Continuous rebooting

[mariner]

Abit IC7 Max3 mobo
Antec case/PSU

It seemingly started rebooting out of the blue. It never gets far enough to begin loading the OS. It seldom gets far enough to enter the BIOS. Often it stops after only a couple of seconds. The CPU, north bridge, and graphics card fans spin up normally. So it?s not over heating.

I tried another PSU with the same results. I tried every combo of ram sticks with the same results. I reset my CMOS with jumbers but no change. I removed everything, one piece at a time, until there was only 1 stick of ram, but always got the same result.

So I took everything out and put it on a piece of wood. I tried it with only 1 stick of ram, then added the floppy, then added the graphics card, but got nothing. The fans don?t spin up, nothing at all; just a little light on the mobo. Again I tried a 2nd PSU, but no change.

At least I got a partial boot and fans when everything was in the case. Out of the case I get nothing. I guess it?s possible the mobo was damaged during removal

Is the mobo dead? Can a dead CMOS battery cause this (I didn?t think so)?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

mariner

 

[mpilchfamily]

First thing to check is heating. Are all the HS cleaned and properly secured? Do the fans on the video card and CPU run properly?

You mention trying a different PSU. Thats good since it seams like you have a PSU that was bundled with the case. If its an old Sonata case then the PSU is a POS. can't really rule out the PSu though. If you have the case i think you have then you have an Antec SP2 PSU. If thats the case then the PSU may have gown bad and could have damaged the motherboard. A full list of your system components would help.

Does the motherboard have a built in speaker? If not you'll want to plug one in so you can listen for beep codes. It may be throwing up an alarm indicating what the problem is.

 

[0roo0roo]

intel doesn't reboot anymore, they throttle.

sounds like mb i guess.
normally autoreboot is psu

 

[mpilchfamily]

Yes Intel CPUs throttle, but even while they are throttled they can still overheat causing the restart. You need to also consider chip set overheating. I've also seen where a video card overheat can cause a restart. That and corrupted video drivers. Sure the PSU is a suspect in this situation but its not necessarily the primary suspect here.

 

[mariner]

Thanks for the replys.

It's not overheating because rebooting often happens in just a couple of seconds. I've had the CPU and NB heatsinks in place for a couple of years with no problem. I monitor CPU and case temps and they have always been cool (<120F).

I have looked the MB over and see no obviously overheated components.

Rebooting is happening during POST. Could the battery cause a failed POST.
How can I test the individual components other than just plugging and unplugging them and running different combos?
Can PSU or Mainboards have intermittent problems?

My rig:
Antec case/PSU
Abit IC7 Max3 v1 mb
Intel P4 2.4GHz (not overclocked)
ATi 9600 AIW
Corsair and Adata ram
Dell monitor
WD 7200 HDD

 

[mariner]

Update: I think I've isolated the problem. The power switch or the wire connecting it to the mobo is probably bad. Secondarily, the mobo header could be bad. Anyway, I have it all back together except that wire and all is well. When I plug that wire in it does the random rebooting before POST completes. Just though this info might help someone else in the future.

Cheers,
mariner

 

[Denithor]

So how are you getting around the problem? If the jumper is bad I don't see how you can boot up at all...

 

[mariner]

I'm guessing the wire or switch is bad. I start the boot process by shorting the jumper with a screwdriver. With the switch disconnected everything seems to work fine. Well, almost everything. The system runs fine but there is an alarm going off. I have not found the cause yet. All temps and fans are fine. It's like a Check Engine light; just because it's on doesn't mean the machine won't run without problems