Motherboard faulty?

Rozzy85

Rozzy85

Rozzy85

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Joined
27 Jun 2008
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1,538
To cut a long story short: I RMA'd my last motherboard about 3 months ago and I'm now using an exact replacement they sent me. It had problems with freezing up at random and at first tis looked like it was caused by the GFX (it had a history of being faulty anyway) but these problems didn't occur before on the last board.

I have now installed a new card and everything was working but now it has another fault. Every time it boots into Windows the screen either goes black or some displays a vertical pattern at the same point each time. I can sit at the login screen for ever and nothing will happen but as soon as it starts loading it happens. I then hit restart and on some occasions it starts playing up and goes into a reboot loop, turing on... switching off... until I cut the power. I then have to leave it of for about 5 minutes before it will turn on normally again.

EDIT: Scratch what I said about the screen going black, it just frozen up again at the login screen. After about 10 tries it finally booted again back into Windows so it's the same as before.

It doesn't appear to be the card as these seem to be the same problems I was having before only that it does something different to before. This probably means the last card wasn't the cause either but instead it's probably the board.

I don't know what to do now. I'm just fed up with this so I'm thinking I'd be better off just buying a new board, CPU and RAM. Kind off annoying as I just upgraded the RAM and it's DDR2. The CPU is LGA 775 and they're don't seem to be many 775, ATX, DDR2 boards on sale anymore.

I don't really see any point in going through the hassle of RMA'ing it again if they're just going to send me a dud board again but I guess it's worth a try. It looked brand new but was probably a refurb not fixed properly. The board is a Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS5. I know I won't buy a Gigabyte board again anyway.
 
Have you managed to establish if the replacement board was brand new? If it is then there is a slim chance that it could be faulty but more than likely you maybe un-lucky and have another issue.
 
I don't think it was new but then it's hard to tell. The box it came in had be fiddled with and didn't contain all the components. The board itself looked pristine in the anti-static bag.
 
If u want to change your board without the hassle of a new cpu and mem Then you should be able to pick up a asus p5k pemium wi-fi. It's a good 775 board very reliable and not to bad for overclocking. I've had one running for several years with a e6750 on board without any problems and the board is still supported by asus
 
Unfortunately you wouldn't be the first person sent a DOA MB as a replacement - but Gigabytes service is one of the best, hard for you to believe i suspect. (But at least you didn't have to wait weeks for a potential DOA.) Frustrating all the same, i know...

What diagnostics have you done to date?

Have you tried any of the following:

  • Clear/update BIOS
  • A skeleton setup putside of the case (cpu, 1 stick of memory, gfx) - and then adding components until it buckles
  • Running memtest for a few hours
  • Testing the PSU with the paper clip test (not a definitive test but it's a start.)
  • Checking that the motherboard is securley fitted to the case - no movement etc...
  • Trying different cables - sata, kettle lead etc..
  • List goes on...

It may be that you've tried most of the above and more - but if you haven't tried the opening salvo I would be tempted to at least to run a skeleton setup, flash the BIOS and start basic testing.

Good luck with it.
 
Also test without any USB devices connected.

I had a Giga p35 board that displayed the same

symptoms when trying to boot with a legacy USB printer

connected.
 
Thanks for the suggestions.

I have tried a few things in the past although nothing pointed to as being the problem. I've done:

- Removed USB devices and have disabled the controller in the BIOS. This seem to have an effect and it froze up less but it still happened like before. I original though it was the external HDD doing it.
- Ran memtest although it was in Windows and I didn't finish it as it was taking so long. No errors were report for the 25% it did. I might swap it for some old RAM that I know works instead and see if it still happens.
- Changed GFX card, no change.

I've thought that maybe the PSU could be responsible but surely it would've just fried something by now or packed up? I dunno. I might do a test where I swap the PSU and RAM and see what happens.

It can be annoying to test as well as it can go for days without a single problem and then all of a sudden it will start acting up. The times it does it are completely random with no recognizable pattern making it really difficult to diagnose. It mostly does it from a cold start but it can even be on for many hours and then just freeze up.

Lately I've been tempted to just upgrade the motherboard and be done with it. I've been putting up with it for 4 or so months and it's got to the point where I just can't be bothered with it. All the tests just get tedious after a while. :o I purchased the parts for the almost 3 years ago so they're quite old apart from the RAM which I'll probably have to sell.
 
A problem like yours is time consuming to diagnose but unfortunately you usually have to be methodical and deliberate in your approach to pinpoint the component at fault.

It could be that your initial gut instinct of the MB is spot on - but unless you eliminate all other factors - you will always be unsure.

The PSU could throw up problems, such as you're having, and the paperclip test is easy to do - but it's not a difinitive test. Having said that, if it did show up inconsistencies you would have probably found your culprit.

If you want to keep things simple for now i would:
  • Update to the latest BIOS - or reset it if it already is - and then run a standard setup - i.e. nothing overclocked.
  • Run metest from a bootable iso - link. It's really important that you let it run through for at least a couple of hours (more ideally) - leave it to run overnight, it wont damage your system.
  • Check all cabling - try a different kettle lead. Also if your running from an extension lead try running it without.
  • Test PSU -is you have the time.

Obviously, there are far more tests that should/could be done, the skeleton setup being the most logical, but if time is of a premium the above wont take much time and at least will narrow the search down, a little, if nothing shows up.
 
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