Won't boot (Epox FF problem)

[Bhoya]

Hi there, been having some problems lately and the poop has went fan-wards today it seems.

First problem was roughly a month ago, the computer would be turned on but the fans would just whir and nothing else would happen. By turning it on and off eventually it would kick into gear and get going but until I removed my old CD-RW drive from the case it would never start reliably. At this point I thought I needed a new PSU but it was starting reliably again.

Monday last week things got really silly. Firstly the Caps Lock key on my keyboard started flickering for hours on end. The keyboard worked but it was missing keypresses in the time it was flickering, not a major problem though because I was nuts busy and thought it wouldn't get any worse.

Tuesday the startup problems reappeared, this time with the twist that the first time the computer would actually kick in there'd be some BIOS looking corruption. Nutty garbled text style corruption. If I restarted the computer again it would work spot on. While running the keyboard was still a problem but nothing else.

Wednesday the keyboard was still flickering and died totally. I've tried another keyboard but it hasn't worked. Both were PS2 keyboards. Other than that though the computer was running fine. Rebooting was fine again and the startup problems were there but without the bios corruption thing.

Today, left the computer compiling overnight (finishing off MSc project) so when I woke up I rebooted it to clear out the effects of my debugging and evil coding. Unfortunately now the startup problems have taken over and I cannot get it to start at all. The code display thingy just reads FF and fans whir but nothing else.

Things tried so far,
Taken out DVD burner, 2nd hard drive and graphics card trying to boot it between each.
Tried to reseat the motherboard to make sure it wasn't being shorted.
Cursed a lot.

Specs are;
Epox EP-8kra2+ motherboard,
2800+ Barton,
1GByte of 3200DDR,
Geforce 5800Fx,
Pioneer A06 DVD burner,
Craptacular 300W (I think, could be 230W) PSU - this was recycled from an older computer. Skanked the case & PSU and just jammed my new bits in.

The computer has been together in this configuration for roughly 8 months before the problems started. Cannot for the life of me remember why I guessed they started originally but I believe I added a 2nd hard-drive at roughly the same time it all began. I have no idea at all why the computer started on its downward path this week though. It has been working hard but no harder than my old marathon EQ sessions. I've been leaving it on overnight a lot for the last week while it does my nightly clean recompiles but nothing that would have it running 100% all night long.

Was planning to get a new case & PSU anyway once this project madness was over but I'm guessing Mr Visa is getting hit for this. Being a software only guy I'm needing guesses as to whether a new CPU/motherboard/RAM might be needed too though.

Thanks for reading this essay and for any help

[jfletcha]

Read my problem about 7 posts down
Computer will not display information on screen (or post)

It sounds exactly the same to me

[Bhoya]

Thanks for the reply. Yeah I read through a lot of threads before posting this one (I'm a shy chap really) but couldn't find the extra power connector on my board. Had a whack at trying to test the other things but don't have too many spares sitting around.

Out of curiousity, are you any closer to getting your board working? No resolution was posted in your thread.

[jfletcha]

No, my board is dead. I switched out the 8rda3+ for my old 8rda and it works fine. Because My problems started because of not enough power (because I didnt attach the second power cord) I would assume your 230 or 300 PS is the problem. My advice, replace it before you kill your board like i did. It looks like that might be the case already, simply because everything worked in mine physically (fans, etc), but there is no post, and no beep, no video output and the straight FF. It may be the bios, or some physical damage to the board, but it sounds like your mb is dead. Lemme know if you want anyother comparisons between our situations, I had a pretty indepth experience as I switched out piece by piece.

Good luck!

jfletcha