Asus M4A88TD won't boot, DRAM Led flashes 2 sec then PC dies

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leftover

Honorable
Aug 18, 2013
8
0
10,510
Hi,
a week ago my pc was working perfectly. When I came back after a week of vacation it won't turn on anymore. When I plug in the cord the green power LED turns on. When I press the button the fans start, the DRAM led becomes red and after just 2-3 seconds the system turns off.
After that I have to re-plug the power cable to see this behaviour again, otherwise pressing the power-on button has no effect at all.
I verified the RAM and re-inserted it again but with no luck.

What could be wrong? What could I try?

Motherboard: ASUS M4A88TD-M EVO/USB3
CPU: AMD Athlon II X2
RAM: Corsair DDR3 1600MHz 2+2GB


Thanks in advance.
 
Solution
alexoiu
Only if having a spare CPU/motherboard.
You can try testing them at a local shop (if not too expensive).
The warranty is for 3 yrs for boards and CPUs, if I'm not wrong.
And one more thing. Try also a new CMOS battery (who knows...).
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L

leftover

Honorable
Aug 18, 2013
8
0
10,510


Hi, thanks a lot for your reply.

I've tried connecting the chassis fan, the CPU fan and even a couple of hard disks and everything worked fine. The system isn't going down, even after an hour.
Should I deduce that the motherboard is hopelessly dead or can I try something else?

While searching google I found a similar problem where someone suggested that the motherboard could be shorting with the chassis, but I thought it is unlikely to be my case. Am I right?


Thanks
 
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alexoiu

alexoiu

Titan
Nov 1, 2012
39,818
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126,990
Can you connect an internal case speaker to the motherboard?
Try starting the board with single RAM installed See if still the same. Test each slot.
Try also unplugging the power cord and pressing the power button for about 30 seconds. Then start the board.
 
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L

leftover

Honorable
Aug 18, 2013
8
0
10,510


The speaker is already connected. I heard a beep only once after a CMOS reset with battery off, then never again.
I tried every RAM stick in every slot but nothing changed. Same for unplugging & pressing the button.

What's new is that this morning I plugged the cable in, pressed the botton and the PC booted normally (the DRAM led flashed just a second). It stood on for like 6-7 hours and then shut down by itself. After that I was back with the same problem again.
I don't know what to think. :??:
 
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L

leftover

Honorable
Aug 18, 2013
8
0
10,510


Warranty expired long ago. Anyway, I've tried replacing the power supply with a working one and, guess what, the same problem appeared!
What I tried next was to pull out the motherboard and connect only the two ATX power cables, and nothing else, no RAM, with/without CPU fan, etc. (which I discovered right now is called breadbording) but I had the same problem.
The system behaves like you would expect (e.g. "no-RAM" beeps) but then after a random time that can be 1,2 maybe 3 seconds it shuts down.
I'm pretty pretty (pretty) sure that this power supply is OK and working well.
Is there any other thing I could try? Or at least something to determine which one is broken, the CPU or the motherboard? (Or both?)

 
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alexoiu

alexoiu

Titan
Nov 1, 2012
39,818
249
126,990
Only if having a spare CPU/motherboard.
You can try testing them at a local shop (if not too expensive).
The warranty is for 3 yrs for boards and CPUs, if I'm not wrong.
And one more thing. Try also a new CMOS battery (who knows...).
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
L

leftover

Honorable
Aug 18, 2013
8
0
10,510


No luck with a new battery. I'll try to have them tested at the store where I bought the parts and get a replacement for whichever is dead (last 2 months of a 3 years warranty! :D).

Thanks a lot for your help.

P.S.: Should I close the topic / Mark as solved / Whatever-we-usually-do-in-this-forum-I-don't-know ?
 
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L

leftover

Honorable
Aug 18, 2013
8
0
10,510
Well, I asked the store and said that they can test it but if any of the two is found working they'll charge me for their work (lots of $$$). So I decided to bet on the motherboard and send only that in for replacement. Now I just have to wait for ASUS' answer (at least 2 months) and then I'll know what was wrong.
 
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