Weird Issue mobo/ram/psu/who knows?

[lwnexgen2]

Hey guys, I am having a very strange mobo/ram/power issue with my build, and I have no idea what the heck is up. Please forgive the length of this post, its kind of an odyssey and I'm hoping someone can point out where along this path I got screwed up.

Specs:
CPU: Pentium 4 520 LGA775
MOBO: Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6
RAM: Not sure whats working yet
VGA: MSI nVidia 7800GTX 256mb
PSU: Spire Rocketeer V 500w
HDD: 2xWD Caviar SE 200GB SATA 3GB/S
OPTICAL: Plextor 716-SA SATA DVD Burner

Ok, so I just bought a Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6 to upgrade from the crappy ECS 915P-A mobo I had before. I bought 2 Gigs of OCZ DDR2-800 to go with it, since I only had DDR-400 before.

I got everything hooked up, attempted to boot, and the thing hangs about 10 seconds into boot.

So I grab a stick of Corsair value stuff from my parents computer, and try to boot with that. It works! I go through and RMA the OCZ RAM and buy some decent Corsair XMS2 stuff that I would expect would work with my mobo. Meanwhile, I repair install windows so that it'll work and everything is fine for about an hour. I then realized that I forgot to hook up my front intake fan, hook it up, and try to boot again (after this, I think I might have smelled a short, but I could be wrong. In any case, I don't think the short would have been on the mobo, because the fan was connected to a 3-pin to molex connector). The comp will still boot, but about 45-50 seconds into boot, the power cuts and it restarts. I then mess with stuff, removing PCI devices and everything, trying to pinpoint where stuff is going wrong. Nothing works, and finally I decide to go try the other stick of Corsair value ram.

The thing boots again!

So I put my case back together and bring it upstairs (I work on my comp in the basement, less static) without touching any components whatsoever, hook everything back up, and turn it on to watch a movie. The thing starts doing the 45-50 seconds of boot followed by a power cut and reboot again. So I decided just to leave the thing sitting there until my new Corsair XMS2 came.

Today the ram arrived, and I went to unplug everything, ground myself, etc etc and install the new stuff, hoping it would work. So I plug one stick in just to test (the kit is 2 x 1gb Corsair XMS2 5-5-5-12), plug the power cable in and turn on the PSU.

Here is the really weird part:

The psu turns on and power routes through to the motherboard, turning on the CPU fan and case fan that I hooked up correctly (without me pressing the 'on' button) but not booting the computer. It sort of reminds me of when you jumper a PSU to test it.

Anyone have any ideas? I'm at my wits end with this thing.

 

[lwnexgen2]

I forgot to mention, the PSU only does the automatic start thing when the main 24-Pin ATX cable is plugged into the mobo, so I'm thinking this issue is a mobo one not neccessarily a PSU one.

 

[badge]

Hey guys, I am having a very strange mobo/ram/power issue with my build, and I have no idea what the heck is up. Please forgive the length of this post, its kind of an odyssey and I'm hoping someone can point out where along this path I got screwed up.

Specs:
CPU: Pentium 4 520 LGA775
MOBO: Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6
RAM: Not sure whats working yet
VGA: MSI nVidia 7800GTX 256mb
PSU: Spire Rocketeer V 500w
HDD: 2xWD Caviar SE 200GB SATA 3GB/S
OPTICAL: Plextor 716-SA SATA DVD Burner

Ok, so I just bought a Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6 to upgrade from the crappy ECS 915P-A mobo I had before. I bought 2 Gigs of OCZ DDR2-800 to go with it, since I only had DDR-400 before.

I got everything hooked up, attempted to boot, and the thing hangs about 10 seconds into boot.

So I grab a stick of Corsair value stuff from my parents computer, and try to boot with that. It works! I go through and RMA the OCZ RAM and buy some decent Corsair XMS2 stuff that I would expect would work with my mobo. Meanwhile, I repair install windows so that it'll work and everything is fine for about an hour. I then realized that I forgot to hook up my front intake fan, hook it up, and try to boot again (after this, I think I might have smelled a short, but I could be wrong. In any case, I don't think the short would have been on the mobo, because the fan was connected to a 3-pin to molex connector). The comp will still boot, but about 45-50 seconds into boot, the power cuts and it restarts. I then mess with stuff, removing PCI devices and everything, trying to pinpoint where stuff is going wrong. Nothing works, and finally I decide to go try the other stick of Corsair value ram.

The thing boots again!

So I put my case back together and bring it upstairs (I work on my comp in the basement, less static) without touching any components whatsoever, hook everything back up, and turn it on to watch a movie. The thing starts doing the 45-50 seconds of boot followed by a power cut and reboot again. So I decided just to leave the thing sitting there until my new Corsair XMS2 came.

Today the ram arrived, and I went to unplug everything, ground myself, etc etc and install the new stuff, hoping it would work. So I plug one stick in just to test (the kit is 2 x 1gb Corsair XMS2 5-5-5-12), plug the power cable in and turn on the PSU.

Here is the really weird part:

The psu turns on and power routes through to the motherboard, turning on the CPU fan and case fan that I hooked up correctly (without me pressing the 'on' button) but not booting the computer. It sort of reminds me of when you jumper a PSU to test it.

Anyone have any ideas? I'm at my wits end with this thing.

I would try and get to BIOS and do a clean, full install of windows. Then load the drivers for your new MB. Forget doing a repair. I doubt the repair you did when you stck the HD in removed old drivers, conflicts, etc. HTH.

 

[CompTIA_Rep]

With a new motherboard, windows MUST be reinstalled (XP). Windows is causing the rebooting not hardware.


Good Luck.

 

[lwnexgen2]

Hey guys, I figured it out, turns out it WAS the PSU. On a whim, I tried installing my old PSU in it (it works fine, had been replaced by the Spire which I received for a review. Needless to say, the Spire PSU will no longer get the Maximum CPU seal of approval >-0 )

And just so the last couple of repliers know, the repair install of XP worked fine until the PSU apparently died and I didn't want to admit it because I liked the PSU so much until then.