Failure of P35 motherboards

[Paul Lower]

My main computer had a Gigabyte EP35 m/b which failed after 3 months. It
kept failing to boot at odd times and then gave up altogether.
Yesterday I replaced it with an AsRock p35 board and all went well until I
re-activated windows. The next time I tried to boot up there was zilch,
zippo, nothing. The computer refuses to boot even though there is power..
I have tried changing the power supply, memory, I even swapped the processor
with my other computer.
I'm tearing my hair out with frustration. Every time I put another m/b in ,
it fails.
Jeantech 500w power supply or
Atrix 720w power supply
Intel E8400 or E7400
Nvidia 250 graphic card
Hitachi 500 gb sata h/do
2 Gb Corsair DDR3 or Corsair DDR2
2x Sata DVD Writers
2 x ide Hard drives
Has anyone had a similar experience and how do I solve it?
Cheers
Paul

 

[arnold]

My main computer had a Gigabyte EP35 m/b which failed after 3 months. It
kept failing to boot at odd times and then gave up altogether. Yesterday
I replaced it with an AsRock p35 board and all went well until I
re-activated windows. The next time I tried to boot up there was zilch,
zippo, nothing. The computer refuses to boot even though there is
power.. I have tried changing the power supply, memory, I even swapped
the processor with my other computer.
I'm tearing my hair out with frustration. Every time I put another m/b
in , it fails.
Jeantech 500w power supply or
Atrix 720w power supply
Intel E8400 or E7400
Nvidia 250 graphic card
Hitachi 500 gb sata h/do
2 Gb Corsair DDR3 or Corsair DDR2
2x Sata DVD Writers
2 x ide Hard drives
Has anyone had a similar experience and how do I solve it? Cheers
Paul

Linux

 

[Kent_Diego]

Jeantech 500w power supply or

Atrix 720w power supply
Intel E8400 or E7400
Nvidia 250 graphic card
Hitachi 500 gb sata h/do
2 Gb Corsair DDR3 or Corsair DDR2
2x Sata DVD Writers
2 x ide Hard drives

The only guess I can come up with is maybe the power supply is an off brand
that could have noisy DC outputs that is somehow damaging the motherboard.
Sometimes a bad video card can cause a computer to not boot. You already
tried replacing the RAM. Remove motherboard from case and connect only PS,
RAM and different video card. Reset the CMOS and see if it will boot. Have
you tried to RMA the motherboards back to manufacturer under warrantee?

 

[Paul Lower]

Hi
Thank you for your reply. I RMA' d the first motherboard to PC World. They
don't sell motherboards anymore so I changed it for something else. The
second motherboard was from ebay and it ran just fine for a day until I
rebooted it. This was yesterday so I'm still struggling with it.
I suspected the 500w power supply so I changed it for a 720w one. This did
not seem to be any better.
I thought I might be overloading the motherboard with the Nvidia 250GFS card
.. I will probably swap it with my other computer and use the 9600GT.
I have the other computer so the kids can play games on it. It has a Nvidia
680i chipset and is as steady as a rock. I'm not too impressed with intel
chipsets so far.
Cheers
Paul

 

[John Doe]

My factory refurbished Intel DP35DPM has worked with no issues for
15 months. My only complaint... For some strange reason Intel's
temperature sensor software is still in beta, and it shows
(sometimes its icon magically/spontaneously disappears from the
system tray).

 

[John Doe]

My main computer had a Gigabyte EP35 m/b which failed after 3
months. It kept failing to boot at odd times and then gave up
altogether. Yesterday I replaced it with an AsRock p35 board and
all went well until I re-activated windows. The next time I
tried to boot up there was zilch, zippo, nothing. The computer
refuses to boot even though there is power.. I have tried
changing the power supply, memory, I even swapped the processor
with my other computer.
I'm tearing my hair out with frustration. Every time I put
another m/b in , it fails.

Have you checked your house power? I tend to repeat that, but maybe
because it appears to be a best-kept secret. We all know that a power
supply is an important component, but apparently almost everyone
takes for granted that their house power supply is good. A dirt cheap
($50-$100 US) voltage regulator has the potential of solving some
power supply issues, depending on your circumstance.

 

[Robert Brereton]

My factory refurbished Intel DP35DPM has worked with no issues for
15 months. My only complaint... For some strange reason Intel's
temperature sensor software is still in beta, and it shows
(sometimes its icon magically/spontaneously disappears from the
system tray).

Hi

I have a DP35DP board in my main pc and also rebuilt my sons PC with one.
They both have Q6600 CPUs and have been fine for more than a year now (FX
/Crosses fingers/FX).

This problem could be a defective video card. I had a new one a while back
which prevented the machine booting. All the lights etc came up, but it
stalled with a black screen, try swapping with a known good one. If it is
not the video card then, as John Doe says, it could be a power supply issue
in either the PSU or the house supply.

There is a new, non beta, version of the desktop utilities on Intel's
website which seems to work OK here., I found it improved some things when I
upgraded to the latest BIOS also.

Bob

 

[John Doe]

There is a new, non beta, version of the desktop utilities on
Intel's website

The title bar still says "Version 3.0 BETA". I have the most recent
BIOS. I am sure there are many complications, that it works well on
other systems is not surprising to me. It works well enough here to
help monitor my system.

 

[Paul Lower]

Hi
I did as you suggested and connected the m/b outside the case to the 720w
power supply. I used a graphics card from my other computer and it worked.
What do I do now. I could put the board back in the case and get nothing? I
am still baffled. It is a good Akasa case and I cannot see where I have gone
wrong.
Cheers
Paul

 

[Paul Lower]

Hi
I did as you suggested and connected the m/b outside the case to the 720w
power supply. I used a graphics card from my other computer and it worked.
What do I do now. I could put the board back in the case and get nothing? I
am still baffled. It is a good Akasa case and I cannot see where I have gone
wrong.
Cheers
Paul

 

[Guest]

I missed the first part of this thread, but make sure there are
no extra standoffs on the motherboard or case.

 

[Paul Lower]

Hi
I removed the m/b from the case as you suggested, put another graphics card
in it and it booted. I put everything back in the case, removed the fiber
washers from the screws, didn't tightened them up and bingo, full boot. I
connected up all the USB's and it would not boot until I had removed some of
them. I seem to have a partial success but I'm still not confidant it will
boot next time. I've only been building systems for 20 years and this is the
first time I've had such an annoying problem.
Cheers
Paul

 

[Paul Lower]

Hi
I removed the m/b from the case as you suggested, put another graphics card
in it and it booted. I put everything back in the case, removed the fiber
washers from the screws, didn't tightened them up and bingo, full boot. I
connected up all the USB's and it would not boot until I had removed some of
them. I seem to have a partial success but I'm still not confidant it will
boot next time. I've only been building systems for 20 years and this is the
first time I've had such an annoying problem.
Cheers
Paul

 

[SteveH]

Hi
I removed the m/b from the case as you suggested, put another
graphics card in it and it booted. I put everything back in the case,
removed the fiber washers from the screws, didn't tightened them up
and bingo, full boot. I connected up all the USB's and it would not
boot until I had removed some of them. I seem to have a partial
success but I'm still not confidant it will boot next time. I've
only been building systems for 20 years and this is the first time
I've had such an annoying problem. Cheers
Paul

Which USB's are you talking about? The case ones or just plugging in USB
devices?

 

[larry moe 'n curly]

I removed the m/b from the case as you suggested, put another graphics card
in it and it booted. I put everything back in the case, removed the fiber
washers from the screws, didn't tightened them up and bingo, full boot. I
connected up all the USB's and it would not boot until I had removed some of
them. I seem to have a partial success but I'm still not confidant it will
boot next time. I've only been building systems for 20 years and this is the
first time I've had such an annoying problem.

If it worked outside the case but not inside it, there had to be a
short between the case and mobo. Did you check each of the holes in
the mobo to see if any copper traces ran so close to them that a
mounting post or screw could short them? If you found any such
traces, did you place fiber washers on those holes (top, bottom, or
both sides) to electrically insulate them?

I've also seen a mobo short to the case because the mobo or case was
warped and allowed contact at one of the corners. If the mobo isn't
supported within 1" (2.54cm) of each corner, such as because the case
doesn't allow a mounting post there or the mobo doesn't have a hole
there, I place a stick-on rubber or plastic bumper on the case under
the corner of the mobo.

The only other thing I can think of is a USB port shorting to ground.
I don't mean the ones with sockets soldered directly to the mobo but
the ports with 4-5 header pins on the motherboard for cables that go
to USB sockets. The 4th and 5th pins are normally grounds, but
sometimes the 5th pin is for sensing excessive current draw, and it's
attached directly (or almost directly) to the +5V rail. I discovered
this after a rear bracket holding my USB sockets got really hot and
partially melted some plastic. So try disconnecting any USB cables
from the mobo header pins, and if the mobo then works, you know that
this is the problem. The solution is to not connect the 5th pin of
the USB cable.