Abit IP35-E booting problem

[chakraps]

Symptom:
Power on PSU. Red LED lights up on the MB indicating standby power. Press front panel power button. Fans start, green led flashes for a second and then everything loses power including red led. No beeps and No POST. Whole thing repeats after power cycling the PSU. An odd thing is the connected PS2 mouse remains lighted up until PSU switch is killed. It doesn't die off like the fans and leds.

History:
The board has been running fine for 3 yrs except for the documented dual boot issue. Recently bios time and system time started getting reset automatically. Shutdown caused automatic restart. Putting system on standby mode would make it unresponsive. System needed standby power for 15-20 mins before it would cold start. Someone suggested these might be symptoms of failing cmos battery.

Recent:
Changed cmos battery, cleared cmos header and loaded default bios. Applied optimal settings and system booted fine. All the quirks disappeared except for one odd behaviour. Instead of double boot the system would come to life and die after first cold start. On the next try it would spring to life. This has been going on for 2 days now. Today when I tried to resume from standby mode it was totally unresponsive and started exhibiting the symptom described above in the first para.

After going through the IP35-E thread I tried some troubleshooting steps. I pulled out components step by step testing each time. Now everthing is out (including cpu, gpu, ram, hdd, odd, fans, chassis switches). Just the 24-pin power connecter, PS2 mouse, and front panel power switch are in.

It seems almost like the system is trying to power on and then cuts itself off for safety.

Config: e2160, gskill ddr2-800 2x1GB, HD 4850, WD 500GB.
ip35-e bios version 15.

Your suggestions please?

 

[Soulkeeper]

have you tried swapping out the psu for a known good one ?

 

[chakraps]

I didn't have a spare psu and couldn't test it right away. I'm trying to borrow one from a friend to check it out. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Soulkeeper]

what kind of psu is it ?

 

[chakraps]

what kind of psu is it ?

Antec earthwatts EA380

 

[chakraps]

During the cmos battery replacement, I also swapped out an older malfunctioning optical drive and installed a new one. The other thing was I used a combination of paint brush and pressurized air can to clean the insides. I'm now wondering if 'static' could've played havoc. I did unplug the entire system and let it discharge.

I hooked up a known good psu with/without cpu and/not ram. Same symptoms reported earlier. But the fact that PS2 mouse receives power (led glows) leads me to believe that the 3v/5v (meaning low volt circuitry like the ones powering USB, PS2 etc) is unaffected and the fault may lie in the critical power path regulated by power mosfets. I'm going to try take it to a board-level repair guy to see what he says. Although he doesn't come with excellent references, I don't have much of a choice, do I?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Now everthing is out (including cpu

It seems almost like the system is trying to power on and then cuts itself off for safety.

Your suggestions please?

You cannot boot without a CPU. Yes, it will power-down without a CPU present.

 

[Soulkeeper]

I have the same motherboard, and an EA650
I clean mine out with an air compressor, but usually from a distance ...

I dunno what to tell you

I had a gigabyte motherboard that failed similarly recently after a power failure (would no longer turn on) and had to send it in for repair
Shame that's not an option for you

perhaps take it out and look over the board for blown traces or dislodged/lose capacitors and such

you can get clearance/refurbished 775 motherboards on newegg for pretty cheap (~$30) if all else fails, just keep that in mind if you are thinking about paying to have it fixed