HELP, My MOBO might be dying out

[RicHaj]

Hi there, 

 

I could really use some help here im at the end of my rope on what to do now. I'll try to be as clear as i can be with my current situation.

 

THIS IS THE PC SPECS AND CONDITION

 

CPU Intel i5 4670k

GPU GTX 780

MOBO MSI z87 G45 Gamimg

PW Seasonic xseries 760w Gold

 

RAM 2 x 4gb corsair vengenance 1666

RAM 2 x 4gb HyperX predator 1333

(yes i have both on at the same time, please read on) 

 

PC boots off a Vertex 4 OCZ SSD

 

Windows 10

 

Everything fully Updated to latest

 

This PC has been working 100% fine for at least 18 months now. I take it out to clean it every couple of months.

 

PC is used daily for either gaming, office use and video editing \ rendering

 

THIS IS THE PROBLEMS AND ISSUES:

 

During no time in any of the cases below my MOBO ever gave me Alert bips or failed outright

 

Sometime ago i noticed when i turned the PC on that it would power on and then immediately power off then power on again and so on and on and on. It wouldnt boot or post, just get stuck on that cycle. initially i thought it was bad power from the wall ( we get variable tension occasionally during bad weather days here). The PC is protected by a power surge protector at the wall for that reason. So i would just turn the pc off nad let it be for a while and usually the next day it would be fine. 

 

Very rarely i noticed when watching youtube videos or music a very brief ''schreech''. It's hard for me to describe in tech terms, the best i can pass the image is by saying "you know that sound a split second before the PC blue screens on you?" This happens rarely enough for me to not actually get bothered by it, but now im just thinking back at everything... the computer never did froze on me like that and this is quite the rare event.

 

Yesterday i updated my Windows and turned it off, when i got back home later that day i turned it on and when i tried to use google chrome i noticed that Chrome would open into a solid white slab. Closing it took almost a minute, other parts of the PC were fine. So i started poking around. Tried to start Windows Edge (to redownload chrome) and it wouldn't even open. Tried to start Internet Explore, it does open but as soonas i tried to open a new tab it would get stuck into an infinite loading loop, and closing any tabs would close the entire browser. Tried to open steam and it would get stuck on ''connecting to your account" and never fully load, just crashing with no error messages.

 

Then i moved on to windows and this is where it started worrying me. I pressed the start button on windows and nothing would happen. I tried using the search bar on windows 10 next to the start button and the barr just disappears as soon as i type my search terms and press enter. 

 

I tried Crtl Alt Del and all i get is a blank black screen.

 

I press Reset on my PC Tower and it resets the PC, but all i get is a blank screen. Like it's stuck on Pre-Boot or something. The CPU light on the tower is not blinking, fans are on, blank screen, nothing happens.

 

So i power the PC down and back up. It starts up normally, but a few seconds after booting all the same Window issues happen again. And sometimes When i power the PC back on, i get no video. But the HDD light is blinking. 

 

I go back and forth like this and i use System Restore to go back before the last Windows Update. It changes nothing. I go back FURTHER into the restore to make sure im back at a date where there were no issues. No change in the results. all the problems are still happening.

 

At this point i use the few seconds i have before the windows issue pop up to get into CMD and run an integrity check on windows ( SFC /scannow ) . It DOES Point out that there are corrupt files on my windows Built but it CANNOT fix them.

 

I also tried to click on SETTINGS on the windows start menu NOTHING happens. 

 

So, my Windows build seems to be broken, but there are non-windows issues too and these are the ones bothering me... 

 

So at this time i start to think that maybe something is going bad with my Hardware so i power down the whole pc and start digging in.

 

As i read up on it and see if maybe there is dust or anything like that causing trouble, the PC starts showing the Power Down and Back Up cycle again. Over and Over. Since i have 2 different types of Ram memory on my board i decided to remove one pair and see if that solved the issue. It did. At least it seemed to, ever since i removed one of the pairs of ram (tried with both combinations) the Pc has not showed the on-and-off cycle again.

 

I read up that it might be my Power supply, which is kinda odd because it's WAY above what i need for me rig (i know i went overkill on it) and it is working... and it is a high quality PSU. So i felt ok with ruling that issue out.

 

So my next target was the Mobo. 

 

I noticed a NEW problem at this point. Just like when i reset the PC and nothing happens, it happened a couple of times that i would power the PC on, and i would get no video. Then i would power the PC down and right back on and THEN i would get video. The HDD led display on my case shows me that it is booting, but i get a ''no cables connected'' message on my display.

 

So i suspected my GPU. Removed it from the PC, give it a good clean, and then i tried booting the PC again using the onboard video via HDMI (GPU is out of the case at this point). Same problem. Pc Powers on, no video. It is booting in the background, but i get nothing on the screen.

 

It was suggested to me that MAYBE its the HDMI cable im using. The Display is fine, i use it as a secondary screen for my Laptop, PS4, Wiiu and it works perfectly 100% of the time. Regardless, i changed the HDMI cable (still using onboard video)  it it did work, even when i rebooted. But i dont know how relevant that is considering the other issues... 

 

So this narrows it down to maybe my Mobo being on it's last legs? I would hope it is not the case, but i can buy a new Mobo if i need to. I just want to make sure i exausted my options before having to buy a new piece of gear and basically rebuild the whole damn pc again... i though that maybe it could just be a couppted windows install, but now im bummed out to the potential hardware failures ahead.

 

If anybody could shed some light on this, it would help immensily, i really dont have a lot of money (or knowledge) so i want to make the best call i can here. Sorry for the long post, tried to be as clear as i can be.

[Max Dyba]

So I am really thinking this has to be dead RAM. But from all the other issues it seems crazy. Check the CPU socket for any residue or some kind of material between the connectors. It could just be that or maybe something is being shorted out. Do you still have the beeps etc.? If you do they will be listed in your motherboards manual. So check it out there. Many errors can be listed in the motherboards manual. 

[xgn]

Bad news i have been using the same mobo for 6 years and 4 months never got any of those issues.

[RicHaj]

17 minutes ago, xgn said:

Bad news i have been using the same mobo for 6 years and 4 months never got any of those issues.

Sorry i should've been more clear. its a Z87 G45. iTs not that old.

 

26 minutes ago, Max Dyba said:

So I am really thinking this has to be dead RAM. But from all the other issues it seems crazy. Check the CPU socket for any residue or some kind of material between the connectors. It could just be that or maybe something is being shorted out. Do you still have the beeps etc.? If you do they will be listed in your motherboards manual. So check it out there. Many errors can be listed in the motherboards manual. 

 

Sorry, but its not the ram. Both sets of sticks work just fine. And there are no beeps at all, like i said before.

[Max Dyba]

4 minutes ago, RicHaj said:

Sorry i should've been more clear. its a Z87 G45. iTs not that old.

 

 

Sorry, but its not the ram. Both sets of sticks work just fine. And there are no beeps at all, like i said before.

This could also be a faulty SSD (I know I am shooting out random things here but this situation is confusing) Try using a spare HDD from another system like maybe plug in a Laptop HDD and see what happens. 

[0x1e]

12 minutes ago, RicHaj said:

Sorry i should've been more clear. its a Z87 G45. iTs not that old.

 

 

Sorry, but its not the ram. Both sets of sticks work just fine. And there are no beeps at all, like i said before.

Have you ever ran something like Memtest86 to verify this?

 

The problems you have said point to a few possibility's,

RAM. RAM can cause so many problems that it's far from funny.

Motherboard, but it's unlikely. Motherboard normally just fail out right rather than limp.

SSD, but again unlikely, it would normally just fail out right.

[RicHaj]

55 minutes ago, 0x1e said:

Have you ever ran something like Memtest86 to verify this?

 

The problems you have said point to a few possibility's,

RAM. RAM can cause so many problems that it's far from funny.

Motherboard, but it's unlikely. Motherboard normally just fail out right rather than limp.

SSD, but again unlikely, it would normally just fail out right.

 

Not Memtest86 but the windows default diagnosis tool. Well, now you got me thinking about this so here is what i did just now...

 

I took out both kits of ram, the Corsair and the Kingston one.

 

I put the Kingston air on the machine. It booted up normally, ran windows memtest, it's fine. Gets to windows, all others issues persist. Did this twice.

 

Then i removed the kingston kit and put on the Corsair Kit, it does not boot. I get a "No plug connected" message on my display and the keyboard does not even light up, just fans going.

 

So yeah, One problem down. The corsair memory kit seems to be dead. Thanks! 

 

Also at this point im back with the GPU on the PC, and it is working fine. But the other issues remain.

 

Windows still seem broken to all hell. Crtl Alt Del gives me nothing but a black screen, cant access settings Start menu stop working a few seconds after getting to desktop, same for the search bar next to it, and every now and then when i power the pc on, nothing happens, then i power it down and back on, and it works fine.

 

So, one of me ram kits was bad, but is the Motherboard still at risk here? or just a clean windows instal should fix it?

[RicHaj]

Ok, sorry for the double post. just managed to get something else going on here.

 

The Corsair memory kit is in fact NOT dead at all.

 

So, i just grabbed my boot SSD and the corsair memory Kit and just went to a PC repair shop and just ask them to test it, which they did, guy replaced a memory of one of his working PC's with my Corsair kit and it just worked. Perfectly. first try.

 

Then i asked him to add my SSD to the rig and it just booted to windows normally. But the windows build is completely fucked. no doubt,

 

So now i have a memory kit that failed to work properly on my Mobo, but worked just fine in another completely different PC, and a Windows build that is certainly in need of a fresh install. 

 

I think my motherboard may indeed be shorting out.... i just wanted someone to give me some insight if what im saying makes sense before i head to pay up for a new mobo and expend my whole weekend rebuilding my pc.... 

[0x1e]

3 hours ago, RicHaj said:

<snip>

I don't know how to say this correctly so bare with me,

You're doing this all wrong. Windows being corrupt is not a problem you should be concerned with. Once broke it can't be fixed unless if you're willing to manually fix it which could take days or even weeks. It's not worth it. A format will fix it all within an hour. However you need to be concerned about your hardware, as yes you can format now but all you're doing is buying time as it may just happen again.

 

You should do one step at a time.

Memtest86 for a few hours. Let it do 2-3 runs. It will test each and every MB on each stick of ram and give you detailed results. It will also test each CPU, however it's a simple test and shouldn't be taken at face value.

 

Once the memory has passed you move onto the CPU, use something like Aida 64, let it run for a while. We're talking hours. This will build up enough stress WHILE doing other tasks, such as youtube, facebook and so on. Even play a game if possible. You're just trying to load up as much as possible on the CPU. If passed then go onto the GPU.

 

Load up the GPU with a stress test. Now nearly any will work fine, but you should also do real world tests like games, which before with the CPU as you played games will give you a hint, but because of before the CPU was fully loaded the GPU won't be. However now the CPU is "idle" so the GPU should be fully loaded. If that passes then go onto the SSD / HDD.

 

You can use it's own tester, like Samsung have one for their SSD's, you can also use Window's version of scannow.

 

If you need to move to the motherboard then it's very difficult to test. You can try to copy a huge file from one drive to another while copying another to a USB. There's not much you can do.

 

Move on to the PSU last. You can get a PSU tester for pence now. Plug it in and it will give you readings within seconds. Takes a few minutes to set up. Don't rely on software, it's not perfect.

 

If you need to a fresh install to do all of this then do so, but be prepared for another install later on

 

I give you all of this advice with the assumption that your computer is set up correctly with no overclocks.

 

I hope that helps some what.