littlej
06-27-2007, 11:30 AM
Here is the chain of events that lead to where I am now.
Everything was fine for about a year and a half. I've got XP Pro 32 bit, SP2.
One of my video cards ceases to function. Disappears from Device Manager but still has 12V power light on. I leave it in, because it's part of the cooling circuit and a pain to take out. The machine functions fine that way for a few months.
My PSU dies totally. I get a new one, an Enermax Noisetaker II 600 W (Old one was a 600 Noisetaker I). When I power the system up, everything's back to normal, including the video card that I thought had died. SLI working again.
After a month or so, I start up my computer like normal but it hangs during bootup. It gets to the point where it displays my wallpaper and stops. No icons or start bar, nothing. Also doesn't display the Asus splash image or POST info like normal. Can boot into safe mode but not regular.
Nothing I try works, so I reinstall Windows (64 bit this time). Afterwords, everything works fine for a month or so. I create a backup image of my hard drives in this working configuration.
Two weeks ago, I go to start it up like normal, same boot hangup occurs, randomly. I restore the machine using a boot disk and my backup image. Everything is fine for a week.
Last week, same boot hangup happens again, and this time a video card stops working also (same slot stops working, but I don't know if it's the same card). I install a brand new, much more powerful PSU. The machine starts up once normally, but still the one video card is not showing up in Device Manager.
The next time I restart it, same boot hangup.
I try restoring the image again, but this time, if there is a disc in the optical drive during boot, the computer won't do anything at all. Stuff turns on, but the screen just stays black, and no HDD activity. If no disc is present, it will get to the wallpaper and hang. I disconnect the optical drives from the system and try again; still a black screen. Can't get into safe mode.
I'm thinking this has to be a motherboard hardware issue, but this is driving me crazy.
Everything was fine for about a year and a half. I've got XP Pro 32 bit, SP2.
One of my video cards ceases to function. Disappears from Device Manager but still has 12V power light on. I leave it in, because it's part of the cooling circuit and a pain to take out. The machine functions fine that way for a few months.
My PSU dies totally. I get a new one, an Enermax Noisetaker II 600 W (Old one was a 600 Noisetaker I). When I power the system up, everything's back to normal, including the video card that I thought had died. SLI working again.
After a month or so, I start up my computer like normal but it hangs during bootup. It gets to the point where it displays my wallpaper and stops. No icons or start bar, nothing. Also doesn't display the Asus splash image or POST info like normal. Can boot into safe mode but not regular.
Nothing I try works, so I reinstall Windows (64 bit this time). Afterwords, everything works fine for a month or so. I create a backup image of my hard drives in this working configuration.
Two weeks ago, I go to start it up like normal, same boot hangup occurs, randomly. I restore the machine using a boot disk and my backup image. Everything is fine for a week.
Last week, same boot hangup happens again, and this time a video card stops working also (same slot stops working, but I don't know if it's the same card). I install a brand new, much more powerful PSU. The machine starts up once normally, but still the one video card is not showing up in Device Manager.
The next time I restart it, same boot hangup.
I try restoring the image again, but this time, if there is a disc in the optical drive during boot, the computer won't do anything at all. Stuff turns on, but the screen just stays black, and no HDD activity. If no disc is present, it will get to the wallpaper and hang. I disconnect the optical drives from the system and try again; still a black screen. Can't get into safe mode.
I'm thinking this has to be a motherboard hardware issue, but this is driving me crazy.