System does not boot; only 10%-20% of the time though....

[agi_shi]

I have this motherboard.....

An X2 3800+.... An X850XT.... 1 gig of DDR2 1.8v ram (2x512mb)... and everything else is not important....

Ok, the problem is this. About 10%-20% of the time my system does not boot. All the fans run, I can hear my hdd and cd drives spin up to "check" if there is something in them, but thats it. I get no display signal and the fans keep running at max (normally my x850xt has it's fan to 100% at startup and then lowers to it's usual 5% speed...).... I know it's not just the monitor or something because my fans keep running at 100% and there is no sound.

(Note that 80%-90% of the time my system boots just fine.)

I've replaced my powersupply with a beefy Antec - no better results. I play FEAR at maxed out settings for hours without any lock ups or anything (well, once or twice, but that was when I was overclocking my vid. card.... the problem started before I overclocked so thats not it)... So the ram can't be it; nor the graphics card (or can it?).....

The CPU probably isn't, because if it was my system either would never turn or would always turn on but never do anything past running the fans... all the time though, which is not my case.

So I'm left with the motherboard. Do you think this is my problem? My motherboard? I've updated the bios recently, I'll have to wait to see if the problem happens again (again, only 10%-20% of the time it happens)....

If you think it is the motherboard, which motherboard do you recommend me? It should be AM2, DDR2 800, and it should have a PCI-Express slot x16 slot........ oh, and atleast 1 SATA 1.5 GB/s and 1 ide port.

Thanks for your time....

 

[sirheck]

well i had a msi mobo with similar problems.

well no problems whatsoever unless i turned off my comp.
then about 50% of the time it would not start.

i could restart and oc and game all day but if i turned it off
i had to reset the cmos and sometimes it would not work

so it may be your mobo.

 

[IceBlue666]

its probably your power supply. Check the voltage on the 12v rail if its below 11.7 then you should change it.

 

[sirheck]

he has already treid another psu

 

[agi_shi]

Anyone else vote for the motherboard? I don't want to replace it and THEN hear like 3 people telling me I should've tested the ________ first....

 

[agi_shi]

Anyone else vote for the motherboard? I don't want to replace it and THEN hear like 3 people telling me I should've tested the ________ first....

I take it as a yes? (My thread is on page 4....)

 

[ethel]

A bit obvious, but try reseating the cpu, memory and vga - you never know ...

 

[agi_shi]

Anyone else vote for the motherboard? I don't want to replace it and THEN hear like 3 people telling me I should've tested the ________ first....

I take it as a yes? (My thread is on page 4....)

I've now realized some things. First, my motherboard tells me that I have 5.9V on the 12V, 1.2V on the 3.3V, and other wrong voltages. Second, it tells me a constant 25C for the cpu temp., which is wrong as well.....

Does this strengthen the idea that my motherboard is the problem?

 

[niz]

Anyone else vote for the motherboard? I don't want to replace it and THEN hear like 3 people telling me I should've tested the ________ first....

I take it as a yes? (My thread is on page 4....)

I've now realized some things. First, my motherboard tells me that I have 5.9V on the 12V, 1.2V on the 3.3V, and other wrong voltages. Second, it tells me a constant 25C for the cpu temp., which is wrong as well.....

Does this strengthen the idea that my motherboard is the problem?

Are those readings from within the bios or from some utility running under windows?

If its from a screen inside the bios I'd first make sure I'd flashed the motherboard whith the latest available bios, then if its still doing it I'd toss the board.

 

[agi_shi]

It's from all utilities under windows... they report the same thing (SpeedFan, Everest, PC Wizard, what not).....

BIOS reports 45C for the processor, but no voltages.... at all. Anywhere.

I've flashed the bios, same voltages and temps.....

Think I should just scrap this mobo and get myself another one?

 

[Oliver_FF]

I've been having the exact same issues myself with an X1800XT. I swapped PSU's, RMA's the motherboard and the problems persisted...

Two days ago i borrowed my friends Geforece 6200SE, plugged it in and it booted straight off. I plugged my 1800 back in thinking it was fluke, and no book. I put the 6200 back in and it booted...

The interesting thing was, when it did boot after cycling the power supply my 1800 worked flawlessly, it went for ages with ATITool's artifact scanner with no errors but it was blatanty faulty.

I've sent it back, I think i'm getting upgraded to a GeForce 7900GTO or something so it's not all bad