Having issues with backup system - need help

A few months back I upgraded to a haswell system and moved all my old parts to my backupsystem. Old parts to include motherboard, RAM, Processor, PS, 128 Gig SSDdrive. Here’s the specs…

• Antec P182 Case
• Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD5
• Intel i7-950 (3.06gig)
• 12 Gig Corsair Dominator GT RAM
• Noctua NH-C12P SE14
• OCZ 128Gig Vertex 2 (OS)
• Western Digital 500Gig Caviar Black HD
• AMD (Sapphire) HD 6950 GPU (2gig)
• Lite-on Optical Drive
• SoundBlaster X-Fi Titanium Pro
• Antec SG-850 power supply
• Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit)

So to make a long story short... the initial problem came when the system wouldn’t allow my RAM to run at 1600MHz, even though the RAM is rated to run at 2000MHz. I ultimately I had the RAM replaced, and I thought all was good until I then discovered/thought the CMOS battery was dead so I replaced it. About two weeks into the new battery my clock lost its time again, and again, I had to go into the BIOS and reset things, to include the clock.

Now, in addition to the PC not wanting to sleep, it also refuses to shutdown… that is I hit the power switch and the PC shuts down, and immediately starts up again. Additionally I’m now losing video – meaning when I go to wake the monitor, it won’t wake or respond unless I restart the PC. I've checked the monitor and all it good there.

So I spend about 3 hours Saturday doing a repair reinstall of the OS and all the updates and drivers and figure all is good. Wife comes home an hour later and tries using the PC only to find… once again the PC isn't responding to include no video.

At this point I’m thinking hardware issue but where?

Interestingly when this was my main rig I never had any issues with it or any of the above hardware installed. And the only difference between it then and now is the case. It was it my HAF X before, now it’s in anAntec case and used as the family PC.

Perhaps I’m too close to see the problem so suggestions would be welcomed. It's just pissing me off because I have a midterm this weekend and the last thing I need is a yaking wife nagging me about "my" (her) broken PC

Thanks.

Does it have all of those bad symptoms if it's out of the case and assembled on the kitchen table?

It appears to be intermittent, which is all the more aggravating.

CPU, RAM, motherboard: you've replaced the RAM; CPUs are very rarely bad; that leaves motherboard. But only by process of elimination.

How much is your troubleshooting time worth per hour; as opposed to taking a chance on a new board--assuming the current hardware still fails intermittently outside of the case????

I assume you have no significant troubleshooting equipment, even a multimeter?

The only troubleshooting tools I have at the moment is my head which at the moment is failing badly. I'm hopping to get some good suggestions before I have to take it completely apart this weekend.

Anyway I haven't taken it out of the case so that might be a good idea there.

And the issues have happened more than enough times to not be intermittent anymore, which is a good thing.

The shut down and startup issues could be from a shorted motherboard to case, also a problem at a connector, wiggle the 24 pin connector see if that does anything. Double check the system panel connections.

madcratebuilder said:

The shut down and startup issues could be from a shorted motherboard to case, also a problem at a connector, wiggle the 24 pin connector see if that does anything. Double check the system panel connections.

That's a pretty good suggestion there, and it could also explain why I never had issues in my other case.

Thanks.

Disconnect all of your case to motherboard connections (reset swtich, Front panel USB, etc). See if it goes away then.

If your motherboard allows you to restart with an on-board button, disconnect the case on-off button and try using the motherboard reset button to see if it is the case on-off switch.

kbrady1979 said:

Any update on this issue Drew?

Well I double-checked the case wires to make sure everything was connected correctly and also checked for lose wires and found no issues there. Also checked the video card and all was good there. So far I've not had any more video loss issues; however, the PC refuses to sleep, and it still won't shutdown without restarting

So, with that, I'll be removing everything from the case including the motherboard and checking from there. Yes, Geno, my motherboard does have and on/off switch, so I'll be checking things outside of the case to eliminate any shorts.

Will keep you guys informed.

Thanks.

So today I took the motherboard out of the case and removed everything from it – CPU, RAM, cards cables, and performed a visual inspection with to magnifying glass but found no visible signs of damage.

Next I reinstalled everything back to the board, hooked up a different PS, and checked the system outside of the case… same issue – motherboard reboots when shut down.

Next I removed the drives to insure the OS wasn’t causing issues… still reboots when shutdown. Removed/swapped all but on stick of RAM… same issue. Even switching video cards nets the same results. I even checked for bent pins at the CPU socket.

Outside of the shutdown/sleep issues, everything else seems to be running just fine. It's just that the system doesn't sleep, and in order to shutdown, I have to kill the power switch to keep it from restarting.

I’m now beginning to think the board somehow got damaged or suddenly went bad when I transferred everything to my Antec case (backup system). Never had an inkling of an issue when it was my main system.

Dang