Possible Mobo Failure?

[phathead]

I have been trying to troubleshoot a power problem on my desktop for the last several weeks. Essentially, I'm losing power at random times. Sometimes it'll run for 10 minutes, other times it won't run 10 seconds. Occasionally, the power will become intermittent, kind of like a car trying to start on a cold day.

Here is a video of that particular problem - http://www.rubbins-racin.com/member_ftp/phat/Desktop.AVI

Now I have replaced the GPU, HD, PSU and tested all of the ram thoroughly. Nothing alleviated the issue.

It does have closed water cooling setup on it, but I have high doubts that it is related to that as my temps are stable across the board.

Here's where it gets goofy. It runs pretty good on its side, but not upright. I had it in at the best IT support company in town and they ran it at full load, on its side, for two days.

Last night, after I installed the new PSU, it wouldn't run longer than 5 minutes. I put it on its side, and it ran for 5 hours. I went to reinstall all the ram as I was planning on just running it on its side for the time being, and now its having troubles maintaining enough power to boot. And yes, the ram is properly seated.

Thus I am left to conclude that it is most likely the mobo, but I want to double check before going this route. I literally am pulling my hair out here, so I'm hoping someone here may be of some help

Here is a visual shot of the mobo setup and my stats via CPU-Z

http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/4052/post344126343947135.jpg
http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/9561/post344126421184934.jpg

Thanks for any help you can give me.

 

[o1die]

Try it without the water cooling kit and take all the parts out; use the stock heatsink if you have one. Could be a pressure issue on the socket area, or intermitant short on the board. You may also have a small leak somewhere.

 

[phathead]

I don't have a stock heatsink lying around. I should mention that my temps have remained constant throughout. Not sure if its ever gotten above 85F to be honest.

That's part of the reason why I don't think its an overheating issue.

 

[aford10]

Does your power cable that plugs into the PSU feel loose at all? Move it around a little and see if it's got a short or is loose. Maybe try a different cable.

 

[phathead]

Does your power cable that plugs into the PSU feel loose at all? Move it around a little and see if it's got a short or is loose. Maybe try a different cable.

I've tried three different power cables thus far including the brand new one that came with the new PSU

I noticed that the mobo does not beep for any reason. the speaker is still attached to the correct pins, its just something I did not notice at the moment

 

[aford10]

If it still POSTs and boots into windows, the speaker may be bad.

 

[phathead]

It's not doing anything now for some reason. Its running, but no POST and no boot

 

[pjmelect]

The fact that it works on its side would indicate to me that you have a faulty motherboard. You should of course check that the processor is fitted correctly as well as the RAM and video card. A common fault that causes this on motherboards is that the BGA (Ball Grid Array) components become intermittent due to poorly soldered joints, there is no way to fix this yourself. Try assembling the computer outside the case and flex the motherboard to locate the area of the problem.

 

[aford10]

Breadboarding would be the next step. You may have a component that isn't seated right (pulls on the board when upright), or a cracked motherboard (pretty rare).

 

[phathead]

Breadboarding would be the next step. You may have a component that isn't seated right (pulls on the board when upright), or a cracked motherboard (pretty rare).

Yea I kinda figure that. I'm going to be gone for almost two weeks, so I'm thinking now that I may just bring it some place and have them do it. It's been like this since Thanksgiving and its the main PC in the apartment. Needless to say I am beyond frustrated with it and just want it fixed.

 

[aford10]

Hopefully there's a shop that's trustworthy near you.

Good luck.