Gigabyte X58-UD5 System Doesn't Boot Anymore!

[dmo580]

Ok so my workstation of 6 years has finally failed me. It's got the following hardware:


Intel i7 930
Gigabyte X58A-UD5 (1.0)
3x2gb G.Skill DDR3
Samsung 850 Pro 512GB (upgraded 6 months ago)


I usually use this PC maybe once every week or so (not too often). Sometimes a bit more when I'm into certain games, sometimes less. After about 2 weeks of not touching it I tried to power it on today and it failed to power on. I thought maybe some wiring was off, so I opened up the case and tried to power on using the Power Switch from the Motherboard. No go. Fans dont even spin up nor do I hear anything.


Turned of my PSU and turned it back on. Tried to power on again--still nothing. To confirm the Motherboard is receiving power. I see the Power button have a BLUE led, and my old cell phone has been plugged into this computer the whole time and stilll charging. I noticed that when I try to power on the PC 2 of the LEDs turn on. I think they are the NB Phase LEDs. See picture here: http://i.imgur.com/zOVDKS0.jpg Note the power LED is on and 2 of the NB LEDs are on (4th and 5th LEDs from top)


So I'm a bit intrigued what could be going on. Usually I'd expect the fans to at least spin up or maybe a debug code but nothing at all. I know this is a 6 year old PC and I've been thinking building a new rig, but it's just the most inopportune time to go out given Z270 boards and Kaby Lake is about to drop.


Any thoughts what could be wrong?

[profJim]

Re: Gigabyte X58-UD5 System Doesn't Boot Anymore!

Unplug the power supply's A.C. power cable from the wall outlet and then disconnect the psu 8-pin and 24-pin cables from the motherboard. Carefully inspect the cable ends and both connectors on the motherboard for signs of burns or damage.

Your power supply might have failed.

Can you borrow a good quality power supply to test with?

[dmo580]

Re: Gigabyte X58-UD5 System Doesn't Boot Anymore!

Unplug the power supply's A.C. power cable from the wall outlet and then disconnect the psu 8-pin and 24-pin cables from the motherboard. Carefully inspect the cable ends and both connectors on the motherboard for signs of burns or damage.

Your power supply might have failed.

Can you borrow a good quality power supply to test with?

Ok I will give it a look tonight regarding the cables.


BTW why do you suggest PSU? The LEDs on the motherboard do turn on and an old phone I have was plugged into the USB ports and was able to stay charged. I would've expected no power if the PSU died. Meanwhile I do have a NAS lying around whose PSU I can rip out to swap. With that said this is a Corsair AX850 PSU (pretty high quality), and I just found out it has a 7 year warranty so I'm in luck if it is the PSU.


Do those 2 NB LEDs mean anything to you? I will do some more troubleshooting tonight like disconnecting peripherals and what not, but just thought I'd try here first in case people have seen issues like these.

[profJim]

Re: Gigabyte X58-UD5 System Doesn't Boot Anymore!

From the x58a-ud5 (rev 2.0) motherboard user manual, Onboard LEDs and Switches are explained on pages 22 - 24:

Overvoltage LEDs, Overclock LEDs, Temperature Indicator LEDs, PHASE LED, NB PHASE LED and DDR PHASE LED

If your rev 1.0 motherboard has the same LED setup as the rev 2.0 board it looks like the illuminated LEDs might be:

DDR Voltage

Off: Normal condition

L1: Level 1 (Slight, green)

L2: Level 2 (Moderate, yellow)

L3: Level 3 (High, red)

Check out the problem with the cold start Gigabyte UD3R V2 TT thread where I go into great detail with a failing power supply.

Near the end of the thread, I was very impressed with the Corsair RMA results for the failed psu:

Hey, This is just a follow-up to give credit to Corsair in regards to their RMA policies. I just received a "new" Corsair 850TX, the one sent in was found to be defective. As everyone knows, even the best of the best can have some "oops-see-daisies", and it is how they handle these that distinguishes their reputation, and Corsair again has provided a nice gesture in resolving this. I will continue using the Rosewill 750 M (gold), everything continues to run great here !!!!
take care ---rclark

$20 PSU testers are marginally useful only as a preliminary check. They can show if any of the electrical rails has under or over-voltage, but they can't tell you if the voltage is in spec all of the time and they can't display the amperage/wattage under light, medium or heavy loads.

Any battery operated device can and will act erratically when incorrect voltage and/or amperage is supplied.

A faulty or failing power supply causes any number of "strange" system behavior due to voltage that is out of spec.
A psu doesn't have to be completely dead to cause computer system problems.

Things often fail when computer hardware is over 5 - 7 years old.


I've had two faulty Seasonic power supplies with my ep45-ud3p system in the past year:

1. my X-650 gold psu died suddenly with a loud pop less than a half hour after I turned on my system
2. my Antec TP750 NEW, bronze rated, made by Seasonic psu died quietly one day when I turned on my system

Bios beep codes cover some hardware errors, but failing to connect the psu's 8-pin EPS12V cable or the 4-pin ATX-12V cable to the motherboard will prevent your system from booting.


You can also check out my PSU 101 - Power Supply Primer thread for additional information.
"Corsair AX850 PSU (pretty high quality)" is understating your psu, their AX series power supplies have always been TOP TIER units.

[dmo580]

Re: Gigabyte X58-UD5 System Doesn't Boot Anymore!

So this is why I pinged the experts here. You guys have experience! I wouldn't have thought PSU given that the Power LED on the motherboard was lighting up. That's why I thought it was a motherboard issue at first. Anyhow, I swapped out the PSU for an AX750 from my NAS (overkill I know), and it worked great. I was surprised too. And not being completely satisfied I reinstalled the original AX850 and it boot up. Now I'm guessing something got loose in there? I can't even be certain. I haven't opened this guy up for some time (since I swapped SSDs over a year ago). Anyhow I'm running smoothly again thanks to your tips!

[profJim]

Re: Gigabyte X58-UD5 System Doesn't Boot Anymore!

O ye, of little faith

You're welcome, glad to hear that your system is now OK.

With the numerous on/off, heating/cooling cycles our systems go through, it's possible that hardware and/or cable connections can work loose. I've never had this problem, probably because I thoroughly clean the inside of my system two or three times a year and also unplug and re-seat all cable and hardware connections. I check the cpu cooler to make sure that it is still secure, but I don't remove the cpu or the cpu cooler.

[dmo580]

Re: Gigabyte X58-UD5 System Doesn't Boot Anymore!

O ye, of little faith

You're welcome, glad to hear that your system is now OK.

With the numerous on/off, heating/cooling cycles our systems go through, it's possible that hardware and/or cable connections can work loose. I've never had this problem, probably because I thoroughly clean the inside of my system two or three times a year and also unplug and re-seat all cable and hardware connections. I check the cpu cooler to make sure that it is still secure, but I don't remove the cpu or the cpu cooler.

So after this initial episode it did reoccur once or twice more. Both times I just kinda left my system alone for a day or two or unplugged it and then it would boot up again just fine. However today my system totally failed to boot. The symptoms were the same as initially where some LEDs on the motherboard would still light up.


I grabbed my known-good AX-750 and tried again. This time I did more thorough testing, swapping back and forth. The AX-850 (suspected bad PSU) failed to boot. I then put the AX-850 into my NAS. No boot. The AX-750 worked on both systems and the AX-850 failed on both systems. I'm convinced now this PSU was probably on its last few breaths and I pushed it to boot a few more times in the past few weeks.

I'm hoping Corsair RMA can get me a new PSU shipped quickly before I head out for the holidays.

Thank you for your help BTW. I really honestly would've never suspected the PSU. I probably out of frustration would've guessed the motherboard and just pulled a trigger on a whole new system since X58 motherboards are ancient now. I think part of me is just getting lazy with PC troubleshooting. 10 years ago I had a notebook full of overclocking notes and was very enthusiastic about every minute detail.

Edit: Not sure if I mentioned before but part of the reason I never suspected my PSU is that the motherboard still lights up and my phone still charges via USB even when the computer is off! With that said Corsair approved my warranty and is shipping out an HX-850i in replacement. The HX series has clearly been improved over the years as its now a Platinum PSU compared to back in the day when my AX-850 was only Gold rated.

Edit 2: The ads on this site are very annoying. I've never seen a technical forum slow my computer down to a crawl. And the fact uBlock cripples the site is unfortunate.

[profJim]

Re: Gigabyte X58-UD5 System Doesn't Boot Anymore!

NICE!!
It looks like Corsair is taking good care of you.

re Edit #1: You earlier posted all of the facts, but the information provides a good summary for readers of your post in the future.

re Edit #2: I can't argue with the truth.