Z68XP-UD3 totally dead - what can I check before I RMA please?

[DerekGCWhite]

I plugged in a USB stick to the 2nd USB3.0 slot on the back of the GA-Z68XP-UD3 board and the PC shut down and has never restarted

I have the following setup:
Akasa Infiniti tower with 5 silent 120mm (I think - measured with plastic rule) fans
OCZ Z-Series 80Plus Gold 850W Power Supply
GA-Z68XP-UD3 motherboard
Intel i7-2600K (unclocked) and Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro rev 2 fan (CPU runs @ 27^oC)
2 x G.Skill DDR3-2133 PC3-17000 4GB CL_11-11-11-30 1.5V (8GB) (unclocked) memory
Intel Controller:
60GB Runcore mSATA SSD Accelerating:
RAID0 on SATA-600 using 2 x 500GB Seagate HDD
RAID5 on SATA-300 using 3 x 1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3 HDD
Marvell Controller:
RAID1 on SATA-600 using 2 x 1TB Hitachi HDD
(The above RAID configuration has been verified as OK by Gigabyte tech support)
2 x ATi HD5750 PCIe8x Crossfire
1 x PCI<->SATA II add-in card with SATA DVDRW
USB Controllers:
USB3.0 Controller
Sony 4GB stick running ReadyBoost
ScanDisk 16GB stick (verified as OK in 2 seperate Laptops)
USB2.0 Controller
Logitech Webcam
Logitech MK300 keyboard/mouse combo
KAM DDX4000 USB Direct Drive turntable (no power on)
Old laptop DVDRW in a Firstcom bay making it a USB DVDRW drive

So far I have used the following method for analysing the situation:
Powered off at the back switch and removed mains cable - waited 5 minutes for any power to disipate
Remove ALL connectors from the power supply (both MB power leads, both HD5750 leads, all SATA leads and molex lead)
Followed OCZ detailed analysis for the power supply - no power supply fault

For each of the following procedures I power off the back switch and remove mains cable, perform the procedure, reconnect mains cable and switch on rear power switch
Connect modular power supply to Molex supplying ONLY the case fans - all fans & LEDs working
Additionally connect modular power supply to SATA lead 1 - all attached devices (3 discs) power up
Additionally connect modular power supply to SATA lead 2 - all attached devices (3 discs) power up
Additionally connect modular power supply to SATA lead 3 - all attached devices (2 discs & 1 DVDRW) power up

At this point everything that is not directly conneted to the MB is working (well powering on at least i.e. no short circuits)

State_2
The MB has only CPU, memory, F_Panel connectors & fans attached
Plug in large MB power connector - nothing, no discs power on, no fans power on, no LEDs power on, PSU fan does not power on
Go back to State_2
Bypass the MB and everything powers on again

Is there anything else I can do before I treat this as a duff MB?

[wazza300]

Re: Z68XP-UD3 totally dead - what can I check before I RMA please?

pulled out the mb battery for 30mins or overnight then put back in and try booting up pc?

[profJim]

Re: Z68XP-UD3 totally dead - what can I check before I RMA please?

Can you test with another power supply?
Remove the motherboard from the computer case and try the minimalist boot procedure in http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte...tml#post295897, post #5.
Do NOT place your motherboard on top of an anti-static bag.
You might need to remove your cpu and carefully inspect for bent or broken pins or any sign of burnt contacts with the cpu socket or cpu.

My EP45-UD3P suddenly shut down and refused to power up.
With the minimalist boot setup, I jumpered two wires on the 24-pin psu cable; the light green (power good wire) and a black ground wire while all power supply cables were connected to the motherboard. Fans started spinning and LED lights stayed lit, but the system refused to boot. When the two wires weren't connected, the system showed no signs of getting power. Manually trying to start my system by jumpering the power-on motherboard pins didn't help. Testing with another power supply didn't change the results.
Testing with a different cpu, ram, and video card, nothing helped.
When I moved my hardware to my P35-DS3L motherboard, everything worked perfectly.

[DerekGCWhite]

Re: Z68XP-UD3 totally dead - what can I check before I RMA please?

Many thanks, a lot to check I will start in about 4 hours

[DerekGCWhite]

Re: Z68XP-UD3 totally dead - what can I check before I RMA please?

ProfJim,

You are my hero - removing the battery for a couple of hours did the trick

I cannot believe how effective the BIOS/CMOS is at screwing with the system to stop it even showing ANY signs of life wow!

Again I cannot thank you sufficiently

[profJim]

Re: Z68XP-UD3 totally dead - what can I check before I RMA please?

Glad to hear that your system is working.
Wazza300 was the one who first suggested removing the battery in this thread, and this is often the first thing I do when there is some unexplained weirdness. Sometimes removing the battery for 12 - 24 hours is needed. On my dead system, removing the battery for over 24 hours didn't help and installing a new battery didn't help either.