'System failed CPU test' - aargh!

calnen · 24 Mar 2007 at 12:22

This is really annoying me.
I recently upgraded my cpu from an athlon64 3000+ to am Opteron 165. My motherboard BIOS needed updating, but no biggie and eventually the system was working. I've been having occasional crashes since then, which I put down to a bug in the game I was always playing (Supreme Commander.)
I had a nice game last night, then surfed for a bit and went to bed, everything fine.

Woke up this morning and pressed the button, and I get greeted with this lovely error message! Repeated over and over, before any post beeps or anything.

I've tried re-plugging everything I can think of and it's all in securely. I also just tried re-swapping for my old cpu, and it's giving the same error message for that as well!

Any suggestions? I really have no idea where to go with this. It was overclocked (slightly) when I last used it, but I cant even get into the BIOS to tell it to boot at stock. I've tried resetting the BIOS with the jumper but that didnt help either.

Any ideas appreciated...

My system specs:
AMD Opteron 165 // Or Winchester 3000+
Asus A8V Deluxe (Bios 1017)
6800GT
1GB Dual-Channel DDR (Crucial)
80GB Hard disk
etc

Ace Modder · 24 Mar 2007 at 12:32

Sounds to me like a mobo problem....

calnen · 24 Mar 2007 at 12:51

Ace Modder said:
Sounds to me like a mobo problem....

I dont understand how the motherboard could just die overnight though? It's plugged into a surge protector so its not that.
Do you think I should buy a new board? Its a fair bit of money just on a hunch though

dbilsborough · 24 Mar 2007 at 15:12

calnen said:
I dont understand how the motherboard could just die overnight though? It's plugged into a surge protector so its not that.
Do you think I should buy a new board? Its a fair bit of money just on a hunch though

one of the capacitors for example could have been on the way out, or one of the ICs. It does sound like a board problem to be honest, especially as you can't even get to the bios screen.

Have you tried booting the board with no cards or peripherals plugged in? Also with nothing plugged in and no memory installed? I used to have an AMD board that wouldn't boot at all if it was overclocked and booting the board bare somehow reset the bios and allowed me back in

calnen · 24 Mar 2007 at 16:41

dbilsborough said:
Have you tried booting the board with no cards or peripherals plugged in? Also with nothing plugged in and no memory installed? I used to have an AMD board that wouldn't boot at all if it was overclocked and booting the board bare somehow reset the bios and allowed me back in

Thanks, I'll give that a go. Do you mean unplugging the cpu and everything as well, and just turning it on with nothing but power connected? Or with nothing but the cpu?

PaulProteus · 24 Mar 2007 at 17:49

calnen said:
Thanks, I'll give that a go. Do you mean unplugging the cpu and everything as well, and just turning it on with nothing but power connected? Or with nothing but the cpu?

Sometimes if you had installed the mobo and tightened the screws too much reseting them might let the mobo POST (in case it was under stress).

The capacitor seems as a plausible reason, but thought if it were something really simple (fingers crossed) then you could have an easy solution.

Good luck!

Cheers.

calnen · 24 Mar 2007 at 18:04

Nope, no luck

So I need a new motherboard?

calnen · 24 Mar 2007 at 19:38

Any other ideas? Getting a new board looks tricky - there are very few 939 AGP boards about, and they dont tend to support Opterons out of the box so it'd be a load of faff getting it to work.

(All assuming it is the mobo thats broken, and not my cpu..)

PaulProteus · 24 Mar 2007 at 19:58

A daft guess, have you checked your PSU?

calnen · 24 Mar 2007 at 20:11

PaulProteus said:
A daft guess, have you checked your PSU?

What do you mean? All the fans are spinning so I assume it has power. Is there any other way I can test it?

PaulProteus · 24 Mar 2007 at 20:50

calnen said:
What do you mean? All the fans are spinning so I assume it has power. Is there any other way I can test it?

If the 12V rail is struggling your CPU and GPA and most of the main components will suffer. I might well be wrong here, but fans could be powered by the 5V rail for example, they usually consume below 10 W.

Just a guess. I expect someone more knowledgeable to jump in and give some clarity.

The "easiest" way to check it is to borrow a PSU from a friend. What is your PSU btw?

EDIT: I have just checked that the case fans need 12V. This should exclude the PSU as a suspect.
EDIT: EDIT: Still the fans need something like 0.25A, compared to the CPU and GPU that suck two orders of magnitude more juice. :confused:

Big.Wayne · 24 Mar 2007 at 21:08

calnen said:
I need a new motherboard?

PaulProteus said:
have you checked your PSU?

calnen said:
What do you mean? All the fans are spinning so I assume it has power.

Hey Buddy,

Assumption doesn't have any place in the trouble-shooting process, if you 'assume' anything you will die a bloody death!

Most of the time when there is a PSU error it will normally go *Bang* or just not power the system at all, however sometimes when a PSU is on its way out it will still semi-boot a system (lights come on, fans spin up etc).

We call this an 'Undead PSU' :eek:

calnen said:
Is there any other way I can test it?

Buy/loan a PSU Power Tester

calnen · 24 Mar 2007 at 21:08

PaulProteus said:
If the 12V rail is struggling your CPU and GPA and most of the main components will suffer. I might well be wrong here, but fans could be powered by the 5V rail for example, they usually consume below 10 W.

Just a guess. I expect someone more knowledgeable to jump in and give some clarity.

The "easiest" way to check it is to borrow a PSU from a friend. What is your PSU btw?

EDIT: I have just checked that the case fans need 12V. This should exclude the PSU as a suspect.
EDIT: EDIT: Still the fans need something like 0.25A, compared to the CPU and GPU that suck two orders of magnitude more juice.

I dont *think* its the psu. I tried unplugging the graphics card and got the same error. And the fans didnt seem to be spinning slosly or anything, which they would have been if the 12V was low on amps (I think? Electronics was never my strong point!)

Thanks for the ideas

I've just spent an hour on the phone with someone trying things out, and I think it's basically been narrowed down to a broken motherboard or a random incompatibility issue. According to an Asus support forum a lot of people find the components all work with other systems, but the A8V occasionally just ****s out for no real reason.

I think that rather than messing about for days, I'm just going to sell some components up and buy a whole new system that I know will work. Need to raise some money though

calnen · 24 Mar 2007 at 21:12

Thanks for the thoughts big_wayne. I dont have any equipment like that available unfortunately, but you're quite right - the PSU is a possibility.
It's not a bad one - itsa an Antec that came with a case originally, I think it's around 350 or 400 watts but not totally sure.

I'll keep it in mind though. Stil vaguely hoping I'll wake up tomorrow and it'll all work fine!

Big.Wayne · 24 Mar 2007 at 21:22

calnen said:
I recently upgraded my cpu from an athlon64 3000+ to am Opteron 165.

calnen said:
itsa an Antec that came with a case originally, I think it's around 350 or 400 watts but not totally sure.

How old is that PSU guy?

I'm used ANTEC for years (and years) I've had to RMA five PSUs to them in the past 6 months, there good for 2-years on average, not to mention the fact you added more strain to it with your multi-core CPU.

The Antec PSU tester is about £10, better start pimping yourself guy!

calnen · 24 Mar 2007 at 22:37

I'm looking at replacing both the mobo and the PSU, so hopefully whichever one is the problem the system will work properly. My only worry is the cpus are both broken somehow (could they have been fried from using them with a dodgy motherboard/psu?) in which case I'm a bit screwed - I can't afford to replace them

This is the PSU I'm looking at at the mo:
'Coolermaster eXtreme Power 380W PSU'

with this mobo
'ECS KV2 Lite Socket 939 AGP'

Big.Wayne · 24 Mar 2007 at 22:50

Big.Wayne said:
How old is that PSU guy?

calnen · 24 Mar 2007 at 23:18

between 2 and 3 years? The same age as the motherboard

Big.Wayne · 24 Mar 2007 at 23:40

calnen said:
between 2 and 3 years? The same age as the motherboard

Looking at the info u have supplied I am 98% confident that your PSU is 'Undead' :eek:

If its less than 3 years and u can find your reciept then it is still covered under warranty. You will have to ship it back to ANTEC in Rotterdam (roughly £10 postage). Can u wait a week or two for your new PSU or can u get the money to buy a new one, I recommend the Antec TRIO!

MoodyB · 26 Mar 2007 at 04:15

calnen said:
I've tried resetting the BIOS with the jumper but that didnt help either.

When you did this, did you also unplug the Pc's power supply from the mains and remove the motherboards' battery ? Some AthlonXP / A64 boards don't seem to reset until you do this, and leave it like this for a few mins before plugging everything back in and swapping the jumper.

Might also be worth checking the boards manual to see if there's a key combo that'll reset the bios settings when powering on ( some NF2 boards had this feature )