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Random Issues, Motherboard Going bad?

M

mda

2[H]4U
Joined
Mar 23, 2011
Messages
2,211
Hello all,

I have the following system:

i5 2400 - stock cooler
Gigabyte H67M-D2-B3, latest F7 BIOS
2x8GB Kingston Fury DDR3 (no XMP on this one since H67)
Palit GTX 780 (reference design/blower, stock clocks)
Crucial M4 and WD Black 640GB
Seasonic P660
Corsair 500R Case
Windows 10 Pro, latest drivers installed
Monitor connected via DVI or HDMI

In the last few months, I have been encountering random issues that I now suspect may be the motherboard:

0. These symptoms usually appear during cold boot, and happen anywhere between 20-40% of cold boots. Symptoms may persist after rebooting.

1. Computer boots but no video
-- Computer boots into Windows with no display. You see the HDD light turning on and off for the first few seconds after boot and settles when you'd expect Windows to have loaded.
-- Have tried turning the computer on and off, reseating the GPU and power cables, increasing MB PCIE/RAM/CPU by a little
-- Set the motherboard to enable the onboard outputs while a GPU is plugged in. However, still no display
-- I randomly reset the BIOS out of frustration (since there is nothing to actually change in an H67), and the problem seems to have gone away since last week
-- computer has rebooted by itself once or twice while running Cities: Skylines (not sure if related)

2. Random USB issues -- my mouse and keyboard (both on USB) occasionally are not detected on boot, and the computer will proceed into Windows, but w/o a way to control the computer. Sometimes, changing the port these peripherals are connected to fix the problem. Sometimes they don't and I'll have to turn the computer on and off again via the power switch. I seem to remember at least once wherein rebooting didn't fix the issue.

Originally, with symptom #1, I thought the GPU may have been going bad. However since symptom #2, I now believe it may be the motherboard.

The computer is currently quick for its uses, so I'd like to try a repair or component replacement first before I tear it down and start a new build.

Anyone encountered similar situations in the past?

TLDR: Computer encountering random video and USB issues. Motherboard problem? What else can it be?

Thanks for reading!
 
Tend to agree with you on bad mobo with your given info.

Sounds kind of like issues I had with a Gigabyte mobo years ago.
Switched to an ASUS mobo and no more problem.

I'm not a fan boy of any particular mobo maker.

Have had bad luck with the few Gigabyte boards I've had, good
luck with ASUS boards, and am happy with my first MSI board.

I'd stay away from the ultra cheap, no overclocking chipset boards.
I get the overclockable boards even when not doing overclocking
just because they tend to get more engineering focus, more BIOS
updates, sometimes better components (VRMS, etc.).
 
Could be the power supply.

Besides that, I would also try reseating the CPU and RAM.
 
Thanks spartacus, cyclone3d for the info and suggestions.

Just to update, the computer hasn't screwed up much since I reset the BIOS, which I would like to note is funny because there isn't really any settings I can change on an H67.

I've also done the following things since I've made the thread:
1. Reseat RAM, Reseat GPU, tightened PSU connectors, dusted off the inside of the case, removed excess cables in the case (used to need another 2 cables since I was running a 6870CF setup)
2. Removed the weak 500R side panel fan and moved my top mounted 2x140mm top exhaust fans to serve as side panel intake.
3. Re-enabled some of the ErP settings on the motherboard
4. Updated the NV drivers to whatever was the newest at that time (I'm not really sure if this is a reinstall or entirely new drivers)

Haven't touched the CPU yet, but I most definitely will if something else screws up. I'm also thinking if this could have something to do with some power saving setting with the motherboard.

Will update you guys if the computer continues screwing around.

Slightly OT, I seem to have better luck with Asus boards than Gigabyte ones.
Asus A8V Deluxe - 2004 - 2015 (board died, started not booting)
Gigabyte X38-DS5 - 2007 to 2011 or 2012 (board died, all other parts booted up fine in a different board)
Gigabyte H67M-D2-B3 - mid2011 or early 2012 - present - board in the topic
Asus Z87 Pro - 2013 - present - no issues (yet)
 
Just to update this thread just in case it will help anyone.

Motherboard was chugging along since the last update with the occasional issues every now and then. Not enough to warrant replacement.

Things took a turn for the worse yesterday:

1. Did some heavy writes (steam games) on the SSD. More or less 30-40GB. The drive has been relatively empty ever since purchased in 2012/2013. (70GB used out of 250+). Turned the computer off to plug in a 2TB drive for testing (installing CentOS).
2. Motherboard would now refuse to enter BIOS. I repeatedly force power cycle the computer in an attempt to get to the BIOS (which I have done before). No go.
3. Upon removing some parts (GPU, all HDDs), I realize the problem is twofold:
3A. The Crucial M4 is dead. Computer refuses to POST with the M4 plugged in.
3B. Some USB ports may be faulty. Tried a live USB of Ubuntu 16 and the USB keyboard (a Ducky) would need to be replugged to be recognized in one USB slot, while it would automatically be recognized in another USB slot. At this point I suspect the motherboard is faulty but not sure if it will progress any further.

I am also not sure if the motherboard killed the Crucial. Unlikely but so was the whole scenario.

Also could be the power supply as was suggested, but no way to test this since all the other parts are running decently otherwise including the GTX780

Will probably keep this board in use for now. Can't find any other decent LGA1155 boards locally aside from unsold H61 boards.
 
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IIRC, the M4s needed a firmware upgrade due to a bug. After something like 5k+ hours it wouldn't work anymore or something along those lines. I'd check that before tossing that drive out.

Does sound like you're having some issues with the USB controller another problem I seem to recall with Sandybridge, but I though it was the Z68 motherboards and not the H boards.
 
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Popped out the M4 yesterday and it's totally without power now.

I do believe I updated the firmware for that 5K+ hours bug, but it sounds like there is a new one which I have not updated to:

Resolved a power-up timing issue that could result in a drive hang, resulting in an inability to communicate with the host computer. The hang condition would typically occur during power-up or resume from Sleep or Hibernate. Most often, a new power cycle will clear the condition and allow normal operations to continue. The failure mode has only been observed in factory tests. The failure mode is believed to have been contained to the factory. This fix is being implemented for all new builds, for all form factors, as a precautionary measure. The fix may be implemented in the field, as desired, to prevent occurrence of this boot-time failure. To date, no known field returns have been shown to be related to this issue. A failure of this type would typically be recoverable by a system reset.
Click to expand...

^Sounds like I have successfully replicated this in a non-factory setting, minus being fixed by a system reset.

Will give it a go when I get home.

Will also read up about the issue on USB controllers on the SB chipsets. If confirmed, it will at least save me some cash on a new board/CPU/memory especially since this machine is plenty fast for what it does.
 
Found the problem: you wussed out big-time and are being punished by the electron gods.

No P or Z series board, no aftermarket HSF, no K series CPU, no OC on the GPU, bought RAM you can't even make "full" use of since the (terrible) motherboard doesn't support XMP.

Then you didn't keep your drive firmware up to date. So basically... brought this on yourself.
 
yup, the [H]ardGods are angry...

have you tested the battery and/or cleared cmos? a dying cmos batt will cause all sorts of weird problems and its about that age.
 
I had similar issues on my evga Z68 board, drove me crazy for a long time. Turns out my ssd was going bad, it was a Crucial M500 ssd. Just out of curiosity one day i took it out, replaced it with a spindle hdd, and all the issues went away.
 
silent-circuit said:
Found the problem: you wussed out big-time and are being punished by the electron gods.

No P or Z series board, no aftermarket HSF, no K series CPU, no OC on the GPU, bought RAM you can't even make "full" use of since the (terrible) motherboard doesn't support XMP.

Then you didn't keep your drive firmware up to date. So basically... brought this on yourself.
Click to expand...

Thank, had a good laugh at this ;)

That said, revived my computer by getting a new 850 for the main rig, with the secondary receiving the older 840.

Based on the firmware I found sitting in my 'downloads' folder in the secondary (WD Black 640), I indeed did have the latest firmware for the M4. Sucks.

pendragon1 said:
yup, the [H]ardGods are angry...

have you tested the battery and/or cleared cmos? a dying cmos batt will cause all sorts of weird problems and its about that age.
Click to expand...

Will try replacing the CMOS battery. Thanks for this, but so far the USB keyboard seems running well when plugged in a certain port. I'm kind of scared to move the keyboard/mouse to a different port at this point.

Travolta said:
I had similar issues on my evga Z68 board, drove me crazy for a long time. Turns out my ssd was going bad, it was a Crucial M500 ssd. Just out of curiosity one day i took it out, replaced it with a spindle hdd, and all the issues went away.
Click to expand...

Were you on the latest firmware as well? Weird that these Crucials are failing given the relatively good reliability record.
 
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