New Build Problem

Question

A couple of weeks ago I got around to building a new rig with a 990X, Gigabyte Geurilla mo-board (the gamers sure are driving the desktop industry!), 24Gbs of GSkill Ram, 1k Watt PS, & a GTX-580. The other components don't matter at this point, because right now, when I power up the computer it runs for 2 secs. shuts down for 2 secs. fires back up for 2 secs, etc. I have swapped out power supplies, Ram, video cards, re-seated the CPU, and jumper-reset the BIOS. Clearly the problem lies within the moboard or CPU, but I'm open to any last ditch efforts before bringing on a 3rd party to get this thing running. I don't want to order a replacement CPU w/o knowing that that is, indeed the culprit. Most of the components were brand new from New Egg, except for the video card and PS, both of which came from an operational machine (and both were swapped out anyway to rule them out as the cause). So, the reason I'm posting this is because once before I had this same problem with my general purpose computer, that had been in operation for a couple of years and I posted this problem and Colin, from Brougham Media, suggested replacing the battery on the moboard. I was very skeptical, but it was the least expensive option for trying to diagnose the problem and just like all of his other solutions, it worked! Didn't work this time around, being that the moboard is brand new.
   So, would you recommend shipping back the moboard to Gigabyte for repair or would it be safe to order a replacement from New Egg, hoping that that's the most likely culprit and send the board I have now back to New Egg as defective? I'm hoping there's something you can suggest I try before going to either of those lengths.

Answer 1

Problem solved. I called a local computer repair store, Intrex Computers, and described the problem. Told the guy all the steps I'd taken to diagnose. His response was, "Sounds like you have a short underneath the motherboard." I told him I had indeed gone from one Gigabyte model motherboard to another and needed to add some standoffs, but I was quite sure I didn't need to move any of the existing ones. When I asked him about the possibility of a bad motherboard he said that's extremely rare, so I decided to pull the moboard to see if I was dense enough to leave an old standoff. So I pull the board and sure enough found 10 standoffs where they were supposed to be. "Sure glad I'm not that dumb" I thought, though admittedly I was so anxious to put this time-consuming problem behind me, I was willing to embrace ignorance, which I've been forced to do thousands of times before if it meant finding the problem. So I go to put the motherboard back in and low and behold there's an errant screw, which was wedged in a corner near the motherboard, but not under it. Sooooo, let's just say that I didn't even catch that screw when I pulled the moboard the first time to reseat the CPU. But there's nothing else to explain the problem. The Intrex tech said it sounded like a short, and I found a loose screw (no snide comments, please. I've already thought of them!). Wow, when I was young, I was thrilled when my mother told me that I had IQ. I now have come to realize that she never said how much. Or in my case, how little!