need your help diagnosing the hardware problem

[knopix]

I built this machine a few months ago and it started to intermittingly shut down.
Eventually it got so common that 3 out of 4 times the machine would turn on but shut down right away

The first thing I did was swap the PSU with a new one but that didn't fix it
I swapped the RAM for some working spares that I had, but shutdowns continued
I figured it's probably the motherboard I RMA'd the Abit board but the new one still wouldn't work
I tried again with different power supplies and ram, but nothing helped, so I RMA'd the board again
this 3rd board was even worse, it shut off 100% of the time

I completely dismantled the machine and reassembled everything from scratch, but it still wouldn't post
I even went as far as sending the processor to AMD,
but they emailed me to tell me that they couldn't find any problems and sent me back the processor

so.. I swapped the board, the power supply, the ram, the hard drives, and AMD says the processor is okay..
..does Abit keep sending me bad motherboards? am I doing something wrong?


System Specs:
AMD64 x2 4400+
Abit AN8 Fatality SLI
4gb DDR400 OCZ
ATI x700
73gb Raptor
SeaSonic 430W S12
sony dvd..etc..


any advice is welcome, I'm really not sure where the problem is


ps: the avg processor temp is 35º, so I doubt it's overheating

 

[jackschmittusa]

Has it occured to you that it could be a faulty drive or card?

Try running it with only the hd attached, no optical or floppy drives. Try without any add-in cards.

Have a spare vid card to try?

 

[Freze]

I would recommend, if possible, to try with a different CPU.

There is always a chance that the boards are defective! My father used to work as a customer support engineer at a company that sells machines that check PCBs. He had a customer in Italy who had a problem with a part called the Jammer or something like that (don't ask, all I know is that it is a part that doesn't fail often) so he asked for a replacement to be sent, but that didn't fix anything. He figured it was a bad replacement and asked for another one. The second one arrived and still same story. After the 4th one they sent another engineer because they stopped trusting him, which ended up saying the exact same thing: its the Jammer
After the 10th replacement, my dad took one out of the DEMO machine(which he knew works) and went to Italy to install it himself, In the end all 10 replacements were defective! The chances are low but existing!

 

[Harvey]

How stable is your wall power? If you live in an area with high demand and/or low supply, or if there are any other devices on your power lines that could put heavy spikes on the line, that could cause your problem.

One way to test that would be to borrow a UPS (Uninteruptable Power Supply). If that stops it, you've found the source of your problem.

 

[knopix]

Thank you for all your responses, I really appreciate it.

Originally posted by: jackschmittusa
Has it occured to you that it could be a faulty drive or card?
Try running it with only the hd attached, no optical or floppy drives. Try without any add-in cards.
Have a spare vid card to try?

Unfortunately I don't have a spare Video card,
I tried as you said with only bare minimum but the machine still shut down.

I would recommend, if possible, to try with a different CPU.

unfortunately I don't have a spare one, or a place where I can get it.

How stable is your wall power? If you live in an area with high demand and/or low supply, or if there are any other devices on your power lines that could put heavy spikes on the line, that could cause your problem.

Thanks for the suggestion, but I have 3 other computers in my apartment and all of them are okay so I don't think it's the power (we almost never have spikes).

Any other suggestions?

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

When you tried it with "bare minimums," did you try it outside of the case?

 

[knopix]

Originally posted by: MagnusTheBrewer
When you tried it with "bare minimums," did you try it outside of the case?

Yes, I removed all the parts from the case and tested it on a plastic surface.
Also if it makes any difference the case I was using is an Antec P160.


Any other suggestions?

 

[Rudy Toody]

Have you checked for IRQ conflicts? Go into your BIOS and disable everything you don't use: com ports, parallel ports, game ports, etc. If this fixes the problem, re-enable them one at a time to determine where the problem lies.

 

[Rudy Toody]

Have you checked for IRQ conflicts? Go into your BIOS and disable everything you don't use: com ports, parallel ports, game ports, etc. If this fixes the problem, re-enable them one at a time to determine where the problem lies.

 

[knopix]

Originally posted by: Rudy Toody
Have you checked for IRQ conflicts? Go into your BIOS and disable everything you don't use: com ports, parallel ports, game ports, etc. If this fixes the problem, re-enable them one at a time to determine where the problem lies.

cant get into the BIOS, the machine never gets that far.

I decided to RMA the board again, the replacement is on its way..