Motherboard Blackout

[suraswami]

Specs:
Biostar TA760G AM2+
X3 440
2 x 2GB DDR2 667 + 2 x 1GB DDR2 667 - All Crucial sets
TT Mini Typhoon
1 x 80GB IDE for OS
1 x 640GB + 2 x 500GB RAID0 to host VMs
Host OS W2K3 Standard 64bit
Antec 430w Trio PSU
And a regular good airflow mATX case that really gets dusty lol.
And ofcourse 2 fans to keep the airflow.
Have the version just prior to the latest bios.

Problems: Out of no where the system will go blank while booting or system is idle. The watt meter generally shows up 76w on idle but when it goes blank it shows 44w. The system is not responding until you press the reset button (sometimes need couple of times resetting)
If the system is properly shutdown and PSU switch is turned off, leave for a minute or so, turn it on all fans comes up, the fan speed is not throttled by the mobo, no hdd lights until I press reset button, then the fans will throttle down and the mobo will start the boot sequence.

All settings are default, CPU is not overclocked, no unlocking, Ram as per specs. This is a server so no fiddling with those things.

I reset the Cmos jumper and still it does the same thing. Was running fine for almost 3 months 24/7.

I am thinking its the Cmos battery that is dying. Any other thoughts? Hope the mobo is not dying.

I reset the PC last night and this morning there was no response, so once again turned off and turned it on, hit the reset button and its been working since then for about 4 hrs now. I checked the cmos/OS date and time and it didn't change.

And oh the NB freq and HT freq needs to set at 1600 Mhz rather than 2000 Mhz, if I let it auto or more than 1600 Mhz the system becomes unstable.

Help please.

 

[streetfighter 2]

Very odd. Very odd indeed. Sounds like a mobo or PSU problem but it's certainly a strange one.

I don't see how it can be the CMOS battery.

Maybe a problem with power states or power saving features but I'm still leaning more towards mobo/PSU.

 

[JATownes]

Very odd. Very odd indeed. Sounds like a mobo or PSU problem but it's certainly a strange one.

I don't see how it can be the CMOS battery.

Maybe a problem with power states or power saving features but I'm still leaning more towards mobo/PSU.

This is what I was thinking. If you have a spare or a buddy will let you borrow one, this is the first thing I would test.

 

[suraswami]

I had a similar issue before with a MSI motherboard, that all of a sudden will not wake up from S3, shut down and restrart will not work etc. Thought it was PSU and replaced it no luck, so decided it was mobo, went out and bought a whole new set (it was 939 and nothing available to replace it). Then recently I pulled out the mobo and changed the battery, voila its working again like new.

I am going to pickup a cmos battery in the evening and try that out first hoping to fix the problem.

This is just a 3 month old mobo, thats the reason I am not 100% sure about the battery dying so soon.

If that doesn't work I will change the PSU and see. Last thing is go and get a new mobo.

Any other thoughts?

 

[AsRock]

This all so happens when your v card stops working i have seen the exact same thing when mines done it the wattage drops.

 

[suraswami]

This all so happens when your v card stops working i have seen the exact same thing when mines done it the wattage drops.

using just onboard now. no external.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

change the battery i also had an MSI board mcp 570 sli i think it was a Platinum SLI 570 anyway board was a pitta to work with bios updates were broken finally after about 5-6 bios flashes the board was stable then i had the above issue pissed i pulled cmos batter and then lost it put in a new one and presto board works to this day flawlessly just a single fucking battery was the issue of 2 yrs of headaches

 

[suraswami]

The server just crapped out. I can't access it now.

Am at work now, need to get home to fix this crap.

 

[streetfighter 2]

Very odd if it's the CMOS battery. I don't see how it can cause this sort of problem unless it's doing something very nasty to the ESCD.

Nevertheless it seems the order, from easiest to hardest, of things to try is:
1) CMOS battery
2) add external graphics
3) swap PSU
4) swap MOBO

 

[suraswami]

will memory cause this issue?

 

[streetfighter 2]

will memory cause this issue?

I'm not sure. My guess would be that it's possible but highly unlikely. Since it's easy to test for you might as well.

My philosophy is always to start with the easiest solution first and work your way to the most difficult one until the problem is solved. As such I'd put this as (2) or (3) in the list I made.

 

[JrRacinFan]

Just recently switched out a psu, same symptoms. No problems since.

 

[suraswami]

Things done so far:

Changed to new cmos battery
Updated to the latest bios, cleared cmos multiple times, loaded default stable values
Tested with Single Stick of Ram
Removed all sticks and borrowed a pair from another machine
Set Timings manually to very loose timings and stepped up the ram voltage a notch and northbridge voltage a notch.

The last 2 steps actually stabilized the system. If I shut it down, turn off PSU, wait for few minutes and then turn it on still it won't boot first time, I have to press reset for the system to boot. Now I can load up windows and stress the system, copy files etc no crashes, last night it was stable backing up files for about 3 to 4 hrs.

This morning I put back the old ram it won't start even with the dummest loose timings. The old ram works fine in another machine.

If its PSU then it will not handle stress I guess. There was few power fluctuations and outages in my area, I have seen boards die because of this. Its damn connected and well protected (I guess) by APC AVR UPS.

So my guess is the board is dying slowly. Bought an Asus board, need to swap.

 

[suraswami]

Last resort, I put in a Athlon 3200, didn't boot. So pulled out the battery and waited for a minute and put back the battery, voila its booting now properly so far. I will do more tests.

Hopefully 440 is not the culprit.

 

[suraswami]

Put in a AII X2 240 for now. All is well. This chip idles/consumes same watts as the X3 440. Missing the extra core, oh well atleast its stable now.

 

[suraswami]

Not good. Board just blacked out twice. May be I really need to change the board instead of wasting time :shadedshu

 

[brandonwh64]

Yea seems like the board has just started to give up! get a cheap 785 board and have fun!

 

[Anarchy0110]

Agreed, try to get AMD 785G or even 880G

 

[suraswami]

Ok stopped all VMs. Just the bare OS. Ran OCCT with the X2 240 in the board for 1 hr and completed successfully. So restarted and loaded up VMs boom middle of loading one VMs the board went blank. So I am guessing some thing got changed/corrupted.

So I tried to copy back the problem VM from backup to the disks, right in the middle of copying the board crapped out.

Don't know if the SATA controller is dying as the OS drive is on a IDE drive. But both do run off the same south bridge chip right?

 

[streetfighter 2]

Ok stopped all VMs. Just the bare OS. Ran OCCT with the X2 240 in the board for 1 hr and completed successfully. So restarted and loaded up VMs boom middle of loading one VMs the board went blank. So I am guessing some thing got changed/corrupted.

So I tried to copy back the problem VM from backup to the disks, right in the middle of copying the board crapped out.

Don't know if the SATA controller is dying as the OS drive is on a IDE drive. But both do run off the same south bridge chip right?

Correct, both SATA and IDE run off the SB710 southbridge chip.

I still can't figure out the source of your problem but since you occasionally get blank screens on a cold boot I can't see how it's related to your VMs.

I have no idea why you'd want it but here is the SB710 developer databook.

If you think it might be related to the IDE drive, why not detach it and see if you can still get a blank screen on a cold boot. If you don't get a blank screen, try loading a live CD or an OS on a SATA drive and then running some tests (OCCT and whatnot).

 

[suraswami]

Went and bought this Asus M4A785-M DDR2 board. Put it in with the same hardware from the biostar. Booted up fine, surprising to have the latest bios on it. Even the previous Raid disks were identified, all VMs started up and stable for about 3 hrs. Load tested and temps on the chip was way under than the biostar board. No crashing.

Thought my problem is solved, my server is back on its feet. So put the side cover and put it in its place, hit the start, NOTHING happened. RESET nothing. The power LED didn't light up, but all the other fans came up.

So this board is also dead. So at this point I am thinking the PSU is killing everything. God damn Antec.

Now I need to hunt for another board with 4 mem slots and DDR2.

 

[brandonwh64]

WOW sura, sounds like you are having all types of problems. I hope you get them situated

 

[suraswami]

ok found the problem. I put the reset button pins in the wrong way, so it was shorting the board. When I rebuild this it was about 2 in the morning. I was already sick and may be I was sleepy and tired.

I pulled all the drives and connected the spare PSU, still didn't boot, so was about to pull out the board and toss it off. While pulling the wires I noticed the reset wires were reversed. put it in the right way, the board booted with a nice beep. Put back the old so thought broken PSU and it took worked fine. Put back all the drives, closed case and done. Running fine for about 2 hrs now.

Moral of this build - never build a PC when you are sleepy/drowsy or sick, ur brain can't think straight. Leave it alone and resume when you are done with sleeping

But the old biostar board is still broken, need an RMA.

Thanks all for your suggestions and help.

 

[streetfighter 2]

ok found the problem. I put the reset button pins in the wrong way, so it was shorting the board. When I rebuild this it was about 2 in the morning. I was already sick and may be I was sleepy and tired.

I pulled all the drives and connected the spare PSU, still didn't boot, so was about to pull out the board and toss it off. While pulling the wires I noticed the reset wires were reversed. put it in the right way, the board booted with a nice beep. Put back the old so thought broken PSU and it took worked fine. Put back all the drives, closed case and done. Running fine for about 2 hrs now.

Moral of this build - never build a PC when you are sleepy/drowsy or sick, ur brain can't think straight. Leave it alone and resume when you are done with sleeping

But the old biostar board is still broken, need an RMA.

Thanks all for your suggestions and help.

I'm very happy you got that fixed because I knew your problem was a short this time around, I just didn't get to mentioning it fast enough. Anyway, congratulations!

This type of headache can happen to any of us, and usually the best of us. Once I built a computer for a friend and forgot to attach the P4 connector, which took an astounding 20 minutes to figure out.