Boot failure/lockup - Causes?

[RanceJustice]

Hello all. My relatively new core2quad system decided not to boot last night. Prior to that, It was working flawlessly. In fact, I can't even make it into the BIOS! During POST, it prints the CPU information but then before it gets to the memory test, it just locks up. It prints the word "memory", but doesn't run through the amount of RAM or progress any further etc... It just hard locks here.

Any idea what causes this, just out of the blue?

 

[DeathFromBelow]

It's weird to see something just die like that, but overclocking can do it.

Have you tried booting with one memory stick?

 

[RanceJustice]

Not yet, but I'll give it a shot. Unfortunately its a major production to take a SFF apart and put it back together just to make one little change in hardware.

I have a Q6600 OCed just to 3.0, so its not a high end OC or anything, and the temp is well within normal parameters, especially for a G0 stepping. So I don't think its a thermal issue, anyway?

 

[RanceJustice]

Swapped both RAM sticks to the opposing colored slots. Seems to boot now, but I'm a little worried about the life of the system. Last system I built did the same thing, and it was only a matter of time before the motherboard died.

Also, strangely enough my power switch wasn't working (IE computer didn't turn on at all) with my USB HDD plugged into the back USB ports, but plugging it into the front fixed it. How odd...

 

[DeathFromBelow]

Also, strangely enough my power switch wasn't working (IE computer didn't turn on at all) with my USB HDD plugged into the back USB ports, but plugging it into the front fixed it. How odd...

That is strange... I'd be a little worried about the power supply/motherboard; you may have bigger issues going on here. Do other USB devices cause issues when you plug them into the rear ports?

I would run memtest for a few hours to see if the memory is completely stable.

 

[RanceJustice]

That is strange... I'd be a little worried about the power supply/motherboard; you may have bigger issues going on here. Do other USB devices cause issues when you plug them into the rear ports?

I would run memtest for a few hours to see if the memory is completely stable.

Other devices didn't seem to have the same effect. And this is an external USB HDD that has a separate power supply, by the way. Very odd. I think I'll have to do the Memtest thing tonight, and the Frozen CPU power supply tester I have said the PS is fine, but being that its an Enermax Liberty... I'm not so sure.

Last time this sort of thing happened it was the beginning of the end for the motherboard. If that's the case, I am DONE with trying to build a performance system in a SFF chassis. Even though I pick the best mATX mobos as recommended in that forum, I'm worried that mobo manufacturers only make the highest quality mobo in full ATX size.

 

[DeathFromBelow]

I had an older machine running off some crappy Allied 400W power supply. When the PS started to go the system would randomly shut off when I plugged in any USB device.

If the memory checks out ok I would ditch the power supply. I've had mobos show up DOA and a few with bad caps, but I cant imagine why it would slowly die on you if it's not overheating.

Another thing to check, did you mess with voltages at all when you were overclocking? I would go in an manually set the memory voltage, just to be sure the board isn't under/overvolting it.