GA-X58A-UD3R rev 1

[andrewkp]

Hi Guys,

I have just come back from being away and my PC won't boot. The PC was off but left with the power plugged in - anyhow in the UK the power supply is pretty regulated and the PSU is a HX1000W . Anyhow I turned on the PC and nothing happened - no fans, nothing. Had a look inside and saw the DDR Phase LED green and the NB Phase LED yellow - all normal there I guess? Also the CLR CMOS button is a solid blue, apparently if it was flashing this would indicate PSU problem or maybe the 8 PIN supply not plugged in. Anyhow I have tried unplugging everything not essential, tried taking out the GPU (which I have verified as working), rearranging the memory in the white slots. With the speakers plugged in there are no beeps. Have tried removing the cmos battery for an hour with the PSU power supply exhausted.

I really think this is the motherboard but it is hard to know for sure without actually buying another motherboard and moving the components over. Would be nice if had the error codes from the POST going to a port - but not see any details for that for this board. I have seen a few issues with this board so I am guessing maybe it took a year to happen to me.

Anyhow any suggestions appreciated - I don't like to RMA things so would like to make sure it is the motherboard. Would be great to hook up the laptop with some software onto one of the motherboard ports and see what the actual error is!

Also suggestion on replacement motherboard welcome, I have never had a motherboard go on me (I have MBs from 10 years ago still fine) so was a little suprised this happened after a year (when no one was even using the PC).

Cheers,

Andrew

 

[John_VanKirk]

Hi Andrew, and Welcome to Tom's Hardware!

I think you have already nailed it down to the MB. Have had several MB's fail over time, for whatever reason, but usually it's from a power surge, possibly a stuttering second or so outage while you were gone. Had one ASUS MB quit like yours, which was the Southbridge chip. Could be multiple possibilities.

You've checked the CPU which is great. If you get NO beep codes, it's the MB. Video, RAM, some MB problems give you specific beeb code beeps as listed in your manual.

The other thing I'd do if available is to connect the PSU 24 pin connector to either the simple PC Power & Cooling PSU checker, or use one of the $15-$20 PSU digital checkers, which read the PSU voltages with activation. Available on Amazon or NewEgg, with just led lights or a small LCD screen giving you the actual voltages. Nice to have in your utility toolkit for just these predicaments.


OR using the 24 pin MB power connector, short pins #16 (Pwr_ON) to ground #17 or #18, which turns on the PSU. You should have a load on the 12V & 5V lines and you can measure the voltages there. Or even if the PSU fan spins up, you can be fairly certain the PSU is good.

With that info, then you know exactly which component has failed.

Hope that's helpful!

 

[andrewkp]

Hi John,

Thank you very much for the welcome and the reply.

I ordered a PC Diagnostic board and plugged this into the first USB 2.0 plug on the motherboard. The code produced was 1000 meaning first post code of 00 - i.e. nothing/initial code and second post code of 10. This code is produced once power is applied with the PC turned off. I believe this may mean a problem with the EEPROM and other forums have suggested if the CMOS CLR doesn't work the bios / chip is corrupt and unrepairable.

I have ordered a PSU checker from amazon just to be doubly sure - it was a fairly fancy but affordable one with a LCD readout of the voltages on each line so hopefully it's accurate.

Thanks again for your help - I liked the colour pin out of the mb power line, makes everything clear.

Andrew

 

[John_VanKirk]

Hi John,

Thank you very much for the welcome and the reply.

I ordered a PC Diagnostic board and plugged this into the first USB 2.0 plug on the motherboard. The code produced was 1000 meaning first post code of 00 - i.e. nothing/initial code and second post code of 10. This code is produced once power is applied with the PC turned off. I believe this may mean a problem with the EEPROM and other forums have suggested if the CMOS CLR doesn't work the bios / chip is corrupt and unrepairable.

I have ordered a PSU checker from amazon just to be doubly sure - it was a fairly fancy but affordable one with a LCD readout of the voltages on each line so hopefully it's accurate.

Thanks again for your help - I liked the colour pin out of the mb power line, makes everything clear.

Andrew

Let us know what you find with the PSU checker. The LCD ones are nice. Just the other day a friend brought his computer over that wouldn't start, and the PSU LCD checker showed the PSU had died, or got electrocuted from a power surge. What is the brand of PC diag POST card your purchased? Want to also check it out.

 

[andrewkp]

It was a no brand chinese card / model KLP4 - PCI, USB and Serial interfaces for £4.89 off ebay. I have tried it in two PCs and it seems to work fine. I don't want to put the ebay link for fear of breaking rules (and the link will die off within a few months as well). The seller was goodtraderpurple88 - "PC MOTHERBOARD ANALYZER DIAGNOSTIC POST TEST CARD".

The PSU checker was £12.49 from Amazon "ATX, BTX, ITX Power Supply Tester With LCD Display" - certainly looks good.

 

[jaquith]

Both PSU & MOBO should be under warranty. Normally ALL LEDs should be 'Green' or OFF otherwise there's an error or problem under BIOS defaults. I assume that you also tried the Reset Switch. Both of you get UPS! Unplug your PC when on vacation or leaving for days at a time.

IF you have even a halfway good power strip it 'should have' protected the PC from a damaging spike or lightening strike; speaking of lightning NIC's and Modems are often not protected. IF you came back and the e.g. 'range / microwave' or whatever lost time then you know there was some form of power interruption.

Though not 100% foolproof the 'paperclip' test should work on your Corsair HX1000 -> http://www.corsair.com/content/tabs/videoplayer/id/1 ; just as @John_VanKirk diagram shows.

IMO - do a full Breadboard: 1 Stick RAM in DDR3_1, no headers or peripherals connected or HDD or GPU - you get the idea - and short the PW+ & PW- in the Front Panel to attempt a start. Next if success add the GPU - failure in PCIEX16_1 then try PCIEX16_2.

You can mess around with 'diagnostics' until it's a Blue Moon; if the Breadboard works then you'll know quickly. IF it doesn't: MOBO, CPU or PSU.