Lame computer problems

[Amd_Lover2004]

Hey guys, I am currently working on a friend's computer. I'll quickly detail what is going on and what i have done so far, I could really use some help here.

The computer specs are as follows:
AMD X2 6000
Asus M2N32-SLI Premium
Was using 4x 1GB OCZ gold sticks
Now using 2x Corsair XMS2 6400 1GB
XFX 8800 GTX XXX edition
Corsiar TX850W Power Supply

Now the original issue was that it would not turn on except in extremely rare instances. We managed to get it running by taking the motherboard out and running it test bed style, but it still did not always work. It would turn on quickly then turn off.

After replacing the crappy powersupply, it did work a bit better but it randomly still does the turn on, then off thing.

I pulled out the ram and ran memtest on them together and apart and got errors on 2 of the sticks, so I stuck 2gb of my ram in there. After these steps it booted up to the login screen, but froze solid there. After running a days worth of stress and memory tests I came up with nothing. So we re-installed windows succesfully and had everything running good.

I put the stuff back into the case and it refuses to boot. ( same on- off issue) After getting very pissed off and smoking half a pack of cigerettes I took it out of the case and set it up test bed style again, Same issue.

I have tried other power supplys, Ram, video cards, and even another CPU(x2 3800 AM2).

I don't know where to go from here, I have done everything i can think of to get this damn thing working. The only thing i can think of that is left to replace is the motherboard, but I can not get around how it was working fine for 24 hours while I was installing windows and running Prime/ATI tool, and other things to test for stability.

Currently I only have the basics installed in the system, CPU, RAM and small video card.

Any ideas or input as to a direction i should take or some sudgestion would be a huge help, thanks.

[Zeradul]

I too recently had a bad set of OCZ ram sticks (in November). Newegg let me exchange them for a better brand.

Here are my thoughts, in order of likelihood/easy to check:

1.) Do you know if that Video Card is flawlessly stable? Did any of your stress tests test the video card?

2.) Is the motherboard running the latest bios?

3.) Are you sure that once the OS is installed that you are installing the NEWEST drivers for your motherboard chipset, vga card, SATA controllers, etc? Early driver releases that get burned to CD and released with many mobos are often a very early driver revision.

4.) Are you running a 64bit OS? If not, I would try this next, if nothing other that using literally 100% different drivers. If you are using a 64bit os, then I would try installing a 32bit one and see if you can recreate the symptoms.

5.) I hate to say it but it almost sounds like it could be a hard drive problem. I notice that mostly your problems have come either during boot, or right after booting. Now, if you know you have the right driver, then it's worth a shot to both swap out and try a spare HD, as well as try your current hard drive in a different SATA Port, or possibly, different controller (like if your mobo has two controllers, one for RAID) (Also, I have seen some really low quality SATA cables on the market, so swapping out for a new SATA cable would be an easy thing to try.

6.) You know, it IS possible that your new PSu is a dud, or at least partially faulty. I would try swapping it out last, but only as a last ditch effort. Corsair is a good brand.

7.) If none of these things solves the problem, then I would suspect the motherboard.

[Kheldar]

do a bios upgrade on the motherboard - might help

[CheeZmonZter]

to me, sounds like perhaps there is a faulty ground/ connection in mobo PSU....

[Amd_Lover2004]

Well i Did get it sorted, Apparently the motherboard has a ton of issues related to the problems I listed. Once power is lost it often takes many tries to get it up and running again. Once I got it running in bios at least, i managed to remember how to flash the damn bios, and it works (or at least better). Even with the new bios once you hit the power button the first time, it shuts down after ~10 seconds. After that however it starts up normally.

I even managed to put his RAM back in and retested it without any issues (strange).

The video card has issues but it was one of those stock overclocked ones, so I installed ATI tool and turned it down to ref. speeds and it tests just fine.

Everything else seems to be good. Anyways thanks for the help and talk to you all later.