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I bought a new computer one year ago, it's worked fine (Windows 7).

A few months ago, it started to not boot unless I removed my USB headphones connected to a USB hub, everything else worked fine.

Today I pressed the space bar by mistake while the computer was going to sleep (which I assume caused the problem), and it rebooted it said that it had lost all hibernation information:

alt text

and has been acting strangely ever since:

  • when it boots, it brings up a different boot screen (Asus Express something). I have to remove all USB cables before it boots further
  • the first time it booted, the date had been set back to January 1, 2002. So I fixed the date, rebooted and now it keeps the date fine.
  • I also noticed in BIOS that the boot sequence was reset to "floppy disk" first so I switched that back to the DVD
  • the computer used to be very quiet, but now the fan runs loudly.
  • in general it seems as though the mother board / BIOS has been reset to factory values or something like that
  • also, every time I choose sleep or shutdown, after two seconds it starts back up again.

Here is a screenshot from speedfan showing that my first two cores seem to be too hot, which may be the reason the fan is running so high and hence so loud (although actually 50C-60C degrees turns out to be quite normal, perhaps they are not overheating, I'm not sure what they were before this issue):

alt text

Fifteen minutes later the CPUs seem to getting hotter:

alt text

Here's the basic info about my computer hardware:

  • Asus P5QL Pro Sockel 775 Intel P43 max. 8GB DDR2-1066 ATX
  • Intel Core2 Quad Q9300 Sockel 775 2.5 GHz FSB 1333 MHz Boxed 2x3MB L2 Cach 95W Yorkfield
  • 2x Team Group TVDD2048M800C5 2038MB (2GB) DIMM DDR2-800 / PC2-6400 CL5 184pin Non-ECC
  • Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU-Cooler Socket 775
  • BE Quiet System Power BQT S6-SYS-UA-450W Netzteil 450Watt
  • BE Quiet SilentWings BQT-T9225-LF Case Fan 92mm 16 dBA 32.6 CFM 1800rpm

Can anyone diagnose what happened / is happening to my motherboard/computer, and how I can fix it?

Addendum

@barlop (in comments), thanks for the suggestion, my CPU still seems to be clocked correctly: alt text

@barlop (in comments), I couldn't find anything in my event viewer recorded around the time when I put it to sleep and had the hibernation problem (in application, system, security events) and under hardware events there is nothing:

alt text

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    The BIOS reset sounds like the BIOS battery died. The BIOS should have an event log; it may say there are checksum errors. (One of my machines when the battery died gives that message.) I'm not sure why the temp reading may be off. Resetting the BIOS to default may fix things. My machine with the dead battery gives me odd symptoms.
    – Scott McClenning
    Commented Oct 23, 2010 at 20:51
  • Here is a wild theory. Check that the MHz of your processor in windows is what it should be. It could be that when the BIOS reset, the default values overclocked your processor! Other than that.. (and this wouldn't explain CPU temp), there can be a setting in the BIOS Q-fan or something i'm not sure,that when enabled, makes the fans only go up when the CPU temp is too high.If it's not enabled, then fan speed is high all the time. When it is enabled,then the fan speed is high when you turn it on but in seconds the fan speed and noise goes down.(may go up again if doing heavy work in windows)
    – barlop
    Commented Oct 23, 2010 at 22:26

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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BIOS resetting is a certainty. And since you didn't do it manually(choosing to reset the BIOS in the BIOS!), you should replace the CMOS battery with a new one.

That doesn't explain CPU temp being high.

Enable Q-fan in the BIOS. Q-fan may just be an ASUS thing, but you have an ASUS board.

Then at least the fans should quieten down even before the going into windows stage. It'll be interesting if they then speed up again and how soon.

You do need to address the CPU overheating.

You could open the computer and check that the CPU fan is spinning fast.. And check the temp immediately on booting windows. And check the temp in the BIOS if the BIOS shows CPU temp..

And if you're not worried about static possibly damaging a part(I'd risk it on my comp for sure, and on somebody elses with a warning to them so getting an ok first!), then feel the heatsink and see if it is very hot. It could be misreporting the temp. Maybe there are other ways of viewing or measuring the temp of the cores.

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  • About the static, just ground yourself first. Touching computer case or power supply should enough.
    – AndrejaKo
    Commented Oct 24, 2010 at 11:58
  • Thanks for the Q-fan tip, I found the setting in BIOS as "disabled" so I enabled it to "Standard" and now the computer is quiet again. Even with the fans not screaming, the CPU core temperatures are remaining between 48C-55C which actually seems to be normal (superuser.com/questions/202807/…) so there may not be an overheating issue, it was just speed fan's "flaming-fire-icons" which made me assume that.
    – Edward Tanguay
    Commented Oct 24, 2010 at 12:18
  • great.. CMOS batteries are cheap by the way.. See what it says on it, if it says CR2032 I heard (c=lithium, r=round, 20=20mm wide 32=3.2mm thick). You can buy a CR2032 battery in an electronics store. Duracell do their range with their own named one of DL2032 which is fine.
    – barlop
    Commented Oct 24, 2010 at 15:55
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A few months ago, it started to not boot unless I removed my USB headphones connected to a USB hub, everything else worked fine.

Maybe this would cure the booting problem...

I'm assuming you don't want to boot from a USB device normally, so the easiest way to solve this is probably just to disable your system's USB boot capability in your BIOS. It may be listed as "Boot from USB" or "Boot from external device" depending on your motherboard ... but whichever it is, if it's set to "enable", try disabling it and see if that solves the problem. You may also want to check your boot device priority in the BIOS -- make sure Hard Drive is set to first, CD/DVD to second, and anything else either third or not at all.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/275674-31-system-boot

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I think that it would be a great idea to check thoroughly with anti-virus. Full scan. In my experience, virtually all unexpected events on my system have been caused by a virus of some kind.

Regards,

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