Strange rebooting issue I've had for years

[Scottyyy]

I've always just dealt with it and never tried to fix it, but I might as well ask for help. I have an MSI P67A-GD53 and an i5 2500k. I'm pretty sure the issue is with one of these.

Basically what happens is if I shut down the computer, I won't be able to turn it back on again for maybe 30-40 minutes. What happens is the fans start spinning, but nothing else happens - it doesn't reach the BIOS splash screen. I have to power down for a while then power back up and it boots normally. I believe I get 5 short beeps in a row, but I'm not 100% sure because I changed cases years ago and this case doesn't have a speaker for motherboard beeps.

The strange part is, I can restart just fine. Restarting in Windows has never caused the issue. Only shutting down, which causes it to happen every time. Even if I shut down and immediately power back on as fast as possible, it won't boot.

Any ideas?

Thanks

[mikeo01]

Take a look at the beep codes for your BIOS manufacturer HERE

Don't know; if it's been going on years and from your description sounds like something either power related or related to the motherboard during bootstrap process (which in turn can be related to a strange CPU issue in regards to it's hardware side of things or C-states (EuP 2013? 0.5W power off consumption)).

Or, unlikely but an actual possibility could lie in your house mains wiring no idea what because I'm not knowledgeable in general wiring electric stuffs

[Scottyyy]

Yeah, according to that it's a CPU error. AMI BIOS 5 beeps.

My BIOS needs updating but it won't let me. I run the program from a USB stick, it gives me an error "Please restart the application to try again" and my computer freezes/slows heavily until I manage to get the mouse (which moves a tiny amount every 10 seconds) to the ok button to get rid of the BIOS updating program. Computer runs fine after closing the BIOS updater. I don't even know how to google for that since it doesn't give me an error code or anything.

[peterb]

Or, unlikely but an actual possibility could lie in your house mains wiring no idea what because I'm not knowledgeable in general wiring electric stuffs

I can't conceive of any fault in house wiring that could cause this behaviour!

However, to get back on track, I think I'd try swapping out the power supply. The motherboard is kept live by an auxiliary 12V line from the PSU. If that is taking time to recover, that could possibly cause the symptoms you describe. What happens if you remove power from the PSU completely (removing the wall plug)?

If the five beeps is a CPU fault, then it could be CPU or mobo related - clearly not serious as the computer runs normally.

You say the machine needs an updated BIOS - why? - is that indicated by the mfr's website as an upgrade required for that specific CPU (BIOSs are often upgraded to allow for later processors in the same family)?

If that is the case, there is a likely cause - although a little strange that the updater fails - does it do anything if you just leave it to its own devices? BIOS updates can take a few minutes.

[Scottyyy]

I can't conceive of any fault in house wiring that could cause this behaviour!

However, to get back on track, I think I'd try swapping out the power supply. The motherboard is kept live by an auxiliary 12V line from the PSU. If that is taking time to recover, that could possibly cause the symptoms you describe. What happens if you remove power from the PSU completely (removing the wall plug)?

If the five beeps is a CPU fault, then it could be CPU or mobo related - clearly not serious as the computer runs normally.

You say the machine needs an updated BIOS - why? - is that indicated by the mfr's website as an upgrade required for that specific CPU (BIOSs are often upgraded to allow for later processors in the same family)?

If that is the case, there is a likely cause - although a little strange that the updater fails - does it do anything if you just leave it to its own devices? BIOS updates can take a few minutes.

There's no particular reason for the BIOS update, I just assumed you should do it to generally keep up to date. Is that wrong? I'm still using the BIOS from 2 years ago when I bought the motherboard. Looking at the release notes for the newer BIOS versions it seems there's been a lot of performance updates and such over the years. I guess I shouldn't update the BIOS with an unstable system anyway. And yeah, I'm pretty sure the updater stops completely when the error happens.

I don't have another power supply to try at the minute but I will keep that in mind if I ever get the opportunity to try new hardware to fix this. And yeah, I can stress test my CPU (with a mild overclock) for hours and it's never been unstable in that regard. That probably doesn't rule out the CPU being at fault here but it's worth noting I guess. I'm not sure what you mean by what happens when I remove the power. Sometimes there's a pop of sorts when I flick the power switch on the PSU itself. Is that a bad thing? Normally when this problem occurs I flick the power switch off and leave it 30 mins then come back to it.

Thanks for the info

[mikeo01]

I can't conceive of any fault in house wiring that could cause this behaviour!

I don't know just heard old or bad quality wiring can affect it. As I said I'm not knowledgeable in that just heard it


However you just mentioned a mild overclock? How long's that been on? Even a slight overclock can cause all sorts of strange issues; common one is coming out of sleep due to messing up the c-states.

A computer not turning on cold boot does sound like some dodgy power issue somewhere.

Out of interest how long about has this been going on?

[Scottyyy]

I don't know just heard old or bad quality wiring can affect it. As I said I'm not knowledgeable in that just heard it


However you just mentioned a mild overclock? How long's that been on? Even a slight overclock can cause all sorts of strange issues; common one is coming out of sleep due to messing up the c-states.

A computer not turning on cold boot does sound like some dodgy power issue somewhere.

Out of interest how long about has this been going on?

Can't say for sure. Bought the motherboard, CPU and RAM in april 2011. Perhaps a couple of months after that?

As for the overclock, I run it stock most of the time until I need it (for streaming on twitch.tv). The overclock doesn't seem to affect the rebooting problem. I'd say it's stock 90% of the time anyway.

[peterb]

The only reason I asked about removing power is because that allows everything to discharge, which might have a bearing on the problem.

I'm not sure you can go much further without swapping components. It is often simpler to just change suspected faulty components by substitution. If you can borrow a spare PSU and try that, it would either confirm (or eliminate) it as the cause.

Updating the BIOS is a moot point. Unless there are specific issues that are being addressed (like an update to fix issues with a specific CPU) there is often little reason to upgrade. I say that because ref lashing a BIOS is risky - if you are unlucky enough to have a power failure during the flash, it is possible to leave the mono unusable.

[Scottyyy]

I'll hold off on the BIOS update then and try to get some spare components to test.

Thanks

[Scottyyy]

Well this problem just got worse. I haven't been able to turn my computer on all day. After waking up I turned it on and the power problem happened. That's never happened before, after leaving there computer for 8 hours.

I've tried taking the battery out to reset the CMOS which usually fixes booting issues for me but it didn't work this time. Also the power button on my case stopped working but I may h have knocked the cable for it when I took my GPU out to clean.

I think it's time to replace something. Motherboard or power supply? I can only afford one at the minute.

[peterb]

Power supply I would suggest (better if you can borrow one first) as it is the easiest to do. If you replace the mobo, you have to ensure it is comparable with the CPU and memory, and that might be hard to do if it is fairly old.

But either is a bit of a gamble...

[Scottyyy]

I have no way of borrowing a PSU unfortunately. A mobo wouldn't be hard to find though, i5 2500k is compatible with a lot of current mobos.

[peterb]

Fair enough! Tricky call over which way to go then. Not sure I can advise you with any certainty - except if it was me, I still think I'd be thinking PSU.... What make/spec is it?

[Scottyyy]

Cooler master silent pro gold 700w

[peterb]

Good PSU. Have you tried updating the BIOS with the live flash utility?

[Scottyyy]

No I tried that 1 time in windows like I said earlier in the thread but not since then. Maybe that failed BIOS update caused this? This is the first power off I've done since I tried that.

I'd try it but my computer still hasn't turned on yet

It's weird how this problem became permanent the day after I posted about it