Serious motherboard PROBLEMS!!

[j.woody]

hi, basically i have so far gone through 3 different motherboards in the past 2 months. basically something on my computer is ruining motherboards. This morning i turned it on, all the fans started, you could feel the hardrive spinning, the cd drive works and you could feel the northbridge heatsink getting slightly warmer than the room temp, it turns on but no display. the gpu fans goes on 100% and everything stays like that.

there were no beeps , the light on the mobo was normal. i have taken the battery out put it back in then nothing, tried each ram individually, checked everything was plugged in, changed the cpu, changed the gpu, but still nothing. changed the monitor and still nothing. also it seems that none of the output, mice, keyboards seem to turn on. it is like the cmos is getting stuck.

please help, i have spend way over £100 on motherboards and now i will probably need a new one. the motherboards which have been ruined were, an asus p5n-mx, an asus p5n-e and now a evga 650i ultra. the ram i have is ocz pc6400 ddr2 800mhz not been overclocked. i also have a q6600 slightly overclocked and a gtx260 by evga.

i really dont know what is going on but i really need some help.

many thanks james

edit

i also have an ocz stealthxstream 600w psu

 

[mayhem]

send the psu in for RMA and explain to them the problem.

They may be able to help you.

because it really does sound like a PSU spike issue if it relay is 3 motherboards that have died. all so check out you home power supply to see if you have the correct amount of earth. This can only be done by your electric board.

I had a simlar problem about 8 moths ago and it was none of the pcs in the home but we found that our earth was causing a problem. When they dug up the line there was a slit cable and it had to be replaced. Now every thing is fine in the home.

 

[j.woody]

will a power surge protector stop it from happening? my dad just bought one. my brother has one and it doesnt happen to him.

 

[JN]

will a power surge protector stop it from happening? my dad just bought one. my brother has one and it doesnt happen to him.

Nope its highly unlikely to be on the mains side - will be on the low voltage side, which you cant really do anything about (other than getting a new PSU).

I'm with mayhem tho. Deffo sounds like a PSU issue. If it was anything else (eg faulty ram) you'd experience different issues due to the way each different motherboard manufacturer/chipset handles faulty components. If theya re all dying it just sounds like the PSU is zappign them.

 

[j.woody]

this is the 2nd psu i have had, i got it after the 2nd mobo died. any way to check if the psu is faulty?

 

[mayhem]

If its irregular NO .... sorry.

But you can put a load on the PSU say a dvd rom and a hard drive and test each line for voltage and see how it goes using a multi meter but over long periods of time its imposable to tell with out professional equipment..

That is why you should contact OCZ they have the stuff to check it.

All so Power surge protectors are not as good as they are cracked up to be. if you relay what to be sure you have clean power going into your PC use a UPS (a decent one). that way they clean the power properly as it goes through the UPS (its all about sign waves). Cheap USP's how ever don't do that they just trip when the voltage is Dropped at the power end and then kick in when needed.

 

[j.woody]

the power line was checked, it was at a constant 241 v and the psu was checked. it was perfect. i think there might have been a power surge or something. i have got a new power surge protector. i cant rma the motherboard since it had a 30 day warranty and a 2 year warranty if i registered. i didnt register in time

 

[diogojrv91]

a 30 day warranty and a 2 year warranty if i registered. i didnt register in time

only 30 days warranty?

I think the minimum is 2 years doesnt matter if you were registed or not..

 

[Ian Evey]

You do get 1 year waranty on all electrical goods if it develops a manufacturing fault. Obviously if you snapped it in half companys dont have to do anything, but in your case play dumb and say the mobo just died ?

 

[j.woody]

i sent an email to the guy i bought it of. i hope i can get a refund since i was going to upgrade anyway. if not then ill sell it if they do give me another one.

 

[mayhem]

i sent an email to the guy i bought it of. i hope i can get a refund since i was going to upgrade anyway. if not then ill sell it if they do give me another one.

Hold on 1 sec. Is this MB new or 2nd hand. you bought it off a guy ... Getting very confusing here sorry.

If it was bought new then it doesn't matter who you bought it off even if its ebay its got a 1 year warranty (i dont give a hoot what ebay rules say you can sue them for not replacing it if the item is not fit for what it was bought for in a small claims court) buy the seller weather they like it or not. all so you may find that 80% of mother board makers will fix the problem or look at it for you under a RMA.

If it second hand then you are walking a very thing line.

All so if there was a power surge the power supply should have auto shut off and would not restart for a good 10 to 15 min till it cooled down (this is normal for power supply's). Now if you have had a power surge then you need to have your mains checked esp after 3 boards being blown else your just going to keep losing equipment and we are the people who end up paying for all this is us if you keep RMA'ing the items back.

All so a quick check on the power supply with you digital meter isnt going to show a fault unless is is really bad, it has to be done over a period of time (a few hours). All so you need to check it under load as well to make sure it is maintaining the correct voltage and not dropping out or spiking.

Contact OCZ ask for there advice see if you can get a RMA on the power supply. Have your mains checked to see IF you do have any problems.

That's all you need to do.

 

[j.woody]

ok, the guy said that it has a 2 months warranty from him. it is new so i am expecting him to replace it or giving my money back even though it is a couple of days over the warranty.

ok, i did check the power supply for a few hours and it all was ok. im guessing that I have been a bit unlucky. i did use a crap power supply for the first 2 motherboards. an ez cool 500w so that could have ruined them. then i got the ocz which i have now and has been working well for 2 months. maybe the motherboard got some sort of fault i dont know.

i did notice something though. i usually leave my computer on for a few hours but when i came back it was off. i always thought it was my parents turning it off. sometimes they said they did but a few times they said they didnt (thought that they were liars).

maybe a power surge occured, but i didnt have any sort of surge protection untill now, which is too late. oh well, just means ill upgrade my mobo

 

[mayhem]

Oky cool now we have that cleared up it makes life a little better.

Right first of all ..

1) this Guy who is he. Is it ebay, is it a shop, is it a on-line only shop.

2 months warranty on a new mother board is *******s. Was the mother board sealed when you bought it, was it opened ect ect. Do you have a valid receipt.

2) Did you pay by credit card, or debit card or via pay pal or cash.

3) Do the lights in your home flicker, has you parents noticed any of the fuses blowing for any reason. when the mother board stopped working did it trip the fuses in the house. If not why not. The electric board can test your home for free. Its very common for electric in the home to be bad with out people realising it.

4) Surge protectors work if you get a good serge protector but the best route is a UPS as these clean the electric before it goes to the pc. Ill not go into to much detail but it does.

5) Still RMA back the power supply to OCZ. the cost of sending it back to be checked will far out weigh any problems it may cause in the future. But do contact OCZ first and ask for there advice its worth the effort.

6) Ask your parents do they turn the pc off properly. E.g the button on the front off the PC or via the wall. If its via the wall ask them to stop doing that and teach them how to turn off a pc properly. Don't be ignorant to the fact that some people just do not know how sensitive pc's some times really are.

7) When detailing and asking for help on a forum please put as much detail as possible. All you said was I lost 3 mother boards so far. You didn't tell us that you had switched power supply's in-between the problems. Not only does this waste people time in trying to help you out, in that time you could be causing more problems or eventually people will just give up on you.

Diagnosing problems over the internet is far from ideal but with more info it is possible to come a satisfactory conclusion to your self. But misleading information just causes more problems than it solves.

 

[j.woody]

i bought the mothernboard of an ebay shop. the guy said i have to contact evga because of the 2 month warranty running out. i paid via paypal.

sometimes the house electric stops working when too many things are turned on that uses lots of electric like washing machines and stuff.

my parents turn off the computer by going into the start menu etc.. but they dont turn off the psu.

i will contact evga and ocz later this evening.

 

[j.woody]

oops double post sorry

 

[mayhem]

Oky you do have a problem with the electric in you home them. I bet you £50 that you earth is either to high or to Low. That's why things trip out.

This will cause problems with your computer and many other items around the home. They need to get the electric board out and they will fix the problem for free is a fault with the electrics. They will check the wiring into your home but it would all so be a good idea to get a independent electrician who can verify what im telling you.

Until that is done your just wasting your time ...

As ive pointed out in my first post to you.