Motherboard won't stop power cycling

Asus Rampage IV Extreme won't stop power cycling

Okay, I have a strange one here folks.

This motherboard was running normally last night when I had it up and running for a couple of hours, and was still working when I powered down the system.

I then powered it on once this morning, had it running normally for about an hour, then powered down to connect up a hard drive.

Upon powering the system back up again it powers on for 2-3 seconds, then powers back down for 5 seconds or so, and then powers back up again for 2-3 seconds and repeats this process endlessly. With hard drive disconnected the system's behavior is the same. Board shows no signs of physical damage (no burnt components are visible, and I have smelled no smoke or burning smells when powering it on).

Does anyone have any possible theories as to why a motherboard might do this?

The Memory (just had it in another board two days ago), Graphics Cards (in a different board two days ago, and same board last night), Power Supplies (worked with same board last night, and a different board two days ago), and CPU are known good working hardware.

The motherboard has shown this same behavior with multiple different CPU's.

The only wildcard is the motherboard.

I've been beating my head against the wall all day on this and I'm open to theories, since none of mine have been correct so far.

Motherboard: Asus Rampage IV Extreme
Memory: Kingston Value Ram DDR3-1333 CL9 (also tried G.Skill DDR3-1600 CL7)
Power Supply: Corsair TX750 750W (also tried Antec Neo ECO 520W)
Video Card: EVGA GTX 570HD

Did you start with the obvious and reset cmos? Use the second bios if it has one (guessing as you didn't mention a board)?

EarthDog said:

Did you start with the obvious and reset cmos? Use the second bios if it has one (guessing as you didn't mention a board)?

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Yes, pulled battery, left it out for a couple of hours. Also tried bios reset switch at back of board and MemOK! button. And tried booting to both of the two bios chips.

Sorry, forgot to list system specs.

I was trying literally all day yesterday to get it running again and have only managed it twice. I let it sit untouched for an hour or more when I walked out of the room to watch a show on TV while I ate dinner. Came back, and to my surprise when I hit the power switch it powered on and went through POST normally. Then, I hit the reset switch to double-check that it was working, and then upon reset it once again refused to power up and I haven't been able to get it to power up since just keeps power cycling over and over when I turn it on. The second time was around 8:30p.m. in my time zone, and this time I was at least able to go into the BIOS and reconfigure some settings (since I'd removed the battery to clear the CMOS settings while trying to find the problem). It seems as though if I leave it sitting unpowered for an extended period it has more chance of actually powering up normally, than if I am just hitting the power switch repeatedly every few minutes. It's almost like it needs a cool down time (I wouldn't know why), which is quite bizarre since it is running for such short periods of time that it couldn't possibly have time to get too hot.

I've eliminated RAM as the problem as I've tried two different sets now (one Kingston, one G.Skill), and I've eliminated video card as I've tried two of them (one 7300GS, one GTX570, also tried two power supplies and it performs the same with either (Corsair TX750 and Antec Neo ECO 520W). I can't rule out the board or the CPU socket, even though the socket itself looks fine. It might be a bad solder joint (or joints) in the socket itself preventing one or more pins from making a connection, but that's impossible to test for. That particular thing would be a matter of giving the socket a reflow and seeing if it does anything to help, but it might make things worse if it melts the plastic bits in the socket.

I removed the heatpipe to see if I could locate anything underneath it that might be damaged, but couldn't find any components with any obvious signs of damage there.

I left it sitting overnight unpowered and now this morning it wanted to power up normally (seems like it has certain moods where it will or won't want to power up). I suspect though that the next time I power it down it will once again refuse to power up, just because that would be consistent with its pattern to date. Almost always seems like if I leave it sitting for a very long period of time it will power up normally when you try it, but if you then shut it down (whether for just a few seconds or a few minutes) after having it up and running normally it will then fail to power back up the next time I try it (unless I leave it sitting unpowered with the power supply switched off for several hours).

I've had it up and running for a few hours now, but frankly I'm afraid to shut it down for fear that it won't power back up again. Because it most likely won't power back up again, and I'll have to give it another extended resting period before I can get it to power up again.

Have you tried a different PSU?

Johan45 said:

Have you tried a different PSU?

Click to expand...

Tried Corsair TX750 750W and also tried Antec Neo ECO 520W. System has the same behavior with either of them.

Edit: apparently this is a documented issue with this LGA2011 board (and possibly others)

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/2085336

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/503118/asus-rampage-iv-extreme-wont-boot-up-t-t-part-2/

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2017989/asus-rampage-extreme-wont-power.html

http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?33978-Rampage-IV-Extreme-Will-not-TURN-ON

Sounds like the motherboard to me.

I figured you would have. Just thought it would be prudent to rule that out. I guess if you only use it once a day it works fine.

TT I had a similar issue a while back, my rig would periodically just not start, eventually it just stopped running completely. It turned out to be the motherboard just went bad. Specifically, what part of it I could never determine.