Gigabyte 7VTXH wont cold boot

[Terrier]

This system wont always cold boot - It starts with fans, hard drives spinning up, but it hangs and won't post.
It wont shut down after this so I have to unplug it, wait a couple of seconds, plug it back in and it boots. There
are no other stability issues with this system. This seems to happen after a bios upgrade; I have corrected the
problem in the past by loading safe defaults, but that does not seem to work now.

Specs: Gigabyte 7vtxh mobo, 512 Crucial DDR2100, 2 Maxtor 40gb, Pioneer DVD drive, Lite-On CDRW, Radeon 64 DDR vid card, WinXP Home SP1, Sparkle 300 PSU.

I had thought it was the PSU, but the system did the same thing when I had it in a box with an Enermax 435w PSU.

Perhaps some Suspend to Ram thing? It isn't real critical but I would like to correct it.

 

[J1600B]

is that the only symptom you are experiencing? it won't even shut off if you hold the power button for 4 seconds?

 

[Terrier]

J1600B -

That's pretty much it - it does "grind" at the DVD drive two or three times, like its accessing it. Than that stops
and the boots halts with everything running, but not posting. The power button and reset won't respond - although
I don't think I've held the PS for 4 seconds. Other that that, the system is reliable and stable.
I have an 1600XP in it and I am networked into a hub with DSL modem. I coming back around to the PSU - I'm beginning to price an ANTEC!

 

[J1600B]

I just thought that was strange that it would not shut off. I think most motherboards these days require the power button to be held down for 4 seconds to shut it off. Kinda like a fail safe because it's not good for the system. This is the way my last 2 computers have been, one an Abit mobo and my current one an MSI. I was curious about your problem because I had a similar one here. My problem seems to be corrected now. Do you hear any sequence of beeps, or have anything equivalent to D-bracket on your Gigabyte that could help diagnose your symptoms?

 

[Terrier]

I held the power button down for 5 -10 seconds and nothing. I'm suspecting a power issue. I may unplug the DVD drive
and see how the boot goes. The motherboard info utility shows the +3.3 voltage at 3.31, the +5 at 4.96 and the +12 at 11.88.
What little I know about voltage indicates that these numbers should be safe, but the boot-up requirements may strain tyhe PSU too much. Its funny that I just unplug once, wait a few seconds and it boots fine. I read the article and will try connecting the cpu fan to the PSU.

Thanks for the info - I'll let you know how it turns out.

 

[Terrier]

Had a new problem - the CPU fan quit after a connected it directly to the PSU. This was after about 15 mins of use. My app froze, checked the onboard health monitor and the CPU temp was up to 98 degrees. I powered down quickly, waited until it cooled, then tried a boot - everything is fine, but I'm going to get a 400W PSU
today. I think the system is drawing too much off the +12v side. I'll let you know how this upgrade works.

 

[Terrier]

Last update on this problem - It was the bios issue with my Radeon 64 DDR VIVO, not the power supply.
I had upgraded to bios f7, then f8a. I downgraded to bios f6, which mewntioned a fix foe the Radeon.
Apparently, this fix was not carried over to the later bios updates.