D975XBX2 Only boots on third attempt

[adam]

Hey all

This is my first post but I have been trawling all the Intel D975XBX2 related posts trying to find an answer but no luck so I was wondering if you could help me sort it out as it is coming close to me throwing it out of the window!!

Basically it only boots on the third attempt from cold.
The first time I power the computer on, the DVD drive spins and flashes and then the hard drive light flahses once then nothing.
I then power it off and power on again, DVD spins again but this time no hard drive light - goes no further
Final attempt, boots fine.

PC Spec:
Intel D975XBX2 motherboard
Intel QX6800 Processor
4 GB PC6400 RAM (2gb OCZ and 2gb Corsair)
ATI Radeon X1950XTX Graphics card
Enermax 630Watt PSU
500 GB + 300GB Seagate hard drive + 250GB Hitatchi hard drive

Nothing is overclocked on my machine. I have verified all of the memory and hard drives - just installed two brand new memory sticks but same issue. I have had the motherboard replaced by Intel but there is the same problem. Processor has been checked by Intel and the PSU has also been replaced.

Now I am wondering two things. The last item to be replaced on my machine would be the graphics card however would this cause the first two boot fails? When in Windows, everything is 100% stable.

I am now wondering if there is some obscure setting on the motherboard that is causing these issues?? The hard drives are configured as RAID (I read on here about changing the "Treat SATA as" setting from IDE).

Any help or suggestions would be hugely appreciated and as to whether or not the gfx might be the issue although I think its the board (hence posting in this forum!)

Many thanks

adam

[Apoptosis]

what happens the first time you boot with the DVD player unplugged?

[Sparky]

Have you tried to go in to BIOS to see if there are any event reports to be read that may help determine what is preventing it from booting?

What OS are you running?

[adam]

Thanks for your responses!

Right the first time I boot up without the DVD Player installed it does exactly the same thing - one flash of HDD light! Very annoying as I was thinking this could be the problem.

I have Windows Vista Ultimate installed. I'm not 100% certain, but the OS wouldn't affect the PC POST would it??

[Sparky]

I don't think OS would affect POST. Did you get anything in BIOS under event log?

[adam]

Yeah that's what I thought! The event log is empty (is logging though) so no clues there. Do you think the graphics card could be an issue? It's so odd how I know what will happen e.g. 3 attempts to success!? Everything I search for just does not seem to offer any insight!

[Sparky]

What BIOS version are you using?

Have you tried another graphics card? Do you have any PCI cards you could pull out and try to boot then reinstall them one at a time?

[adam]

I've got the latest revision of the BIOS (2777). I don't have any other PCI cards in my machine. I think I will try and get hold of another graphics card and see if that is the problem as there doesn't really seem to be anything else does there?!?

[Sparky]

Even an old PCI type graphics card would help for troubleshooting.

I see you have three hard drives. Are you running a RAID set up or can you unplug two of the drives and see if you can boot with just one plugged in?

[adam]

I might be able to get hold of a different graphics card today so I will try that and report back. I tried booting without any of the drives plugged in as well as progressively attaching a drive; all to no avail!

[hkancyr]

This sounds suspiciously like my problem. I can boot however. Mine cold boots then after 20 or so minutes it locks up. On the next boot it runs as if nothing is wrong, and will do so forever. I think that it is CPU related. I have tweaked everything in the BIOS, always use the latest BIOS (in hopes that the BIOS will be the fix.) So far nothing has fixed it, I just wait for the restart if I want to do anything important.
At least yours gets it's strangeness over with in short order and let's you get on with it.
I guess it could be the mobo too. Mine is ver. 505, which one do you have?

[ubiquityman]

Do you have any of your drives connected to the Marvell Raid controllers?
If so, move them to the Intel sata controller.

[adam]

Well still no luck sorting this issue. Tried PC booting without the graphics card but problem remains. At my wits end now and just tempted to buy a new processor and try it!? Annoyingly, don't have that money to spare! Any more suggestions before I throw it!?!?!?