Win7 Sp1 has killed two MOBOs - Any Ideas?

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

Hello Biz and welcome to the forum

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

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.

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

Click to expand...

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

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

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!

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

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
!

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
!

Click to expand...

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

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!

With all due respect though this is about the 50th pc ive built

Click to expand...

Then you should be aware that you don't even need an operating system for POST to occur, just to be met by an "Operating system not found" message.

Undoubtedly this is hardware related.
You said you replaced the battery and still the same symptoms? That's unfortunate. Make sure to clear CMOS after the battery swap as well.

Since you're stripping the machine down, I'd suggest working with the bare minimum to narrow your seach down of possible causes (1 HD, 1 Vid card, 1 stick of ram). Hopefully at this point you're able to get a system which can POST.

Report back your progress...

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
!

Click to expand...

It may well be brand new, that does not necessarily mean it works!

I was only trying to give you some ideas for things to check. The only way to find and resolve such problems is by careful diagnostics. You can safely rule out Windows 7 SP1 being the cause. Something is wrong with your hardware.

The BIOS doesn't normally "get lost", but a dodgy battery or contacts, or incorrect jumpering, can cause it to fail.( Lose the settings required for the system to boot).

There are quite a few hardware oriented things which can cause boot failure etc. Something like a bad or wrong graphics card can cause it. Power supply problems, etc etc.

If you look long enough, in the right way, and in the right places, you WILL find the cause of the problem.

There is no point in making ANY assumptions at all, you have to check everything.

Because you used the same components APART from the motherboard, those components are suspect until checked. Most especially the power supply, motherboard battery, and graphic card, how much power does it draw? How much does your motherboard draw? Maybe your power supply is simply stalling because it can not deliver enough power on start-up.

As this is a self build, extremely careful checks are required on every component and assembly. It's easy to make a simple mistake, use incompatible or even damaged hardware, and very difficult to find the cause of the problems that ensue.

You must not make ANY assumptions at all. Check it.

Regards....Mike Connor

By the way, these things can be caused by something "silly", I have had many cases of machines refusing to boot, and other problems, being caused by loose or incorrectly mounted, ( No insulation for instance), screws, contacting the motherboard or other components......

There are lots of possibilities, and the only way to find the cause of problems is to methodically check and check again. Just making assumptions wont get you anywhere at all except frustrated!

Regards....Mike Connor

as you say you took your psu to maplin to get checked but that still doesn't rule it out as the item at fault, having seen the results of some of these tests first hand i can assure you that it does not mean it will work after a test or that the test was able to find the fault.

the fault may only appear on load over multiple rails where the faulty circuit works on low load but not on high load.

i suggest using a totally different psu to start with and ensure minimum hardware is attached to the motherboard.

You should also read this;

Computer POST and beep codes

Regards....Mike Connor

update on the situation

OK guys,
the update is as follows.

I removed all 4 ram chips and tried to boot the pc with ONLY the following attached

1 x VGA card
1 x SATA Drive
1 x CPU
1 x RAM @ 1gig

After several hours of non booting/non bios even removing the ram sticks and seating them back 1 by gave the following results.

1 stick - booted
2 sticks - booted
3 sticks - booted
4 sticks - booted

I tried all 4 ram dimms individualy and each time windows booted as if there were no issues. All 4 back in place and system boots now.

Looking at the sitution I can say the following

New MOBO is fine
PSU - Fine - tested in 2 pcs and at local store - given as working fine
New GTX570 - works in alll test machines
Old GTX9800+ - Works in all machines
RAM - Tested as a bunch and solo - All Working
SATA Drives - All work in multiple machines.

I can only therefore assume that GIVEN
The Bios is still working
The MOBO has no underlying issues as is 2 days old
The VGA card/s work fine
The RAM works after unseating and reseating
HDD & OP Drives work in multiiple machines

And the only factor that seems to cause the issue has been SP1 then Im gonna aim my anger at that software. Is it possible that SP1 has sent code to the RAM to tell it to sleep but on reboot there is no Wake call?

Given all the sugggestions and the fact that I have stripped the machine down to the bones and all components are working fine in multiple machines is it fair to say now that there is an issue with SP1 that I may be the 1st to experience?

I have used the windows memory test to verify the ram and I have used in the last month or seo Memtest for the same reason. If the ram comes back after several hours of testing with no faults yet a simple power down causes the system to not boot then there IS an issue with SP1

I thank all of you for your helpful comments and suggestions, if I have come across as short with anyone please forgive me. Headaches from PCs are the last thing I need and spending more cash out on some piece of harware is really not what I need right now.

Thanks again and anny further comments are truly appreciated.

Many thanks
Biz

As a further update and after looking at Mikes link to BIOS codes,

I have an AMI bios. from the first build of this new machoine (Thursday last week) It boots up and gives a single beep during BIOS screen and pre Win7 Loading. This beep according to the link (1 Beep - AMI Bios = DRAM Refresh Failure) All 4 sticks are identical - PC6400 - 800mhz OCZ SLI ram @ 2.1v - If there is an issue with the BIOS refreshing the ram at boot, is it not possible that in hibernation/sleep windows has sent a message to the ram that a bios message will not clear, that is until unseated/voltagae completely gone and reseated?

Hi there
Sometimes if the Power LED is not connected correctly or poorly connected --loose connection etc then you MOBO won't even power on at all.

You also need to ensure that all fans have been wired in correctly and are working as soon as the mobo is powered on. If these aren't working properly the CPU will stop -- to prevent overheating.

Ensure the heatsink is properly and tightly attached to the processor and of course the processor has been fixed to the mobo without any pins being damaged -- these days this should not occur as the processors are normally "ZIF" type or "Zero Insertion Force.

Finally ensure that no metal components are shorting such as screws attaching the mobo to the case.

It probably is IMPOSSIBLE for a normal Commercial OS such as Wiindows to damage hardware on simple boot.

(Of course you can run "destructive" tests under software control say on Hard disks but these are specialized tests -- a normal OS won't do this).

Cheers

jimbo

I still think the same as before all your problems were hardware based. The first build was not good. No way was this caused by installing SP1

I removed all 4 ram chips and tried to boot the pc with ONLY the following attached

1 x VGA card
1 x SATA Drive
1 x CPU
1 x RAM @ 1gig

After several hours of non booting/non bios

Click to expand...

Is that using the HDD, of which, you're holding SP1 responsible?
What exactly did you do that after several hours of non booting, it started to boot?

Given all the sugggestions and the fact that I have stripped the machine down to the bones and all components are working fine in multiple machines is it fair to say now that there is an issue with SP1 that I may be the 1st to experience?

Click to expand...

Unfortunately no. Here's why: POST doesn't require a HDD (i'm fairly sure) or at the very least, if DEFINITELY doesn't require an OS. As the last step during POST you'd be met with "Operating system not found". Until that point, anything on the HDD is null and void, even if it's corrupt, since it's not being read.

Until we know more of how you got the system to start booting, further suggestions will be limited.

It boots up and gives a single beep during BIOS

Click to expand...

A successful boot will also have 1 short beep. Make sure to not get that confused?