Double power up at boot - new system

[DBR]

Hi all

Would appreciate a bit of help for an odd power-up situation on a new build.

Basically, when I start the PC from a cold start, after the power has been turned off at the plug overnight, the system powers up briefly (fans on, HDD light on, etc) then powers down by itself and then, after 5 seconds, powers up again and this time boots properly.

After this the system is stable (Prime95 for 5 hours - no problems) and everything works as it should.

Also, if the wall socket has been left on, this doesn't happen and the system boots normally.

It's not a huge problem but I don't understand why it's happening. The only thing that I can think of is the fact that it's a dual BIOS mobo and I've been changing settings to OC the i7 920 to 3.4Ghz - a couple of times during the OC process the BIOS reset to failsafe defaults so I'm wondering if the BIOS that now is OC'd correctly is not the 1st BIOS to load during start up and the non-working BIOS tries to load first, doesn't post and then the mobo launches the other BIOS which is optimised correctly. Could this be the case?

OC settings are pretty mild - RAM voltage upped to manufacturer specs and BCLK set to 165 x 20 (21 on turbo). Turbo and hyperthreading on and pretty much everything else set to Auto. EIST is on and underclocks to x12 when idle.

System specs are:
Antec Twelve Hundred 1200 Case
Antec CP 850W Modular Power Supply
Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66Ghz (Nehalem)
ThermalRight Ultra-120 eXtreme-1366 RT Rev.C CPU Cooler
Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
Intel X25-M Gen2 Mainstream 160GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive
2 x 1TB Western Digital WD10EARS Caviar Green 3.5" SATA II Hard Drive (RAID-1)
Kingston HyperX 6GB (3x2GB) PC3-16000C9 2000MHz Triple Channel Memory
Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R Intel X58 DDR3 PCI-Express Motherboard
LiteOn IHAS524-32 24x Internal DVD±R/RW SATA Drive - Black
Pioneer DVR-S18LBK 22x Internal DVD±R/RW SATA Drive - Black

Any ideas as to why this is happening?

Many thanks in advance for any suggestions/solutions.

Oh...and one more thing: I use a d-link DWA 140 wireless n adapter but can't get it to work on the new build with Win7 64bit. Works fine on WinXP 32 bit. Tried all available drivers. Win7 says that the device is working properly but there's no flashing light and no wireless connections found (i.e. adapter is not powering up) - anyone else have a similar wireless n problem with Win7 64bit? Have you managed to solve it?

 

[King107s]

A lot of systems will do this when they have been unplugged. Just dont unplug it.... If youre worried about power surges get a surge protector with an equipment waruntee.

 

[EarthDog]

MIne does this when I just power it off...period. Part of the board.

 

[Slayn]

I've heard this only happens when virtualization is enabled in the BIOS.

 

[EarthDog]

I have that disabled in my bios and it still happens...

 

[DBR]

I posted this thread on Overclockers UK's forum as well. The general consensus is that it's normal and part of the OC.

From a cold start the board tries to load the default BIOS options, realises that there are OC instructions, powers down and then restarts with the correct BIOS options. Odd but understandable.

Can anyone confirm this theory?

 

[Slayn]

I've seen it on EVGA boards no matter what you do.

 

[King107s]

That is incorrect. The values are not lost unless the CMOS is shorted or has the battery removed.

The BIOS can reset itself to failsafe defaults in the event of a failed overclock though....

 

[DBR]

That is incorrect. The values are not lost unless the CMOS is shorted or has the battery removed.

The BIOS can reset itself to failsafe defaults in the event of a failed overclock though....

Fair enough. That's what I thought in the first place. But if that is the case then why then would the PC start, all the board's LEDs light up, power down, and then start up again - on it's own - but with only the relevant LEDs on the board showing?

And this only happens when the PC is unplugged. Not when there's still the 'trickle' charge going through the board.

Also, as this seems to happen to others who have OC'd their systems and they, like me, have stable OC settings and no problems with the BIOS, there has to be a reason why it happens. And, given that others don't necessarily have a dual BIOS mobo like I have, the logical conclusion is that when the PC is off the lack of 'trickle' power somehow changes the startup settings for the system.