PC randomly locks up, won't boot or partially boots within bios

I have an older Model P6X58D-E mobo.

Over the last few weeks, the PC would randomly lock up when doing normal things eg. browsing, working etc.

Sometimes it would be boot properly (go through the normal black bios text screen) other times I would have to reset it several times by pressing the reset or do a hard reset and hold it for 10 seconds. Sometimes, the boot process would stop part way like just before the USB controllers prompt other times before the CD rom prompt.

Just today it locked up again and now I can't boot at all. I see the PC tower's hard drive buttons working but not display.

I am thinking...rather hoping this might be the fault of the video card? However, I thought you can still boot into the bios without having a video card. Is that not correct?

Any suggestions on troubleshooting would be appreciated. I don't want to ditch this mobo, RAM, and CPU if I can help it.

Thanks

On Sun, 8 May 2016 12:10:08 -0700 (PDT), Sam
wrote:

I am thinking...
rather hoping this might be the fault of the video card? However, I
thought you can still boot into the bios without having a video card.
Is that not correct?

Any
suggestions on troubleshooting would be appreciated. I don't want to
ditch this mobo, RAM, and CPU if I can help it.

-
I'd also hope substituting the video board might be a good indicator
to start with, that a PS isn't the culprit and a better replacement
indicated. If you've a PCI video board for testing purposes. (As
with a better PCI-E graphics card, CrossFire/SLI regardless in your
case, being choice for the single-most intensive power draw from
peripherals.) That MB model doesn't look too old, otherwise, so for a
non-abusive MB/PC scenario -- assuming your PC isn't left to run
outside in the rain, you didn't sic your dog to chew up the ASUS --
least to mention that would be horrible for an ASUS to fail so
quickly.

When I was running a ASUS MB, (older than yours and however
coincidental), I did go through several power supplies on one
particular model. (Problem since remedied since switching exclusively
to Gigabyte MBs - heh. Since updating two AMD/Intel MB models with
four CPUs replacements each -- so I'm especially happy with Gigabyte's
performance/longevity.)

Sam wrote:
I have an older Model P6X58D-E mobo.

Over the last few weeks, the PC would randomly lock up when doing normal things eg. browsing, working etc.

Sometimes it would be boot properly (go through the normal black bios text screen) other times I would have to reset it several times by pressing the reset or do a hard reset and hold it for 10 seconds. Sometimes, the boot process would stop part way like just before the USB controllers prompt other times before the CD rom prompt.

Just today it locked up again and now I can't boot at all. I see the PC tower's hard drive buttons working but not display.

I am thinking...rather hoping this might be the fault of the video card? However, I thought you can still boot into the bios without having a video card. Is that not correct?

Any suggestions on troubleshooting would be appreciated. I don't want to ditch this mobo, RAM, and CPU if I can help it.

Thanks

That sounds like a CPU/motherboard problem.
Generic "freezing".

The BIOS can run without a video card plugged
in, and without memory DIMMs being present. The
code allows a beep pattern to be placed on the
case speaker. Hearing the beep pattern, it takes
a working CPU to make that pattern, so you know
in that case that the CPU is working. (Note that
some "artsy" computer cases, lack a computer case
speaker, so you'll have nothing to debug with.
I will not buy a computer case, unless it has
that speaker. Two wires from the speaker, go to
the SPKR pins on the motherboard.)

The OS has "VPU recover", in cases where the video
card stops accepting commands from the CPU. You would
see the screen go black for half a second, if that
were to happen. So the OS now, can actually recover
from frozen video.

*******

1) Verify the green LED on your Asus motherboard,
stays lit at a constant intensity, and doesn't
blink or anything. That LED is tied directly to
+5VSB. If the light is not constant, you have
a PSU problem. You can also listen to the cooling
fans, for a change in fan pitch indicating the
PSU voltage isn't as constant as it should be.

2) You can use the CMOS jumper and set the BIOS
defaults back to factory settings. Then, enter
the BIOS and re-adjust things for stable operation.
Test with memtest86+ and Prime95, that the thing
remains stable under load.

On my current motherboard, one day a couple years
ago, I started getting memory errors. Adjusting
Vnb in the BIOS, lifting the voltage by one notch,
stopped it. And the problem has not come back.
Like a car with a manual choke knob, those
adjustable regulators in your BIOS can come
in handy for "bandaid" repairing a system.
By making a simple voltage adjustment, I
didn't have to buy anything :-) And that was
an X48 Intel chipset.

If you've been overclocking your system,
a thing called "electromigration" can cause
the stable overclock to drop as the years pass.
You may need to re-tune the system again,
to account for any parametric shifts.

Paul