Odd power-on issue.

[Kreij]

Ok TPu'ers here's one for you to help me with.

First, see system specs for details.

When I turn on my rig from a cold start, the ASUS logo screen appears and the rig sits there forever. The hard disk LED is on, but the hard disk is not doing anything (no seek or head movement sounds).

If I turn off the computer and immediately restart it, it boots fine.

The way I can tell is that after about 10 seconds when the computer will boot successfully, the CPU fan kicks into high (I have it set in the BIOS to full speed, all the time). If after about 10 seconds the fan does not ramp up, the computer goes nowhere.
Putting the fan control on in the BIOS (quiet control or whatever it is called) doesn't change anything. Same problem.

I have the latest (released, not beta) ASUS BIOS for my mobo.
The system is not OC'd at all, and when it does boot it runs 100% stable, no crashes.

I would normally think bad BIOS, but on restart it comes us fine.
I thought maybe disk spin-up/timing problem, but that seems a bit of a stretch.

The wierd thing is that this never occurred before I put in my new CPU cooler (in specs).
There is nothing special about the cooler's fan connection or anything.
There is nothing about the cooler's fan that should prevent booting.

So ... give me your ideas on what you think it may be.

[keakar]

run the cpu fan directly off of the 12v molex just to confirm its not the problem. (just to rule it out)

if it works fine after that then i would say examine the wires carefully to be sure they werent crossed (put in wrong order) when it was made.

if its still acting up after putting the fan directly on the 12v molex then i would say you have a bad hard drive.

there should be nothing stopping it if you see the hdd led meaning its seeking hdd data so it must be a bad drive motor.

next time it "hangs" on you, gently tap the hard drive with a screw driver to see if it starts running.
(BUT DON'T WHACK IT! this may get it to start if the drive motor is stuck or hanging on you)

[Random Murderer]

ah, the dreaded "POST issue" on the p5w.
start by disabling everything to do with fans in "Hardware Monitor."
also, what SATA headers are your barracudas on?

[Kreij]

I was as careful as possible installing the new cooler.
The odd thing is that if it were a bad board or cooler cable, why would simply restarting make it work every time.
It seems like on a cold boot something the BIOS is not seeing something starting up.
On a cold boot it fails almost 100% of the time, and on a power-off-on it works 100% of the time.

[Co_Op]

My guesses are:
1. PSU (you got a 750w, but also a lot of power hungry hardware). As an electric appliance starts (but this is usually for ac power), it feeds itself with way more power than it's stated on the label - I dunno the english translation exactly - word by word translation would be transient state, transitory state (that's why light dim briefly when you start a vacuum cleaner or some other high wattage tool).

2. Capacitors might be another cause. Mine has solid state caps and this it starts for less than 2 seconds, monitor comes out of standby, but no boot screen, then it restarts and runs normally - I've been told that's normal - the solid state caps need pre-charging and it's been doing it out of the box). I had an Abit KT133 mobo years back with leaky caps (the tall cylindrical ones) and it hat cold start problems and random reboots - so if you have old type caps and the mobo is more than a year old you should look for bulged tops or leaks from your caps.

Anyway, you should remember that your hardware draws the most power during boot up, as all the caps have to be filled, all the checks have to be done and so on, all at the same time. That's why some people manage too improve their overclocks via software in windows (i.e. some guy stated that it boots at 470-480 fsb, but in windows he can push it to 525 fsb and he didn't know why this happens).

[Random Murderer]

Originally Posted by Co_Op

My guesses are:
1. PSU (you got a 750w, but also a lot of power hungry hardware). As an electric appliance starts (but this is usually for ac power), it feeds itself with way more power than it's stated on the label - I dunno the english translation exactly - word by word translation would be transient state, transitory state (that's why light dim briefly when you start a vacuum cleaner or some other high wattage tool).

2. Capacitors might be another cause. Mine has solid state caps and this it starts for less than 2 seconds, monitor comes out of standby, but no boot screen, then it restarts and runs normally - I've been told that's normal - the solid state caps need pre-charging and it's been doing it out of the box). I had an Abit KT133 mobo years back with leaky caps (the tall cylindrical ones) and it hat cold start problems and random reboots - so if you have old type caps and the mobo is more than a year old you should look for bulged tops or leaks from your caps.

Anyway, you should remember that your hardware draws the most power during boot up, as all the caps have to be filled, all the checks have to be done and so on, all at the same time. That's why some people manage too improve their overclocks via software in windows (i.e. some guy stated that it boots at 470-480 fsb, but in windows he can push it to 525 fsb and he didn't know why this happens).

750W is fine for his build, believe me on this.
The P5W DH has its quirks, but coming from someone who's dealt with most of them, I wouldn't trade this board for much else...

[Kreij]

I did not have this problem before, so I am not suspecting PS overload.
The P5W DH has quirks that I have dealt with but I am really happy with this mobo and what it lets me do with my hardware.
All fan control shut off.
I am not using the EZ RAID or JMicron, but I will have to dig deeper as to which headers I am using as I don't remember exactly.
When I went into BIOS to check fan settings and then restarted it hung (never having a power off), so it is not specifically a power issue.
This is why I have been in the IT field for over 25 years. I love troubleshooting this kind of problem. It sure beats some user saying, "My printer is printing light pages, what shoudl I do?"

[Random Murderer]

Originally Posted by Kreij

I did not have this problem before, so I am not suspecting PS overload.
The P5W DH has quirks that I have dealt with but I am really happy with this mobo and what it lets me do with my hardware.
All fan control shut off.
I am not using the EZ RAID or JMicron, but I will have to dig deeper as to which headers I am using as I don't remember exactly.
When I went into BIOS to check fan settings and then restarted it hung (never having a power off), so it is not specifically a power issue.
This is why I have been in the IT field for over 25 years. I love troubleshooting this kind of problem. It sure beats some user saying, "My printer is printing light pages, what shoudl I do?"

then try changing one or both hard drives to a different header.
also try reducing the IDE detection time.

[Kreij]

Originally Posted by Random Murderer

then try changing one or both hard drives to a different header.
also try reducing the IDE detection time.

IDE detection time has an effect on SATA headers?

[Random Murderer]

Originally Posted by Kreij

IDE detection time has an effect on SATA headers?

no, but it will take the set number of seconds for each ide port and try to detect the devices, even if they're not attached. i have mine set to 5 seconds.