Is this a symptom of a failing PSU?

[Black Panther]

When I switched on the work pc this morning it didn't post.
I pressed 'reset' and it said "overclocking or overvolting failed, press F1 to enter setup or F2 to load default settings". So I pressed F2.

Now I am familiar with that message, on my own pc, obviously (similar Asus mobo)...

However what is funny is that no one ever overclocked the work pc!!

I wonder what caused this anomaly. Maybe the psu isn't giving the correct voltages?

 

[trog100]

its a sign of the bios failing to post.. this would be normaly down to a failed overclock.. but it could just some thing dieing.. ignore it unless it keeps it up..

trog

 

[newtekie1]

its a sign of the bios failing to post.. this would be normaly down to a failed overclock.. but it could just some thing dieing.. ignore it unless it keeps it up..

trog

+1

It just gives that message when the machine fails to POST. Ignore it unless it happens again.

 

[Black Panther]

Uhh, judging by the replies I think I didn't explain well...

I know very well what that message means, I encountered it quite a lot of times before I reached the maximum oc of 3.15Ghz on my own rig...

The thing is that my dad purchased this pre-built tower consisting of E6320, some Asus mobo and 2GB RAM for work last November. After he got it, I checked with CPU-Z, Everest and PcWizard 2008 so as to be sure that he really got given the whole specs we paid for. I never attempted to overclock it at all. My dad doesn't know how to overclock himself (and he thinks overclocking is a 'very bad thing' to do ) So I am sure that no one ever got into the bios of this pc.

To make it clear, if my dad was there today and he saw that message 'overclocking failed/overvolting failed' I'd be in deep shit... Well not exactly deep shit but he'd be wanting an explanation of what overclock and what overvolt the message was about...

That's why I want to know why that message was displayed, since that computer has always ran at stock clocks and stock voltages.

 

[trog100]

the PC has a nasty sense of humour.. it displayed that message just to get u into trouble with your dad..

but the answer u got was the correct one.. the bios failed to post.. as to why.. who the f-ck knows.. but yer dad aint gonna believe that so u are in trouble.. he he he

trog

 

[newtekie1]

I think what you are trying to ask is why the machine failed to POST, since we know it has nothing to do with overclocking/overvolting and the wording of the message is just poor on ASUS's side.

There are multiple different reasons a system could fail to POST. A failing PSU is just one of them, but it is pretty high on the list. Failing memory is another possibility, as is a failing CPU or motherboard. Or it could have just been a fluke, and the machine just hung for some reason.

 

[sneekypeet]

Battery issue???

 

[newtekie1]

Battery issue???

I think, if it was a battery issue it would just warn about the CMOS checksum being bad.

 

[trog100]

what she is after is a quick and easy answer to avoid the wrath of dad..

trog

 

[Black Panther]

Lol actually my dad is believing me.

He arrives at work earlier than I do, and normally he switches on everything. Today he told me that he's finding it hard to switch on that pc and that this has long since been happening. In his own words, "it remains monitor on standby as if the hard disk is not spinning."

I.e. failure to POST.

Just today he told me that he tried to switch it on some 10 times before it switched on successfully.

Is there a way I can test to see which part of the pc is giving way? Or do I have just to let whatever it is die?

I never had the black screen my dad describes, but like 2 or 3 times I got the overclocking failure thing. But then I rarely switch on that pc. And as long as it's switched on it works well...

 

[newtekie1]

Well I had a hard drive failing cause an issue like that, but then it would hang at the detecting drives part of POST.

Perhaps you have a failing video card, assuming a dedicated card is in use. Perhaps try switching that.

It could also be bad RAM, or even a bad processor.

Just start swapping out parts until the problem goes away.

 

[Black Panther]

Listen, it couldn't maybe be due to something I did here?

This problem apparently started after I solved that worm problem...

Maybe the worm/trojan upset something? I don't really know much about the effect trojans might have on hardware...

 

[imperialreign]

I've had ASUS boards say the same thing if the CMOS battery is going bad, or you'll get the "Checksum error" message, or "BIOS not configured".


I think, IIRC, there's 4 or 5 different messages to an ASUS board that are related to a failing CMOS battery.



Question - does the message only appear after the whole rig has been shut down for an hour or more after having turned power to the PSU completely off? Or does it also display the message if you do a re-boot?

 

[Black Panther]

Question - does the message only appear after the whole rig has been shut down for an hour or more after having turned power to the PSU completely off? Or does it also display the message if you do a re-boot?

Afaik it does it only on the first power up in the morning.
I will test it tomorrow. Because normally we power up the pc in the morning and leave it running till we leave work. I'll try rebooting a couple of times 'on warm' tomorrow.

 

[imperialreign]

Afaik it does it only on the first power up in the morning.
I will test it tomorrow. Because normally we power up the pc in the morning and leave it running till we leave work. I'll try rebooting a couple of times 'on warm' tomorrow.

well - if it only does it after power has been 100% cut (turning off the supply going to the PSU), typically it's a failed CMOS battery.

If it will spit the same error message when power has been kept avaiable to the board (like after a reboot), it's probably something else.

Also, another thought, have you added any new hardware or peripherals to the system at all recently?

 

[newtekie1]

If the machine is failing to POST then it isn't related to anything with the trojan/worm.

It can be a failing battery, try what imperialreign suggests to test.

 

[Black Panther]

Is it physically possible that a cmos battery fails if it's only 4 months old?

As regards hardware / peripherals, I had removed the CRT, put an LCD and then put back the CRT. No driver installation though. However it did give the message 'found new hardware' every time, nothing major...

And after the cryptne.dll issue, I had to reinstall the drivers for the printer and scanner. Those are much older than the pc and the disks were misplaced so I got the drivers off the web.

Oh and right after the cryptne issue I also swapped dvd-roms with that of my pc. Both LG but mine had been an H42N and the one in the work pc had been an H44N. Now they're swapped. I didn't experiment with firmware or drivers for that on the work pc though, because the drive worked well there (it was on my rig that I had the problem).

That practically sums it up I think.

Apart from that the pc is very simple. PSU, mobo, 1 x 2GB RAM, processor, one ODD and one HDD. Nothing else.

Thank you for trying to help!

 

[sneekypeet]

It is entirely possible , that is why I mentioned it in post #7.

Who knows how long since they were manufactured it took until it got to you on that mobo.
Plus stuff happens , and i believe its around a three dollar try!