Sorry I forgot to mention the PSU. It's a Thermaltake W0104RU Toughpower
650W Power Supply w/Active PFC.

Thanks

"kony" <spam@spam.com> wrote in message
news:eieeg31dkvl9m094rtlmhufcvjpsmv9mgc@4ax.com...
> On Fri, 5 Oct 2007 21:49:39 -0400, "Peter"
> <nospam@nospam.com> wrote:
>
>>Hi! Recently I started having all kinds of problems with my homebuilt
>>system
>>that worked fine for about 8 months. Here's my setup:
>>
>>MB: Asus P5B Deluxe
>>CPU: Pentium Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz
>>RAM: 4 x CM2X1024-6400 (4GB)
>>2x74GB WD Raptor hard drives in RAID0 - OS is there
>>1x250GB WD hard drive
>>1x500GB WD hard drive
>>1x250GB WD external hard drive
>>Video Card: nVidia GeForce 7900GS 256MB
>>Sound Card: Creative Audigy 4
>
>
> I'm amazed it ran at all without a power supply. ;-)
>
>
>>
>>So, about a month ago the system stopped booting (I had the CPU
>>overclocked
>>to 3GHz or so).
>
> Had it ran o'c, no other settings changes then suddenly it
> stopped booting at the same speed it had previously? If so,
> it would seem like a motherboard or PSU degradation occured
> during that interval. You have a fairly beefy system, plus
> o'c, I'd suspect the PSU first.
>
>
>>Clearing CMOS every time was basically the only way to boot
>>it.
>
> So you clear CMOS, and presumably it then POSTs at the stock
> speed, but do you then allow it to boot windows or do you go
> into bios, save settings to the overclocked values... and if
> you do, does it then resest and post ok or does that require
> another bios reset if the o'c is attempted?
>
>
>>I decided to upgrade BIOS, upgrade failed and totally killed the
>>motherboard. Later I read on ASUS forums that this had happened to
>>everyone
>>who tried to upgrade BIOS in P5B Deluxe in Vista (the only way to do it
>>was
>>through BIOS setup).
>
> I prefer using a boot disk (actually boot thumbdrive when
> the system supports it, or boot Compact Flash card in a
> CF-IDE adapter. Any windows SW flasher just adds another
> layer of complexity that isn't needed, only has potential
> bad effects, IMO.
>
>
>>I ordered exactly the same model, but even with the new
>>board these problems did not go away. At least I know that the motherboard
>>is not the problem.
>
> Yes/no/maybe?
>
> If the boards were made in the same lot with poor
> manufacturing process or lots of some parts, it can effect
> several of the same board, although I tend to agree the odds
> are against it being the motherboard at this point.
>
>
>
>>The system now never starts up when I turn it on the first time. I am
>>getting blue screens, no POST at all, or Vista just hangs during startup.
>>It's always something different. Yesterday, for example, I had to clear
>>CMOS
>>in order to finally load the OS. Once the system loads the first time, I
>>can
>>reboot it however many times I want - no problems. Then, on the next day
>>problems start again. When I turned it on earlier today, the system began
>>turning off and on by itself. Then, it froze a couple of times in BIOS
>>setup, froze a few times on POST, and a few times on Vista password
>>prompt.
>>In order to finally start up, I had to disconnect everything but the MB
>>and
>>video card. Then, once I got into BIOS setup and it did not freeze, I
>>connected the hard drives and finally was able to boot up.
>>
>>Can anyone help?
>>
>>Thank you
>
>
> I suspect you have failed capacitor(s) in your power supply.
> You might unplug it for a few minutes then open and inspect
> it, priimarily looking for vented caps around where the
> exiting wiring harness leaves the PCB. If this is the
> case, I suggest not running the system anymore even if it
> can boot windows with default bios settings, as it may
> further degrade and pose a risk to the motherboard, hard
> drives, video card, etc.