Black screen on G1 Sniper A88X

[DixiePenguin]

THis board was bought used along with A10 7700K, 16gb of Kingston ram, and Sapphire HD6850 from the IT manager at my college.

Installed in case with CoolerMaster 600 Elite ps.

Booted fine but only 8gb of ram report as active though all identified. I removed the two sticks that did not show as active.

Machine ran fine for about 2 months then started random shut downs. CPU temp was near 70 F under load. Let it cool then tried to reboot. I had to move the ram to the opposite channel slots before it would boot but then worked fine. About two weeks later shut down again. On restart I found only 4gb reporting as active. I tried reseating the ram, it posted to BIOS then shut down. Now I only get power to fans but no beeps, no post, and no video of any sort.

Bench tested the board and got black screen with vid card and on-board. I got weird results with ram. Some sticks set off beep codes indicating problem (rapid non-stop beep). Others did not produce any beeps but did not allow boot either. I have no other ram to check the slots and it may be a while before I can get any (We are all under house quarantine here on Luzon, Philippines). I also tested with another PS( FSP 500w) and got same results.

Vid card tested fine on another board, as did processor and power supplies.

Since I had to leave my shop equipment when I moved, I have nothing in the way of testing gear.

I realize the mobo or ram is the problem but are there any other avenues to check.

Thanks in advance,
Bill

[dicky96]

Re: Black screen on G1 Sniper A88X

From what I know, problems where one RAM channel works then fails but the other RAM channel works OK then starts to mess round and be intermittent tend to be related to Bent/dirty pins in the CPU socket, faulty BGA array under the LGA CPU socket, or similar problems.

If the CPU does not have an integrated memory controller then possibly faulty BGA connections on the north bridge or the north bridge itself.

It could also be bad/corroded pins in the DDR slots or just a bad connection for the CPU to the LGA socket. Try removing the CPU, cleaning it an reinserting for a start.

You could try putting pressure on the CPU and/or Northbridge see if that proves anything.

Set BIOS to factory default settings.

Being able to check Vram and Vref would also be good. But you need a multimeter to do that.

We are also on lock down here in Spain ;-) welcome to the new world.

[DixiePenguin]

Re: Black screen on G1 Sniper A88X

I saw a video regarding the Northbridge problems. You may be onto something there. The video showed how to reflow the chip using a heat gun or rework station. I may try that if pressing it gives any imprevement. Many thanks. Keep safe there in España,
Cuando está atrapado entre el Diablo y el mar azul profundo, es un buen momento para aprender a nadar. I hope I got it right, it has been too long y debo practicar mucho.

[dicky96]

Re: Black screen on G1 Sniper A88X

!Si mi amigo! LMAO

[DixiePenguin]

Re: Black screen on G1 Sniper A88X

Well,
THings have taken a weird turn. I took my wife's Toshiba netbook in because it would power on but not boot. The guys at the shop were great. We both suspected the ram was bad. He put in a test stick and bang it booted. Then he said "wait a minute". He cleaned my ram and reinstalled it. Booted fine. Corrosion due to the climate here, suspect you may get the same in España. Anyway, I got to thinking so I pulled out the Sniper and cleaned the ram. Put a stick in the "DDR 1" slot. Nothing. Tried "DDR 2", booted to BIOS. One stick in each slot long wait then boot. BUT Ram in DDR 1 "not enabled". Shifted to DDR 3, nothing, no boot. Tried all 4 sticks in DDR2, 3 good.

Then I looked more closely at the BIOS screen. On the motherboard the slots are print numbered from cpu and out to edge of board, ie. 4-2-3-1. (1 closest to edge and 4 next to cpu.) Noting unusual there, BUT on the BIOS screen the slots are numbered 1-2-3-4 from processor and out to edge. Channel A status on screen shows 8gb enabled in slots 1, 2 (again from processor out to right. Channel B in Slots 3, 4 empty. Manual shows the 4-2-3-1 so either it was a design mistake or BIOS update alteration.

So it appears that I have one bad stick of ram and two dead/malfunctioning ram slots. The labeling misleading me when I tried to pair the ram and the bad stick keeping me from noticing since it would throw off the status report.

Anyway, I am putting it back together and hoping that it will let me use it for a while with the 8gb. I may try reflowing the two ram slots once we are allowed out again. Or I may not bother since 8gb is plenty for the stuff I play.


Bueno, amigo mío, mantente a salvo y espera a que regresen los buenos días. Los mejores deseos desde el Pacífico.

Bill

[DixiePenguin]

Re: Black screen on G1 Sniper A88X

Well, the Sniper of death continues to drive me crazy. Again after seeming to function it reverted to ???? mode. I did find something when I inspected everything again. The capacitors immediately above the A88X chipset looked odd. When magnified, I could see tiny holes and rivulet stains running down side of the capacitor. Could these caps be causing the weird memory behavior?

I have not been out of the house since March because on top of normal quarantine, I am restricted due to age.

[SMDFlea]

Re: Black screen on G1 Sniper A88X

Well, the Sniper of death continues to drive me crazy. Again after seeming to function it reverted to ???? mode. I did find something when I inspected everything again. The capacitors immediately above the A88X chipset looked odd. When magnified, I could see tiny holes and rivulet stains running down side of the capacitor. Could these caps be causing the weird memory behavior?

I have not been out of the house since March because on top of normal quarantine, I am restricted due to age.

Can you post some close up pictures of the caps .