Strange problem, Motherboard, PSU, GPU? Help??

[mikeo01]

I have an odd issue that has suddenly started happening after I fiddled with my CPU for overclocking.
I thought I'd stick with the stock settings until I get a better cooling.

The problem, during normal POST the screen stays black, until after around 6 reboots by flicking the switch. Or, if it doesn't POST at all (black screen - no BIOS splash image) all I do is unplug a 4-pin molex that powers my fans, and the motherboard POSTs, splash screen, into windows, all fine.

With my ASUS board each component area lights up then turns off to indicate a successful POST, but when the motherboard does not POST I have realised the light that stays on indicates a VGA problem. Firstly my GPU is fine, 6 months old, stress tested, I run games on it such as BF3, so the card is working to its maximum capacity. Secondly if it really was a VGA why would the motherboard POST after 6 restarts, or simply after I unplug and plug the 4-pin molex back in? The VGA is fine, I use it. I can't see how it would be my PSU, it is a Corsair TX650w, so it has plenty of power to run the card, watts and amps. Thirdly it can't be my components, my PSU is only under 2 years old, my CPU and motherboard are around a month old, and the VGA is 6 months old. It isn't the sound card because that works. The only light that stays on is the VGA, everything else POSTs, including RAM.

If it was the VGA why would the motherboard POST after several restarts or simply unplugging a power cable which has nothing to do with it? Strange. I have reset the CMOS using the jumper, I have set optimized defaults (which is recommended by ASUS after resetting the CMOS). There is no other explanation why it would do this. If it was any fault, surely the motherboard would never POST.

Hopefully someone can help me. It only started after I did some overclocking, then decided to reset it to stock. If that means anything.

Thanks everyone


HD 5830 1GB
ASUS M5A97 PRO
Sound Blaster X-FI XtremeGamer
FX-6100 TurboCore Enabled (Stock)

[Phage]

My first thought was the PSU, because it posts as soon as you reduce the power draw. Do you have access to a spare for testing ?

Or....the BIOS could have been stuffed in some weird hidden setting. Can you reset to all defaults ?

[mikeo01]

But fans do not draw that much power? I haven't got a spare PSU unfortunately, but I will try leave only the major components up and running with power to see what happens.

And strangely with this board there is only "optimized defaults", although the jumper apparently resets it all to defaults. The only other step is take out the CMOS battery.

I have only had these components with this motherboard, so it shouldn't be any conflict problems.

The PSU doesn't sound to be struggling, powers everything fine. Although come to think of it, I looked on ExtremeOutvision to see the power draw of all my components. With this CPU overclocked, the PC freezes. No BSOD, so upping the clock and voltage on my CPU could be tipping the power limit of my PSU? It's Bronze Certified.

[Phage]

I think you're taking the right approach. Fans use hardly any power, but it's possible that the slight increase puts the PSU on the edge. This would also expalain why the OC fauiled as the PSU is unable to keep up.

PSUs hardly ever fail that quickly though, so I would probably test the PC by removing everything but the basics and see if it boots more easily. If that is unclear, then we may be back to a borked BIOS which would require a falsh to restore it, unless it's one of those dual-bios jobs.

[mikeo01]

OK it isn't looking too good for my PSU. The board POSTs. I took out all fans (except CPU fan), took out power for the DVD drive and removed my sound card. POSTs.

Also another thing to note, I was curious with the OC. I overclocked the CPU to 4.5 Ghz, it seemed stable at 4.4 Ghz with 1.4 V, no freezes. I got a BSOD with 4.5 Ghz, but I blame the thermal protection on the CPU because it hit 70 degrees. That extra juice which was originally used by the DVD, sound card and fans allowed a slightly better and more stable overclock. Along with the board POSTing nicely.

But I don't see why the PSU isn't up to it. 650W for these components:
4 120MM fans (LED)
1 120MM fan
Sound Blaster X-FI Gamer
HD 5830 1GB (175w?)
FX-6100 (95w)
7200 RPM SATA HDD
DVD+RW SATA

For all those components I would of thought a TX650 could handle it. Even with an overclock with the FX, the PSU should be able to handle it. So I don't see why it may be struggling on POST?

I am slight baffled.

[mikeo01]

Alright an update with this problem. Inserted everything back in, and it POSTs. Although on Windows boot I had a strange freeze, it looked exactly like the ATI Catalyst stress test for your VGA card. Restart, did it twice. Went into safe mode to see if the card is reporting errors, nothing. Stress test, fine.

Could it be that for some reason the BIOS has messed up somewhere with the VGA card, explaining why sometimes it does not boot? The card is cool, never goes above 50 on load. Idles at 20-30. I cleaned it up, the last owner said he had it for 6 months. I was running Battlefield 3 last night with no issues, so I don't see how the card may be dying. No artifacts, fine with stress testing.

Could the BIOS mess up with detecting the VGA card? I must also say when I got the motherboard (theres no onboard) I did reflash the BIOS with the card installed.

The PSU provides enough amps on the rail, it is single rail by the way.

I will try removing the VGA card, booting up until Windows and then installing it back. The card doesn't seem to be failing. Although I did have some problems, kept saying that the graphics driver crashed and recovered. I removed the drivers and reinstalled the latest. Doesn't explain the boot up problem though nor the card being fine with the stress test.

[Phage]

PSU sounds faulty, IMHO. An unreliable power supply will also spawn all sorts of random errors that you're describing.
You could try flashing the BIOS again, but I'd try swapping the PSU first and see whether that helps. (I flashed my board with the GPU installed - didn't worry it at all.)

[mikeo01]

I haven't got a spare power supply, but I will see if I can get it replaced by Corsair. If not, I was thinking about getting an OCZ ZS 750W supply, are they good supplies? I know Corsair are some of the best but they're a bit pricey.

I should also mention I just checked a slight buzzing sound, I am not sure if its my HDD (Buzz when reading/writing) or a buzz from my PSU. Ironic, I swapped my old PSU to put my mind at rest and now this one may be faulty.

[tigertop1]

All sounds like a PSU problem. If you can beg borrow or otherwise get hold of a Xilence Power Supply Tester you may know for sure. I see they are still on sale at Amazon and mine has paid for itself twice over. I was amazed to find that a tiny voltage drop on a virtually new PSU was the cause of all my erratic boot problems

[mikeo01]

I will see if I can get a power supply tester. Just seems a bit strange for a Corsair supply to suddenly become faulty. It has all sorts of protection on it.

My computer actually boots up now which is odd. I removed the graphics card, turned the sound up until Windows boots up until Windows realises theres no GPU installed. Reinstalled card and rebooted. Everything is going fine.

Something is definitely going wrong on the GPU side, either the PSU can't provide enough power for it or the card is messing up.

I will get a PSU tester and see whats up. Hopefully I can RMA it if theres a fault, which is a pain because I will have to send it off

First Corsair PSU I have ever owned too.

Thanks for the support!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Didn't you have issues with that HD5830 1GB earlier?? Unless you have a faulty PSU,it has more than enough power for your rig and is a decent model too.

You can always test the PSU with a multi-meter.

[mikeo01]

No, that was another HD5830 (I got ripped off, but he refunded me, phew). This is another HD5830. I stress tested it and reapplied the thermal paste to get the temperatures down.

The problems I listed all started after I did some overclocking with my CPU. The mobo decided to not start, whether it is the power supply or the overclock protection on the ASUS boards I do not know.

The POST did indicate a VGA problem, but as stated I only needed to disconnect a fan plug and then it would POST. I thought the VGA card was dying because of the "Device has stopped responding but recovered" message and the POST problem, but everything seems OK. Stress tested again and the card works.

But actually I just remembered something quite crucial. My last M5A78L-M/USB motherboard had anti-surge protection. Twice the board did not POST with a nice message stating that anti-surge has detected power supply surges". If this means anything. The HD5830 does require more power than my old HD4870 (Which I had no problems with).

[shaithis]

I had that asus anti surge nonsense with my old amd board I had in my HTPC. Ended up turning it off as I knew nothing was wrong. Voltages were spot on and the system was rock solid 24/7.

Same PSU is being used on the i5 now.....again, rock solid.

I would not trust the Asus Anti Surge.

[mikeo01]

I don't feel very comfortable using a multimeter, not experienced with power supplies. I've read that PSU testers don't put much load on the PSU, so it doesn't really give an accurate reading. It is the voltages I am worried about.

Might be best for me just to contact Corsair and hopefully get it sorted out.

Thanks everyone for the support.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

IIRC,you need to post the PSU to the Netherlands!! Hence,I would check if the PSU is definitely faulty.

[mikeo01]

Netherlands?? So I won't be seeing my PSU for a looonngg time if it goes well I have contacted them to see what they'll say.

If I need to send it I will have to get another cheap power supply and seriously limit my power usage. I will get a low powered GPU