SkyBum

Recently, I started experiencing boot failures during post. Immediately after the USB passes, I randomly get a power down during the memory check.

Initially, I was under the impression that I may have a faulty memory stick, and started swapping sticks/dimms which initially seemed to have some success. Soon though, I noticed that a memory/dimm combination which would not boot successfully previously, would boot fine on successive attempts.

In later attempts I have begun to believe that the RAM/DIMM combination is unrelated to the problem. To clarify, it seems to me that whether I rotate RAM across the dimm slots, or leave them where they sit, does not matter. it will on average take me 20 to 30 boot attempts to achieve success. A combination which would not boot on previous attempts will eventually boot again.....given enough boot attempts.

Now here are a few more pieces to the puzzle which may help narrow down the culprit.

Once booted, the system will remain stable for days at a time, during normal use. I can play non graphic intensive games such as Osmos, Eufloria etc with no problem but if i try to play a graphic intensive 3d game, the system will inevitably power down within 5 minutes.

here is what completely confuses me: It seems like hell to get this system to boot from a cold state, but 20 to 30 try's WILL work. yet any time the machine powers down attempting 3d gaming, it will boot immediately on the first attempt. WITHOUT FAIL. Why would my machine be so fickle in a cold state, yet boot 100% once "warmed up"?

Lastly, as far as troubleshooting goes, after burning hundreds of discs, my DVD drive has also given up the ghost so I have been unable to run MemTest from a bootable DVD. I know memory would seem to be a likely culprit, but I have my doubts. PSU or MoBo???

I am pretty much lost here beyond what I have described, but I was wondering of any of the above clues might provide any ideas....The system has been rock solid, no hardware changes etc. previous to the current problems.

Asus A8N32-SLI
FX-60
2X OCZ DDR2 1Gb
Antec Phantom 500w PSU
Sapphire HD 4870

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BlueMak

Well, 5 things come to my mind.

In no particular order:

1)mainboard battery/ries is dead or about to.

2)PSU is going to heaven

3)GPU is going to heaven

4)mainboard is going to heaven

5)cable(s) is loose. Check them all inside the case and outside.

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

Tipstaff

I've got to go with 2 or 4 in Blues list, but my gut is really pushing a PSU problem. Here's something to try:

If you have an older video card lying around, one that doesn't require as much power as the 4870 to run (preferably one that can run solely off the PCIe bus), swap out the video card for that one. As well, disconnect any device you do not need to run the system. This means any extra hard drives, USB devices, and optical drives. The idea is to reduce the overall power consumption before, during, and after post.

Also, double check the capacitors on your motherboard. Look for any that are bulged up at the top, or any that appear to be or have leaked.

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