Faulty MOBO? Faulty PSU? $1000 paper weight!

[xenzaka]

This is my first build.

The Components
CPU: AMD Phenom X4 9950BE 2.6Ghz @ 125w
PSU: Antec 500W Neo-HE
MOBO: ASUS Crosshair II Formula
SATA1: 1TB Seagate HDD 7200RPM
SATA2: 200GB Maxtor HDD 7200RPM
SATA3: ASUS DVD/CD Reader combo
RAM: 4 x 1024MB OCZ Fatal1ty @ 1066MHz
Soundcard: X-Fi Sound Blaster
Video: Onboard

The Problem
I can get the system to usually post, at most times.

I can enter the bios.

The bios is fully updated.

Bios recognizes all components. All are compatible.

I successfully installed Vista-64 for some reason last night; ONLY because I had the DVD drive and 200G HDD going, nothing else.

When the system crashes, it's almost an instant "click" and everything dies, all fans, everything but the LEDs located on the motherboard. I can then easily restart it.

It seems that if I unplug everything it can run stable in bios set-up, or post, lcd view.

I don't understand what this could be, the deathly crashes happen frequently and sporatically. It's rare to actually get the computer to boot with both the DVD drive and HDD and stay running for a while before all crashes and then, dies.

I hope this isn't due to my MOBO and it's a faulty PSU. I've tried many things.

Any ideas?

Thanks for all and any time on helping me very appreciated!

 

[Shadow703793]

Did you increase RAM voltages? Default voltage BIOS gives is 1.8v, those DDR2 1066 RAM needs 2.0-2.2v.

 

[xenzaka]

Oh good idea! Anything else possible?

 

[jsc]

There's a good chance that you have a flaky power supply.

What could be happening is that the 12 volt rail is dropping out under load. When this happens, a control signal from the PSU called something like "PowerOK" goes low (5 volts to 0 volts). This forces the CPU to reset.

 

[xenzaka]

All right, I might try to play around with it more (spent over 2-3 good solid hours on it by now) but as far as deducing has gone, it sounds like I'll have to replace the PSU.

 

[ZOldDude]

I used to use Antec 550's back in the AMD Athlon Barton days...never had one last the full warrenty period and I built a few hundred systems.
The only PSU I use now or tell others to use is PC Power and Cooling.

Q: If you could use XP why on earth would you want to install Vista?

EDIT: Here is a hint...when the PSU goes out it often takes the MB with it.
If you can find a Sam's Photofact for the MB you may be able to replace the cap/diode that got zapped without shipping it back to the factory.
Same with the PSU.

 

[xenzaka]

I chose Vista Ultimate 64:
1) It's free, for me
2) I truly haven't had one issue with it
3) As long as it does the things I want it to do; I could care less.

XP, however, is quite nice.


I'm going to check the RAM voltage tonight and hopefully that's the problem to the spontaneous death I'm getting.

I can't imagine it's PSU related, because it's spontaneous, either the power suffices or it doesn't; at least I would imagine.

 

[Newf]

Sure sounds like unstable ram to me...
I'd also go with the vram issue. And while you are at it, pull 2 of the 4 sticks out temporarily, then check your default voltage.
Your power supply won't even break a sweat running any system with integrated graphics. It should last for years.

 

[xenzaka]

I can really see where you're coming from on this, too. I'm going to work on everything again, tonight.

Quite a pain, if not a little discouraging to have this much trouble. That's okay though, you learn, ya know?

 

[shortstuff_mt]

Q: If you could use XP why on earth would you want to install Vista?

ZOldDude is one of the last die-hard Vista haters left on these forums. Feel free to ignore his rants about Vista. There are many, many people who are running Vista without any problems at all. I currently run 64-bit Vista on my main computer and 32-bit on an old 2.8GHz P4 with 1GB of RAM. I haven't had any problems with Vista on either computer. I'd certainly never go back to XP!

Heres a better question. If you could install Vista 64, why on Earth would you want to install XP? Stuck in the past?

+1 :lol:

 

[xenzaka]

I'm going to start my tinkering in about an hour and i'll let everyone know the outcome :\

 

[xenzaka]

bump

 

[V3NOM]

well what was the outcome? :lol:

 

[xenzaka]

oh, right, yeah, still getting crashes :\ can't tell if it's the PSU or not, i can't imagine it's memory anymore

 

[cah027]

Have you tried pulling the sound card out ? Then one stick of ram at a time?

Might be a bad part some where.

 

[kubes]

Actually I think the last few Antec power supplies to come out are very good. Signature series is up there being the best imo. Even the TPQ 4 arn't bad. None the less though even solid quality psu's still have defected ones from time to time. Could be the culpriate.

Its weird that the computer is turning straight off and not giving you a BSOD first. This could be something as simple as your cpu is overheating. This would cause a shut down without a BSOD. What are the tempatures your reading?