System only POSTs most of the time.

[raspygold]

Here is a summary of my machine currently:

Gigabyte GA-965P-S3 mobo,
Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 CPU,
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB S-ATAII (ST3250820AS) HDD,
ATI Radeon x850XT 256MB PCI-E,
Asus DVD/RW RAM drive,
2 x 512 DDR2 667Mhz PC2 5300 Memory,
550W Task PSU.

The problem I have is that sometimes when I boot up my system it refuses to POST. I have to power off, and turn the power off at the PSU, then turn it back on again and then try boot again. Sometimes its up to 5 tries before it POSTs and sometimes it boots perfectly.

When it doesn't POST, everything spins up, CPU fan, GPU fan, Case lights and optical drive, telling me it has power.

However, the screen remains blank. Nothing beeps, only fans spinning and lights are on to tell me the mobo has power.

I have (several times) tried reseating RAM, Gfx card, moved HDD, re-run all cables and have replaced the PSU since the problems arose too, so its not the PSU I'd say.

Any ideas would be really appreciated. =)

 

[uwisibo]

hello,
I am very happy to join this community and I hope we will exchange ideas to encrease our knowledge
thanks

 

[Tedster]

narrow it down to the most simple configuration and see what happens. Then start adding devices 1 by one. I am sure this might be a PSU or driver issue.

 

[raspygold]

Have done similar things quite often, and I can't seem to find the real problem. I flashed the BIOS yesterday and as of yet I haven't encountered that problem since. So I'll keep my fingers crossed that that was the problem. =)

 

[sllewe]

As tedster said it may be a driver issue or a PSU issue. I hope the BIOS fixes the problem for you. But on a side note. I had a faulty CPU fan that kept shorting the PSU preventing the rig from booting once and awhile, took me ages to figure what was causing it.

 

[raspygold]

Oh, tahts actually something that i haven't looked at. I know that my CPU cables used to get loose every now and then and grink up against the CPU fan... if that were to be causing a short I guess i would have bigger problems though i guess. It is a thought though.

 

[sllewe]

Luckly I caught it in time, so I just swapped out the fan and everything booted fine. But any type of short (fan Ram PSU whatever) can ruin a mobo in an instant. Anyway good luck.

 

[Tedster]

hooray.... you got the gremlin.

 

[raspygold]

Or so I thought =P

Still occurs. It is really strange...

 

[Tedster]

replace your PSU.... this really sounds like a failing PSU

 

[raspygold]

Thats what i thought at first, but it did it for the previous PSU, so i replaced it, and no change either. This one is about one month old. Its quite nice actually. So i really really doubt the PSU is at fault here.

 

[raspygold]

I'll check the CPU HSF idea ... i've bought a Zalman CNPS8000.

If not fix the problem it'll make my system nice and cool. =)