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  1. #1
    Bockage
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    2 fried motherboards in 1 year

    So on Tuesday I had my motherboard go out on me. Turns out the chip on the board that controls the RAM fried. This is the second board that has experienced the exact same problem in a year's time. Am I just having shitty luck, or is there's any other hardware in the computer that could have caused this? If I find out now I can change it out to prevent this from possibly happening again. I have switched all 4 sticks of RAM and the Power Supply since the first breakdown, so I'm fairly convinced those aren't to blame. The only thing in common with the two boards is that they were both made by EVGA.

  2. #2

    EVGA makes amazing boards. It's one company I truly trust especially with their amazing warranty that includes everything including frying due to overclocking.

    My suggestion. Buy an APC or a good surge protector. It sounds like the power in your house is shit.


    in the meantime send out your board to evga and get a new one.

  3. #3
    Bockage
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    Quote Originally Posted by aalryn View Post
    My suggestion. Buy an APC or a good surge protector. It sounds like the power in your house is shit.
    The power in our house can be problematic. That's why I have my PC hooked up to an APC. A Cyberpower CP1500AVRLCD to be exact. It's less then a year old as well.

  4. #4
    Ranger
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    power supply, faulty wire thats shorting in the case, faulty power cable
    if it doesnt happen immediately then there really isnt an easy way to find it

  5. #5
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    or you could've mounted the mounting screw in the wrong hole

  6. #6
    Bockage
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sonomaa View Post
    power supply, faulty wire thats shorting in the case, faulty power cable
    if it doesnt happen immediately then there really isnt an easy way to find it
    Would I be able to find a short by hooking up both the 24 and 8 pin motherboard connectors to a power supply tester? I have the tester already and I would think if there's a short somewhere the voltages would show up as wrong, or is that not the case? Is there any way to detect a faulty wire/power cable before it destroys something?

    Quote Originally Posted by SamanosukeShiva View Post
    or you could've mounted the mounting screw in the wrong hole
    This is a possibility. Last time I installed it I was so frustrated that it's entirely possible I missed something like this. I took it to a PC repair shop near by this time and had them install the new motherboard for me. Motherboards are a pain in the ass to install, and they did it for like 20$. Maybe I'll go by Friday and ask them if I messed up the mounting screws last time.

  7. #7
    E. Body
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    what board do you have?

  8. #8
    Bockage
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    Quote Originally Posted by fishstix View Post
    what board do you have?
    Right now? I have an EVGA 780i. The one that just went out was a 790i FTW, and the one before that was a 680i.

  9. #9
    Bockage
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    So I went in today and talked to the people who I had install the motherboard this time. Turns out I did miss a standoff but they don't remember where it was anymore. Maybe I did cause both of them to burn out

    Anyhow, I was still wondering about what Sonomaa said. How I could check for a faulty wire or a short? I want to be absolutely sure this doesn't happen again.

  10. #10

    I've never heard of a motherboard burning out from the case MISSING a stand off...it just doesn't make sense.

    Do you have the fan running on the north bridge?? I decided to not go with evga because the chips just simply get too hot and the fan is pretty much a must.

  11. #11
    LazyShell
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    Could just be a bad/low quality power supply, what brand/model you using? I'm not sure how to test yours for faults, but I used to always get cheapo power supplies based solely on the wattage and they would always cause problems. Saving money on the power supply and spending it on the rest of the parts is just a bad idea in general. I went through like 3 in 1 year (thankfully without damaging any other parts) before I did a little research before picking a reliable one that would more aptly meet my uses.

    Also as Avanarius said, some mobo's desperately need a fan on the NB, particularly if you are overclocking. On my gigabyte board I just strapped a cheap little 40mm to it with some clever ziptie use and it brought down temps significantly which can always be a factor in longevity/reliability.

    Don't know if either of those are the case for you, just going with two of the problems I've faced that seem plausible.

  12. #12
    Bockage
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    Quote Originally Posted by Avanarius View Post
    I've never heard of a motherboard burning out from the case MISSING a stand off...it just doesn't make sense.

    Do you have the fan running on the north bridge?? I decided to not go with evga because the chips just simply get too hot and the fan is pretty much a must.
    I meant to say they told me I installed one of the standoffs incorrectly. So it's possible that was the cause of my problems.

    Quote Originally Posted by geno View Post
    Also as Avanarius said, some mobo's desperately need a fan on the NB, particularly if you are overclocking. On my gigabyte board I just strapped a cheap little 40mm to it with some clever ziptie use and it brought down temps significantly which can always be a factor in longevity/reliability.

    Don't know if either of those are the case for you, just going with two of the problems I've faced that seem plausible.
    As for the Northbridge cooler, this 780i comes with a heatsink only. The 790i I was using before had both the heatsink and a small fan on it. EVGA motherboards are usually built for overclockers, but I'm running everything at default speeds. Also according to CPUID my motherboard is currently running at 36C, which is fine.

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