My PC acted "haunted" before "dying"...FTW happened?

Hey all,

You guys are my favourite source of info on the net, so I wanted to ask you if you have any idea what happened to this PC:

I built a system for my Dad from my spares and some newegg stuff. Here are the deets:

ASUS P5N-E SLI Motherboad [Lastest BIOS rev]
Pentium Core 2 Duo E6600 [No OC]
Sparkle 8800GT Video card
WD 1TB HDD SATA 3GB/s
TDK DVD-RW [IDE-0]
FDD [non-USB]
4Gb DDR2 Patroit PSD22G6672/K 1x1Gb + 1x2Gb
RAIDMAX 700+ PSU w/ "fancy red tribal patterning" (forget actual model#)
ViewSonic VX22xxx-LED (again, I forget. it was gone @ the time)

I got it up and running, but Newegg sold me a bunk monitor (white spots) and as you may know, it's a bitch to RMA anything like that. Before I sent it off, I had used UBCD to test everything and partition the HDD for Windows 7 x64.

I also had booted some Linux Mint/Ununtu/Pinguy OS 10.10, and some other non-Debian distros as "Live", CD/DVD or persistent/regular USB installs to muck around, but I did no BIOS or hardware messing other than the UBCD Partitioning & ASUS BIOS update (from BIOS).

Here's where it gets WEIRD!

So while I'm waiting for his monitor, I left the system off, but plugged in, w/o video.

Everything worked great last boot...then...

A few days later, I glance over at it and notice EVERY LED LIGHT is FLASHING on my system!

I'm talking HD light, Power light, DVD LIGHT!!! PS/2 keyboard lights (all three), USB MOUSE LIGHT?!?! All in sequence!!

In all my 15+ years of building/fixing/using PCs of all kinds, I've never seen anything like it! I mean, for God sake, the USB mouse laser light may have even been doing it...

Blink...blink..blink...blink...blink...bl-

No pattern. Just a continuous flash from every light the damn thing had every 3/4 sec. or so... WTF?

I hit the power button, but nothing happened. I switched the PSU power off and on, then everything goes off... I did the usual stuff you do... BIOS battery removal for several hours with pins set to wipe BIOS settings (unplugged), then retried. This time, when I switched the PSU on, the board light didn't turn on.

And there we are. It's apparently dead as a dog now, and I just wasted 2 hours searching Fry's for a Core 2 Duo/DDR2 (non-f*king Micro-ATX, pls!) board, only to buy a DDR3 by mistake.



So... Anybody have a clue what happened to my PC? Was it channeling a dead person, or did I miss the day of PC 101 class when this subject was taught? Needless to say, I Googled my brains out and checked the ASUS forums carefully, trying to find another instance, or I wouldn't be posting.

Thanks for any insight.

-az

The first thing that come to my mind is power supply and/or it's connections.

Oh, dude! If that fixes it, I'll name a kid after you!

OK. I think it may be toast and you may be right. For good measure, I'll swap out the PSU and just try it before buying another mobo, which I assumed was borked.

Still, what/how could something cause all the lights to flash? Anyone know?

-az

Yep. Although this mobo uses beeps, like 1 long and 2 short means memory, etc...

The only LED error codes I've seen on PCs were in laptops, like Dells.

Also, there was no sequence. There are beep codes that are just continuous, so maybe the same goes for LED's, but not on ALL the devices, including USB, which shouldn't have any driver support without software, especially a laser mouse. Same for the DVD drive light.

I am totally boggled... I'll check RAIDMAX PSU site to see if they do this, but I doubt this thread will ever have a fix or explanation, based on what I've found.

Anyone?

-az

Check behind your motherboard for one of the brass standoff/screwholes in the wrong place - shorting the motherboard

Double check you put the usb to case front headers/plugs the right way around and over the correct pins!

Double check your power supply/computer case connections to the motherboard
(on-off/reset etc)

Try repeatedly pressing the 'E' button on your kEy-board!

Check behind your motherboard for one of the brass standoff/screwholes in the wrong place - shorting the motherboard

I can do that by pulling the other side of the case off, even though I know exactly where they all are, and the PC ran fine for two weeks... Can't hurt.

Double check you put the usb to case front headers/plugs the right way around and over the correct pins!

None of the front USB [optional] connectors were plugged into the board. The USB mouse that was flashing in sync was connected (and working) in the back, built-in USB.

Double check your power supply/computer case connections to the motherboard
(on-off/reset etc)

The ASUS boards come with a nifty little pinout connector that makes connecting the stuff cake, and (as I said in the post) the system was working. I'll double check, tho... I may have something turned around and forgot. I was building another ASUS PC @ the time...

Try repeatedly pressing the 'E' button on your kEy-board!

What? Now your messing with me... I'm a damn PC tech, too. I can be smart a$$ & tell people who are complaining about lag in Counter-Strike/CS:S to press F10 or the Windows key to make it go faster...

So, aside from two helpful, but (unfortunately) unproductive posts (thank you guys, I appreciate the input and gave you both you rep) and one snide remark, I'm hearing nothing...

I'm gonna assume that the lack posts show that most or all of you Guru level guys are just as stumped as me and have seen nothing like this, and maybe even think I'm lying.

I swear on my personal moral reputation that this DID HAPPEN just as I said. If you know me (or anyone else with CFS) you'd know I wouldn't be wasting my time on a post I didn't really need help on badly. I'm too lazy...

LOL... Do I get rep points for f**king up a PC in a totally unique and unfixable way?

Okay, if you have no ideas, can anyone suggest a decent (non-Micro) ATX board still out, that support both DDR2 (4 slots) and a Core 2 Duo E6600? Only one SLI slot and Gbit LAN is necessary.

If not, any (wincing) good Micro-ATX board/Case combos with the same that'll accommodate the other hardware?

Thanks! I really do appreciate you guys helping me on this.

PS: I hope you guys will forgive me for not understanding the (rep) button until recently.

-az

Very odd azathoth, did any of these ideas help?

Well, they were all good suggestions... But sometimes, you have to know when to give up. The time I wasted with that machine could have bought half a dozen comparable PC's at the rate I bill for work.

My guess it was the PSU, but I replaced the case, motherboard and PSU, since they are all so cheap these days. It took me a few hours to put it all together and load Windows 7. Totally cake. Here's what I used to replace the "questionable" hardware:

MSI G41M4-F (Core 2 Duo/DDR2 compatible)
Antec 650w PSU
Antec Sonata Case

It runs great now. My tech friends think it may have been the case/PSU combo, but agreed it was freaky. It was the USB/DVD LEDs lighting up that made them suspect the case as well. Though I did get two other boards running in it later, I still decided to junk it.

Thanks everyone, for your help & input!

-az