Mobo on it's way out?

Tachyon

Tachyon

Tachyon

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26 Dec 2003
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Same oul' town
A while back my PCI slots randomly started/stopped working & they still do this regular, the majority of the time they don't work.

Recently however when booting the fans etc.. come on but that's it, nothing else seems to kick in. On the odd occasion on start up I get error messages saying my CPU fan has failed & that my Chipset fan has failed even though they are working away. Most of the time everything boots as normal and there's no problems.

I just thought the the motherboard was giving up, it's a Asus A8N-SLI SE that I've had for a couple of years and was going to replace in the next few months anyhow.

Does it sound like the motherboard acting up or could it be my PSU (Enermax Liberty 500W) or something else. I was hoping it's not the PSU as I'd like to carry it over to my next build.
 
Nobody with any ideas on this one? Any thing at all would be appreciated. Took me a few times to boot there now with the above problems.
 
Do the pci cards contacts go all the way in the slots? (as in, you shouldn't be able to see any gold at all). Regarding the failed fans, I would say its where the PC is cold and doesn't require the fans to spin very fast/if at all - unless the bios options are set so they are on 100% all the time.

You can set the fans to "ignore" in the bios too, so the PC continues to boot (or you can just press F1 I think to continue).
 
The PCI problem isn't the cards not being inseted properly as I've had them in & out a stack of times. Sometimes they are detected on startup, sometimes they aren't.

Regarding the fans not spinning fast/at all I'm unlikely to think thats the problem either as I've had this build for just over 2 years and this last week or so is the first I've got the fan error messages as well as the PC not booting.

My real query is doe's the combination of all these issuse sound like the motherboard is on it's last legs or would the PSU not be supplying enough power to all the components. I'm hoping it's the motherboard as I'd like to get another turn out of the PSU. I don't know much about the workings of a PC so I'm really just guessing.

I'm due an upgrade so I think I'll figure out a budget & see what I can get. Don't know whether though if my problems sound as if I could use my current PSU, hopefully they aren't PSU related.
 
Probably motherboard.

BUT why not disconnect a few unnescecary ( have never been able to spell that d...n word) bits to lessen the psu's load and see if that solves the problem.Although not a definitive answer if there's still a problem on very low load then it's unlkely to be your psu.

You've not added any new hardware recently have you?
 
P.S If you believe it's the motherboard would recomend you clear the cmos & re-set everthing .Sometimes clearing etc seems to 'settle' some boards.
 
I'll try disconnecting a few unnessecaries (it is a tricky one to spell, dunno if thats right either :p) I haven't added any new hardware in a while now. I'll read up on clearing the CMOS as I've no clue about how to do that.

Thanks
 
If not cleared before then before you clear go into bios and make a note of all current settings !!

When you clear it will re-set to default - which may mean that your comp will not boot into windows /function correctly until you have re-set.

Having a note of what current should be will enable you to re-set correctly.

Would just mention - I thought that motherboard sounded familiar - it's my sons comp's motherboard and therefore have manual to hand if needed
 
Just looking through the manual here as well & don't see anything to point me in the right direction. Only thing I see is the layout showing the position of the 3v CMOS battery.

Rather than worry too much about it, I'll follow your advice & disconnect the unessentials in the next day or two and see what happens from there. I'll need to read up on what mobo, cpu, vid card etc.. are recommended for mostly gaming and post a spec thread when I've worked out a budget.

Your help was appreciated.
 
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