"Kevin M" said:
OK. Removed everything from case. Still presents same symptoms. Even tried
without memory, video card and hard drive. It either comes on and shuts off
OR it stayes on but never posts.
Is the ATX +12V 2x2 power cable securely in place ? The thing is,
the "shutting off" symptom could either be caused by the processor
sending "THERMTRIP" to the motherboard. Or, if the hardware logic
that controls PS_ON# is not receiving proper power, that can cause
the power to drop as well. Is the CPU fan connected to the CPU
fan header ? These kinds of problems could be caused by a bad
PSU or a bad motherboard. A cheap multimeter can be used to
measure the PSU output while driving the motherboard, and you
can then get a better idea of whether it is PSU related or
motherboard related. The Antec TP II will have two 12V output
circuits, so you would need to measure a signal from both of
them.
Some Asus motherboards have overcurrent protection in the Vcore
converter. Vcore is powered by the ATX +12V 2x2 power cable. If
the power supply is slow to provide energy to the board, the
Vcore regulator can recognize the funny behavior of the power
supply, as an overload condition. The regulator circuit may
have a "latch-off" feature, where for safety, the Vcore regulator
will then refuse to run, until you switch off the supply. Based
on the description of that algorithm, I think you can see you'll
get no where fast that way. (Some older regulators run in
"put-put" mode, where the regulator will retry, say once a
second, for maybe 50mS a try, until the overload goes away.
Such a regulator will burp several times, if connected to
a slow power supply, but the board will still POST.)
Try another brand of power supply, even if it is only a
350W with 20 pin connector. You should at least be able
to get into the BIOS that way, with minimal components
present.
With a bare motherboard and a PSU, does the board start when
you press the button, stay on for as long as you want, then
shut off after the power button is held in for four seconds ?
If it fails that test, then the CPU wasn't involved, and it
drops your culprits to motherboard and PSU.
Also, how is that fine Northbridge fan doing ? The first batches
of A8N-SLI had the unreliable 8000 RPM fan on them. If the
fan is stalled, the Nvidia single chip chipset can overheat.
I would expect the time constant to be a bit longer than
three seconds though. If, on the other hand, the heatsink
on the Northbridge is loose, an overheat condition could
occur pretty quick.
Just some guesses,
Paul