never failed at this point). Once in windows its 100% stable and I've had no problems at all. My spec is :

Gigabyte p35-ds3l - revision a2 with f4 bios
e2180 @ 3.2ghz (320x10)
4 gig geil ultra (2x2) running at 400mhz 4-4-4-12. 2.1v
samsung spinpoint 500gig 16mb cache (boot) + maxtor 250gig 8mb cache
1x dvd-rw
xpertvision 8800gt 512mb sonic
antec 480w truepower

So far i have tried: slackening memory timings, reducing overclock to 3gz and memory to 750mhz. Using just 2gig ram, Swapping to the other 6pin pci-e connector off the PSU to the graphics card, increasing FSB voltage, GMCH voltage, PCI-E voltage.

When i first started thinking about this problem i was suspicious of the PSU being enough to power the graphics card but I have completed quite a few games on this setup and never had one single problem. I'm reluctant to replace the PSU if that turns out not to be the problem.

Any thoughts?

bayo000 · 7 Feb 2008 at 12:16

I've got almost the same problem except that my never loops twice and my settings stay so i dont have to change them again.

I'm giving this down to p5kc as quite a few ppl are having trouble with cold boot with this mobo.

MivkM · 7 Feb 2008 at 12:18

Did you adjust any settings before this started happening at all?

mame · 7 Feb 2008 at 12:20

MivkM said:
Did you adjust any settings before this started happening at all?

No. Everything seemed to be fine for a few weeks. The problem appeared and then got worse. I might try clearing the CMOS before i next cold boot

mame · 8 Feb 2008 at 00:42

well updated from the F4 bios to the latest F8a bios and no change. At least i know i can take the e8*00 cpu's now

Hesky82 · 8 Feb 2008 at 00:53

doh, so new bios all at default/auto settings and still does it??

mame · 8 Feb 2008 at 01:43

Yes, all the same. Still stable once in windows. 3dmark06 seems to have gained ~200 points. Will see how it runs over the next few days.

Hesky82 · 8 Feb 2008 at 01:58

You seem to have a stable system once running, so I would have thought the cpu and gfx can be ruled out.

If the system still acts funny with either stick of ram the memory surely can’t be the problem either.

Shame you can’t try another psu to completely rule that out. I’ve known and had a psu that would not quite boot the system every time but once it did it still managed to power the system with no instability. It doesn’t haven very often though, so more than likely you have a flaky motherboard.