Dead or dying NF4-D?

[Tasiin]

My NF4-D seems to have fried itself after stable operation for well over a year now. The problems all started when I moved my hardware over from my old case to a new one, an Antec P180. Ever since then, I've gotten spotaneous reboots, complete shut downs, BSODs, and other odd behavior -- even in the BIOS.

 

I've tried everything I can think of. I've reset the board to defaults, removed any components I don't absolutely need in order to get the system started, and reinstalled Windows. The only two things I've had any luck with at all have been moving the memory from another computer (which also has an NF4-D) over and then reinstalling Windows (which was the only way I could get it stable enough to do so). This lead me to believe it might be a memory problem, but I transferred my "bad" memory over to the other computer's NF4-D and ran a 16M SuperPi test with absolutely no problems -- this computer can't run even a 1M test for more than 1-10 seconds without erroring, if it gets into Windows at all.

 

After trying that, I turned off the power to the board and left the BIOS battery out for about 25 minutes, then put everything back in. It seemed to work after that and I was able to complete an entire 32M test in SuperPi without any problems, but after restarting and changing the CAS latency in the BIOS (only thing I changed) from Auto to 2.5, it started rebooting itself again, even after changing it back.

 

I've popped the battery out again and I'm hoping it will at least be stable enough to run for a few days while I order a new board if I avoid changing any settings in the BIOS. I'm really at my wits end here, and I can't see any other possible causes for this other than the motherboard. I was extremely careful when transferring the components over and took all of the usual precautions -- I doubt anything was actually physically damaged during that, and as I said earlier, everything was working fine before this.

 

Does anyone have any suggestions? I really can't think of anything else to try other than throwing this thing out and buying a new board.

[thefabe]

First suggestion is to make a sig with your system specs as per your agreeemt when you joined. It's the rules for support.

[Tasiin]

Sorry, totally slipped my mind. I'm a little tired, I've been working on this for over a day straight now. Signature added.

 

Also, I forgot to mention that I have plugged in all four power connectors to the board, I know how unstable it is without those.

[jo blo]

I've been messing around with my Ultra-D for over a year, and one of the most baffling things about it is that the stability of the bios seems to be not just state dependent but time and history dependent after any changes. Try Ex-Roadie's super special bios clear:

http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showpost.p...04&postcount=24

 

Not having the power fully off and the capacitors fully drained before you started unplugging for the initial move or plugging back in on the other end can and does cause voltage spikes in certain components. Besides confusing the bios this can actually damage stuff. You didn't mention moving to CMOS clear jumper to the clear position - are you assuming that we assumed that you knew to do it or didn't you do it? It helps to be very detailed.

 

The other thing to check is that there is one an only one standoff on the MOBO tray for each of the holes in the mobo. A preinstalled standoff in a position where there isn't a hole on the board can short traces on the back of the board to ground. This is known to cause problems for people that don't check it.

[RGone]

Plus this is likely falling down on its knees after a year>>> Antec NeoPower 480 <<< it was likely only just barely enough when new now it is just wheezing from a years work...

 

RGone...:confused:

[s1ick]

rgone is right with poering 2 hdd's and that 7800gtx it maybe not enough as the capacitors in the PSU weaken with time it may just not be able to cope.

[Tasiin]

Just checked the standoffs, there aren't any extra ones. I also tried clearing the CMOS with the above method, and it rebooted before it got into Windows. The battery was out for about 45 minutes, and the jumper was set on clear for around 30. Sorry about not specifying whether I'd tried clearing it from the jumper by the way -- I hadn't. I'd forgotten about that entirely, actually.

 

It'd be pretty strange if the power supply had just suddenly died. It was working fine before the switch over, and the only thing that's changed at all besides the case itself is the addition of three case fans, all of which run at a lower voltage than my old one did. I did also try disconnecting my sound card, one of the hard drives and my DVD drive earlier, and had no luck. There's also the fact that it seemed to be just fine after popping the battery for the first time and leaving the BIOS settings alone completely, it was on for a good two hours or so running Super Pi. Buying a new one definitely isn't out of the question if that is the problem, but it just seems like it's not right now.

 

Thanks for all of the replies so far!

 

edit: Weird. I did just get it to start, and it seems to be all right. I had to increase the DDR voltage to 2.7V and increase the timings to 3-4-4-8 though. Back before all of this happened, I believe I was running at 2-3-3-6 with a voltage of 2.7V. :/

[thefabe]

Unfortunately that is how electrical parts fail. It has been working hard in virtualy the same enviroment for a what year? Now you have moved it, reconnected it most likely the power plugs are not in exactly the same places the inside componenets have been heated up and cool down too mamy tmes to count, this makes any metal brittle much lesss the tiny circuitry inside the power supply and something just gave up. Also you state the only thing that has changed besides the case is the addition os "3" case fans requiring More Power Scotty. [sorry had to say that] You are runniing a dual core and a 7800 gtx just the dual core puts the 480 out of recommendd spec. 2 hard drives, 1 gig of higher voltage ram + how many fans and optical drives?

[scoobysnack]

Im guessing its probably your power supply. I remember when my old psu started dying, I would get instability and random bsod's. I suggest checking if ur psu is the problem before trying anything else.

[Tasiin]

Hmm, well, I'm not really sure what to do at this point. It's much more stable than it was before, but I still got one BSOD last night before turning it off. I've got both sticks of RAM back in now and I'm running at 2.8V with 3-4-4-8 timings. I still have the nagging feeling that there's something wrong with the motherboard, but it wouldn't kill me to order a new power supply. From what you guys are saying, it sounds like the NeoPower was barely enough to begin with, and I'll need a new power supply when I upgrade anyhow.

 

If I do decide to get a new one, what would be a good choice? It seems like the OCZ GameXStream 600W is recommended around here, though it doesn't seem to be modular. Not a huge problem, but it's somewhat difficult to route the power cables through the Antec P180 as it is, and my modular NeoPower definitely made it a bit easier. I'd hope the cables would be long enough for the P180, too. I'm planning on upgrading to a Conroe based system eventually (probably an E6400 or E6600 with 2GB of memory), so I hope it would be enough for that.

 

Assuming the new power supply doesn't resolve it, I guess it would be safe to say I've exhausted all other options at this point and should just buy a new board to tide me over until I upgrade. :/

 

Thanks very much for your help!

[thefabe]

Well if your going to buy a power supply I would take into mind any future up grades. For instance since most people part out their system when changing platforms I would buy a power supply based on my next systems needs like core2 duo and the new 8800. If your budget can handle it, this way when you switch the power supply is one less thing to buy. This method would also have to take into concideration how long before you upgrade. What I guess I'm trying to say is a 600w with a dual core several hard drives and if you went SLI wouldn't be enough right now so a 600w puts you right near the edge again for upgrades. So maybe the 700? Or the Corsair 620 modular for now. I'm personaly saving to get a FSP 850 quad.

[Tasiin]

Definitely not going to be going SLI, ever. I took a look at the Corsair 620 earlier, but it's quite pricey on Newegg right now, around $180 or so.

 

I haven't had any crashes today after upping the memory voltage again. Maybe I'll just leave things as they are and hope it survives for another 3-4 months before I upgrade. Seems kind of ridiculous to leave this board at stock settings and the memory timings that high for stock speeds with PC4400 memory, but I guess it's better than having a computer that doesn't work at all.