Bad motherboard or bad video card? Or what?

[EvilRage]

So here's my setup:

PC Power and Cooling 510 SLI
AMD Athlon FX-57
Zalman CNPS-9500
A8N-SLI Deluxe (bought when it was first released, has new chipset fan now)
2x BFG 6800 GT in SLI
2x 1GB OCZ Platinum EL 2-3-2-5
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS
74GB WD Raptor
250GB WD Caviar
NEC 3520A DVD burner
BenQ 1655 Lightscribe DVD burner
Generic Floppy
Generic PCI modem

And here's my problem:
A little over a month ago, I was experiencing sporadic drops in resolution, or hard crashes. I figured something was up with my video card, but reboots always kept things running. Then, while I was browsing in Firefox, my PC totally shut down. It refused to POST after that. Tried flashing CMOS, and that didn't help. I sent in the mobo to Asus, and they said NTF (but put a shiny new fan on it for me, I was using the Zalman blue passive heatsink before). So I plug everything in... same problem. No video at all. I'm trying this with one video card... so I try the other one. And it boots! So I definitely have a defective video card. That's been shipped to BFG.

So the PC was working with the other lone video card for about a day, then I updated the chipset drivers on the mobo to the latest, and updated the BIOS to the latest, and rebooted. PC still worked, and was running all day. Then, I removed and reinstalled Xfire. After rebooting, it wouldn't POST - but this time it had video. Strange. So I powered off (ctrl+alt+del did nothing) and powered on. Same thing. Got to the ASUS logo screen, where it says 'press del for options' and it was totally frozen. Even holding del down did nothing. But there WAS video so I don't think it's a VGA problem. I flashed the CMOS and tried again. Still nothing. However, after turning it off, rebooting, and removing all components except 1 stick of RAM, the raptor, and the video card... still nothing. Hell, not even video now (WTF!?). But after shutting it off and turning it on... it's got video again. But still stuck on the pre-POST screen.

This is the most frustrating thing I've ever dealt with when fixing a PC... and I fix them for a living! I don't know WHAT the hell is wrong with this thing... I'm tempted to just buy a new motherboard, and a pair of new graphics cards... but I don't have any MONEY. Anyone have the slightest clue what's going on here?

 

[jackschmittusa]

Have you tried re-setting the bios after flashing? This should take you to a set of default safe settings. If you can then boot into setup, you can adjust everything again.

 

[EvilRage]

You mean clearing the CMOS? Yeah. But when I turn the PC on, it can't even get to the BIOS setup screen.

 

[Unkno]

if you cleared cmos manually (by taking the battery out and switching the switch) then you should be able to get into bios....if not, it may be a power issue

 

[EvilRage]

Hmm. So I guess I'll head to the store and buy a new PSU, a generic stick of RAM, and a CMOS battery. And hopefully one of them will fix the problem.

 

[EvilRage]

Okay, so update - I bought a new PSU, new vid card, new CMOS battery, and new stick of RAM. I replaced each component individually, and there's no change. I'm hoping it's not my CPU... that would really blow. But that's more or less the ONLY component left! Still no idea on why it worked before and isn't working now, though.

 

[beggerking]

1. pull all of your IDE cables.
2. retest your ram. pull *all* of your original ram out, then stick new ones in.
3. re-seat your CPU.
4. clean your PCI-e slot, or try a PCI videocard.

 

[EvilRage]

1) Done, no improvement.
2) Done, no improvement. Can't test the RAM in the non-working system, it doesn't get past POST, so won't boot any kind of testing SW
3) Done, no improvement.
4) Tried in two different PCI-e slots and 2 different video cards. I am still GETTING video, but it's not getting past the POST.

I think the problem is the result of a bad BIOS flash. The computer successfully POSTs (I get the "all clear" single short beep) but you can't get into the BIOS and it doesn't continue forward to try to boot any devices.

 

[beggerking]

did you try ASUS crushfree bio recovery?

 

[EvilRage]

So after troubleshooting it with an ASUS level 3 tech, we determined the problem was SOMETHING plugged into the rear of the mobo, be it USB, ethernet, or PS/2. I haven't figured out which one, yet, since the problem seems to be intermittent (it boots fine now, but it may not tomorrow) so once it stops working again, I'll figure out which component is causing the problem.