System reboots at startup every time

[Nessism]

Asrock X58 Extreme w/i7 930 cpu.

This motherboard seems to have a feature where when rebooting, the system totally shuts down for a moment before coming back. This only occurred when making bios changes and/or hardware changes and such. More recently, had some hard drive problems and now the system does this hard rebooting every time the system is turned on.

Cold system
Push power button
Fans start to spin for about 2 seconds
System shuts down for about 2 seconds (fans stop)
Fans start to spin again and system boots and goes to post

Once the system is up and running it seems fine. CMOS battery seems to be okay since the system clock is remembering time even if the power cord is disconnected.

Not sure what to do, if anything. I'm not exactly a power user but do want the system to perform reliably. Have had a mountain of hard disc problems lately which make me wonder if the motherboard could be in some way responsible for all the failures. I know this seems unlikely, but the rash of failures makes me think crazy thoughts sometimes.

The system has a fresh OS install currently (Win 7 64).

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

 

[Ketchup]

This usually means there is a setting in your BIOS the board had found not to work, automatically reverts to a safe setting for you, and loads with that setting.

To test this, go into the BIOS and load defaults. See if the dual start still occurs.

 

[Nessism]

Okay, that makes sense. Will try reloading defaults and see what happens. Must be something related to the storage configuration, since those are the only bios settings I've touched other than some of the integrated peripherals and boot order.

 

[Nessism]

Okay, tried loading defaults and didn't make any difference....

 

[Ketchup]

Okay, tried loading defaults and didn't make any difference....

Hmm, OK. I wonder if it is detecting the wrong timings for your RAM on the first go-around.

 

[Nessism]

Hmm, OK. I wonder if it is detecting the wrong timings for your RAM on the first go-around.

Switched all the sticks from white slots to blue and same thing happens. Maybe run some memory tests?

 

[Ketchup]

Switched all the sticks from white slots to blue and same thing happens. Maybe run some memory tests?

I doubt it. If it was the memory timings being reset, you would still go through the double boot when testing. Are your memory sticks the same? I was thinking more along the lines of setting the timings manually in the BIOS for what the sticks are rated at.

Also, you mentioned the problem started after some hard drive problems, and I would hate to be ignoring something obvious here. What happened with the hard drive situation?

 

[Bubbaleone]

Asrock X58 Extreme w/i7 930 cpu.

This motherboard seems to have a feature where when rebooting, the system totally shuts down for a moment before coming back. This only occurred when making bios changes and/or hardware changes and such. More recently, had some hard drive problems and now the system does this hard rebooting every time the system is turned on.

Cold system
Push power button
Fans start to spin for about 2 seconds
System shuts down for about 2 seconds (fans stop)
Fans start to spin again and system boots and goes to post

Once the system is up and running it seems fine. CMOS battery seems to be okay since the system clock is remembering time even if the power cord is disconnected.

Not sure what to do, if anything. I'm not exactly a power user but do want the system to perform reliably. Have had a mountain of hard disc problems lately which make me wonder if the motherboard could be in some way responsible for all the failures. I know this seems unlikely, but the rash of failures makes me think crazy thoughts sometimes.

The system has a fresh OS install currently (Win 7 64).

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Please, list what drives you're running and their approximate age, and exactly what kind of a "mountain" of problems you're referring to and when they started. Also post what PSU you're running and its approximate age as well.

.

 

[Nessism]

SSD Asdata
SSD OCZ Agility 3

WD 2TB and a smaller Maxtor that's old, but never let me down.

Had a 1TB Samsung die (was almost full with movies and such)
Had a 750GB Segate die (not full but with all my photos)

When the drive dies the system won't boot, even though it's not the boot drive.

Enhance PS - 500W or so. Couple years old
Corsair XMS 3 memory sticks 2GB x 3- the better ones out at the time system was built.

Bought a used 750GB Segate (same model as the one that died) and cracked it open in a hail mary attempt to save my data. Fun project swapping discs around, but drive didn't work. Thus I digress...

 

[Bubbaleone]

OK...so if I'm reading correctly you've recently had 1 Samsung and 1 Seagate drive die, and PC won't boot with any dead drive attached. So is that the extent of the HDD problems you're referring to? I'd suggest you try the following; disconnect all other drives but the system drive and test to see if the BIOS restart loop stops occuring. If it does, then reconnect one of the other drives and test again. Repeat this until the BIOS boot loop starts again, and the last drive you connected will be the cause.

.

 

[Ketchup]

Interesting information Nessism. If you are having that many problems with that many hard drives, you might consider replacing your power supply. That is a pretty high failure rate.

 

[Nessism]

OK...so if I'm reading correctly you've recently had 1 Samsung and 1 Seagate drive die, and PC won't boot with any dead drive attached. So is that the extent of the HDD problems you're referring to? I'd suggest you try the following; disconnect all other drives but the system drive and test to see if the BIOS restart loop stops occuring. If it does, then reconnect one of the other drives and test again. Repeat this until the BIOS boot loop starts again, and the last drive you connected will be the cause.

.

Did this already. Only the boot drive installed and same issue occurred.

Going to try taking out all but one stick of memory and see what happens.

 

[Nessism]

Interesting information Nessism. If you are having that many problems with that many hard drives, you might consider replacing your power supply. That is a pretty high failure rate.

The 750GB Segate platen bearing failed. Thought the problem was related to the system until the drive was cracked open. Not sure about the Samsung though. RMA'ed that one.

System voltages seem stable so not sure how the PS could be causing issues, but maybe some spike behavior?

The more I think about this the more it points to the motherboard. Have the latest BIOS installed, but could it have gotten corrupted? Guess it wouldn't hurt to try flashing it. Nothing to loose.

 

[Nessism]

Removed the memory and installed them onto the other slots again. System wouldn't boot. Book says the memory must be in the "white" slots so moved them back and now the system is working perfectly. Thought I moved the memory before but maybe not. Can't remember. At any rate, the suggestion that the system didn't like the memory in some way was a good one. Not sure what changed but system is working properly again. Thanks to ketchup79 for sticking with me though this.

 

[Ketchup]

Removed the memory and installed them onto the other slots again. System wouldn't boot. Book says the memory must be in the "white" slots so moved them back and now the system is working perfectly. Thought I moved the memory before but maybe not. Can't remember. At any rate, the suggestion that the system didn't like the memory in some way was a good one. Not sure what changed but system is working properly again. Thanks to ketchup79 for sticking with me though this.

No problem, glad it's working! Hope those hard drives stop dying on you.