New Member requires help

[ramisees]

Hi All

I am a retired engineer and have built my own systems for the past several years. It's fairly easy to put all the parts together, the problem is when one of those parts misbehaves.
My latest was built about three years ago, Asus P6T, i7 920, GTX 580, Corsair DDr3, Antec case. 850w PSU. Couple of HDD drives sata.
Win 7 64bit home.
This has been a good trouble free computer, I do a lot of flight simming and it handles it with no problem.
However, it has started to take a couple of power ups before it goes into boot sequence. I get the very first message top left of screen, then nothing. Re-power up, sometimes it will boot ok, if not power up again. This time , initial message top left of screen , then bottom middle screen "express gate message" then continues with AMD info and boot sequence info, I have quick boot disabled. Win7 loads up and from then on I have no problems. The computer is on for at least 14 hours every day, it handles anything I can throw at it. If it is turned off or re started for any reason it will re boot as it should. It is only when it has been off overnight it will not boot properly.
I have given it a good spring clean, checked all connections, cleaned out PSU of dust, re seated all ram modules, re seated all cards. This made no difference.
I have a couple of thoughts that it might be one of the speed monitored fans, one in the PSU or the other for the water cooling. I have two fans for the water cooling unit in case one packs up, only one is connected to the CPU fan connector, the other is connected to a spare 12v supply. Could it be the cmos battery? It appears something is not working properly on 1st boot up when system is cold, when things get warm ,no problems.
Any thoughts will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Indigo]

AMD info? It's an Intel system... with an nVidia video card.

If the system is not working from a cold state, it's possible that you have some components on the system that have become heat sensitive. There's usually two ways around this:

Don't shut the system down when you're done using it

Start considering upgrading

I only say that last one with a bit of reservation because it's possible that my diagnosis is completely wrong - but in my experience the older a PC gets, and when it starts exhibiting this behavior, it's time to start thinking about getting it replaced.

You could give the components a good once over - my favorite software is to use Hirens Boot CD, then run a MemTest on the RAM, and just about any assortment of the hard drive testing tools (I use GWSCAN) to verify system integrity.

If the components are sound, and those tests say they are, then I'd start wondering if the components are just on their way out.

 

[ramisees]

Thanks for reply Indigo.

As I type the Hirens boot cd is being burned to cd, I will also try DFT, and GWSCAN.
It will give me something to do learning how to use them. I will start with the Ram testing and then the hard drives.

I agree that some parts might be getting to the end of their sell by date. It has been a good computer, more of a friend really. For the last three years it has been on for at least 14 hours a day every day without needing any major repair, just the occasional dust down.
Just as a matter of interest Indigo, do you know what is the average life expectancy of Ram, CPU, PSU, HDD.

 

[ramisees]

Re: New Member requires help, problem solved

For any that might be interested.

It was not the computer at fault. I have dual monitors, it turned out that the primary monitor went blank after a second or two at boot up. This gave the impression of the computer failing to boot. Replaced monitor, all is well.

 

[setishock]

Thanks for reply Indigo.

As I type the Hirens boot cd is being burned to cd, I will also try DFT, and GWSCAN.
It will give me something to do learning how to use them. I will start with the Ram testing and then the hard drives.

I agree that some parts might be getting to the end of their sell by date. It has been a good computer, more of a friend really. For the last three years it has been on for at least 14 hours a day every day without needing any major repair, just the occasional dust down.
Just as a matter of interest Indigo, do you know what is the average life expectancy of Ram, CPU, PSU, HDD.

I have a 7 year old laptop with all the OEM parts on it. With the exception of the main battery, it purrs right along. Life time of a part is relative to quality of manufacture and how well you take care of it.