Well everyone, I can’t believe this happened. I’ve fried my mobo.
On Sunday, I took down my 1.5 month old machine, to install the CM hyper 212 heatsink + fan. I get it mounted, thermal paste everything. I’ve built the thing before, I know basically what I’m doing (or so I thought). I power it up, hear it post, fans spinning up, etc. I’m very happy. Until hear another sound I hadn’t heard before. A longer beep, followed by genie smoke from the base of my mobo near the psu. I immediately cut the power, and start unplugging things. At this point, I didn’t know the smoke had come from the mobo, it looked like it rose from the psu. Upon takedown, I discover a trace had been burned in two locations on my mobo, leading to the directkey button. The PSU smelled of smoke for a good half hour, so I was worried that it had been taken out aswell. However, When I checked it with the paperclip test, it powered on just fine.
Now that the back story is out of the way, here is my question: I’ve accepted my MOBO’s death, but have a few concerns: In my panic, I THINK but am not sure that I saw i may have had only 4 of the 8 pins to power the cpu plugged in. Is this something that would cause such an event? (my psu doesn’t have an 8 pin connector, but rather 2, 4 pin ones which powered my comp for the last 1-2 months just fine) My theory is that the single 4 pin connector tried to draw too much power to keep up with the demand from the cpu (more than the mobo could handle) which caused the burnt trace. Is this a reasonable deduction? I want to avoid this in the future obviously. Also, is it likely my cpu was effected? Or my ram/ gfx card? I’m quite worried that my 1100$ rig is totally fucked. any chance of fixing the trace?
Thanks for bearing with me. I’m asking for your help, please don’t just call me a tech illiterate and dismiss me. It was an honest mistake.
also, this is my build: http://pcpartpicker.com/user/bmckalip/saved/1YSj
Its a strange story if you pluged in Two 4 pin cpu power connectors, then that should be allright. 2x4 pin or 1x8 pin is equal. i think when you installed your cpu cooler you probably shorted you mobo some where. maybe a screw or maybe something diffrent, but you will need to buy a new mobo offcourse. but i think after that everything schould be fine.
I believe I only plugged in one of the 4 pins, not both. anyways, so you're suggesting that a screw shorted it out? would the short have occured before or as I powered up the machine. Becasue the computer powered up for a few seconds and I heard post beeps, then it died. Is there a way to ensure that doesnt happen when I redo the build, I imagine the screw has to only touch silicon basically?
I'm taking my mobo to a comp shop today, and havent removed the bracket from the cpu cooler. hopefully they can tell If the bracket screws shorted the board. Thanks for your help.
From what I am assuming, might of been a faulty power supply. I don't trust rosewill as much as I do corsair, thermaltake and Seasonic
you got my deepest condolences , no pc builder deserves this. :( :(
I remember I had a mobo that had copper buswiring RIGHT along the cpu heatsink screws, I had to put a plastic ring arround the holes. I think it was an asus intel mobo. i found the buswiring placement very disturbing...
Did you scratch any copper buswiring somewhere on the silicon?
Hmm. possibly. I ran the thing for over a month and a half with my problems at all. I don't see how it's possbile for it to conk out right as I'm doing my upgrade. Is there something I'm missing?
Thanks, I don't think I scratched anything. The main thing I'm trying to determine really is if having only 1 4 pin connector into the CPU power socket could cause the CPU to try to draw as much power as it requires, more than the traces on the MOBO can handle. That is my hypothesis. When the smoke started coming out, I unpluged the main power to the power supply, and then *I think* noticed one of the CPU power connectors was unplugged. I'm like 70% sure of this. I know that It there isnt any CPU power connector plugged in, that it wont boot at all. I'm not sure if having 1 would cause it not too boot. If so, then my hypothesis is void.
Thanks for the replies. I've brought my components to a comp. repair shop to have them tested and see if anything besides the mobo is fried. praying no. I can handle a $150 set back, can't really handle a $750 one. :/
well it probably died wenn powering it up, so that could be a shorted out screw as i said before, also i would realy recommend, to plug in both 4 pin connectors, not only one!
By the way also check the ATX power connectors on the psu, if they are not melted, because the psu could also cost the problem.The psu can also be faulty... if you can afford a new mobo in combination with a psu, there are maybe be some combo´s at new egg, thats realy something to concider.
for your current setup a 550/650W psu is more then enough, look at brands like Seasonic Lepa XFX corsair etc brands.
yep, I meant to plug in both. it was accidental. Also, The only reason I had the 750 is incase I wanted to upgrade to SLI at some point. The connector is fine, but I'm not sure if the PSU itself is or not. to test it, I Shorted the green and black pins on the mobo power connector head, and the psu booted up. Not sure if I trust that though. I should most likely just get another psu... sigh....
well if there is a computer shop or elektronical shop in your area, maybe you can let test the psu.
yerp, they've got it now, being tested. thanks for the help evryone. wish me luck.
Well, got all my stuff back. everything but the mobo is fine, thank god. Upon inspection of the mobo+heatsink standoff placement, it was clear that the metal standoffs were directly touching the traces on the mobo. thats almost certainly what caused this little mishap. I'm not sure what to do now. I RMA'd the cooler, for compatibility reasons, and will be stuck without a propper cooler for a bit here.
are there any coolers you all would recommend that wont fry my fucking board lol? I'm running a asus z87-a mobo with an i5-4670k haswell CPU. I will run the stock fan if neccessary, but would love to get a decent (safe) cooler.
Thanks
Well i dont know what your budget is for a good cooler, maybe its a good idea, to lookup a closed loop Lc cooler if you can afford it. like a corsair H80i/H100i the stock fans on the H100i are a bit loud but you can get silent ones.
or a NZXT Krakan X40/X60
i dont know what your budget is..
meh, I'm ganna cancel the RMA, then install plastic gromets on the mobo standoffs and hope and pray.
Some motherboards really need to get their act together. The copper buswiring sometimes is going through places too close to a screw or standoff.
It's downright disturbing. No one should be forced to install plastic gromets on their mobo (been there aswell) or obviously make a big deal about it.
yep. I wouldn't mind so much if I had thought of it the first time lolol.
Thanks everyone.
well, its update time. I built the wholer pc tonight. I put the stock cooler in to reduce the variables in play. The system booted up, with no post beep, turned off by itself. it retried auto. and same thing. third time, i get to the post beep, then it shuts down. by this point, i'm scared, and I unplug the thing. currently, the systerm wont boot at all. nothinbg. nbo fans. nho noises. no led's (except standby) Do you guys think its the psu? I sure as hell do. Which means the asshole "computer repair man" that I payed $50 to test all my shit was a total lying bastard. He'll be getting a phone call in the morning.... anyways? is it thye psu? should i just buy another one? I'm really desperate at this point to be honest. a heatsink upgrade has turned into a $300 mess.I'm actualy rather depressed currently.
did you double check your new mobo, all socket pins? seems something with the cpu area. take out the cpu and check everything again. mostly wenn a system shuts down immediately, then a cpu is not installed correctly.
thanks, that might be it.
well, I'm pretty fed up at this point so I took all my shit to a computer repair guy so they can make all my stuff work and steal all my money. I'm done with it. Hopefully they don;t break the bank.