Replaced PSU, CPU, GPU, Mobo. Ghost "no-POST" issue still persists (getting discouraged)

[Treppiede]

Gentlemen,
Here's my original system (including Amazon links for certain components):

• ASUS P6T Deluxe V1
• Intel Core i7-965 Extreme
• Thermaltake PurePower 430W PSU
• 24GB Samsung RAM
• Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO CPU Cooler
• Radeon HD5850 GPU
• Two old Samsung Enterprise 2.5" 3.5mm 100GB SLC SSD in RAID-0
• Old Antec/Chieftec-Dragon style ATX Tower

With the above configuration, I started getting intermittent no-POST issues.
They were hard to reproduce and the behaviour was not always the same. Sometimes the system was completely unresponsive, sometimes the Cooler Master fan would do a few slow spins when I tried to turn it on... sometimes I'd notice buzzing sound, sometimes I wouldn't.

I inspected the old P6T Deluxe thoroughly... no swollen or leaky caps to be found.

Sometimes I would unplug the power cord, press the power button to drain the caps, wait a few minutes and try again successfully. Sometimes the PC would refuse to POST for days. I did an online search and found a LOT of people complaining about the same issue with their P6T Deluxe, so I started slowly buying new components (that I wanted to upgrade anyways) while I waited for a decent deal on a NEW replacement Mobo.

Here are the upgrades I did, mostly in order:

• Corsair CX750M PSU
  • Issue persisted
• Intel Xeon X5675 (six core)
  • Issue persisted
• Radeon HD7950 GPU
  • Issue persisted

At this point, I ran the latest version of MemTest86 for several hours. No memory errors reported.

Finally, I find a good replacement Mobo (last month):

• ASUS Sabertooth X58

And added a brand new...

• Apricorn Velocity Duo PCIe card (Marvell 9230)
  • to bypass the built-in (shitty) Marvell 9128 controller and maximize SSD speed
  • I then proceeded to create a RAID-0 array and reinstall the OS.

...worked beautifully for a few days... I was so relieved, at last!

Then, yesterday evening, it refused to POST with the same behaviour.
Saying that my jaw hit the floor is an understatement.


I know I sound like a broken record in all of my recent posts, but I am not a big gamer anymore (used to be). All I want to do is play the new Doom, which I've been playing since the old DOS versions in the 90s. Doom is the game that brings me back to gaming every ~10 years.

Based on the above information (thank you if you made it so far), the Case, RAM, CPU Fan and SSDs are the only components that have not been replaced. Here are my observations on each of them:

1. Case: it's solid, not warped, no extra raisers shorting the mobo
2. RAM: I got it brand new a few years ago and handled it with extra care. Tested, no errors (still suspicious, though)
3. CPU Fan: got it brand new same day I got the RAM. Used very little (still suspicious)
4. SSDs: Sure, I've seen defective drives creating noise on the bus and preventing a machine from POSTing. But I tried unplugging these two and the system still wouldn't POST. I am waiting for the Samsung 850 EVO to drop in price, I will pick up two of those as soon as they do.

I've built hundreds of PCs over the years (no exaggeration), I've never had such curse.

I am open to any suggestion at this point.

Help me, so I can play the new Doom!

 

[defaultluser]

Maybe it's time to upgrade? That CPU is eight years old now, and has a lot more integrated on-board than previous CPUs. If even one of the following is failing:

CPU logic
Cache memory
Memory controller
PCIe bus controller

It could fail.

Also, have you tried a single stick of ram? Triple-channel sticks occasionally caused problems for x58 boards.

 

[Treppiede]

Maybe it's time to upgrade?

It's still a capable system. Besides, I have so much invested into it, I am going to see this through (and possibly regret it).

That CPU is eight years old now, and has a lot more integrated on-board than previous CPUs. If even one of the following is failing:

CPU logic
Cache memory
Memory controller
PCIe bus controller

It could fail.

True. But the CPU has been replaced as well. Issue persists. This leads me to think that the issue is elsewhere.

Also, have you tried a single stick of ram? Triple-channel sticks occasionally caused problems for x58 boards.

Single module? I removed RAM a couple of years back (still on the P6T Deluxe) but I don't remember if I left a single module or one module in each channel.

 

[pendragon1]

how old is the x58 board? it could be the cmos battery. try testing or replacing it. also try breaking it down to the basics. pull it all a part and run the psu, mobo, cpu, onboard vid, one stick of ram and a single ssd out off the case on the mobo box or something similar. see if you can get it running reliably like that then add things back. hopefully youll find whats causing it. good luck!

 

[Araxie]

have you checked your home electricity? dirty energy can cause all kind of things like you mentioned, are you using surge protector and/or UPS? its the wall socket properly grounded? most people tend to forget this and is in this part where lot of this kind of issues are found. so I would check wall voltages, ground and surge protectors which include UPS..

 

[michalrz]

Could you remove the motherboard and kind of look at it from each edge? We're looking for the following damage to the mobo:
- scratches to the left of the mobo's surface or edge caused by PCI/PCIe cards' rear I/O shields.
- take a careful look at the through-holes of the mobo - shine a light - notice any little bits of copper wiring breaking through from within the laminate? any signs of crushing from the stand-off screws? Are all stand-offs level?
- light a flashlight at your back IO ports - especially the USB ones. Sometimes a USB port trace flakes off its plastic base and makes a tiny short to the case.
Were you able to pinpoint where the buzzing originated? That buzzing can be a tell-tale symptom because it possibly rules out sections of the system such as the chipset, RAM, CPU. But at the same time points at the motherboard and PSU (out of which only the latter ramained).

 

[Treppiede]

Thank you all for your suggestions. Replies inline:

how old is the x58 board? it could be the cmos battery. try testing or replacing it. also try breaking it down to the basics. pull it all a part and run the psu, mobo, cpu, onboard vid, one stick of ram and a single ssd out off the case on the mobo box or something similar. see if you can get it running reliably like that then add things back. hopefully youll find whats causing it. good luck!

Battery is new. I just tested it with a voltmeter, it read between 3.0-3.1V. I did try POSTing with the bare minimum, all the way down to NO SSDs and 1 RAM module. No luck.

have you checked your home electricity? dirty energy can cause all kind of things like you mentioned, are you using surge protector and/or UPS? its the wall socket properly grounded? most people tend to forget this and is in this part where lot of this kind of issues are found. so I would check wall voltages, ground and surge protectors which include UPS..

Very good point. I know the outlets are grounded properly, but that is the extent at which I checked. For this reason, yesterday I ordered a sweet Furman EMI/RFI attenuating surge protector. I will also do extensive checks on grounds and noise in the electrical lines.

Could you remove the motherboard and kind of look at it from each edge? We're looking for the following damage to the mobo:
- scratches to the left of the mobo's surface or edge caused by PCI/PCIe cards' rear I/O shields.
- take a careful look at the through-holes of the mobo - shine a light - notice any little bits of copper wiring breaking through from within the laminate? any signs of crushing from the stand-off screws? Are all stand-offs level?
- light a flashlight at your back IO ports - especially the USB ones. Sometimes a USB port trace flakes off its plastic base and makes a tiny short to the case.
Were you able to pinpoint where the buzzing originated? That buzzing can be a tell-tale symptom because it possibly rules out sections of the system such as the chipset, RAM, CPU. But at the same time points at the motherboard and PSU (out of which only the latter ramained).

Thank you for the detailed suggestions. The Sabertooth was an ASUS refurb I bought on eBay. The mobo was sealed from ASUS and came with a brand new CMOS battery and latest BIOS. I inspected it thoroughly (I thought it was new, not refurb when I bought it) and it looked ok. I will look in more detail at the areas you mentioned... but I doubt it's the Mobo, since the issue was identical with the P6T Deluxe I had up until a month ago.

 

[Araxie]

Very good point. I know the outlets are grounded properly, but that is the extent at which I checked. For this reason, yesterday I ordered a sweet Furman EMI/RFI attenuating surge protector. I will also do extensive checks on grounds and noise in the electrical lines.

if you are planing to utilize that and then use also an UPS then you will have to calibrate the sinewave for both devices, this is something that normally people do not see but a stabilized current sinewave from an stabilizer can produce conflict with another wave stabilized for example from an UPS, I found this cause a lot and i mean A LOT of issues with some PCs and other electronic devices which start to produce erratic behavior for some "unknown" reasons... but yes would be good to check everything, you know, you may try putting the pc in another room that doesn't share the same house breaker so then you can discard or confirm an issue in the actual room where the pc is located.

 

[michalrz]

Thank you for the detailed suggestions. The Sabertooth was an ASUS refurb I bought on eBay. The mobo was sealed from ASUS and came with a brand new CMOS battery and latest BIOS. I inspected it thoroughly (I thought it was new, not refurb when I bought it) and it looked ok. I will look in more detail at the areas you mentioned... but I doubt it's the Mobo, since the issue was identical with the P6T Deluxe I had up until a month ago.

Oh, my bad, I kept thinking you only swapped the CPU, GPU and PSU. If it happened on the other one, forget I even posted
In that case, leaning towards dirty (purrr!) power as Araxie mentioned.
Also, the wires, man, the PSU cord. Check it out, as the venerable Dr. Steve Brule would say

 

[cyclone3d]

What about the case or CPU fans?

I have seen a few systems where a case or CPU cooler fan has died and it has caused a no POST issue like you are describing.

 

[Treppiede]

if you are planing to utilize that and then use also an UPS then you will have to calibrate the sinewave for both devices, this is something that normally people do not see but a stabilized current sinewave from an stabilizer can produce conflict with another wave stabilized for example from an UPS, I found this cause a lot and i mean A LOT of issues with some PCs and other electronic devices which start to produce erratic behavior for some "unknown" reasons... but yes would be good to check everything, you know, you may try putting the pc in another room that doesn't share the same house breaker so then you can discard or confirm an issue in the actual room where the pc is located.

Thank you for this. I was not planning on loading the surge protector off of one UPS outlet (obviously), but I wasn't aware of the wave conflict you warned about. I will try the surge protector straight off the wall, just to see if reduced EMI/RFI help in any way.

Oh, my bad, I kept thinking you only swapped the CPU, GPU and PSU. If it happened on the other one, forget I even posted
In that case, leaning towards dirty (purrr!) power as Araxie mentioned.
Also, the wires, man, the PSU cord. Check it out, as the venerable Dr. Steve Brule would say

No worries. And yes, I replaced the PSU cord with a new one (bigger gauge, too). Nothing.

What about the case or CPU fans?

I have seen a few systems where a case or CPU cooler fan has died and it has caused a no POST issue like you are describing.

Ruled out already. The case is perfect, no raisers/stand-offs shorting anything... and the CPU fan is fine. Tried POSTing with the fan unplugged, same identical behavior.

 

[pendragon1]

Battery is new. I just tested it with a voltmeter, it read between 3.0-3.1V. I did try POSTing with the bare minimum, all the way down to NO SSDs and 1 RAM module. No luck.

but did you try it out of the case? I know you've check it over but there could be something you don't see. also check all the I/o ports for any bent pins/metal tabs. try a different mouse and keyboard just in case and if you have access to a different set of ram try that too.

 

[Treppiede]

but did you try it out of the case? I know you've check it over but there could be something you don't see. also check all the I/o ports for any bent pins/metal tabs. try a different mouse and keyboard just in case and if you have access to a different set of ram try that too.

I did try it out of the case, along with new mouse and keyboard.

But I do have (hopefully) good news: I did some research and learned that Intel itself said that the CPU can't handle 24GB in the specific configuration I had (6x 4GB RAM modules). Some people have been able to make it work by slightly raising the voltage, but I honestly don't want to mess with it, I just want it to work. So I reset the BIOS, changed the configuration to three DIMMs (12GB instead of 24GB) and the system has been working. I will update if there are further developments!