[augie]

Strange, I just rebuilt this machine changing out the stock HS/F and the PSU, just died overnight. It has worked well for a week. It seems to boot up when I hit enter on the unseen multi-boot screen, makes all the right noises too to the point of it taking the normal 4 secs to re-boot from the power switch as if the OS was running. Changing out video cards didn't help either nor did bypassing the KVM.

Anything here that I've missed? Thanks.

[Grav!ty]

The motherboard?

Algis, I can't think of anyway to troubleshoot this issue other than to try all this new equipment you got on a different motherboard. Strange that it worked for a week.

Could it be capacitors on your board that have gone bad. Swollen tops of the capacitors usually indicate they've gone fudd I think, or a toxic spill out the bottom or the edges of the top. Any strange whiffs coming from the board?

[augie]

The motherboard?

Algis, I can't think of anyway to troubleshoot this issue other than to try all this new equipment you got on a different motherboard. Strange that it worked for a week.

Could it be capacitors on your board that have gone bad. Swollen tops of the capacitors usually indicate they've gone fudd I think, or a toxic spill out the bottom or the edges of the top. Any strange whiffs coming from the board?

Hehe, the first thing I looked at when I pulled the mobo out was the caps! No, no strange whiffs, if something had fried either I or the gf would have noticed the smell, her more than me.

One other anomaly is that I was losing the time in BIOS but it kept booting fine. I think I'll get another battery and see what happens. This board is afterall 4 yrs. old. It would be really disheartening to see it fail as it is a top notch machine though not by today's standards.

[Grav!ty]

I'll hold thumbs it's the battery

[augie]

I'm sure the battery is toast as during several BIOS accesses the time was totally lost(all zeros), the date was from 2002 though nothing else was lost like the OC, finally the thing doesn't want to boot at all, not even post.

Which way does the + sign go as I didn't note that thinking that there was an idiot proof tab or notch on there, the board is currently oriented with the I/O panel to the top left. Oh, should I clear the BIOS first too, keeping in mind that my eyes are none too good nor do I have slender fingers either? I'll do it if I have to of course. One other thing, I scavenged the batt from my A8N-E which I just retired and had none of these issues. I can only get a new one next week.

Thanks as always good folk.

[Grav!ty]

I'm glad it seems to be just that Algis. Not too sure what sign you mean. I don't think it matters as long as as the largest flat surface is upward and the one with the sort of bevel taking it down a bit in size at the bottom. The print on the battery should be top side. Hope that helps.

You'll probably have to reset the BIOS anyway, after pulling the old battery.

You must have a few spare parts with your new purchases then

[augie]

I'm glad it seems to be just that Algis. Not too sure what sign you mean. I don't think it matters as long as as the largest flat surface is upward and the one with the sort of bevel taking it down a bit in size at the bottom. The print on the battery should be top side. Hope that helps.

You'll probably have to reset the BIOS anyway, after pulling the old battery.

You must have a few spare parts with your new purchases then

Well, after a bit of procrastination I got this puppy working again. I had to switch out the PSUs, back to my old Antec. So right now , I've got Frankie Sr's guts spewed all over the table ATM.

At least I didn't burn the CPU/mobo by OC'ing. Here goes my first ever RMA request. Considering that I have to pay the shipping to Corsair, I will never buy a PSU except locally again. I'm sort of a 'happy camper' ATM.

BTW, this is why I spend a few extra bucks for a quality PSU. It died after a week but the protection circuits worked as the PSU did not take anything else out!

[Grav!ty]

Well done Algis

[augie]

I'll have to recant my statement about a bad PSU as that wasn't it! As it turned out it was one of my 9800GT's that was intermittent and I refused to believe it was the PSU that was at fault so one last attempt was made, I reattached my new PSU and pulled my GTX260 from my other machine and lo and behold, everything worked!!! So just to make sure I put the 9800 in question into my i7 build and it wouldn't post.

So, this was a good excuse(at least in my mind) to replace it with an eVGA GTX460! They're at a decent price these days at $180 and can outperform a 470 when properly OC'd but I'm not going there again.

I also got a 2TB WD Green at $100 for storage/backup. I remember someone here hating on them because of the spin down, but I have an SSD as boot and several regular SATAs to make up for that and I'll finally have plenty of room to save images of the SSD and the other OS's that I plan to install.

Anyways, R.I.P. to a very hard working GPU, you fought well my friend. (Irish wake)

P.S. It's darn handy to have two machines!