Multiple Motherboards/Memory Failure

Computer Forum CPU, Motherboards and Memory
1

I built a system about three months ago with an MSI K9N4 SLI-F motherboard and 2GB DDR2 Corsair RAM. After about a week, my computer started shutting off whenever I would be playing WoW or rendering videos. I initally thought it was the video card (EVGA GeForce 7900GSKO), but after running diagnostics, I found the motherboard to be messed up. I contacted the manufacturer, and got a replacement of the same type, and things were fine for about a month. I came home one day to the BSOD, and my system would not reboot. I took to a local computer store, and they told the motherboard was fried as well as half the RAM. I decided to try a different motherboard and purchased some cheaper RAM (now at 3gb total). The motherboard I bought and had installed was a Gigabyte GA-M55SLI-S4.

Things worked for awhile, and I thought I had it figured out, until recently. If I shutdown my computer completely, and then turn it back on, the motherboard loads, and I come to the boot screen. The CPU loads, and then when it is checking memory it restarts the whole process over and over. I took out the cheaper RAM, and it booted fine. So, I shut down again, and tried to restart, but the same thing happened with endless cycle. So, this time I reseated the remaining RAM into the other two slots, it booted up fine. However, I still can not shut down my computer without having to play with the RAM.

I am very confused by all of this, and I wonder if it is just really bad luck with motherboards, or a surging power supply, or some other thing. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

I have an AMD Athlon64 X2 4800+ Dual-Core with a CoolerMaster Liquid CPU Cooling Fan System Kit and 2 extra case fans. My temperature reads at under 80 degrees F, generally.

I have an X-Blade 450watt power supply.

(Note: I update all my drivers religiously)

2

I’d look at replacing that power supply. I’ve not heard of X-Blade before, but if it came with the case or was something cheap, that’s very likely your problem. I’d replace that with an Enermax, FSP/Fortron/Sparkle, Antec TruePower (no SmartPower), OCZ or Tagan unit with at least 500-550W.

3

Thanks, I was wondering if the power supply was capable of causing those problems. It was definitely high on my list of possibilities, but I have had two “computer technicians” tell me that it was not the cause.

X-blade is actually a case brand, and so it is their power supply.

Thanks for your help.

4

can’t it be a heating up problem, check it at first

try to reset the bios if you don’t know which jumper is cmos reset, just pull out the cell battery, count up to 50 an put it again

you can seperate bad psu’s from the case price or the psu price itself check it more carefully before buying again

5

Yea the X-blade is just a generic PSU. I highly recomend that you get a good one as I am willing to bet that is your issue. I see so many people get these great rigs and then skip out on a good PSU to go with it which is a huge mistake IMO. Do yourself a favor and drop some money on a good PSU to support your system.