- Feb 11, 2009
- 2
- 0
- 18,510
I've been having problems with my computer for 3 months, and I've tried just about everything. Here's the short version:
■built computer in Feb 2006 and had no problems until a year ago
■had motherboard replaced last March (possibly damaged by underpowered PSU, so I purchased the 400W PSU below)
■in November, computer randomly started turning off; cause: leaked capacitor on board; RMA'd under warranty
■received new board: fans spin but no POST; cause: faulty PSU; RMA'd under warranty
■bought new RaidMax 450W PSU, which worked great for a week, then nothing would power up again
■received new PSU from RMA (Athena Power 400W, see below): sporadic problems
■after days of unsuccessful attempts, I RMA'd the motherboard again, but no difference in performance (yup, my 4th board)
I'm trying to provide as much detail as possible, since that usually helps. I've taken the board out of the case and put it on an anti-static bag, connecting only the CPU, hard drive, keyboard/mouse, and several different combinations of RAM. When I try to power up with:
■any one of the 4 sticks of RAM in any of the 4 slots, it boots up fine
■any 2 in either slots 1&2 or 3&4, it can: 1) power up (fans spinning) but no POST; 2) POST but no boot; or 3) boot -- there is no apparent pattern to which combination will actually boot up and when (the system maybe boots up 1/5 of the time)
■all 4 sticks, no boot
I've cleared the CMOS several times, but that doesn't seem to solve any problems. So, it seems like I can rule out the motherboard, PSU, and RAM, since I've tried several different ones of each, with similar results. Dare I say that it's the CPU? I know that the CPU is rarely the component that fails, but everything seems to point to that. And as luck would have it, my 3-year warranty expires on Saturday, so I'm barely covered. Any thoughts? I'm stuck.
--------------------
System specs:
■MSI K8NGM2-FID motherboard
■AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Venice 1GHz FSB 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939
■Athena Power AP-MP4ATX40 400W ATX12V / MicroATX / SFX12V v 2.2 PSU
■CORSAIR ValueSelect 2x1GB 184-Pin PC3200 DDR SDRAM
■Crucial 2x1GB 184-Pin PC3200 DDR SDRAM
■built computer in Feb 2006 and had no problems until a year ago
■had motherboard replaced last March (possibly damaged by underpowered PSU, so I purchased the 400W PSU below)
■in November, computer randomly started turning off; cause: leaked capacitor on board; RMA'd under warranty
■received new board: fans spin but no POST; cause: faulty PSU; RMA'd under warranty
■bought new RaidMax 450W PSU, which worked great for a week, then nothing would power up again
■received new PSU from RMA (Athena Power 400W, see below): sporadic problems
■after days of unsuccessful attempts, I RMA'd the motherboard again, but no difference in performance (yup, my 4th board)
I'm trying to provide as much detail as possible, since that usually helps. I've taken the board out of the case and put it on an anti-static bag, connecting only the CPU, hard drive, keyboard/mouse, and several different combinations of RAM. When I try to power up with:
■any one of the 4 sticks of RAM in any of the 4 slots, it boots up fine
■any 2 in either slots 1&2 or 3&4, it can: 1) power up (fans spinning) but no POST; 2) POST but no boot; or 3) boot -- there is no apparent pattern to which combination will actually boot up and when (the system maybe boots up 1/5 of the time)
■all 4 sticks, no boot
I've cleared the CMOS several times, but that doesn't seem to solve any problems. So, it seems like I can rule out the motherboard, PSU, and RAM, since I've tried several different ones of each, with similar results. Dare I say that it's the CPU? I know that the CPU is rarely the component that fails, but everything seems to point to that. And as luck would have it, my 3-year warranty expires on Saturday, so I'm barely covered. Any thoughts? I'm stuck.
--------------------
System specs:
■MSI K8NGM2-FID motherboard
■AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Venice 1GHz FSB 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939
■Athena Power AP-MP4ATX40 400W ATX12V / MicroATX / SFX12V v 2.2 PSU
■CORSAIR ValueSelect 2x1GB 184-Pin PC3200 DDR SDRAM
■Crucial 2x1GB 184-Pin PC3200 DDR SDRAM
), we could anonymise it so that the OP doesn't take any flak.
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