For the last new days now, I been getting home from work seeing my machine with the boot screen, or something a step before or after and it being stuck there. sometimes with characters on the screen, sometimes not.

At times I have to clear cmos and set the bios back up with date, time, etc etc to clear the issue. other times a power down, a min or two tapping ones' toes then a power up gets past it.

I havent had the time for much recently and I will have to dig in and run some hardware diags ( pc check and ultimate boot cd tools to start) but - in case one has had this or similar issue before - i would rather cut to the chase then spend endless time troubleshooting to narrow down what the actual issue is.

based on it failing post, I am inclined to think mobo or ram issue up front. Currently cpu is at stock with stock volts and runs 31 degrees idle - and this issue just creeped up outta nowheres while running stock settings ( until i get time to overclock it with much better fine tuning)

With summer humidity it might be a good idea to re-seat everything.

true, definately so.

Just not looking forward to removing my cpu.

I would have to take the board out and remove the V8. Pain in the A$$ lol

Guess I gotta buckle down and getter done to see if that cures the issue.

Rather that than a faulty piece of hardware. Off tomorrow so I will post back any issue - or if that cures it. Will also run several hardware tests to hopefully giver a clean bill.

Had similar problems to this in the past. Once was caused by a failing CPU that had been oc'ed to hell and back.

Could also be a faulty cmos battery. Clean the contacts and see if that helps.

The third time I had something like this was because my hard drive was failing SMART error reporting, but not reporting the error during post, thus displaying a blank or illegible screen.

Mb and ram could also be the cause.

Dr B's right, re-seat that chip because this humidity is a killer to thermal interfaces, as well as anything else electronic.

THANK GOD I bought some new cooling gear. Never ran so cool on both cpu and graphics as i am now. It was the intense heat we had recently that prompted me to invest in cooling lol.

well I didnt overclock the hell outta the cpu. I got it to go to 3.825 stable with volts and heat well within tolerance. It did kinda come about with the heat now that you mention it.

I thought about the cmos battery and noticed I wasnt losing time. I will check and reseat nonetheless. possibly replace to be sure.

Hopefully the teardown and rebuild results in the issue being fixed. I will live with it for tonight and do it up tomorrow. it would give me a chance to tidy a couple wires further and properly.

Well I just finished the rebuild. Re-seated everything that had a cable. Ran the full 8-pin to the motherboard instead of the 4, reseated the CPU, fresh compound and reinstalled the V8.

So far, no issues. I am going to see in a few hours if I get a reboot.

Clean billa health

Good to hear.

Excellent. Always good when you can repair for free.