GA-EX58-UD3R stuck in power loop cycle

[MarkV6]

Hi everyone, first post sorry but it's about a problem.

System was bought from Overclockers UK in Nov '09
Quick spec list...
Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R (rev 1.6) Never done a bios flash or update
Intel i7 920 2.67Ghz OC to 3.2 (load sensitive)
6Gb (3 x 2Gb) Corsair TR3X Platinum 1600 (9-9-9-24 what it says on the sticks) ram
MSI N560 GTX-Ti twin froza II 2gd5 OC edition GFX card *
OCZ Vertex 3 60Gb (upgrade - OS installed here) *
OCZ Vertex 30Gb SSD
1Gb WD Black storage HDD *
DVD RW
Samsung SH-B123l Bluray drive *
Antec 300 case
650W Cosair PSU
Windows 7 Home premium 64bit (all updates installed)
* parts added by myself Nov 2011

My problem started last Friday. The system had been working fine earlier in the day, was in sleep and when I clicked the mouse to resume it got stuck into a 'boot loop'

The cpu, psu, and case fans all span for about 5 seconds the mobo cpu phase leds all lit up, hdd light on front panel lit up, and then it shut down, and tried again, and again, and again etc etc.... I had to hold the power button down to shut it off.

There's no video signal sent to the monitor at any time during the loop, so can't access the bios for anything, and no beeps either. I don't think it even gets to the post stage.

So far I have disconnected all hdd's/optical drives, put a jumper on the clear CMOS pins (left on for 30 minutes), pin tested the psu (1 fan and corrupt sata drive connected) with a DVM and 12v/5v/3.3v all where they should be.

System has been flawless since I've had it and really was way overkill for my needs (web, runescape, civ5, simcity4, total war) but I figured it'd last me longer before needing to be upgraded.

Internet search shows this is a problem, but if anyone has any other ideas as to how to get my system operational again, I'm all ears...

TIA

[Dave997]

this used to happen to me too until i installed the nvidia driver 290.53 beta. It is the only one that lets me wake up from sleep mode. If you've upgraded your video driver id suggest rolling back to the one that was stable.

[Dark Mantis]

Hi

I would suggest trying an extended CMOS clearance.

Remove the power cable from the mains supply and then press the power switch on the case for a few seconds just to drain any residual energy in the PSU capacitors.

Once done remove the motherboard battery overnight  before replacing it.
 
Next plug back into the mains supply and boot.
 
You will now need to enter the BIOS by pressing DEL and load Optimised BIOS Defaults.

Make any other changes to the BIOS settings to suit your self like disabling the floppy drive, disabling the full screen logo and making the HDD the primary boot device and then press F10 to save and exit.

[MarkV6]

Hi

I would suggest trying an extended CMOS clearance.

Will I need to put a jumper on the two 'clear CMOS' pins as well when I take the battery out?

Cheers Dark M.

[Dark Mantis]

No just follow my instructions exactly and it should all work fine. 

[MarkV6]

Tried the 'extended CMOS clearance' (left battery out for 24 hours) and still the same boot loop cycle as first post.

Have even tried one stick of ram at a time, in every slot to see if that worked, but nope.

There are two bios chips on the board though.  Is one a backup or anything?

[Dark Mantis]

Yes there is a Main BIOS chip and a Backup BIOS chip. The Main one is used for booting and is the one that is updated when you flash the BIOS with a newer version. It is possible to fool the system into flashing the Main chip wioth the file from the Backup chip though. The only problem being that it might be an older out of date version unless it has been updated recently. If you want to try it then follow thjese instructions (It might take a few attempts as it is quite dependent on the timing) :

You can kick in the backup BIOS by shutting down the PSU from the wall, then hold down your case power button in and then turn on the power supply button, a few seconds later the board will start, shut off the power supply then.   Then you can turn on the power supply again and power up the board normally and DualBIOS will kick in.