PC won't post, replaced everything and nothing... HELP!

[tuffluck]

My computer recently had a bad RAM stick that was RMA’d and received last week. Computer ran fine for a week, and then yesterday I picked the computer up (physically) and took it to another room. It ran fine all day and today I needed to restart. When I did the computer got to the post screen and said “your computer is not stable due to OC and settings will be reset” then shut down. Since then I have tried to restart it to absolutely no avail. It does this:

1. Turns on then immediately off
2. Turns on again and goes to post screen but does not post; I try to press delete to go to BIOS, does not work, computer shuts down again
3. Repeats 1 and 2 in that order until I unplug PSU cable

I have tried the following since this occurred to absolutely no avail, every time the result is the aforementioned power cycling.

1. Switched out RAM sticks
2. Switched out Vid Card
3. Switched out PSU
4. Unplugged HDD/SSD
5. Replaced CMOS Battery

I have no idea what the problem could be unless it is the mobo or the CPU, and don’t know how to test those. Also I wonder if it has anything to do with physically moving the computer or the newly replaced RAM stick, or if that is just a very odd coincidence. Before the RAM swap, I was getting the “your computer is not stable due to OC and settings will be reset” message and then the BIOS would reset my computer to some weird settings at either the CPU running at 4.0ghz and 1.20v or 3.4ghz at 1.355v, both of which are not stock and very odd. Here are my components/OCs:

1. I5-2500k 4.0ghz 1.22v (stable in p95, temps never reached higher than 60c in any testing)
2. 8gb g.skill ripjaws RAM
3. OCZ SSD
4. Radeon 7850 1200/5800 @ 1.176v (stable in all tests, temps never exceed 70c)
5. OCZ 700w PSU
6. Gigabyte UD3H PSU

What else am I forgetting to check?

 

[Kenmitch]

Have you tried increasing voltage to ram slighly? If rated at 1.5v maybe try 1.53v's

What all did you change in bios to get your 4ghz overclock?

 

[tuffluck]

first of all i never had problems with the OC until the RAM went bad, so the "your system has been changed because it isn't stable" bios messages never occurred until after the RAM became problematic.

i changed RAM to factory timings/volts. i also changed vcore and multiplier, that's it.

 

[dma0991]

Removing the CMOS battery for a few seconds should reset the BIOS to its factory default. My motherboard has a jumper that resets the BIOS, I'm not familiar if your motherboard has one.

 

[Kenmitch]

Your vcore is on auto with a massive - offset?

If the above is true look to see if it lets you set the vcore to normal. Then try using smaller offset to control the vcore.

Do you have the issue if you downclock the memory. Spec = 1600 try 1333

Did you run memtest on replacement memory?

 

[borisvodofsky]

This only means your system wasn't stable to begin with.

LOL

Post screenshots of all relevant pages of your bios setting, including, cpu, voltage controls, and memory timings.

 

[tuffluck]

sorry i have rewritten this post, if you guys don't mind re-reading and responding. i thought that was better than adding another thread.

 

[tuffluck]

forgot to add, i get no beeps.

 

[Kenmitch]

Did you clear cmos with the jumper? Make sure it's in correct position if so.

Tried booting with one ram stick in all slots?

Sounds like your stuck in a boot loop

 

[tuffluck]

Did you clear cmos with the jumper? Make sure it's in correct position if so.

Tried booting with one ram stick in all slots?

Sounds like your stuck in a boot loop

i don't have a jumper...motherboard manual says leaving cmos battery out for 1 minute does the same thing. is that not true? this is what another website says, though i don't know which pins to touch with a screwdriver to short out...

Unlike some of the higher-end boards we saw in our Spring 2011 motherboard roundup, the Z68X-UD3H-B3 lacks dedicated power, reset, and CMOS buttons on the board itself. To clear the CMOS memory, you’ll need to use a screwdriver or paper clip to short a pair of pins—not ideal. (No jumper is included.) These pins reside right next to the case LED/button connector pins, and will likely be difficult to reach behind the tangle of reset/power/LED wires. We wish Gigabyte had taken a different approach on this particular feature.

http://computershopper.com/components/reviews/gigabyte-z68x-ud3h-b3

tried the ram in all slots too, same result.

 

[Kenmitch]

I guess you could try the following and see if it helps or not.

Unplug power supply from the wall.

Hold power button on the case for a minute or two to discharge the capacitors.

Remove cmos battery.

Short the cmos jumper on the motherboard with a screwdriver for a couple of seconds or so.

Following photo looks to be the one next to the 1 above the front panel connectors.

Replace cmos battery.

Plug in power supply.

Try booting up afterwards with 1 single stick of memory.

 

[Puppies04]

Unplug from the wall, remove the CMOS, hold the power button on the case for 30 seconds and then put the battery back in and power it back up. Report back if the problem persists.

P.s this works on every mobo, you don't need jumpers just follow this procedure to the letter.

 

[moonbogg]

I had this same problem with my new X79 mobo. The PC simply wouldn't post and nothing would work. I removed half of the ram sticks and it still didn't post. I then switched the ram to different slots and, if I remember right, it still didn't post. I switched ram AGAIN and BOOM, it posted.
It seems to have got stuck or something. it just got confused and hung up with the ram, but it posted and works fine. Make sure you check the ram timings to be sure its not on 1t...that last timing thing should be 2t. at least mine defaulted to 1t and the damn thing again became totally unstable with 1t.

EDIT: I have to stress the importance of that last ram timing. Make SURE it is on 2 and not 1. If on 1, it will become unstable and likely not POST.

 

[Nemesis 1]

Check your PSU and M/B 24 pin sockets see if a pin burnt or bad contact

 

[tuffluck]

No pin issues. BTW, bought a speaker and it did the normal one beep but then froze on the start up screen before post, then shut off and repeated until I unplugged it.

 

[TekDemon]

I've had to deal with plain bizarre behavior with some boards before...I remember on one of my P35K's from ASUS it would "die" on occasion where there was no way to get it to boot again no matter how many CMOS resets you did unless you switched the brand of RAM to something else. I was running crucial (high voltage requiring micron chips) memory and my guess is that the board would randomly "forget" the correct voltage settings needed to run the RAM and attempt to boot with some overly low voltage and no matter how you tried to reset the stupid board it just would not reset it's settings. The only ways to actually get it to work was to just go grab a totally different brand of RAM and put a stick in to get it to boot then once you shut it down again and put in the crucial it would work 100%. Just sheer luck that I had other RAM sitting around but the board worked fine with the crucial about 99% of the time, it just would randomly decide that it didn't feel like booting with it.

So...try doing this, totally pull everything from the board and just let it sit for like 2-3 days then give it another shot. Or try a totally different brand of RAM, use a single stick, and see if it'll boot with that. Sometimes you have to try totally batshit stupid stuff that makes no sense to get things to work lol.

Failing that I'd probably just RMA the motherboard.

 

[borisvodofsky]

This is common on the budget boards. They spend more time working out bugs on their premium boards, and leave their budget customers out to dry.:''''''''''(

 

[MoInSTL]

I first bought the Gigabyte Z68 UDH3 motherboard & 2500K during the bundle deal at MC in early April. It would not post no matter what I did. I took it back to MC and they tried my CPU & RAM on another UDH3. Same results. Then they tried a brand new PSU right out of the box. Same thing. They finally tried another CPU & RAM. They must have gotten a bad batch as both were stuck in the boot loop and never posted. I ended up getting an Asrock for the price of the Gigabyte since I was at the store for a couple of hours and had spent hours trying to get it to post the night before. Like the OP, I pulled the CMOS battery, tried one stick of RAM at time, etc. But unlike the OP, mine never posted.

I would suggest carefully inspect inside the case with a flashlight to see if a screw came loose when you physically moved it and landed some place it should not have (like an empty slot). While checking it out look at your caps, check all connections.

Edit: Just noticed you have an OCZ SSD. Do you have any old spinners with an OS only on it to try. The drive may have died?

 

[kbafewx]

awesome thanks for the info!

 

[BonzaiDuck]

My initial post here has been deleted.

Sorry. I wrote an answer to the OP and then realized I had missed certain things in his description, benchmarking and setup. My answer wasn't relevant.