Win7 Sp1 has killed two MOBOs - Any Ideas?

bizjer · 27 Mar 2011

Hi all,

Have just joined as am about to rip the last of my hair out or go and hunt down Mr W. Gates. My issue is with a non booting home build pc but 1st I will list the faults to date.

My PC was as follows

Win 7 HPrem 64Bit
ASROCK Penryn 3xSli MOBO
Intel q6600 @ 2.4
4 gig of SLi ram
1 x SSD (Booot)
2 x WD Cav Blue for Apps
2 x Storage drives non raided.
1 x SATA DVD Drive.

The system was working fine up until 1st march. I shut the PC down and when I went to boot up the next day nothing, not even BIOS. I did all of the usual tests and came to the conclusion that the MOBO had died. It is also worth noting that on the last night I had the PC running I installed Win7 SP1!

After assuming the worst and waiting 3 weeks for a new motherboard from the US I assembled the PC back together & it worked fine.The PC is the same build as above save for the motherboard which is now

Acer MC72XE, It is a branded form of an MSI P7N diamond.

All systems boooted up fine. I installed Win7 64bit with no issues. I then installed Win7 SP1 and low and behold the next day (Yesterday) I went to boot in the morning and nothing, black screen. no BIOS, no beeps no nothing. Fortunately the new board has LEDS to show which components were working and it seemed all was fine. How could a 1 day old board die I thought. After trying some radical approaches ie holding the power button down for an hour or so there came a single long beep from the board. Something Ii thought. I then removed the +12v Atx plug switched on then off, replugged the 12v and bang up she fired. There were still a few issues though, the bios didnt see the ONXY2 SSD and so i had to reset CMOS again and it eventuallly fired up. I used the PC all day yesterday, shut it down and bang Ive come in today to use it annd nothing again. I can only suspect WIN7 SP1 now as the chances of 2 motherboards dying under teh same circumstances seems a bit too much for me to believe!

Has anyone else experienced this kind of behaviour following Sp1 install, is it due to the nforce chipset or just mroe shoddy work from Microsoft? Law suits are now crossing my mind. Anny advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Biz

pooch · 27 Mar 2011

Hello Biz and welcome to the forum

I think you have other problems this does not sound like an update issue

cyclic · 27 Mar 2011

Those circumstances are not software and certainly not SP1 issues.
You need to do a full hardware diagnostic, primarily I suggest you re-install the CPU\heatsink and reseat the RAM (Sli Ram ?) and any other components.

Mike Connor · 27 Mar 2011

bizjer said:

Hi all,

Have just joined as am about to rip the last of my hair out or go and hunt down Mr W. Gates. My issue is with a non booting home build pc but 1st I will list the faults to date.
<SNIP>

Biz

There is some other issue there. Updates may well occasionally break some software but they don't normally damage motherboards.Have you used the same components APART from the motherboard? Checked your power supply? Checked that you have a new battery on the motherboard? Checked that the battery contacts are clean? Checked that you have correct drivers installed? Checked that your CPU cooler is correctly seated and with thermal contact paste?

Assuming the worst is not always a good idea, indeed, as far as computers are concerned, it is better not to assume anything at all.

Regards....Mike Connor

Britjoe · 27 Mar 2011

Im thinking Power supply My self and a dose of bad luck on the install.

bizjer · 27 Mar 2011

Thanks for the replies thus far guys,

To respond to some of them.

In regards to components used, yes they are the same as the original build apart from the motherboard. The board was brand new and therfore I assume the battery was/is fine. PSU was taken to local maplin store who checked it out and all was ok. I hhave a 2nd 775 based machine which I butchered and switched various components around with. All switched parts worked fine in the 2nd machine. When I first Installed Win7 on the new build it all worked fine. Sp1 installed problems begin.
I am now about too break the machine down agaiin, I will reseat the cpu and ram etc and report back. Whilst Im not going to moan at this point it seems to me highly unlikely that a brand new motherboard would die within 2 days of building the pc AND show the exact same faults as the old board, its far too coincidental for it not to be the same problem. I have read on various forums that SP1 and Win7 has issues with sleep/hibernation etc, maybe the software has told the board to sleep in error and It wont allow me too fire it up again?!?!?!

Think I may well sell the parts and buy an Xbox!!!!!
Btw re drivers etc for chipset et all, yes, Windows 7 Installed them all and the system was running fine when on. it is only when I power down the systemvia windows that this is occuring. Using woindows to Reste the PC was fine, power down = death!

Mike Connor · 27 Mar 2011

If it "dies" AFTER a power down, that suggests you are losing your BIOS when the power goes off. Check the battery and the wiring/jumpers which control the BIOS.

I don't know of any possible way for SP1 to damage a motherboard. It is practically certain that you have a hardware issue.

Regards....Mike Connor

bizjer · 27 Mar 2011

Mike,

as mentioned the battery is brand new and the board has a cmos button on the i/o panel ie no wires jumpers etc. how does the bios get lost?? how do i go about reloading it? if this happens after every powerdown and im going to have to reflash bios everytime or reseat all of the parts every time, not really what im looking for in a hi spec pc lol
!

pooch · 27 Mar 2011

bizjer said:

Mike,

as mentioned the battery is brand new and the board has a cmos button on the i/o panel ie no wires jumpers etc. how does the bios get lost?? how do i go about reloading it? if this happens after every powerdown and im going to have to reflash bios everytime or reseat all of the parts every time, not really what im looking for in a hi spec pc lol
!

Even if the Battery is dead it will not stop the PC starting, the BIOS would just revert to the standard set up

You have a hardware problem I would suggest taking everything apart again starting from scratch put it together paying attention to your mobo handbook so that it is done properly.

If it still does not work then you will need to try to swap parts if possible to find out which part is defect and causing the problems

bizjer · 27 Mar 2011

Pooch, thanks for the update,
With all due respect though this is about the 50th pc ive built and Ive never had this kind of problem. Putting the PC together properly is something I do everytime. I have as already mentioned switched all parts with another pc and they all work. I am now stripping down the pc to rebuild it. there is for sure something going on here. Btw took battery out and replaced. same problem!