Waited 4 months for it, now it's dead.

[Rammsteiner]

This night I let Prime run where as this morning I noticed my PC was off. This was strange to start with since with all my DFI motherboards you had to manually flip the power switch to get the system completely off. Just shutting down made it reboot.

Anyway, I had to go to work so didnt pay attention to it. I came back, put the power button followed by some sparks/flashes and then smoke (and smell).

I was like 'WTF!', ripped the PC apart and checked my motherboard. I noticed a small spot on the backside of the motherboard, flipped it and saw it was around the MOSFET heatsink. So I pulled the heatsink off and noticed one blown MOSFET!?

Now Im mainly wondering... How? I didnt use a lot Volts and my OC wasnt all that epic either; My speeds were 3Ghz CPU, 2.3Ghz NB, 2.1Ghz HT, DDR418. Volts were +0.025Vcore, 1.4Vnb, 1.29NB Voltage (MOBO), 1.32V NB HT (MOBO). Could it have been heat? Anyway, RMA time though.

This is quite dissapointing though. Waited 4 months on this motherboard pre-order while it didnt solve my main issue, had to buy a new CPU to get rid of the issue and now this. OCíng was still confusing and making no sense now and then... Phenom is awesome, especially for tweaking... But this is stupid and anything but motivating not to get an Intel system

Does anyone know how this could have happened?

[GenTarkin]

unfortunately electronics is just electronics sometimes and things eventually end up dying for no known reason... Even the best of the best can die.
It sucks, I know =(

[Titan7171]

This night I let Prime run where as this morning I noticed my PC was off. This was strange to start with since with all my DFI motherboards you had to manually flip the power switch to get the system completely off. Just shutting down made it reboot.

Anyway, I had to go to work so didnt pay attention to it. I came back, put the power button followed by some sparks/flashes and then smoke (and smell).

I was like 'WTF!', ripped the PC apart and checked my motherboard. I noticed a small spot on the backside of the motherboard, flipped it and saw it was around the MOSFET heatsink. So I pulled the heatsink off and noticed one blown MOSFET!?

Now Im mainly wondering... How? I didnt use a lot Volts and my OC wasnt all that epic either; My speeds were 3Ghz CPU, 2.3Ghz NB, 2.1Ghz HT, DDR418. Volts were +0.025Vcore, 1.4Vnb, 1.29NB Voltage (MOBO), 1.32V NB HT (MOBO). Could it have been heat? Anyway, RMA time though.

This is quite dissapointing though. Waited 4 months on this motherboard pre-order while it didnt solve my main issue, had to buy a new CPU to get rid of the issue and now this. OCíng was still confusing and making no sense now and then... Phenom is awesome, especially for tweaking... But this is stupid and anything but motivating not to get an Intel system

Does anyone know how this could have happened?

unfortunately electronics is just electronics sometimes and things eventually end up dying for no known reason... Even the best of the best can die.
It sucks, I know =(

Yea I know.... prime killed it .....to much stress on components.

[Sparky]

But this is stupid and anything but motivating not to get an Intel system

That's how I broke down and bought mine when I was having all those stability issues.

The I had more stability issues a month later

[Lastviking]

Most of the Dfi boards dont like low voltage maybe thats killd your board

Remember always feed cpu with max voltage that it can handle on air and also feed your sticks the max voltage that they works fine with,,,

1.54v for my Opty 165
3.6v for my Bh5 sticks


2 Bad my psu starts to giving up on me .... the +5v starts to acting wierd.....when i cold start the computer after some resting the +5v is low like 4.8v and after sometime its raise up to 5.2v

[Brother Esau]

Well thats your Idle Freeze Problem Solved

[TheBlueChanell]

That sucks to hear hopefully DFI will get it replaced though IDK their support is flaky from what I've read.

I am looking to get this board and although this should turn me away I'm still going to take a gamble.

[philbrown23]

this is what long prime sessions and IBT sessions can do, it's just not good to put your stuff under that much stress for that long.

[Daveburt714]

WOW... That sucks RAM...

I know you've been waiting on that board for quite awhile bro.

I have to say I agree with philbrown23....
Running 4x Prime overninght REALLY stress's your parts hard, especially the PWM section of the board.

After killing my MSI DKA790GX with Prime I just use the Intel Burntest...
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...light=burntest

It pounds the system harder than Prime, but gives much quicker results.
Passing Burntest may not equal a 100% stable system, but it will get you
pretty close and you don't have to kill the hardware in the process...


BTW, Bro E... Thats just heartless man.... hehe

[soundood]

i am very sorry for your loss, lol

but you get a new board, mount it and start priming overnight?

you got what you were asking for, the board 'was' unstable.

next time let the board 'burn in' for a period, any new board i get, runs at stock for a week or so, then is increased slowly.

all the while monitering temps, and reaction to load.

i am not being cruel, but your approach smacks of newbie procedures

heres a lesson, learn from what just happened, and dont listen to eveything you read on this forum.

just because peeps do it here, doesnt mean you should.

they can afford to lose a board, and usualy laugh it off, as the way the mop flops kind of thing.

fortunaly, you should be able to return it to the place you purchased it, next time dont prime overnight with your 'nominal 3 gig clock'

good luck

[Aussie FX]

WOW... That sucks RAM...

I know you've been waiting on that board for quite awhile bro.

I have to say I agree with philbrown23....
Running 4x Prime overninght REALLY stress's your parts hard, especially the PWM section of the board.

After killing my MSI DKA790GX with Prime I just use the Intel Burntest...
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...light=burntest

It pounds the system harder than Prime, but gives much quicker results.
Passing Burntest may not equal a 100% stable system, but it will get you
pretty close and you don't have to kill the hardware in the process...


BTW, Bro E... Thats just heartless man.... hehe

Jeepers, you burned your board too Dave?

It must be a bad month for motherboards.
I just lost my GBT 790FX-dq6 and GBT 790GP.
Mine was an OCZ psu though, it took out the second board when I was trying to fault find.

Rammsteiner, just RMA it, that's what they're for.
Unfortunately these boards don't have a robust PWM like the M2R.

[Daveburt714]

Aussie FX: Yeah, it was my own fault man... The MSI DKA790GX was a really nice board and actually OC'd quite well. I could bench it at 3.3/2.4, and it ran really stable at 3.1/2.2 close to stock volts.

The problem seemed to be that I couldn't put anything over 1.45v's on the CPU (I never overvolt the IMC much).

I modded the AOD.ini file which allowed me to up the CPUvid to 1.55, started 4x Prime and killed the board within an hour...

It sucks, cause I really liked that board too, granted the power section was a little weak, but it ran great for a couple months until I decided to bypass it's safety measures...

As much as I dislike Asus, I bought an open box M3A79-T for $138. I haven't really pushed it too hard yet (and probably won't!) but so far it's doing pretty well 205x15.5x11x10, with a slight overvolt on the CPU (1.375) and stock IMC (1.3).

The Asus has a really nice PWM section 8+2, stays cool and OC's a little better stable than the MSI. For an Asus, it's a really nice mobo...

Give me a couple months, I'll probaly kill it too... No wait, the Power section of this board seems quite capable, I'll probably burn my 9950 instead...

[Rammsteiner]

Well, the board was fine actually. I ran Prime 95 a few times on it. Compared to my current M2R, sold DQ6 and even older motherboards I ran Prime like 1 minute on this one

But if it fails under long excessive load, doesnt this mean heat might be a factor? Anyway, Im certainly going to RMA it. Whether DFI's service sucks or not, I dont know. I always send stuff back to the shops and let them handle it. As long as I get it back before Deneb arrives

Although the difference between the M2R and FXB is damn obvious, I only planned a multiplier OC to 3Ghz untill I get my replacement, but no way of doing so at the Vcore settings I used on the FXB. Runs Prime 1 minute, BSOD 'Machine Check Exception'

Oh well, I ran a 9850BE on stock for months, so I can sit out with the 9950BE for another month. Just a shame the 9950BE is in that matter a bit of a waste of money but well.

I think, if my CPU heatsink allows it, to find some coolers for the PWM area. Im pretty sure my CPU wasnt asking too much Watts there. What's 3Ghz with +0.025V lol. Well, NB at 2.3Ghz with 1.4V but still, makes no sense.

@ soundood

Where did I say I installed the just arrived motherboard and started Priming over night? Ive this board for like 2 weeks already. I always start the OC'ing and as you say, 'burning in' procedure slowly. I Prime overnight so I can game on settings I know which are stable when Im awake. Also energy is cheaper, makes me parents less pissy lol. Also, I can afford to lose a board, I just dont like it since I waited 4 months on this one. Also because I got to rebuild it all again.

@ Brother Esau... Oh, that's not nice!

[Brother Esau]

WOW... That sucks RAM...

I know you've been waiting on that board for quite awhile bro.

I have to say I agree with philbrown23....
Running 4x Prime overninght REALLY stress's your parts hard, especially the PWM section of the board.

After killing my MSI DKA790GX with Prime I just use the Intel Burntest...
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...light=burntest

It pounds the system harder than Prime, but gives much quicker results.
Passing Burntest may not equal a 100% stable system, but it will get you
pretty close and you don't have to kill the hardware in the process...


BTW, Bro E... Thats just heartless man.... hehe

I was not trying to be cruel just stating I guess what might be a obvious fact as to why the random freezing was occurring.

[Rammsteiner]

I was not trying to be cruel just stating I guess what might be a obvious fact as to why the random freezing was occurring.

Nonono. 9850BE was to blame on that mate

As you know I had this issue on the M2R and the 9850BE. I upgraded to the SB750 and the issue was still there until I got a 9950BE instead. It wasnt a motherboard thing.

Besides that, I also had this problem with the 9850BE on my DQ6

[Rammsteiner]

Grrrr,

Ive the idea my motherboard took something with it My system ain't running stable at stock speeds, I even underclocked my CPU to old 9850BE speeds.

Whenever I run Prime 95 or, after Dave's post, Intel burn in program at some point the screen goes black and USB devices turn off (sometimes my motherboard still gives light, but it ain't responding and the lights flicker). The fans etc keep on spinning but nothing happens. Reset and power buttons dont work. All I can do is to use the PSU switch.

Ill remove all my RAM sticks and drop in one stick from a spare kit, see if it runs stable then... If not, it's prolly the CPU. Also, to be sure, Ill put a Voltmeter into some MOLEX to see if my PSU is still working good (it's still a possibility my PSU blew the MOSFETs on my other board, but I dont believe that).

SparkyJJO's post did make me stop thinking about Intel untill I found out the stock instability. What a crap. I still love AMD, but this is becoming stupid.

For example, my old skt 939 Opteron system @ 2.8Ghz (1Ghz OC) still runs after 3 years 100% stable and survived days of Prime 95, it never showed any problems. I do know one system ain't the other, but really, this is rubbish.

[Rammsteiner]

K, measured PSU Voltages, all are ok.

Swapped all sticks out for one stick of another kit, all ok

Put two sticks of the four back in, those are ok.

So Ill see if I can find out if one of the two others is broken or maybe just some incompatibility as usual. That's fixable by simply swapping sticks around among the DIMM slots.

Still Im pissed though.

[Rammsteiner]

Hmmm, I think the IMC is broken?

All DIMMs seem to work, but not 4 at the same time. Then it crashes hard.

[funnyperson1]

Let me get this straight. You're running on a motherboard with a visibly burnt mosfet and you're wondering why you have instability?

The power going into the processor is probably nasty as hell, especially when pushed. Consider that the IMC is powered by that same mosfet circuitry, it could explain why you're still seeing issues.

RMA that board and stop using your current CPU/Ram with it. No reason to cause more casualties.

[Rammsteiner]

Let me get this straight. You're running on a motherboard with a visibly burnt mosfet and you're wondering why you have instability?

The power going into the processor is probably nasty as hell, especially when pushed. Consider that the IMC is powered by that same mosfet circuitry, it could explain why you're still seeing issues.

RMA that board and stop using your current CPU/Ram with it. No reason to cause more casualties.

Thx for your advice, but if you read my posts you could have noticed Im running it all on my old 790FX-M2R now

No way Im going to use something while the power regulation system is like dead/broken