Motherboards dying!

[azzfox]

Hey all, thought I would make a start here. I seemed to have killed a second motherboard. Exactly the same symptoms as last time. Problem is it takes about 2 years to happen. Here are the symptoms:

*Random freezing, sometimes recovers other times need to reboot.
*BSOD during startup, after rebooting.
*Blank screen during startup, after rebooting.
*Fans spin, no beep, no video signal after reboot and when trying to turn on.
*Sometimes nothing happens at all when trying to turn on.
*Sometimes (for a while now) I get strange patterns on the screen, but everything still functions.

The strange thing is it can be temporarily fixed by leaving power disconnected for an hour or by removing the battery and reinserting. But maybe a week later thats it. Fans still go but thats all that will ever happen. First motherboard was an Asus, second a Sapphire. Both went exactly the same way. Graphics cards fine, havnt tested ram (same components as when I had the Asus apart from new ram). The only thing Im leaning towards is the power supply. Cheap chinese thing, came free with a cheap case I once had, rated at 550w (yeah, free!). Have since tried a different power supply but the damage has been done. Also by removing everything but power and CPU I still dont get any beeps.

As the capacitor ages, its capacitance decreases and its (ESR) increases. When this happens, the capacitors no longer adequately serve their purpose of filtering the direct current voltages on the motherboard, and system instability results. Some common symptoms are:

Not turning on all the time; having to hit reset or try turning the computer on again
Instabilities (hangs, BSODs, kernel panics, etc.), especially when symptoms get progressively more frequent over time
Memory errors, especially ones that get more frequent with time
Spontaneous reboots
In case of on-board video cards, unstable image in some video modes
Failing to complete the POST, or rebooting before it is completed
Never starting the POST; fans spin but the system appears dead
Capacitors with high ESR can make power supplies malfunction, sometimes causing further circuit damage. CPU core voltage or other system voltages may fluctuate or go out of range, possibly with an increase in CPU temperature as the core voltage rises

Symptoms are damn close! All the capacitors look fine (same as last time) but it has to be it. Looks like new motherboard again and dont be tight on a power supply . Any input would be appreciated.

Cheers!

[edals]

I Doubt its the motherboard mate.
To Start with, the graphical glitches on screen generally shows the video card is failing. This can cause the system to also freeze.
RAM is also another major cause for system crashes and system freezes.
Maybe borrow some parts or buy some cheap RAM and video card to test.

[87RB30VL]

I second the video card, my old laptop had random freezes, not showing anything on screen on start up, visual glitches/visual issues, then it eventually popped & bricked.

[50LTRv8]

At least try a video card first, you could remove it and see if there is any improvement

[NV-MY-VT]

Download Ultimate Boot CD.

Test ####ING EVERYTHING.

Once you got an idea of what you're dealing with, go from there. The other advice has been rock solid too, test with different RAM and a different GPU.

[azzfox]

Thanks for the replies! Well graphics card works perfectly in mums PC. Dont have another, dont really want to buy another just to test in mine. Mate of mine dropped off one of his old PC's to salvage from for now. Tried the RAM from it and still appears to be dead. Have swapped out motherboards with that and it boots up fine with the RAM from mine. Cant test graphics card because it doesnt have PCI-e. But yeah it works fine in mums PC.

Ultimate Boot CD would be the go but it just wont complete POST no matter what. Might chuck the motherboard in the spare case to continue playing with it.

BTW, spare motherboard wont boot from my HDD. Had a similar problem when I bought the HDD. In BIOS had to change SATA-RAID to SATA-IDE. 1.5tb WD, diddnt have to change anything with my 320gb WD. Changed the same setting and still wont boot. Either need SATA driver or update BIOS. But cant do that until I find a floppy drive! Nothing wrong with the HDD though, again also works fine in mums PC. Not having any luck lol

[azzfox]

Update - found another motheboard that a mate gave me for 40 bucks with PCI-e and what not. But DDR2. The upside is that it works flawlessly with the same graphics card and hard drive. Using a different power supply from now on too. Downside is that I had to reinstall windows but I was expecting that, and it has a Celeron. But it works so Im happy with that!