Quad-core died

[Fizzycapola]

Re: Quad-core died

Discounting rational explanations.
Maybe it's the heatsink, it may be embued with evil.

It's the same one I used last year on two seperate PC's that wouldn't work properly.

If you do change the heatsink, don't forget to be careful with the backing plate, I couldn't remove mine without it wanting to rip off the tracks on the rear of the board, hair dryers didn't work well. I since burnt the insanely sticky glue strip off with a butane torch and various grades of steel wire brush and power tools, it took about an hour to get it clean, and replaced it with a more friendly piece of high temperature oven rubber cut out. I'm still feel angry that Apack Zerotherm expect users to have some kind of devine knowledge on removing these backplates, they don't warn about them or respond to emails about them.

[stretch0069]

Re: Quad-core died

i put the original (and assumed bad) bios chip back in. got it to boot a couple times. sounds like a hard drive clicking. not sure though because now i can't get it to boot again.

oh well.......

[gg1978]

Re: Quad-core died

Here's a thing to check, something similar happened to me with a LGA775 setup.. make sure your RAM is 100% seated down in the slot, since intels shitty LGA775 clamping system bends the board.. I had RAM with heatspreaders on it, that made it difficult to see if the ram was all the way in the slots or not.. The system would work sometimes, but would just inexplicibly die on me.. I suspect as it heated up, the board would flex a bit more, and the RAM would come enough out of the socket to make it crash.. Had to press on the back of the board as i inserted the DIMM's in order to make sure it was well seated..

Intel should have taken a page from AMD's book regarding retention , as socket AM2/+ is about perfect, with regard to having enough through holes for even pressure, and a backplate to prevent board flex..

[bgavin]

Re: Quad-core died

If you are running any kind of hot Intel processor, the stock push-pin retention system and HSF are insufficient.

Nearly all the premium coolers for LGA775 come with a sturdy backplate. Scythe being the notable exception. I use Scythe Zipang coolers in conjunction with the Thermalright 775 bolt-through kit.

I much prefer downdraft coolers, because they cool the VRM, NB and SB. Side drafters are more efficient, but do nothing for these hot running components. Intel specs require VRM cooling. The SI128-SE and Zipang are two big down drafters that work very well. I use a 1200 rpm Red Scorpion 140mm fan on my Zipangs. Very quiet, and cools everything well. The stock Zipang fan is not sufficient for hot running chips.

[stretch0069]

Re: Quad-core died

got done with skeet early so i'll check those things out in a bit.

"a bad day shooting skeet is still better than a good day working on computer"

[willawake]

Re: Quad-core died

booze is good also but not that cheap shit

[kc8adu]

Re: Quad-core died

unfortunatly you may have a bga soldering failure under the cpu.
it fits the symptoms.
mess with it a bit and it works for a while.

[stretch0069]

Re: Quad-core died

its just dead now. can't get it to boot with either bios chip. pulled the ram and reinstalled. even tried the other pair of slots.


and just what the hell is wrong with cheap beer????? like i've said before, after the third one, they all taste the same.....unless it takes you more than an hour to drink those three. the stuff i buy tastes like....well.....BEER.

sorry will......just had to give you some crap

[Fizzycapola]

Re: Quad-core died



I wouldn't use CF900. It's more suited to Conroe or Wolfdale.

Dissipation is good (due to all copper build) and silence, but it lacks thermal capacity required for powerful CPU's.

It also has design issues, like clearance (it touches capacitors on 3 boards I've tried).

Well I hope this shit luck calms down on you soon and things get back to normal.

[stretch0069]

Re: Quad-core died

haven't messed with it in a while. its a $2000 doorstop right now.

i think i might pull the mobo out and see if i can get it to run on the desk. got other things going on like putting together a modified 9200A1

[stretch0069]

Re: Quad-core died

Well.......there's been some updates in this little saga......


On or about April 18th, I booted up this beast. It booted just fine. It had been sitting for over 4 months. Then I remembered something about the HS that I had bought for it and its proper orientation. Seeing that I couldn't mount it properly, I bought another HS/Fan. I put it on and it was running fine...........

...until today. I just noticed today that it wasn't producing. Same old situation. Runs fine for about a month. Then dies. I'm going to let it sit for a week and try it again. This is really odd.

[bgavin]

Re: Quad-core died

When it gets going again, take some realtime temp measurements, HWMonitor or equivalent. Watch all the temps.

It should take more than overnight to cool down to ambient.
Waiting a week or two months isn't it.

I doubt it even takes that long for a PSU cap to discharge.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Quad-core died

If you have that goofy Chipset heatsink with a pipe connecting north and south bridge take it off, cut the pipe connecting north to south, and reinstall the two heatsinks [now not connected] with some fresh thermal paste.
Because they don't heat/cool at the same times and with thermal expansion/contraction [even just due to load changes] that pipe pushes or pulls the heatsinks around on top of the chips.
I saw a case elsewhere in which the north, south, and MOSFETs had heatpipe interconnected heatsinks. The north bridge was in the middle and it kept overheating because as the pipes expanded it was being lifted slightly off the chip. .. Or at least that was the conclusion when clipping the pipes fixed the problem.

You may also have static building up some how.
Make sure all the ground points are making good contact.
Airflow across some plastics can make static so make sure all the fans are actually PC fans.

[stretch0069]

Re: Quad-core died

This is the board....for the most part....



I see what you're talking about for the heat pipes. I saw some versions of this board and there were no heat sinks at all.

How do I get these off? Tell me I don't have to remove the mobo (again ). And what about that piece by the memory slots that has 'Quad GT' stamped on it? I don't think there's anything under it. Just makes it so I can't install the other HS/fan I had before.

The fans are PC fans and everything is grounded.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Quad-core died

The closest Abit board I have to look at is a IP35-E. Should be the same about that.
-
The black spring loaded rivet pins are shaped like an arrowhead on the underside of the board. Use a small needle-nose pliar and pinch the arrow-head closed so it will slip back through the hole. [Be careful so they can be reused.]

If the piece with the GT isn't fastened to the board then it isn't doing any pushing or pulling so you won't need to mess with it.

[stretch0069]

Re: Quad-core died

damn.... i was afraid i'd have to pull the mobo.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Quad-core died

At least it's not a transmission.

[stretch0069]

Re: Quad-core died

well...i'm at a loss...again.

it sat for two days. still stops at 99.

i'm thinking about just finding a good Intel board as a replacement. Chalk up the big bucks as a lesson learned. Funny....Abit is out of business now. Guess they didn't learn their lesson from the badcaps dayze.

[Wizard]

Re: Quad-core died

At least you have supply of good polymers for fixing other boards from this.

Asus or Intel are good. Invest in P35 or P45 chipset, only need 2 x 16x slots for video cards. No need to have triple.

Cheers, Wizard

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Quad-core died

well...i'm at a loss...again.

it sat for two days. still stops at 99.

i'm thinking about just finding a good Intel board as a replacement. Chalk up the big bucks as a lesson learned. Funny....Abit is out of business now. Guess they didn't learn their lesson from the badcaps dayze.

I honestly haven't had a lot of Abit boards last few years.
My take from others over that time has been that Abit is [was] neck and neck with Intel in so far as quality goes.
There's going to be an occasional failure no matter how good a board is.
I just delt with a DOA Intel S5000PSL. [I weren't none too happy 'bout that.]
By looking at other [same model] boards it looked like they got caps mixed up and put some 2.5v Poly on 3.3v.

I haven't seen or heard of an Abit [current models] with bad caps in a long time and they rarely show up at all on EE [Experts Exchange].
The IP35-E is all solid polymer and Rubycon except for a few 6mm Chemicon in things like fan headers.
I think Abit got out because after their earlier problems they refused to resort to cheap parts again and because of that they can't complete price wise with Asus and Gigabyte who still mix a few cheapies in with their good boards.

That goofy-ass heat sink is to please the gamer crowd that likes window cases and all that UV light nonsense going on.
Nearly everyone has a few boards with dumb those things, I think even Intel.
Asus seems to have a lot of them and those show up on EE often.

I would chalk this up to a one-off failure or maybe point a finger at the PSU or the RAM.

Does that RAM have those thick-ass aluminum heatsinks?
I had a problem in one system where [I think] the RAM was over heating [and failing memtest] because if the modules [with those thick heatsinks] were installed right next to each other was about zero room for air flow between the modules. [~ 1/16th inch].
The RAM did the same thing in a two other boards and yet every module passed memtest in all those boards as long as they weren't installed right next to each other. Also worked fine [with all the modules installed] in a board where the RAM slots were further apart.

~~

I've had a lot of Supermicro boards through here lately [sockets 771 and 775] and they've been using exclusively Polymer and Sanyo except for in the +16v side of the VRM where you might find Polymer, Rubycon, or Chemicon.
I have seen none of those small NSRY brand craps they used to slide in on some socket 604 boards.

I'm setting up a PVR Media Server for someone using a Supermicro X7DAL-E.
That board is just freakin' COOL! - I LOVE that board!
It's an [up to] 8-core Xeon skt 771 board in an ATX footprint with 16x PCI-E for video and [2x] PCI-X for RAID cards. Also takes the LV Xeon dual cores that only use 35-40 watts TDP. [Good since it will be on all the time recording crap.]

~~

Is your chassis ATX or E-ATX?
.