mobo failure diagnostic

[Pedro]

Hello all,
I have an ASUS A8V-E SE motherboard with an AMD athlon 64 processor and 2
GB DDR RAM in 4 modules. More info about the mobo at:
http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=15&l3=143&l4=0&model=576&modelmenu=1

Installed on the system is Windows XP x64. The problem is that if I turn off
the computer and try to restart it later, the mobo will not boot up until I
press many times the reset button, especially if I keep it pressed for a
long time. Monitor screen stays black if nothing is done, and HDD activity
LED is continuously on. When finally, the motherboard boots up after many
many tries, everythings works fine. No problems if doing a software restart
from within windows (mobo will boot up normally). Once the system has
started, I can be working with the computer for months with no problems
until I make a turn off again.

I'd appreciate very much any help regarding this issue.

Thanks in advance,
Pedro

 

[Pedro]

It could be a faulty switch, do you have start using PS/2 or
keyboard/mouse in the BIOS if so use that method for starting up.

Switches seem to be ok. Other boards will run smoothly using the same
case. I can also say that PSU also seems to be ok, as changin it with
another more powerful brand new didn't solve the problem, and the old one
runs ok in any other PC.

Pedro

 

[Pedro]

This is often caused by a poor PSU, but you did not list the
specifics of the system.

That's what I first thought. In fact, I bought a 500W new one and tested the
system again with no success. The PC was working for 4 years with the same
PSU with no problems (no recent changes to system configuration): . Besides
the motherboard, processor and memory, the system has:

- Pinnacle PCTV PCI card
- PCI Express Geforce 3 XFX Graphics card (256 MB RAM)
- pci wireless lan card (Gigabyte )
-5 USB ports hub (PCI card)
-1 Seagate 250 GB IDE hard disk
-1 Seagate 300 GB SATA hard disk
-1 Seagate 500 GB SATA hard disk
-1 LG DVD Reader
-1 LG DVD-RAM Unit
-1 3.5 floppy disk unit

Anyways, no problem for years with the same PSU

Pedro

 

[Pedro]

The old PSU might have work out or failed, and if the new
PSU is a generic I would not trust it, but since you have
tried this 2nd PSU the motherboard itself is the next most
likely problem. You might eliminate the other parts by
disconnecting them to see if it then works, and if it does
add the other parts back one at a time.

Yes, motherboard is the problem, no doubt. Any expert out there knows of a
more specific cause of the power on/reset failure? or has experience in
diagnostic of mobo components failures?

Thanks to all,
Pedro