Battery Pull Slightly Successful

[dble289]

Hello,

My PC suddenly powered down and proceeded to go into a loop of attempting to power up and failing before POST (no post code). I proceeded to pull the CMOS battery and attempt to reboot, which was successful. However once I got into Windows, the first mouse click I made caused it to relapse into this boot failure. What could be causing this?

 

[Proximon]

Any number of things. Please list the parts including the PSU.

 

[dble289]

Sorry, my specs are:

CPU: Intel i7 950
Motherboard: ASUS P6T (not deluxe, just P6T)
PSU: Corsair CMPSU-750TX 750W
RAM: Kingston 3 x 2 GB DDR3 1333 Triple Channel
Graphics Card: XFX HD-585X-ZAFC Radeon HD 5850
Case: Cooler Master Storm Scout

My problem is currently as follows:

When I woke up yesterday I found my PC powered on, but not functioning aside from the LEDs and the fans spinning as fast as they could.
I power cycled it and it booted. I dismissed the problem for the time being.
This morning, after leaving the computer running all night I found that the PC was in the same state as before, but power cycling it did nothing to fix the situation. It gave no POST beep code and went straight to all the fans spinning 100%.
As mentioned in the OP, this problem went away after pulling the CMOS battery and waiting 30 seconds before replacing it.
I checked the event viewer and there are no Critical or Error messages, with the only message being about a clock desync, which is explained by the battery pull.

I feel it is safe to assume that this problem is a hardware one, with the only other possible explanation being an issue with my BIOS settings, which I am inclined to doubt as the settings are more or less default.

How can I further diagnose this issue? My main suspects are the PSU, motherboard, and cpu, but I am limited in my ability to test the latter two.

Thanks for the read and the anticipated help!

 

[Proximon]

Try to run with each stick of ram individually. Verify in the BIOS that the RAM settings are correct. Never assume that the BIOS has configured the RAM correctly.

If it's not that, we can move on. I doubt it's the CPU as windows installed correctly.

 

[dble289]

I've tried setting the memory to the manufacturer stock setting, and was fairly successful with regard to maintaining a stable system.

However, I've noticed two interesting facts that make me rethink what could be causing this.

1st: The computer once POSTed and then promptly crashed after POST, leading me to believe that the core components for successful POST aren't at fault.

2nd: Today I was on a Skype call and the PC 'crashed' as it had before, but I was still on Skype. I had previously thought the computer was simply powered off, but I think the issue is simply that the video card is failing. It could possibly be that fan that is spinning on failure.

Are there any tests you'd recommend to test my video card to confirm this?

 

[stevediaman]

Aside from stress testing the video card, or replacing it with another to confirm the problem goes away, I dont think there is anything else you can do.

Download hardware monitor and tell is the +12v reading it gives as the near top under voltages

 

[dble289]

+12 is currently at 11.14. I've seen it as low as 10.33V though i think. Could that be a problem?

 

[stevediaman]

If your computer freezes, and the screen goes black and says no connection or w/e and ur +12v is clearly not supplying enough power to your video card my guess would be a faulty PSU.

I recently had a problem myself with a bad video card that was causing my computer to have similar symptoms but after checking everything possible and replacing the power supply, i confirmed it was the video card.

If you have a computer place near you, or a spare computer with a 600+watt power supply, i would suggest testing it with a new one

Also this was in a post i saw yesterday to, are you sure you plugged the correct 8 pin psu wire into the motherboard?

*Unplug everything not needed from your computer as well and recheck the +12 voltage. Any extra harddrives pci cards dvd
drive anything and everything not needed for the system to run.

**Also i think the maximum the +12v can be is +/- .6 volts so yea...

 

[Proximon]

On-board voltage sensors are very inaccurate and should never be used as a final diagnostic tool. The only way to know if your PSU is supplying the right voltage is to measure with a DMM while the PSU is under load.

About your Skype crash: A modern OS is made up of many processes. Many different smaller programs. Any one of these can crash on an unstable system. Almost any "lock up" in Win 7 will not be a full crash, but rather a partial one. Some things, whether you can see/hear them or not, continue to function.

A successful POST in no way means that your core components are fine. That's why we have diagnostic programs such as memtest.
http://www.memtest.org/

What BIOS version do you have? I seem to recall some issue with early P6T BIOS.

 

[Paperdoc]

When you Reset the BIOS with the battery pull (and preferably also using the Reset jumper on the mobo), you cannot guarantee that the BIOS has been reset to exactly the right settings. What you SHOULD do after that is to go into BIOS right away and find the page (usually near the end) that allows you to load some Default settings. Usually the best choice is Optimized Default, or maybe Factory Default. This will specifically load settings from permanent PROM into the CMOS battery-backed memory, and that gives you a reliable set of settings to start.

You still may have to go through and change some for specific situation in you computer. for example, if you have on-board video chips but are using your own video card in the PCI bus, you will need to tell your BIOS that because the default set of parameters will try to use the on-board chip. When you've finished loading the parameter set AND making any custom settings, Save and Exit.

 

[dble289]

Best answer selected by dble289.

 

[dble289]

The power supply did end up dying on me. Working on getting it replaced asap. Thanks for all the help guys!