Fussy motherboard likes it hot

[Greg]

You won't believe this, but I am running a heater to keep my computer warm so I can write this message. You see it was the coldest day in 6 months where I live, and the computer got down to about 21deg C (which is not cold at all for a human). When I went to turn my computer on, it just pulsed on and off repeatedly. I did the same thing at the start of last winter, except that time, I wiggled the capacitors on the motherboard to get it started again. Anyway, I raised the room temperature to 27degC and it is running fine now.

Any ideas in dealing with this fussy motherboard?

After extensive testing last year, while dealing with the first occurence of this problem, I believe one or more of the capacitors on the motherboard fails to make enough contact to charge up. If the computer does get started and manages to stay alive for a few minutes, it will be fine from then until I turn it off. The two apparent temporary solutions appear to be wiggling capacitors or heating the room. Only problem is I've wiggled the capacitors for a while and got no substancial results, hence I now have my shirt off as the room is getting rather hot.

The motherboard in question is a Asus A7M266 however, I do not believe the model or manufacturer are worth avoiding due to this issue.

I have visually inspected the motherboard front and back, but cannot see any visible problems such as an obvious dry joint.

[PsychoSy]

Have you tried a different power supply - like something above 350 watts?

[DaveW]

Sounds a bit like the evil ASUS P4S8X I used to have. It was more stable if I overclocked the bus a little than it was at default speeds.

I think ASUS boards are masochists. They enjoy being badly treated.

[Dazz]

Originally posted by DaveW
Sounds a bit like the evil ASUS P4S8X I used to have. It was more stable if I overclocked the bus a little than it was at default speeds.

I think ASUS boards are masochists. They enjoy being badly treated. Thats was the bug they had
Ah if i was you i would get a new board, the A7M266 is a proper t**t. Thats why i am getting a nForce2 board i have given up on the hunk of junk.

ANyway does your computer reboot randomly at times for no reason?

[Greg]

Yes, I have tried a different power supply, and yes, 400-500w does help it (make it more likely to) start , but that isn't the problem. I have extensively tested this board in a test lab (Eg. tested ALL my components with an identical MB, and tested my MB with ALL other components.) In fact this problem is merely a reoccurence of what happened 6mths ago. I have a new 350w Enermax PSU since then. The problem is reproducable with nothing plugged into the MB at all except CPU (not even ram) (Also, the CPU is different from last time this happened) I used to reproduce the problem with nothing more than the MB and PSU connected, sitting on a wooden bench. I even changed the PSU cable!

The system is otherwise 100% stable. It has never rebooted or stopped working during use, this problem ONLY occurs from a cold start. Consequently I havn't turned my computer off for the last day, and don't plan to until I have a idea to fix the computer, or am prepared to spend more $ on this piece of @#$.

[Dazz]

Funny my computer has never had a problem from cold boot up.

[Greg]

Originally posted by Dazz
Funny my computer has never had a problem from cold boot up.

No, and it shouldn't. I happen to have an identical system at work which has never had a problem, and a net search revealed no similar problems with this model of motherboard. I'd say I've been unlucky to get either a bad capacitor or a bad solder join somewhere that is hard to spot, but is suceptible to movement and temperature. You should not worry about your system.