Help! New motherboard died.

[tgorfid]

I have been having issues since last week where it seems my computer is having problems when trying to save information. My work program is fairly large and it uses a good amount of resources so that is when I notice the problem the most. The Windows save or thinking spinning circle is popping up on every keystroke and when I change forms or save out of an addendum it hangs for about 5 to 10 Seconds and then the screen flashes. The program has crashed a couple times but it usually doesn't. It even did this in safe mode just not as badly. After multiple reinstallations of my work program I formatted my drive and reinstalled windows. I ran every scan I could think of but it still was hanging and freezing or I guess you could call it sputtering.

I have an aurora R3 with an I7 2600k and 16 gb of 1600mz of corsair vengeance. It's an 825 oem power supply and I have 2 1gb amd Radeon 6870 hd video cards. 1 SSD corsair force 3 hard drive as the main and a secondary 7200 1tb hard drive.

I have tried formatting the hard drive, reinstalling Windows, installed a new motherboard, removed and swapped video cards, only put 1 back in to lower the load but acted the same. Would a bad power supply have any affect on a program or would it mainly have an affect on the hardware? I tested my SSD and it passed with perfect health per the Corsair toolbox and I took it to tiger direct , they said the read and right speed was still great. After 2 successful boots the computer will not start up with the new motherboard. The fans turn on full blast but never slow down and non of my lighting has worked since the 3rd boot oj the new motherboard. It booted fine after all the bios updates and driver updates . Now nothing...Now I have to reinstall the old motherboard to be positive the new one died already.

So does anyone have any suggestions? Cpu, GPU, psu, bad memory (memory passed all tests) . I took out my memory and installed a back up of 8gb Der 3 1600hz but the problems go worse.

 

[robjamar]

Have you tried another PSU? Just throwing this out there

 

[Playtime747]

Sounds like the PS to me. I am leery of the OEM PS from dell. I have not had a chance to pull it but, just looking at it, it looks cheap. What happens is over time capacitors will swell and have a hard time keeping a stable voltage going out and the problem progressively get worse until it just stops completely. At the beginning it will start showing up under load. I would use something like HWINFO64 to monitor your V on all the rails and see if your getting any major drops in V. Might even want to pull a video card to lesson the load on the PS and then check...

 

[holeyguy66]

you can check in your bios under voltage if your getting 11 or less volts on the 12 volt rail its the psu. i started to have random shutdowns with my 1100 watt psu i had in mine. in my bios its in the monitor tab in there you should see a voltage tab. atleast thats how it is in mine i cant tell you for sure on your mobo since i have a asus brand. i checked mine and was running 11.4. lucky for me i had 2 other psu's to swap over to. so i dropped in my old 875. which then i had to back ll my overclocks down to stock. i found area 51 psu. now im back up to 4.6 on my cpu but when i start to overclock my gpus i get an instant shut down when i do benchmarks. the dell psu actually puts out everything they say they do. but i just dont think they can handle the loads i have on them. but of course i have some added hardware that didnt come with mine. also are you running any over clocks on the cpu. it shouldnt matter if the psu was good but try backing down all over clocks and go from there

 

[tgorfid]

Well i put my old motherboard back in and it booted up just fine.

I will check the voltage in Bios but the main problem i do not see being a PSU. I took out my second video card to lessen the power load also. This all started due to my work program freezing so I just uploaded a video of what is happening. Better than trying to explain it. Please take a look and let me know what the most likely suspect would be if you were taking a guess. This also happened on the new motherboard when i installed it this morning...then the motherboard died on the 3rd boot...

[video=youtube;yanX9hEeZV4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yanX9hEeZV4[/video]


Thanks guys this is driving me crazy. The only things I have left to change would be the PSU, the SSD or the CPU. Can a solid state drive still be having problems even if it tested healthy with high read/write speeds. I have swapped sata cables. Going to try and switch to a sata II instead of a sata III next...just to be sure its not the SATA III cables. I guess it does it sometimes when I am not using my work program but seeing as the software tech people uninstalled and reinstalled 3/4 times and nothing changed even after a fresh windows install, i am leaning toward a hardware issue.

 

[Playtime747]

It still sounds like the PSU and that would be the first thing I would change. When V drop it can cause memory, HDD, Video, and even more problems. usually a CPU want just act up. When it goes 99.9% of the time it is gone and no longer works. So I would rule that out. Heat issues and lack of V can cause your problems. I am not trying to sound like a know it all but, I have been repairing computers for 20+ years. I know my SSD drive "OCZ" has software so you can check to see if it is getting any errors. Computers rely on a stable clean voltage on the 3.3V, 5V and 12V rails. Here is a good guide. http://www.techrepublic.com/article/troubleshooting-pc-power-supplies/

 

[tgorfid]

After reading that article it does sound like the power supply. I have just never encountered software problems due to a failing power supply. Thanks holeyguy66 & Playtime747, I will give an update as soon as I go buy another one. Happy Easter everyone.

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But there is one problem...I put the OEM Dell motherboard back in so I do not have any voltage readings that I can see. Anyone know if the OEM dell motherboard has a voltage reading section. Per CPU-Z I am getting 1.368 but I know those aren't all that reliable.

 

[Playtime747]

My R4 bios doesn't show V either. That is why I said earlier to use HWINFO64. It will give you max and min on V and temps.

 

[tgorfid]

Thanks play, I order a new power supply from Dell but I can honestly say that since they bought Alienware the quality has degraded. You used to be able to customize almost everything when you purchased the computer, now you can't, customer service at Dell is absolutely horrible and you almost have to buy all OEM parts for them to be compatible. It took me 40 mins to buy a replacement psu supply and I gave them the part number in the first 3 minutes. Couldn't find anything on there website for a replacement psu that wasn't refurbished. As much as I love my aurora R3 I mainly bought it for the case and Alienware FX. The next time I need a new computer I will most. likely build my own, just to make sure everything can be swapped out with manufacturer system conflicts.

Anyone have any chassis suggestions for a home build that looks as sharp as the Aurora models? My current favorites are from Raidmax. http://raidmax.com/chassis.html

 

[Playtime747]

Awesome!! I am testing their quality out now with my new Aurora R4 by pushing the 4820k to 4.6... lol My main concern is the PS and Voltage Regulators on the MB. So, we will see how long they last. As for the case, I built a custom machine for my Son and used the Raidmax Super Helios http://raidmax.com/chassis/super_helios.html and it does great. My favorite case I have used so far is the Antec Nine Hundred http://www.antec.com/product.php?id=23&fid=4 . It is well built and the quality is better than the Raidmax. If money is not an issue, I recommend the Corsair 600T http://www.corsair.com/en-us/graphite-series-600t-silver-mid-tower-case .

 

[tgorfid]

Upload a picture of your sons rig. I would live to see it. That was my only concern with the Raidmax, the quality. I like the antec and the Corsair and as far as the budget I just wouldn't want to go over the $200 mark for a case. I know it's smarter to get a $100 case and put that money into a better GPU or PSU but there is something about a sweet looking machine that makes me happy! Anyone know where I could one of the ASUS ROG chassis, they look awesome but I didn't find one.

But it doesn't look like there is much room to upgrade. All I know is I want a rig with a full sized ATX board this time so I am not limited to only dual GPU'S on the PCIE slots. I was thinking if I decide to build one I can use both my hard drives, blue ray player, and my two 6870 hd radeons to offset some costs. I would like the amd Radeon 290 4gb but since I don't need it immediately I would wait on that. I would love a GTX TITAN but since I am not launching the space shuttle from my house I'm pretty sure a R9 290 would be plenty!

 

[robjamar]

That case looks pretty cool! Also looks like cooling wouldn't be an issue with it

 

[Playtime747]

For the money the Raidmax isn't bad at all. Here are some pics of my Sons I built. It has plenty of room on the inside for sli and is well ventilated. Even with all the fans it is still quiet. I built it about a year ago. It is nothing fancy but, plays all his games good.

 

[tgorfid]

Yes the Asus Case is pretty sweet. It has a little lighting on the bottom of the front that changes from blue to red when in turbo mode but most likely i will go with Corsair or Raidmax. As far as finding something similar to an Aurora case with the lighting I think im out of luck, but I guess that is why Alienware costs an extra $1000...alien fx must be an expensive program to code and the MIO board might be platinum under the blue finish! If they only sold the cases separately with a fully compatible version of Alien FX I would be, in the words of the duck commander himself...HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY!.

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Hey Play should my average voltages be this low? Core #0 VID .994, Core # 1 Vid .998, Core # 2 .996 and Core # 3 .998?
But my 12 volt is way to high averaging over 15.3! New PSU should be here tomorrow from dell but i still have not received a confirmation email which is typical from them.

 

[Playtime747]

All those look good. Did you run 3dmark or anything to stress the system with hwinfo64 running in the background? Here is a shot of mine and all looks similar.

 

[tgorfid]

No I just had about 5 programs going. I already ordered the power supply so I will find out when I swap it out if that was the culprit. If not then it's the SSD or the chip!

And an update for my psu order from the wonderful company dell! I ordered on Sunday and paid for the overnight shipping. As Sunday was a holiday the next business day shipping would be Tuesday (today). Well of course it didn't come today but I knew it wouldn't because even though the website said the delivery was still on track for today the ordered showed it was still in the production phase. So I call Dell to see if they have to build the power supply or if is in stock, which should have been simple as I have the order and part number....after 3 transfer s and 45 minutes on hold I finally get to talk to someone who knows how to use the computers that they sell. Paying for overnight shipping does not mean you get your order in 1 to 2 days. It only means that when they get around to shipping it the mail service part will only take 1 day! According to the rep the power supply is in stock so they do not have to build one, which is good news I guess, but the bad news.......they have no idea how long it will take someone to pick the psu off the shelf and actually ship. So an order that is in stock and overnight shipping was paid for will most likely not even get processed until friday!!!. It must be the biggest warehouse on earth that it takes 5 days to get to a part. So most likely I will not get it until Saturday or next Monday. I hate Dell! Alienware was so much better before they sold out to hell, oops Dell.

I still love the case and lighting but seeing as how I swapped and set up most of the other improvements they only thing they really did was ship me a sweet chassis. Sorry guys but I'm frustrated and pissed. I should have sucked it up and just got a modular PSU and rewired it myself. But I read a few people had issues with the mio board and lights not working correctly and since I thought I was getting the psu in 2 days I just ordered the oem part.

Has anyone had any trouble with the lighting and mio board after swapping to a modular PSU and rewiring it yourself?

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To my delight the power supply came this morning so i should apologize to Dell. I think calling and having the expedite the order helped though. However the new power supply didnt help!!!!!!!

Still having the same hanging/freezing issue. Anyone have any other other ideas? Would the GPU have anything to do with this? I only ask because when i installed the new PSU I put back my 2nd graphics card and when i opened up my work program the issues were even worse. I tried each card separately so i figured it wasn't them to begin with but now I am only left with the hard drive (which every test said it was fine) or the CPU.

 

[Playtime747]

What all is OEM in the computer and what all have you added? You stated that "I swapped and set up most of the other improvements". It changes the whole game.. It can make it a pain in the butt trying to troubleshoot problems if you don't have different hardware to change out on it. Then again it could be something as simple as drivers or a setting in the bios. I would also make sure what ever MB you use it has the newest bios flashed to it. If you flash the bios yourself and it goes wrong, will leave the MB useless. At least you can start narrowing down the problem and eliminate the MB and PS. This is why it is good to have extra hardware around when building custom computers so your not out of pocket buying a bunch of different hardware thru the process of elimination. I learned the hard way back in the early 90s... The video card could be causing it and it could be the ram. Not saying the ram is bad and not working properly but, that the particular modules may not play well with that MB even it being the proper ram. Just stating what I would do. I would buy a cheap pci-e 2.0 video card and see if it changes anything. If not, buy O.E.M Memory and try that out. Or, byte the bullet and take it to a reputable computer store and let them troubleshoot the problem because they will have all this stuff to test with it and doubt it will be cheap. I know that's not what you want to hear but to get it up and running it may be what it takes. I would also do a search on line and see if others are having the same problem with your MB and each individual add-on. The main thing is not to give up. Not only will it be a learning experience but, when you do find out what the problem is you will be on top of the world!!! Wished I could be of more help..

 

[tgorfid]

Thank you play you have been a big help even though it is still not running properly.
I swapped out the motherboard after I started having issues and did a fresh install of Windows and formattedmy main drive. After that didn't work I reinstalled the original mobo. I updated the bios quite awhile ago to A06 and I'm almost positive that is the most current one available for that mobo. I have seen people post about A11 but it isn't available for board . I replaced the ram with corsair vengeance when I bought the computer in 9/2011 so maybe it's going bad but I ran the Windows memory check and one other which bothresults showed no issues. I also replaced my 16gb with 8gb from an x-51 and for some reason it ran much worse. I did forget I have the original ram sticks that came with the computer in the Corsair package so I will swap that in tomorrow. I replaced the main hard drive with a corsair force 3 240 ssd when I bought it. I also replaced the GPU with 2 amd Radeon hd 6780's and added a blu ray /DVD writer. But all that was done years ago. When the issues started I updated the firmware on my ssd and did a secure wipe followed by another fresh install of Windows. I also swapped the Sata cables to make sure I wasn't on a bad one.

Since all the hardware changes were done a few years back I don't think it's a compatibility issue unless a Windows update took place that caused it and I wasn't aware of the issue. I also have this lagging freezing problem in safe mode. Anyway I talked with a couple guys at the local tiger direct and they would charge $180 for diagnostics. Don't know any of the other small shops as I have never taken my computer to get fixed. Always been lucky enough to figure it out with some internet research. I will repost this on the main board to see if someone else has ever run into something similar.

Thanks for the wisdom and incite but I am pretty much only left with replacing the GPU or my SSD. The solid state drive did test as a healthy drive on the Corsair toolbox and at tigerdirect.

 

[tgorfid]

It was a bad video card and psu! Changed the psu a few weeks ago and just put in a new GeForce GTX 760 and it's working great!