New I7 build shuttting itself off intermittently with shorter on-times each time.

[Gokou]

After 6 years of use my old AXP 3200+ / 9800 Pro 128mb was getting rather tired to say the least. The video card dying was the last straw. Last week I ordered all the parts to build a new machine...

Asus P6T Deluxe V2
I7 920 with Thermalright Extreme 120 cooler
6 GB Corsair Dominator 1600mHz
BFG GTX 285 OCX
Enermax Revolution 85+ 1050w power supply
Velociraptor 300gb

Sounds pretty good on paper... unfortunately it won't stay powered on.

I finished assembly last night and plugged the power supply in. I turned the PC on and went into the BIOS right away to make sure the fan speeds were reporting OK and verified the processor temp to make sure the HSF and thermal compound were seated OK (it was idling at about 88-90F and the room was about 80F.)

I decide to reboot and start installing Vista 64. 5 minutes into the install the computer shuts itself off. So I power it back up, and this time it runs about 2 minutes and then powers itself off. I start it again and now it runs about 1 minute and then powers itself off while I'm looking in the BIOS. After the 3rd shutdown when I press the power button (either on the case or the motherboard's on board power button) it will power on until the mobo lights come on but as soon as the blue LED by the DIMM slots turns on it shuts itself off-- approximately 2 seconds after pushing the power button.

At this point I unplugged the 120V power supply input, waited 2-3 minutes, and replugged the 120V power supply cable. The Enermax has a status LED on the back-- orange is standby, green is on, and red is overvolt/overtemp protection. When I plugged it back in and flipped the power supply switch on the led started cycling from orange to off in about 1 second intervals. As it did so the LED illuminated power/reset buttons on the motherboard flickered on and off in sync with the PS status LED, and there was a matching "click" in the power supply. Could not power the system on or off. Unplugging and replugging the power supply wouldn't fix it-- the lights would still flicker.

Since the power off seems to sync up with the blue LED near the DIMM slots illuminating I thought it might be memory related and removed the memory. I reinstalled only 1 module in DIMM slot A1 with no luck. I tried each stick in A1 only and it wouldn't stay powered up. It wouldn't power for more than 2 seconds even with no DIMMS installed.

I started pulling connectors and turning the PS back on to see if I could attribute the LED cycling to one specific component. If I removed the main ATX power connector from the PS to the mobo and then plugged the power supply in it would have a solid orange LED and go into standby mode-- normal function. If I plugged the ATX power connector back into the mobo and plugged the power supply back in the cycling PS LED / Mobo LEDs would start again.

Only after leaving the PS 120v cord and ATX connector unplugged for 15 minutes with the clear RTC jumper in the clear position and then reconnecting everything did I get the regular orange PS status LED to come back on and then the system started and ran for about 5 minutes again before shutting off. After that, it went back to 2-second powerups before shutting itself off.

Thoughts? I'm stumped on this one. I've had systems not power-on before, but not power themselves off at random intervals.

Thanks in advance...

 

[Dangman]

Try another PSU and RAM.

 

[Gokou]

Try another PSU and RAM.

Don't have any spare PS or memory that is compatible with this system; all my spares are too old and incompatible. (Wrong memory, don't have the appropriate power supply plugs.)

Came home today and checked a few things:

HSF was making good contact with core, but tried the stock intel HSF anyways-- no change.

Removed and reinstalled CPU. Didn't see any debris or bent pins.

Tried the whole thing bare bones out of the case. Even with no video card and no memory, it won't POST beep. Tried again with just the video card, same thing. Tried again with video card + 1 stick of memory in slot A1-- in all configurations it flickers on for just a second and then shuts off just like last night.

Without any spares on hand to try it's pretty hard to diagnose this. However, searches on the Asus forum find similar issues and with similar symptoms it has either been the mobo or the power supply.

 

[RangerSVT]

Bad motherboard or PSU.

 

[foogs]

Bad motherboard or PSU.

Not to be mean but I hope it's the motherboard, I'm planning an i7 build and people reccomend me the P6T and all I've read are horrible reviews on the board. Hopefully for you it's something easy to fix op.

 

[Gokou]

Rather than buy/borrow a new PSU to try I did the next best thing-- test the new hardware on old components! I'm typing this from my old mobo/CPU which is now being powered by the new Revolution 85+ PSU-- so the culprit is the brand new Asus motherboard. 5 minutes of solid use is a pretty good lifespan I guess. Looking at the reviews on NewEgg for the P6T Deluxe V2 it seems people were quite happy if it wasn't DOA.

Looks like another week of wait for the RMA process. Argh!