EVGA x58 3x sli bit the dust

[inotocracy]

So I moved recently, and after hooking up my PC it wasn't acting quite right. First thing I noticed is that my third monitor hooked up through my displayport to DVI adapter wasn't registering. Then, after booting into Windows, I noticed the sound card went "missing". I figured I'd take a look in the BIOS to see if the integrated sound was disabled, and it would lock up while trying to load the BIOS' configuration. After a few reboots, it got to the point where Windows 7 wouldn't even load.

Naturally freaked out that my 5870 may have been damaged, I hooked it up into a second PC and tested it-- still functional. Confirmed the third monitor was also functional, and chalked it all up to something in the motherboard going sour. Took a trip to Fry's and picked up a replacement board, an MSI X58 SLI and I'm back up and running (minus the third monitor).

Now my question is-- what in the world would have caused both the motherboard AND the Apple displayport active adapter to both go bad? I took extra special care of my PC during the move, rather than put it in the truck, it took a ride with us in our car to avoid this sort of thing. Its been quite a while since hardware has gone sour on me and this one is a bit puzzling. I'm leaning towards some sort of static electricity perhaps?

 

[magoo]

It may be nothing.
Before you throw it away,(I'm assuming it's out of the case) take the battery out and clear the CMOS.

Set it up with the basics(CPU,RAM,single GPU) and see what happens.

The board may just have vibrated loose and grounded out.

But if it is truely DOA, ESD would be the best bet.

 

[inotocracy]

^ Tried the CMOS reset (using the clear CMOS button on the back of the board), and pulled everything but the video and a stick of RAM (I tried each individual stick). Same behavior. Whats really weird though is that it was exhibiting signs of video card problems (static, slow rendering of text, etc). But the 5870 is working fine in the new board.

 

[master noran]

Did you drive through a river?

No but srsly, I see threads like this all the time. Somebody moves and they're pc breaks, you guy's have got to stop moving

 

[ibuyufo]

It may be the motherboard. The more I read the more I keep seeing that EVGA is not that well built.

 

[Rock&Roll]

I've seen strange things happen the past with other systems (not this one yet).

Try removing the memory and pci cards. Use some air duster in the slots. Maybe boot up once with one stick of memory. Then try booting with all memory installed.

I don't place a lot of logic on it. But I've had that work for me in the past on personal systems.

If the problem persists, check for bad memory sticks. I've only ever seen one mobo fail on me. It was a gigabyte GM780-2SH mini ATX board. And lots of people had problems with those....

 

[RickyJ]

I've had bent cases cause similar issues. Even a bit of a bend in the rear panel can cause the cards to not sit properly in their slots. Straighten the case, everything works again.

I've also had video cards pop out of their slots (*cough* US/Canadian customs *cough*) during shipping and damage components on the motherboard. I've got one Evga X58 3x SLI board on my shelf that was a victim of this, and Evga ignored my request for part numbers for the broken/missing parts (I can solder surface mount stuff).