PC turns itself rapidly on and off

Mud

Mud

Mud

Soldato
Joined
13 Dec 2004
Posts
3,186
Location
Bristol
Resolved, updated for reference.

PC as in sig (although CPU now @ 3GHz so I could tighten the RAM timings back up to CL3).

The last few times I booted up Vista the welcoming sound was garbled and the graphics stuttered a bit (panning up and down webpages, etc). I thought video/audio driver issue, so installed the newest WHQL drivers for the 8800GTS (640MB) and x-fi fatality. This is perhaps irrelevant but I include it for the sake of completedness.

Somewhere in the reboot process it decided to constantly turn itself off and then back on (rinse, repeat) before even reaching POST. I've troubleshot all components except CPU and mobo (definitely not PSU, and not RAM unless all 4 sticks are dead). Everything else is disconnected so should be ineffective. Clearing the CMOS makes no difference.

Shy of ripping up another 775 system to troubleshoot the CPU, are there any tests I can do to find the culprit?
 
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How can you be sure it's not the PSU?

I see also you have a SDD.. is that where the OS is loaded?

I would turn everthing back to stock, disconnect everything you don't need including secondary HDD, Oprticals etc, then try running something like the Gromac test on Orthos for a while? If this works, it almost certainly has something to do with a setting yu have made.

Try also running memtest because as this runs in non-windows mode, it will check the memory controller as well as the memory itself. It's a good test just eliminate the memory and possible the controller.
 
The OS is on the SSD, but everything extraneous (including the SSD) is disconnected; all that remains is mobo, CPU, RAM and the case connectors. Graphics aren't currently connected, but it makes no difference either way, I'm only getting a couple of seconds of fans spinning before everything cuts and continues cycling as such.

I connected up a different PSU (250W shuttle PSU, but should be fine given stripped down PC), and it performed in exactly the same manner.
 
do a search on google "gigabyte boot recycle" apparently its the mobo (once again apparently) thing is i bought another gigabyte mobo and while being brand new it did the same exact thing. they say that the cause of it is ram, something along the lines of mobo trying to boot but with very low ram voltages. if thats the case why wont it post with no ram installed. plus i tried different ram (sum sumsung 4200 to teamxtreeme and g.skill 6400) gave me nothing. annoying...
 
Admiral Huddy said:
Do you have both the 24 and 4/8pin sup power supply connected to the mobo?
Click to expand...

Yep! Disconnected and reconnected as I troubleshot the PSU. Admittedly the shuttle PSU is 20pin/4pin (whilst the Corsair is 24pin/8pin), but that shouldn't be a problem (I believe...).
 
mikka84 said:
do a search on google "gigabyte boot recycle" apparently its the mobo (once again apparently) thing is i bought another gigabyte mobo and while being brand new it did the same exact thing. they say that the cause of it is ram, something along the lines of mobo trying to boot but with very low ram voltages. if thats the case why wont it post with no ram installed. plus i tried different ram (sum sumsung 4200 to teamxtreeme and g.skill 6400) gave me nothing. annoying...
Click to expand...

Ah, thanks.
 
im gonna try to an extence troubleshooting once my mate come home from work, dont want to xompetely dismount his system right now. see what results we come up with. anooyingly he got that same mobo to me and hadnt had a single issue with it.
 
Admiral Huddy said:
O would certianly check the rails on that PSU using a multimeter. Even just to eliminate the PSU altogther.. This may help

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17757782


Have you checked for a BIOS flash on the Gigabyte?
Click to expand...

I'm afraid the PC just doesn't get anywhere near the point you can test anything in software. I suppose I'll pull the CPU to test it elsewhere, but it does sound like it's the mobo.

I can easily pull the PSU and test it in another system, which is probably a more immediate test than pulling out the multimeter...but if it comes to that thanks for the guide, it looks comprehensive.
 
nice guide there huddy. annoyingly i dont own a multimeter. plus both of us tried different psus (i got 600w quad tagan my mate got an 600w antec) and i get the same problem on my system with both PSUs. while my mates system works fine with his psu. the last thing im gonna do is install my tagan in his system but im pretty sure its not psu problem.
 
it does seem so, but what is most baffleing is that the new mobo i ordered did the exact same the old one did, which made me to susect the psu in the first place. now im at a point where i dont know what to think...
 
My gigabyte board did this last night and it was caused by a bad overclock, ie cpu not getting enough volts. I had to reset the bios to get the comp working again
 
For those whom it may interest...I bought an Asus Formula Maximus and it all works, so barring stupidity on my part it looks like a borked 965P-DS3P. Now if I can only manage to convince Gigabyte that I'm right so they'll authorise the damn RMA!!
 
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