Troubleshooting Disaster

[chron]

Hello everyone, thanks for taking the time to view my problem. I'll keep things as brief as possible.

My system:
P5W DH Deluxe, E6600, G.Skill DDR2-800, X1950XT 512MB, OCZ 700W GamerXStream, 1x80GB SATA, 1x320GB SATA

My problem:
Computer freezes (locks up) after detection of IDE drives then reboots.
If the computer makes it past the IDE detection then the windows load screen freezes (locks up) and reboots.
If I make it into windows, the computer might work fine for a while, then lock up and reboot.
Please keep in mind; I see no pattern to the crashes.

What I have done so far:
I reset CMOS.
I removed all cards I didn't need to boot (sound, TV tuner)
I have disconnected both hard drives in order to boot from CD and reflash bios.
I have tried flashing the bios (system locks up before bios flash can start)
I have replaced the PSU from a 500W to a 700W.
I have downclocked the CPU from 266MHz fsb to 150MHz fsb.
I set RAM timings to SPD, set voltage to 2.2, set speed to 200MHz (50% decrease.)
Put in two sticks of ballistix DDR2-667 but computer did not post (incompatible?)
No noticable difference in symptoms after any of these actions!

What may have caused it:
I recently updated the P5W's bios to 1901. There were no issues at first.
While downloading a call of juarez patch in the background via a torrent, I opened up a large video file (episode of futurama.) The computer automatically rebooted itself the moment I opened the video file. Symptoms started immediately upon restart.

My personal suspicions:
I think the bios may be corrupt or messing up the system, or perhaps the motherboard is just faulty in some way.

The hard drive is making no concernable noise, and has always operated at a safe temperature, but when I connect the hard drives to different SATA connections, it seems to help it get past the "IDE Detection" step (but again, keep in mind that diconnecting both drives resulted in the same sort of lockups.)

I don't suspect CPU or RAM as the same symptoms occur no matter what voltage/speed they are at. (Plus, the cpu is fairly new. About a month.)

PLEASE HELP!

 

[Newf]

You have eliminated a few suspects so far.
PSU and hard drives are not it.
The cpu works, at least for a while. Heat is unknown.
Memory is the usual suspect. Try the following:

Reset CMOS.
Remove all cards I didn't need to boot (sound, TV tuner)
Remove 1 stick of ram, leaving one in the primary slot (per your manual).
Disconnect all drives.
Try and get a stable POST.
Set BIOS to default.
Check temps if you can.

Go from there, 1 step at a time.

 

[chron]

Tried one stick (one of each) with no improvement. I think I can rule out ram.

 

[Vokofpolisiekar]

Try a boot disk (hopefully you have a dusty old stiffy drive there somewhere) and include the default BIOS (.bin) that came with the mobo (Asus normally includes the release bios on the installation cd), plus the dos line bios updater (you'll have to check the instructions on the website).

Now, you mentioned that trying to roll back to previous BIOS resulted in a freeze, and so can you confirm whether you tried from Windows, BIOS option screen or through a dos command line?

I'm asking, as you have ruled out alot of suspects in the hardware layer - so I'm going with BIOS fault as that was the most significant change - I'm thinking a clash between hardware due to incapable bios handling.

 

[chron]

beerandcandy, thanks for the advice, but if you read above i clearly explained how the system freezes during random operations. If it won't let me flash the bios via dos what makes u think it will install an entire OS? besides, i got vital data. Thanks but no thanks.

Try a boot disk (hopefully you have a dusty old stiffy drive there somewhere) and include the default BIOS (.bin) that came with the mobo (Asus normally includes the release bios on the installation cd), plus the dos line bios updater (you'll have to check the instructions on the website).

Now, you mentioned that trying to roll back to previous BIOS resulted in a freeze, and so can you confirm whether you tried from Windows, BIOS option screen or through a dos command line?

I'm asking, as you have ruled out alot of suspects in the hardware layer - so I'm going with BIOS fault as that was the most significant change - I'm thinking a clash between hardware due to incapable bios handling.

The only way for me to update the bios now is with a new chip. I put a different processor in there and moved the hard drives to the dell downstairs (on it now.) After repalcing cpu, the MB had the same symptoms.

I've basically ruled it down to the motherboard. I think the PSU messed up the motherboard. RMA time.

 

[chron]

No I don't have any neat toys like that. Jeez I coulda sworn I replied to this message already but it didn't show up.

Anyways, MB gets here tomorrow. I'll post updtes