Problem with P4P800D - Need Help

[PeterT]

My daughter's PC (P4P800D, below) all of a sudden began doing something strange. For no apparent reason, the display will go off, as if it is timing out, but it is not. And, when it does this, it won't come back on. Mouse movement, keyboard, ctrl-alt-del... no response, nothing. I have to shutdown or reset to get it back. One consistent thing I have noticed is if I launch 3DMark, it happens immediately. Other than that, it seems to happen randomly. I tried running memtest; no errors during the first few tests, but it never gets through a full pass, because it does the same thing (display goes off). So, I know it's not a software problem. Has to be hardware, but what? MB, CPU, RAM, Video card?

FYI. The onboard LAN on this board went bad a while ago. Started causing shutdown and reboot issues. I disabled it in BIOS and installed a NIC. Problem solved. Thanks ctal. Thought my daughter would get another year or two out of this PC. I really don't want to have to spend the money on building her a new PC right now. This one does everything she needs it to.

Any ideas on what may be causing this new issue? Where to start troubleshooting?
TIA.

[ctal]

Hi Peter,

Yes, I remember that previous incident -- glad I was able to help.

Are you sure this new problem is not due to the display itself, or to its ac power adapter? If that can be ruled out, then it sure sounds like the video card would be the leading suspect. I don't think the fact that a computer reset temporarily brings back the display necessarily absolves the display as a suspect.

When the problem occurs, can you tell if the os and therefore the cpu/memory/mobo are still running? For instance, if you press the caps lock key on the keyboard, does the corresponding led on the keyboard illuminate? That would provide some added confidence that the hardware is still running the os, and point additional suspicion at the video card (or the display and its power supply).

I'll add that in the last few years I've had several cases of displays intermittently dropping out, two with crt's and two or three involving lcd's. In each case I was initially unable to tell whether the problem was due to the video card or to the display, but in the cases of the crt's it turned out to be the display that was at fault, and in every case involving an lcd it turned out to be the ac power adapter that was at fault.

Regards,

-- Al

[traveler]

As ctal says, check out the vid card and monitor.

I put in an old video card and run Memtest. No new video drivers needed for that and any old card will do.



__________________
Asus X48 Rampage Formula / Intel Q9450 2.66 @ 3.2 / 2 x 2GB OCZ Reaper HPC PC2 8500 / VisionTek Radeon HD3870X2 OverClocked Edition /
Western Digital Raptor X Hard Drive / Two Western Digital Caviar RE2 WD5001ABYS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drives /
Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Elite Pro 7.1 / Creative Gigaworks S750 7.1 Speaker System /
Lian Li 343B cube case / PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Crossfire Edition

[yamawho]

Yah ... test test test.

If the mobo is bad, I will have a P4C800e deluxe available soon since I'm upgrading my daughter's system.

[PeterT]

Thanks for all the responses guys.
ctal,
I don't think it is the display or display psu, because when this happens, the display is still powered and I get the "no signal" message on the screen and then the display power light turns red (standby).
The numlock light responds, but the caps and scroll lock lights do not.
In light of this info, do you guys think I should still bother to pull the old GF2 vid card out of my CUSL2 and drop it in the P4P800D to run memtest? Or, does this now seem to be a MB/CPU/RAM problem?


p.s. yamawho, thanks for the P4C800 offer. I'll think about it. But, at the moment, it seems like I may be upgrading my daughter's PC as well... even if I don't want to.

[ctal]

Yes, I'd try the different video card. That still seems like the leading suspect.

It's strange that one of the keys is responded to but the other two aren't. Perhaps the keyboard is being polled inconsistently by Windows because Windows is tied up waiting for some response from the video card that isn't forthcoming. Are you sure though that all 3 keys are responded to properly when the display problem is not present?

-- Al

[traveler]

What he said .... Put in a known working video card.

Also take the suspect card and try it out in another rig.



__________________
Asus X48 Rampage Formula / Intel Q9450 2.66 @ 3.2 / 2 x 2GB OCZ Reaper HPC PC2 8500 / VisionTek Radeon HD3870X2 OverClocked Edition /
Western Digital Raptor X Hard Drive / Two Western Digital Caviar RE2 WD5001ABYS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drives /
Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Elite Pro 7.1 / Creative Gigaworks S750 7.1 Speaker System /
Lian Li 343B cube case / PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Crossfire Edition

[PeterT]

OK. Now I'm really bummed out.
I swapped the vid card and when I pressed the power button, nothing happened. I had a green power light on the MB, so I knew that that it was getting power. I fiddled with the the main power cable to the MB and then tried the power button again. This time the fans came on, the power light came on and the HDD light came on and stayed on. But, nothing else. Nada. Zip. No signal to the monitor. No beeps. No activity lights on the FDD or ODD. Nothing.
I swapped the original vid card back in and fiddled around some more. Made sure the main power cable to the MB was seated properly. It was. Again, Nothing. Same thing. Power and HDD lights come on and stay on steady, but nothing else.

p.s. the vid card from the P4P800D seems to work fine in the CUSL2.

[ctal]

Gee, not sure what to suggest. So both video cards work in the other computer, but the P4P800D doesn't work with either, and works worse than it did before the video card swap. Just guessing, but maybe a regulator on the P4P800D that powers the AGP slot was on its way out, and the different current draw of the substitute card put it over the edge, to the point where it is now a hard failure.

So I guess the likeliest suspect now is the mobo, but the power supply, memory, and cpu would also seem to be possibilities. Also, I'm still wondering about the fact that the keyboard indicators were inconsistent between the different leds. I've seen situations where failed keyboards could hang a system up and prevent it from booting; maybe try a different keyboard, or try starting up without a keyboard and seeing if you at least get a display and an indication of keyboard error.

-- Al

[PeterT]

Al,
I'm using the same keyboard on the CUSL2 and it is working fine.
The fact that the power light on the board is lit, but I am getting no signal to the monitor, no beeps, no lights on the FDD or ODD and the the HDD light comes on, but just stays lit seems to point to the MB. The only other possibility seems to be the PSU, but that doesn't seem likley.

[traveler]

Memory, CPU, and motherboard left.

Memory - easy to test on another board.

CPU - not so easy to test but can be done.

Motherboard - If all else is good, then the motherboard is bad.


I like my P4P800D. When my P4P800D blew when my PSU exploded, I got a new PSU and went to ebay for another P4P800D. Got the rev.2 version. When it arrived, it was a "plugnplay" operation (and a BIOS upgrade).



__________________
Asus X48 Rampage Formula / Intel Q9450 2.66 @ 3.2 / 2 x 2GB OCZ Reaper HPC PC2 8500 / VisionTek Radeon HD3870X2 OverClocked Edition /
Western Digital Raptor X Hard Drive / Two Western Digital Caviar RE2 WD5001ABYS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drives /
Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Elite Pro 7.1 / Creative Gigaworks S750 7.1 Speaker System /
Lian Li 343B cube case / PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Crossfire Edition

[yamawho]

That's a real bummer ...

Try another power supply.

[PeterT]

Yeah, this sux. I was not planning on spending the money right now to build her a new PC, but I don't think it makes sense to mess around, putting any money into this one. Before this happened, I was considering getting the Sapphire HD3850 for her, to get a little more time out of this PC. But, that would have required a new PSU as well, b/c the one in her case is a pretty old Antec 350W.
But now, with these problems, I think it makes more sense to just bite the bullet, take out the credit card and build her a whole new PC. She likes to play racing games. It's time she had a C2D & PCIe PC, so she can play GRID racing on her own PC, instead of mine.
I think I am going to get:
Newegg.com - Antec Solo Black/Silver Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Computer Cases
Newegg.com - Antec True Power Trio TP3-650 650W ATX12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready Active PFC Power Supply with Three 12V Rails - Power Supplies
Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-EP45-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards
Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 Wolfdale 2.53GHz 3MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Processors - Desktops
Newegg.com - CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Desktop Memory
Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - Internal Hard Drives
Newegg.com - LITE-ON Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 20X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 20X DVD±R DVD Burner - CD / DVD Burners
I can get all of this for avout 440USD, after rebates.
Then, I just have to decide on a vid card. I don't want to spend more than 150USD. I am considering this:
Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GV-R485ZL-512H Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards
It's 150USD, after rebate, seems to have a good price/performance ratio and it has a Zalman HSF.

Thoughts?

[ctal]

Those look to me like very good value-oriented choices. I used high-end Gigabyte boards in my two recent builds (X38 and X48 chipsets), and they've performed flawlessly, with semi-aggressive overclocks. I also used the WD640 hdd's in both builds (although not as the system drives, for which I used the far more expensive Raptors), and they are super, even more so at the price they are currently going for.

Good luck!
-- Al

[PeterT]

As always, thanks for the feedback Al. Even though I wasn't planning to spend any money on a new rig for her right now, I think I'm going to go for it anyway. It's amazing what you can build for about 500-600USD these days.

What's an extra 500USD of debt?! To heck with the financial crisis! So what if I might lose my job!