GA-EP45-UD3P r1.1 shuts down immediatly, advice pls.

[grindy]

Couple of days ago I'm rendering some video and begin to smell something strange.  Since one of my neighbors sometimes burns some "unusual" stuff in his fireplace, I went outside to see if it was outside or inside (wasn't out there).  By the time I got back in the smell was getting pretty strong. As I was shutting my system down (normally - thru Win7) it shut itself down completely before windows could do it.

When I opened the case the smell was fairly strong there.  So, while it's cooling down I took the time to clean all the fans & intakes - including the fins on my Artic Freezer 7 Pro Fluid cooler.  Since it had been barely a year since I built the system I wasn't prepared to see how blocked the fins were in the Artic cooler (my bad).  So I'm guessing fried cpu, but since I had it opened up I went ahead and checked my OCZ 700 PSU with my PSU tester and it showed only the 5v light. Hmmm...

So... I have a spare 750w PSU (that I know is good) and, using it, I plug in ONLY the main 24pin and 8pin 12v connectors and it would come on for half a sec and then shut down. So I pulled the CPU cooler and CPU itself and all the RAM, but results are the same. It would come on for half a sec and then shut down.

Here's my question(s):

1- I've never tried to "power up" a system board without a cpu installed, but would it (the PSU) normally keep running and the system board just complain about the missing CPU or would it try to power up and then immediatly shut down?

2- Before I buy another system board and or CPU are there any other checks I can do to pinpoint where the problem is?

Thx in advance for all input... 

 Here's the specs:

GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale 3.16GHz
2 G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit
OCZ StealthXStream OCZ700SXS 700W

[Dark Mantis]

Hi and welcome to the Gigabyte UK Forum.

Since one of my neighbors sometimes burns some "unusual" stuff in his fireplace

I always thought they smoked it in pipes and bongs etc 

1- I've never tried to "power up" a system board without a cpu installed, but would it (the PSU) normally keep running and the system board just complain about the missing CPU or would it try to power up and then immediatly shut down?

A system will not start at all if there is no CPU installed.

2- Before I buy another system board and or CPU are there any other checks I can do to pinpoint where the problem is?

I would advise an optical check of the CPU, socket and mainboard for any burn marks etc.

I would suggest that you use a high pressure air line to blow out the machine. I think you will be suprised how much dust and fluff is still in  there. It is the easiest and safest way of cleaning the interior and the inside of the PSU etc.

[grindy]

Hi and welcome to the Gigabyte UK Forum.

I always thought they smoked it in pipes and bongs etc 

Not a "good" smell, a "bad" smell...

A system will not start at all if there is no CPU installed.

Would the symptoms be the same as what I am seeing (without a CPU) - IE would the PSU start then immediatly shut down?

I would advise an optical check of the CPU, socket and mainboard for any burn marks etc.
I would suggest that you use a high pressure air line to blow out the machine. I think you will be suprised how much dust and fluff is still in  there. It is the easiest and safest way of cleaning the interior and the inside of the PSU etc.

I did all of those... Nothing seems dark or burned, no fat caps, nothing to suggest shorts or heat damage.

Is there any way to determine if the CPU is at fault or the mainboard itself (other than buying one or the other only to find out that it's the "other"?

[Dark Mantis]

I did all of those... Nothing seems dark or burned, no fat caps, nothing to suggest shorts or heat damage.

Is there any way to determine if the CPU is at fault or the mainboard itself (other than buying one or the other only to find out that it's the "other"?

Normally if the CPU is damaged by overheating it will look brown or discoloured somewhere. Not always obvious but it is normally visible. There is no easy way to test the CPU or motherboard without swapping one out or very expensive test gear. You could try removing everything apart from the CPU(with thermal paste), heatsink, fan, one stick of memory in the first slot, and buzzer. Then attach the PSU and try and boot. I know it wont anyway because of there not having a graphics card but it should beep.

[grindy]

I did all of those... Nothing seems dark or burned, no fat caps, nothing to suggest shorts or heat damage.

Is there any way to determine if the CPU is at fault or the mainboard itself (other than buying one or the other only to find out that it's the "other"?

Normally if the CPU is damaged by overheating it will look brown or discoloured somewhere. Not always obvious but it is normally visible. There is no easy way to test the CPU or motherboard without swapping one out or very expensive test gear. You could try removing everything apart from the CPU(with thermal paste), heatsink, fan, one stick of memory in the first slot, and buzzer. Then attach the PSU and try and boot. I know it wont anyway because of there not having a graphics card but it should beep.

Thanks Dark, the CPU shows no "obvious signs of overheating. I'm going to try one last time to boot with just the CPU and cooler and one stick of RAM and see what happens.

Crosses fingers...

[Dark Mantis]

If that doesn't work try swapping the modules over and then rebooting.

The other thing you can check is all the cabling especially at the ends.

Have you got a buzzer attached?

[grindy]

If that doesn't work try swapping the modules over and then rebooting.

The other thing you can check is all the cabling especially at the ends.

Have you got a buzzer attached?

Did all the above, and buzzer attached. System board led's show instant on then immediatly off. Gonna look and see if anybody is selling a similiar board on ebay.