Did I just kill a board?

[MangoX]

My friend has a i5 750 with a Gigabyte P55M-UD2, 6GB G.skill DDR3-1600 memory and a Corsair TX650. He has had the system for a few months running at stock speeds with the stock intel cooler. Having been jealous over my overclocks and wanting for performance for video encoding, he decided to buy an H50 and overclock his setup.

So the cooler arrives and I went over to install it (he's a noob, I'm his tech agent ) and right out I set it up to 180fsb and memory to 744. Clock speed was 3600 I believe. Anyway I then ran Prime95 small FFTs and about 5 minutes into it the whole system completely powered off. I found it odd as I've never experienced this in all my years of overclocking (been overclocking since the Duron 650@800 days).

Temps were great, no higher 70*C. I decided to go back and increase the vcore from 1.22v to 1.3v (just wanted to see if I can get it stable at that speed). Again around 5 minutes in the whole system completely shut off.

Now this is where the problem comes in. The system no longer powers on. I tried a couple of things like re-seating the ATX/12v cables and the system briefly powers on again but then powers back off almost instantly. A few seconds later it would do the same thing (power on then off almost instantly) over and over until I switch off the power supply or unplug the power cable.

Thinking the power supply is dead, I ran home and pulled out an Antec 500w from my AMD HTPC. It does the exact same thing (on then off) so it's not the power supply. It can't be the CPU either since temps were perfectly fine.

I'm thinking it's the motherboard since this is a cheap board with cooling only on the SB but none on the VRMs. I have the Maximus III Gene coming in a few days so for now I have no other P55 motherboard to test with.

What do you guys think? Dead mobo?

 

[kiriakos]

I would try to inspect the CPU contacts .. and the socket contacts ,
looking for damage .
It could be only carbon deposits on some contacts.
An common rubber ( school accessory ) , it could clean the CPU golden contacts, if there is an such an issue.

 

[ehume]

It's the power supply, I believe. Swap another psu in there- even a cheapie will do (don't oc it of course). If the rig boots up OK with the substitute then the problem is the psu.

That motherboard was reviewed here at Anandtech. Somewhere in the replies to the comments the author says he OC'd his board to 4GHz with no problems.

 

[MangoX]

Do you think it's really the power supply ? Because I tested 2 already. I guess I can try out the HX1000

 

[ehume]

I guess I misread you OP. It's not the psu.

You probably have a bad board. The reviewer had his up to 215x20, far faster than you had your friend's board.

You might also check out your friend's RAM, if you have not already done so. And check the board for obvious shorts. If it's not shorting out from detritus, and if the RAM is OK, and the PSU is OK (already tested) then it is the MB.

You're not going to hurt an i5 750 with a measly Vcore of 1.3v - that's within specs.

Oh yes - my first MB was a GA-P55M-UD2. I had it up pretty blessed fast - faster than what you had your friend's board up to. You did not abuse the MB.

 

[Athadeus]

Try holding the power button in for about 3 seconds when you power it on (but less than 5, because it's about 5 sec hold-in time that powers them off). Probably sounds like a dumb idea, but I have had the same experience many times with my Asus Rampage III Gene after bad overclocks, and nothing but doing that solved it for me.

Well, mine was a little different in that it only runs for about 1 second if I just push the power button normally, then it just shuts off, and about 2-3 seconds later the power light blinks, but it just stays off.

 

[Markfw9OO]

Sounds like the VRMs. Give it a try when you get the new board from Asus

 

[Zap]

the system briefly powers on again but then powers back off almost instantly. A few seconds later it would do the same thing (power on then off almost instantly) over and over until I switch off the power supply or unplug the power cable.

If clearing CMOS doesn't work (try jumper, and try leaving battery out) then it is the motherboard that is faulty. When a Gigabyte board goes into an endless reboot loop like that, I think it is trying to recover (and failing over and over again) to recover from a failed POST using the dual BIOS.

 

[zagood]

If clearing CMOS doesn't work (try jumper, and try leaving battery out) then it is the motherboard that is faulty. When a Gigabyte board goes into an endless reboot loop like that, I think it is trying to recover (and failing over and over again) to recover from a failed POST using the dual BIOS.

+1

Also try it with only one stick of ram in slot #1, or even switching out the ram completely. What I've found is that on a Gigabyte board if it's a failed CPU overclock alone it'll reboot with stock clocks and be fine, but if it's the ram it'll get stuck in the reboot cycle.

 

[MangoX]

Opps. Forgot to update this thread (too busy in the video forum ^_^).

It was the motherboard all right. My buddy couldn't wait and wanted his system back up so I ended up trading him my old 920/x58 mobo/6gb ram (was going to sell it anyway either way) + some cash since it's a upgrade over his 750/p55 mobo/4gb ram.

The Maximus III Gene arrives and in goes the 750 (now OC to 4ghz ) and gskill mem. All is working great. I got the Gigabyte RMA # for the board and it will be shipped out this week.

Thanks for all your suggestions everyone.