GA-MA785GMT-UD2H boot stuck after ACPI line

[Allubz]

Dear OC3D'ers

Yesterday I was about to unpack a large file packed into multiple 100MB files and slowly all processes froze. After a restart and a renewed try to unpack (with less programs running, fresh boot) the whole sytem froze again and I had to restart it. I believe this happened once before but then the system worked fine afterwards.

Since I was testing the CoolIT Vantage cooler with build-in very annoying alarm if the fan doesn't get enough power, which seems to happen all the time and did so this time, I decided to quickly re-install my trusted Proli Super Mega. This went without trouble, of course, but after restarting the rig the system is now stuck on the IRQ screen, after the initial booting screen.

That said, the problem sort of got 'bigger' just before or while I was installing that cooler. I do not believe I was rough or wrong in any way I installed that cooler, I put in a different cooler nearly on weekly basis.

Pheriphials like the keyboard still work. USB and SATA drives get detected but the system won't load any further than this:

http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/3756/dsc021780.jpg

Note: The underscore in the left bottom still flickers. Leaving the system on for longer time has doesn't result in any progress whatsoever.

What I've tried so far:

- Hard-resetting the CMOS

- Re-cabling / fitting the whole system, including the CPU cooler

- Flashing the BIOS from F10b to F9

- Booting from DVD and USB (Linux Live) instead of HDD

- Re-fitting both RAM sticks; booting with only one stick

- During all 'testing' the GPU was removed (HD5850) and the IGP was used for ease of access

- Searched Google, nothing exactly similar came up. People advice disabling ACPI (which isn't even possible on this motherboard) but I believe the problem lies in what is being loaded right after the IRQ screen (I don't know what this is).

This changed nothing at all. The problem seems to be inherent to the motherboard.

Note: This system has been running flawlessly for a long time now. I only recently added a broken external HDD, to check for a friend, which resided on top of the case, but I can't believe this to be the actual source (during all testing only the typical setup was used, no added pheriphials).

Note2: I have multiple OS'es installed on multiple HDDs. Whatever boot order I pick nothing shows, so I believe the problem not to reside outside of the motherboard but in or closely related to the motherboard.

Full rig details:

Zalman Z600-HP

AMD Phenom II X2 550 | Usually @ X4 B55 3.8-4.0GHz

Gigabyte GA-MA785GMT-UD2H rev. 1.1 (F9, F10b)

GeIL 2x2GB DDR3-2000 CL9 1.65v

MSI ATi Radeon HD5850 1GB OC

2x 250GB WD Caviar 16SE SATA

1x 500GB WD Caviar 16SE SATA

Generic Fujitsu-Siemens USB keyboard (problem occurs when unplugged too)

Any help on this problem would be much appreciated. My last option is of course to RMA the mobo, but this would be most unpleasant.

Thank you in advance!

 

[alienware]

Hmm. I don't know about new bioses but in older ones there was a Halt on : no keyboard/no errors ETC.

If it was booting fine and you haven't changed any bios settings then I've no idea tbh. Could possibly be a hardware conflict but again that doesn't make an awful lot of sense if you had it all running perfectly before.

Have you tried removing the cmos battery for a while?

Ed. Looking over your pic it seems that an awful lot of things are sharing IRQ 10. I don't know if this could be the issue but I know that from 2K onward Windows used Virtual IRQs. However recently I had an IRQ clash and after many hours I realised all I had to do was uninstall the device from Windows (instead of trying to force the driver on or re allocate) and let it come back. But then that's in Windows.

Ed. As a last ditch attempt to think of something.. Try disabling the USB controller if you can.

 

[Allubz]

Changing to Halt on: No Errors - didn't solve anything.

The pic taken was >after< the BIOS update so I can't tell whether this is the same as before or I might have to change a few IRQs around.

I'll try disabling the USB controller, if this doesn't help I will try removing the CMOS battery. Thank you very much for your input!

EDIT for update: Disabled every kind of controller to no avail. Removed the CMOS battery, reseated it and started, chose Default config but problem persists.

I'm guessing my Mobo is broken, altough I can't think of a good reason why this would be so.