Computer keeps restarting, defective part?

TimTim Southwest PA Icrontian
edited August 2011 in Hardware
My main PC has been working fine for a couple years now, but yesterday it decided to give me a problem. I had turned it off for a while (it is almost never turned off), and I cleaned it out with compressed air while I was doing things. And it worked fine afterwards. Then later I turned it off again, and when I went to turn it back on, it'll start, give a POST beep, run the fans for a few seconds, and turn off. And then restart.

The power stays on for 7 seconds, then off for 3 seconds, and it'll give the POST beep every OTHER time when it turns on. Not every single time.

I have tried changing the power supply, RAM sticks and slots, leaving the CD-ROM and the second hard drive unhooked, a different video card, NO video card, a different SATA cable to the hard drive, reseated the CPU, etc. I have also reset the CMOS and pulled the CMOS battery a few times.

Nothing makes any difference. It does not make it to any BIOS screens or Windows screens.

Parts list:

Gigabyte EP45-DS3R motherboard
E7300 dual core 2 duo
4 GB ram
XP Home SP3
1 SATA and 1 IDE Seagate hard drive
4870 GPU (and an 8800GT for testing)

The motherboard has 6 LEDs on it near the RAM, in the corner, for its 6 phase power system, and it has 2 green, 2 yellow, and 2 red. Nothing unusual there.

Any ideas? I'm hoping it's not a dead motherboard, but I have few ideas as to what else it could be.:banghead:

Comments

  • BuddyJBuddyJ Dept. of Propaganda OKC Icrontian
    edited July 2011
    Try a new CMOS battery.
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited July 2011
    It does sound like the motherboard. It's possible when you were moving things around you bent a capacitor. The other possibility is that some how something to out of alignment and it's grounding. You could try taking everything out of the case and running it on the desk to rule out grounding.
  • TimTim Southwest PA Icrontian
    edited July 2011
    I disassembled the whole thing, down to every part. Looked all over the motherboard and saw no bent or damaged pieces, no burn marks, etc.

    Put it all back together with the original power supply and RAM sticks and other stuff.

    It still does it. :banghead:
  • Cliff_ForsterCliff_Forster Icrontian
    edited July 2011
    Well, the good news is you can buy an LGA 775 replacement fairly cheap. It looks like boards start around $40 and up. Similar to your board, looks like about $60 to replace. Probably not even worth the RMA hassle.

    Before you do that, have you tried replacing the CMOS battery?
  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian
    edited July 2011
    What are your temps like?
  • TimTim Southwest PA Icrontian
    edited July 2011
    I changed the CMOS battery, didn't help. The old one was reading 3.04 volts, the new one was 3.19.

    I have always had my CPU warning temperature set at 60 C, and never had a heat warning with it, so it has never been close to overheating. Between the cpu fan, power supply fan, and case fans, the airflow though the case was always good.

    I'm surprised and disappointed that the motherboard could just die like this with no warning, if that is the problem. I have also always had the computer running on an APC Back-UPS XS 900 battery backup / surge protector too.
  • TimTim Southwest PA Icrontian
    edited July 2011
    I requested an RMA through Gigabyte. Their RMA page says motherboards have a 3 year warranty based on the manufacture date, and my board serial number says the 35th week of 2008. So I've got about 6 weeks or so left on warranty. I have to wait now and get the RMA email.

    Way to squeak it in there just before the warranty expires! I love that! :thumbsup:
  • Cliff_ForsterCliff_Forster Icrontian
    edited July 2011
    Tim wrote:
    I requested an RMA through Gigabyte. Their RMA page says motherboards have a 3 year warranty based on the manufacture date, and my board serial number says the 35th week of 2008. So I've got about 6 weeks or so left on warranty. I have to wait now and get the RMA email.

    Way to squeak it in there just before the warranty expires! I love that! :thumbsup:

    I'm not sure if they will do it, but several companies will do an advance RMA for something reasonably inexpensive. To take the time to troubleshoot and repair, its just not worth it to them, so if you ask, they might send you a LGA 775 replacement they have in stock with a return shipping label, you will probably have to give them a credit card number for collateral in case you don't return the borked board. It can cut a good week off the process if they do something like that. I've had Newegg, Saphire, and Seagate all do advance RMA's for me, its a great program.
  • TimTim Southwest PA Icrontian
    edited August 2011
    I talked to Gigabyte today, and the motherboard was put in the mail yesterday, I should have it friday. They said the BIOS was bad and needed reflashed. Data error.

    Well waitaminute, this motherboard has the dual BIOS chips, and isn't one supposed to rewrite the other if it goes bad? It didn't work? How did this happen?

    I'll have to wait until it gets here, put it back together, and see how it goes.
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