Potential Motherboard issues

[Man-on-the-fence]

Hi all

My system currrenttly runs on a Gygabyte GA-K8NXP-SLI F6 Motherboard, It has an AMD 64 Processor with 1 x 8GB IDE system disk anda RAID SATA storage drive. With 2GB RAM

This evening it sut down for no reason. Now when I try and reboot, about halfway through the Windows screen it re-boots. It does the same in safe mode. I have tried booting with no usb devices attached. I have also tried re-imaging the system disk.

My guess is the Motherboard has died. I will try it with various memory combinations in the morning.

Can anyone suggest anything else to try. I am assuming the system disk is still ok but I can find a spare one to test.

If it is the motherboard, anyone know when I can get another of the above (apart from EBay) or suggest an alternative that I can get that I can just slot my peripherals into. Graphics card is a ATI Radion PCIe with its own connection from the PSU.

Any suggestions welcome

Thanks.

[Saab Dastard]

Run a MEMTEST (google it) to soak test the RAM.

Re-seat the CPU? Check that all cables are connected, all cards and RAM are fully seated.

Socket 939 is a few years old now - you'll struggle to get another identical board new, though you might find a refurbished board from lambdatek, or on ebay as you say.

Search for socket 939 boards from ebuyer or whatever your favourite supplier is - you can probably get a different 939 board and transfer most or all of your components over, though you'll probably need to do a complete system installation from your original media.

SD

[Captain Beaky]

Check that the Processor fan is working and is not clogged up with dust. My PC had the same indications as yours before I removed masses of dust from inside the case and fans.

[Man-on-the-fence]

Thanks so far.

Am running Memtest as wel speak. Processor heatsing is fairly dusty bbut the fan is ok and the tems are no higher than normal.

Looks like I am going to have to bite the bullet and start re-seating stuff.

Its eitehr HDD or motherboard I guess (asuming the memory checks out). Anone know where I can get a compatable motherboard from, As Saab says cant get the exact same one now and I would like to keep the costs down otherwise I may as well go and buy a whole new PC.

[pmills575]

I had a similar problem with one of my systems recently. It would just reboot any time it felt like it, could be 1 minute or two hours after starting up.
I too was resigned to replacing the motherboard. I even considered that the OS was corrupt, however I have RH Linux on another disk and this would do the same thing.

As a part of the diag process replaced the PSU and lo and behold runs forever now. I guess that one of the power rails just started to fall off, probably the 5V. It's a fairly quick check, providing you've got a compatible PSU to test with.

Peter Mills

[Man-on-the-fence]

Thanks Peter, sadly I dont have a spare (dont understand the power system much)

It runs for ages though.

what does the 5v system power, Graphics card (it has its own power lead from the PSU)?

It been memtesting for the best part of an hour with no errors or reboots, its just booting into windows where it reboots.

[Man-on-the-fence]

Interesting! Running the mem test (for just over an hour, no errors) and when I touched a key on the keyboard it rebooted a la the orginal problem.

[gibbo568]

A quick search on 'PRICERUNNER' website showed 2 retailers selling this motherboard.
CTI Direct in Oldham, and ExtremePC's somewhere down south.
I will leave you to decide if £130 is a good price, as I have no experience of these particular boards!

There are a few retailers still selling ASROCK 939 boards, but they may not be up to the same specs as the Gigabyte.


Gibbo

[Man-on-the-fence]

Gibbo

Thanks for that, the price is a bit steep but will have to go with it if needs be.

I havew re-seated everything I could find and I am now running a HDD test. the quick test failed :confused: so I am running the full test.

Funny thing is I havent seen one go like this before (and I have seen lots of HDD failures).

All rather odd.

[green granite]

Interesting! Running the mem test (for just over an hour, no errors) and when I touched a key on the keyboard it rebooted a la the orginal problem.If you're running an USB keyboard, try unplugging all other USB devices then see if it still does this reboot thing, if it's ok then re-plug the devices one at a time and retest each time, this probably won't cure anything but at least it eliminates possible resource conflicts (I had a printer that prevented a pc from booting if it was plugged in but worked fine when you hot plugged into the USB port.)

[Man-on-the-fence]

Ok I have tried 2 different (old but still working when they went in the drawer) HDD's both of which have eventually failed on ntfs.sys after ebtering the boot loop. Both failures occured after I started adding the motherboard drivers.

A new board (same model) has been ordered via ebay. I just hope it turns up.

[Saab Dastard]

Bad luck - I hope the replacement works out OK. Let us know how you get on.

SD

[Man-on-the-fence]

Thanks

Still not 100% convinced, but as I broke one of the memory clips taking it apart I had to get one anyway.

Bummer

[clicker]

Could there be a virus causing the rebooting?

[Man-on-the-fence]

3 different HDD's all been cleaned and rebuilt. Unless its in the BIOS I doubt it.

Unless anyone knows different.

It all goes wrong after the reboot halfway through installing the motherboard drivers (I think its the RAID thats causing it).

[Bo Nalls]

I'd personally go with pmills575 idea that the PSU could be at fault. My system started auto-shutting down at varying times and a new, more capable PSU removed the fault completey.

[Man-on-the-fence]

The system is fine and dandy with a basic windows installation, as soon as you start installing motherboard drivers it falls over.

If the PSU was at fault it either wouldnt switch on or the devices wouldnt display because they are getting no power.

[Saab Dastard]

MOTF - I assume that you have checked the manfr's site for updated drivers and searched their knowledge base for any assistance with your problem?

SD

[Temet_Nosce]

Have you recently updated windows to SP3?

My AMD based machine would not load windows (even in safe mode) after SP3...

There is a procedure to unload SP3 and the recommendation is to stop automatic updates for the time being.

Cheers

[Man-on-the-fence]

Its not SP3, even if it had SP3 on it, the image I installed on it to try and fix the problem doesnt have it.

Saab. The image has all the latest drivers installed on it. Not a lot of info on their website and I couldnt find much about the issue. To be honest there have been issues for quite a while (with many diffrent builds and driver versions), but a re-boot has usually sorted it.

Had it been a warranty call then the motherboard would have been replaced as a precaution.

[Man-on-the-fence]

Success!

Have just installed the new motherboard (a trial in itself as there are lots of pluggy in type things that dont appear to do much, I remember having a nightmare when I built the thing!) and it has booted successfully.

Now I have an electronic buzzing noise to sort, I have probably plugged something in wrong (nothing major I think).

[Saab Dastard]

Well done, long may it last! :ok:

SD

[Man-on-the-fence]

Ta Saab

Buzzing sorted by the simple expediant of pulling the speaker. Probably not the correct thing to do but I will see how it lasts.

[Man-on-the-fence]

The downside is that both dists in the RAID (mirror) are fried, cant get any data off.

[Saab Dastard]

Is that HW or SW RAID?

[Man-on-the-fence]

Saab

Its a SATA Raid Mirror. One of the disks had died.

So whatever took the MB out also killed a disk. The MB is dead as the PC wouldnt even boot with the raid disks disconnected.

I have switched off the RAID in BIOS and I am now running a single SATA data disk alongside the IDE system disk. Will have to save up* for a couple of replacement SATA disks and rebuild the RAID. All is well for the time being.

Thanks for your help chaps, much appreciated.


* for save up read convince Mrs Fence that it is vital that I buy them. Having recently invested in 1TB of Network storage and a new motherboard and DVD RW drive. I'll placate her with handbags and shoes :}

[Saab Dastard]

I'll placate her with handbags and shoes

Ah, the Imelda Marcos Gambit! ;)

SD