New machine: ep45-ud3p posting, then crashing

[btdross]

This is my first build of a computer, so please excuse me if I forget to cover some of the bases. And sorry if it is a bit long-winded, but I need all the help I can get and don't want to skip details :^)

I've put together a box using all new components from newegg and attempted to follow all manuals to a "T". Upon trying to power on the box the machine crashes in a way that I haven't come across in any searches of forums so far. Basically, press power and machine begins to come to life: box fan powers on instantly, Intel fan/heatsink that came with "Core 2 Quad Q9650 3G 775 45N RT" takes about 2-3 seconds to start, all 6 Phase LED's on ep45-ud3p mobo light up, Gigabyte intro screen comes up, beep (POST) sounds normal, searches for boot drive, after about 5-10 seconds of being on, all Phase LED's go off (but fans continue spinning as normal), then after about 30 seconds of total on-time, the entire machine very suddenly shuts down. Just as it does, all Phase LED's blink on for just a moment, and all systems shut off. No reboot (as I'd read about in some other posts). The strange thing is that if I try to restart the box, it will stay on for a fraction of the time of the initial attempt at booting; the shorter the time between power-on attempts, the shorter the duration the machine will stay on. If I give it 5 minutes, it may last up for about 30 seconds again.

Here are my (all new) components:
Ep45-ud3p mobo
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 3G 775 45N RT
ANTEC SONATA III 500 BK RT case
EVGA 512-P3-N871-AR GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB 256-bit GDDR3
G.SKILL 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
Western Digital VelociRaptor WD1500HLFS 150GB 10000 RPM SATA
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA
TRENDnet TEG-PCITXR 10/ 100/ 1000/ 2000Mbps PCI ethernet
Pioneer CD/DVD Burner Black SATA Model DVR-218LBK

I used the 500w power supply that came with the box, and the Intel heatsink/fan utilizing the factory-applied thermal compound.

What I've tried: removed HDD's, DVD, and ethernet card, only installed one memory stick, and tested different mem. slots.

I really don't know what else to try or what else could be going on, and really want to get this working. I'd hate to have my first attempt a [rather expensive] failure and would really appreciate any help!

Thank you in advance!!!

[Conners]

Re: New machine: ep45-ud3p posting, then crashing

Did you load the bios optimized defaults?

[btdross]

Re: New machine: ep45-ud3p posting, then crashing

I haven't changed the BIOS at all... the machine doesn't stay on long enough to go through and make edits. When you say "load", is there a way to load a file before it crashes that updates all necessary settings?

[Conners]

Re: New machine: ep45-ud3p posting, then crashing

reboot the computer and while booting press the delete key to enter the bios. On the right side click load optimized defaults. the reboot and enter the bios. press MIT section (top slection) move down and enter tor memory's voltage and timings. This infoemation should be on the side of the emeory stick. BTW the timings aru about half way down.

[pbcopter]

Re: New machine: ep45-ud3p posting, then crashing

First thing I would to is remove all but 1 stick of RAM and try to get to POST then into the BIOS. Running with 8 GBs of RAM usually requires some adjustments in the BIOS.

[btdross]

Re: New machine: ep45-ud3p posting, then crashing

@Conners: I'm not sure I can make any changes in time... at best, the computer will stay powered within BIOS for about 10 seconds before shutting off completely.

@pbcopter: I've been trying to run w/ 1 stick since the initial attempt to power on. Even when trying to strip down to the fewest possible components and cables attached, the outcome seems to seem the same.

My thinking at this point is that it is either a heat or PSU issue, because of the way that the length of time the machine will stay powered on is less the more quickly I turn on the machine again after it shuts down. Than again, that's just my guess based on doing the various tests I've done. Ideas there?

I've heard about jumping the CMOS, but not sure if that may be relevant?

[Conners]

Re: New machine: ep45-ud3p posting, then crashing

Your board may be shorting out against the case. Take the MB out and place it on something non-conductive and give it a try.

[btdross]

Re: New machine: ep45-ud3p posting, then crashing

Thanks Conners, I'll give that a try when I get home.

The thing I keep wondering about is why there seems to be a correlation between how recently the machine was last powered on (5 min ago, 2 min ago, 10 sec ago, etc) and how long it will stay on the next time it's powered on before shutting off (30 sec, 20 sec, 5-10 sec). I haven't read anything similar to this problem elsewhere yet.

[Acebmxer]

Re: New machine: ep45-ud3p posting, then crashing

Another suggestion is you said you are using the stock HS that came with the cpu. It uses push pins to secure it self to the mb. Make sure they are full pushed in if its not makeing contact the cpu could be over heating. But like conners said I would remove everything from the Case. Only try powering up with just cpu video card and 1 stick of ram. If this is a brand new case along with everything else make sure you installed the MB stand offs.

[tkkidd]

Re: New machine: ep45-ud3p posting, then crashing

i had a same problem.. and after trying 3 diffrent board, ( ep45-up3p)

I realize it was not the board. the problem with me was the computer case.

how could that be? it just a casing.. well.. do you rember one of those metal part sticking out of the case you you can mount the mb on it?

i had ONE extra one.. in the wrong place. it was shorting ram slot 3!!

so i was never able to dual boot.. only able to boot single boot using 1 and 2...

tHANK god it didn't damage any of the other parts..



So sometimes it is the smallest thing.

so take the mb out. of the case. out in on the top of the box it came in. ( may be witht eh form on the bottom.

just plug in 1 ram. one video card. plug in the power for video card and the power for mb. and 8 pin connection. ( total of 3 places to plug in the power)

boot. you can just CAREFULLY touch the sw power button with metal..

if this works, check the case. if not check ram or video

[tkkidd]

Re: New machine: ep45-ud3p posting, then crashing

p.s.

500 w might me too weak to run the whole system.

plug in wrong front board connector can easily shut down the system.

[btdross]

Re: New machine: ep45-ud3p posting, then crashing

p.s.

500 w might me too weak to run the whole system.

plug in wrong front board connector can easily shut down the system.

@tkkid: I'm not sure what you mean by plug in the wrong front board...? Is this referring to the small pin plugs that connect to front of case, like power, reset, LED? I'm hoping the 500w is enough to run the system; I took the specs from a successful build posted over at Lifehacker - but that also makes sense to me. Any good way to test that? Also, thank you for all of the info in the previous post... really good stuff. I'll give it a try to simplify the system to absolute bare-bones (mobo out of box) and check carefully that the heatsink is securely attached at all pin points.

@Acebmxer: thanks for the thoughts on the standoffs. I'll double check those when I pull the mobo out to power outside of the case. I hadn't thought of that.

Also, is there any easy way to test if it is an issue from the video card? Ie maybe overheating quickly or something? It seems like the fan works on it... How about how to test the Ram? I've just gone down to one stick, then moved it from slot to slot with each attempted restart.

Thanks again to everyone for your help with this. This forum has been great so far.

[Conners]

Re: New machine: ep45-ud3p posting, then crashing

btdross to test your memory use memtest86+ you can get from here: http://forums.tweaktown.com/f69/late...y-tools-30530/

Just burn an ISO to a cd, insert cd and reboot.

When you moved your one stick of memory from slot to slot, did they all work?

[Conners]

Re: New machine: ep45-ud3p posting, then crashing

As a note to running memtest86+, your memory must be set up in the bios 1st.

[btdross]

Re: New machine: ep45-ud3p posting, then crashing

Thank you all for all of your help. It turned out that although I thought I had carefully checked, the heatsink was not 100% tightly attached. I pulled it off, removed the old thermal compound (factory installed) and put on Arctic Silver 5, made sure that I had all of the pins SECURELY attached, and sure enough - no more shutting off!

When checking my temps in BIOS, I seem to run around 48 degrees C. The max for my processor is 71 according to Intel so I feel pretty good about this.

Good news is that I didn't seem to fry processor or ram or anything. So far it is running like a dream. Problem solved!