Has my new PSU killed my Motherboard?

[Gustafa]

Specs:

W7 Pro 64bit
Asus P8P67 (1.02rev) Motherboard
Intel i5-2500k (default clocks)
R9 280X
Corsair CX750 PSU.

So this all started a while back I have recently upgraded my PSU to a Corsair CX750 to accomodate my new R9 280x. Everything worked fine for a couple of weeks with no problems at all.

Suddenly one day my computer started to hard lock during games. The system would then reboot and give me a disk read error. This was usually remedied by either resetting the cmos or just simply rebooting.

I tried various different things to fix this including:

An overnight RAM test - No problems
Hard drive check with CrystalDiskInfo - No problems
Swapping cables around - No help
Swapping the RAM out entirely for different RAM - didn't help

I then did a Chkdsk, which pulled up a whole load of corrupted files, eventually the chkdsk failed to complete and I was forced to reboot. So I thought fuck it, I'll just do a fresh install of Windows and get it over with. I decided to do this on a different hard drive just incase the drive was broken too.

After a lot of faffing around reinstalling, I finally managed to get it up and running. Windows seemed to be running fine while I was reinstalling everything. Then suddenly, a horrendous looking hard lock which looked like this:

[t]http://i.imgur.com/YoBXJ9c.jpg[/t]

I reboot to find my hard drives are no longer detected. There are 3 plugged in. I reboot again with only the main one connected. It boots up fine, but starts freezing and hard locking again.

This is when I figure there is something more serious going on. I swapped out my new PSU and and GPU, and connected my old ones (Silverstone 850w - I forget the model and a GTX 570) which have served me perfectly fine for 3+ years. I know they work.

When loading up it boots into Windows but everything including peripherals freezes intermittently, every 2 seconds the computer freezes on and off for about 1 second. So freeze, unfreeze, freeze, unfreeze literally every 2 seconds. Everything within the OS is the same. Hard to explain but hopefully you get what I mean. It even does this freezing in the BIOS.

Is my motherboard fucked? Anybody have any experiences like this?

[cdlink14]

Sounds to me like a problem with either the sata ports or possibly the cables.

As for that hard lock, I've only seen that kind of hard lock with either GPU or RAM failure.

You may also have some sort of dodged up bios setting, my pc crashes at least once a day if I turn off CPU thermal throttling in the bios, when I turn it on my PC runs perfect with no crashes. I've done a lot of benchmarks and having the setting on or off makes no difference to performance or temperatures so it as obviously a messed up bios settings.

Have you got another system you can test the hardware in? Specifically the GPU and hard disk.

for now though I'd RMA that motherboard if you can.

[Gustafa]

I've swapped the GPU, RAM and Hard Drives for replacements, still getting the same problem. Realistically the only thing I haven't tried swapping is the motherboard and CPU. So I guess it must be one of the two, or both?

[cdlink14]

I'd put my bets on the motherboard overall then.

have you also tried putting the old PSU in to see if that works? Also be sure to check your voltages in the bios default isn't always best, I have to manually change my voltage to allow my RAM to run at 1600Mhz rather than 1333Mhz despite the RAM and my motherboard natively supporting 1600Mhz.

[Gustafa]

Yes I have tested the old psu as well. The defaults always worked previously, but not since all these problems. I've just ordered a new mobo and hopefully better quality psu. I just pray to God it hasn't killed my hard drives and processor too, I guess it wouldn't post if the cpu was dead.

[cdlink14]

What was your reason for ordering a new PSU?

Also since you're changing the motherboard you'll need to reinstall windows from scratch. You can't re-use a previous install.

You probably already knew that, but best to be safe.

[Gustafa]

[QUOTE=cdlink14;43228141]What was your reason for ordering a new PSU?

Also since you're changing the motherboard you'll need to reinstall windows from scratch. You can't re-use a previous install.

You probably already knew that, but best to be safe.[/QUOTE]

My old psu didn't have the 2 pci-e 6+2 pin connectors needed to run the r9 280x.

And that's fine as long as the damn thing works I don't care haha.

[Gustafa]

Update: Got my new ASrock Z77 Extreme4 and Corsair RM750 this time. Much much better quality PSU. All working fine. I guess the Old CX750 fried my motherboard and corrupted my hard drive. Not impressed but at least it works now. Going to contact Corsair and rip them a new asshole.

[editline]19th December 2013[/editline]

Oh and Microsoft kindly activated my Windows 7 for me.