My Dual Harper - Asus Z7S WS living review *56K warning*

[neveroffline]

EMI will cause POST issues.. most of the time you can tell it is EMI by a single "_" at the top left of the screen or when you attempt to enter the BIOS the screen will be entirely blue with no options. At least every board i've seen that issue on has had those symptoms.

What might be the issue is this:


If you look closely you can see the standoff is being pushed to one side of the hole and the screw which holds the heatsink in may be digging into the motherboard causing a short in one of the layers if they are too close to the hole. It might not cause a problem when set down (all the weight is vertical) but once tipped up it might cause enough movement to short something where the screw is digging in.

Check to see that there are no extra standoffs in your case under the motherboard as well. I have a couple cases that have them and on many boards they would cause a shorting issue without being removed or insulated. Usually the "extras" that i've found tend to be between the IO plate and the expansion card bracket (back center of the board).

Thank you so much. Yeah something was doing it, but I had no clue as to what/where nor did I have any electrical tape handy (yeah, bad idea).

I plan on covering the backplates with a layer, the closest solder joints (pcie's, fbdimms, power ins, etc), and the brass standoffs just to be safe. You gave me another idea though, to wrap the heatsinks, the outer pins to the mb/case where the screws go in, those standoffs in tape which might prevent the issue you showed which could clearly happen. Really I have no idea what caused it all, but it upset me enough to RMA the board as many, many others I talked to had no such issues with the same board (albeit bios issues).

I will keep you all posted here for sure, on Monday. I was overnighted the MB today and won't get here till Monday...yay weekends. Shrug.

Just so I start off on the right foot, is covering the brass standoffs with an X of electrical tape a good idea for starters as ASUS told me to do?

Oh, and on the short/ground - there was no post/screen at all, the diagnostic card showed 08,07,FF, shut off and with the slightest tap would reboot and do the same over and over.

Thanks again.

EDIT: I am using the stock cooling/heatsinks for my 5410's with the supplied backplates from the Z7S attached to my case with the sticky tape (they don't move).