Second Motherboard failure in 10 months, Start from Scratch? Replace power supply?

[DoesNotCompute]

For the second time in 10 months the Gigabyte X570 AORUS PRO WIFI motherboard in this system has failed. Quiet pop, burnt component smell and no boot. Last time, just installed new motherboard and it was up an running, no issues. I'm making a warrantee claim on it, but I've ordered an Asus TUF Gaming X570 Pro while I wait for the replacement. My question is should I replace the power supply out of an abundance of caution? The current power supply is a Corsair 850 Gold, but I am worried that there may be an intermittent fault in it.

​

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

I think I would, it's probably got tarnished connectors on the 24pin causing ground or negative return issues.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
I returned an rm850 seemed like an empty box compared to a evga 850P2 there is also super flower 850 worth looking at.

Gigabyte has never been on my radar.

 

[Solaris17]

For the second time in 10 months the Gigabyte X570 AORUS PRO WIFI motherboard in this system has failed. Quiet pop, burnt component smell and no boot. Last time, just installed new motherboard and it was up an running, no issues. I'm making a warrantee claim on it, but I've ordered an Asus TUF Gaming X570 Pro while I wait for the replacement. My question is should I replace the power supply out of an abundance of caution? The current power supply is a Corsair 850 Gold, but I am worried that there may be an intermittent fault in it.

​

How long have you had it?

Honestly, I would probably replace the case and check all my connections first. Depending on how long you have had the PSU, I might even do both.

Make sure you are assembling it correctly as well. I don't just mean things in the right spot. I used to see clients come in all the time with custom rigs missing mount screws for the motherboard, or using the wrong ones with the incorrect thread pitch and they would stop a millimeter or so before the board and it would just kind of "float".

Make sure you don't have stray risers behind the board, make sure your mounting or backplate for your cooler etc has the proper tape on it to prevent arcing.

Things might look and work ok, but might cause problems under higher voltage/amperage load. If it looks iffy, it gets corrected or replaced.

 

[Bill_Bright]

This could just be a coincidence but there are some things you should check.

First, verify your wall outlet is wired correctly. Note that every home and every computer user should have access to a AC Outlet Tester to ensure the wall outlet is properly wired and grounded to Earth ground. I recommend one with a GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupt) indicator as it can be used to test bathroom and kitchen outlets (outlets near water) too. These testers can be found for your type and voltage outlet, foreign or domestic, (like this one for the UK) at most home improvement stores, or even the electrical department at Wal-Mart. Use it to test all the outlets in the home and if a fault is shown, have it fixed by a qualified electrician.

If me, I would probably swap in a different PSU too - just because I personally am a bit anal when it comes to ensuring good, clean stable power. And to that, surge and spike protectors are little more than fancy and expensive extension cords. So I recommend all computers be supported by a "good" UPS with AVR (automatic voltage regulation). Understand it is the AVR that matters most. Battery backup during a full outage is just a minor bonus feature.

I don't see a need to replace the case, but you sure should verify there are no foreign objects or extra standoffs under the motherboard. This will be especially true when you swap out motherboards again with a different brand and model. Note that cases are designed to support 1000s of different motherboards. So, it is common for cases to have more motherboard mounting points than boards have mounting holes. And while the ATX Form Factor standard dictates where motherboard mounting holes “can” be on motherboards, it does not dictate where they “will” be. So, one board may have a mounting hole in a specific place while another may not.

A common mistake by the less experienced and distracted pros alike is to insert one or more extra standoff in the case under the motherboard. Any extra standoff creates the potential for an electrical “short” in one or more circuits. The results range from "nothing" (everything works perfectly) to odd "intermittent” problems to "nothing" (as in nothing works at all ). So, you might want to verify you only inserted a standoff where there is a corresponding motherboard mounting hole. I believe this is what Solaris17 means by risers.

 

[HenrySomeone]

There are no crappy Corsair 850W gold rated units, so i doubt that's the reason, unless it's a really old one and has led a long, hard life...

 

[Bill_Bright]

There are no crappy Corsair 850W gold rated units

How a PSU is rated is really immaterial. Until Man can create perfection 100% of the time, even the best makers of the best models will occasionally have a unit that fails to meet specs, or fails prematurely. And of course, no PSU immune from damage from an excessive surge or spike, or an angry Mother Nature.

Since everything inside the computer case depends on good, clean stable power, it is important to verify that is what you are providing, especially before spending money on anything else.

 

[ruggb]

Without some kind of failure analysis, anything you do is a shot in the dark. It is like replacing your alternator in your car because it won't start. That can get very costly. A simple component failure on the MB might cause a flameout. An intermittent failure in the CPU or other IC. MOSFETs, capacitors, etc. If you knew what burned and in what circuit, that might help. Now if something burns on your Asus, that might eliminate the Gbyte MB as the problem.

 

[DoesNotCompute]

I think I would, it's probably got tarnished connectors on the 24pin causing ground or negative return issues.

I have a power supply tester, so I'll check that out, but all cables I used came with the PSU.
Thanks

Without some kind of failure analysis, anything you do is a shot in the dark. It is like replacing your alternator in your car because it won't start. That can get very costly. A simple component failure on the MB might cause a flameout. An intermittent failure in the CPU or other IC. MOSFETs, capacitors, etc. If you knew what burned and in what circuit, that might help. Now if something burns on your Asus, that might eliminate the Gbyte MB as the problem.

I get my hands on it on the 15th (my son's system) and I have ordered MB + PSU + CPU. I will test his PSU to see if it has issues, but I'm not confident an intermittent glitch will reveal itself. I have heard there are reliability issues with that board, so I am hoping that is the issue. The fact that the failure intervals have been about 6 months is troubling. Immediate failure I can handle. He's running power through a UPS and there was no storm activity, so wall power isn't the issue.

There are no crappy Corsair 850W gold rated units, so i doubt that's the reason, unless it's a really old one and has led a long, hard life...

Brand new build, New PSU. As of now the PSU has about 10-12 months of use.

 

[HenrySomeone]

How a PSU is rated is really immaterial.

It's not of the highest importance, but it's not immaterial. I've actually never come across a gold 750W or better PSU that would be really bad; they were all at least decent (the most that could be said about some was them being overpriced). But in this case it goes beyond that - he specifically mentioned a Corsair 850W gold unit and there isn't a single dodgy or questionable one that fits this description (I'm quite familiar with Corsair PSUs) and now knowing it is actually under a year old, I'm even more certain the issue is somewhere else. Yes, there could still be something wrong with it, but it's far less likely than most of the other comments here make it seem. I will ask a different thing here, that hasn't been addressed yet - which cpu was in use and if OCed, at what settings?

 

[DoesNotCompute]

This could just be a coincidence but there are some things you should check.

First, verify your wall outlet is wired correctly. Note that every home and every computer user should have access to a AC Outlet Tester to ensure the wall outlet is properly wired and grounded to Earth ground. I recommend one with a GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupt) indicator as it can be used to test bathroom and kitchen outlets (outlets near water) too. These testers can be found for your type and voltage outlet, foreign or domestic, (like this one for the UK) at most home improvement stores, or even the electrical department at Wal-Mart. Use it to test all the outlets in the home and if a fault is shown, have it fixed by a qualified electrician.

If me, I would probably swap in a different PSU too - just because I personally am a bit anal when it comes to ensuring good, clean stable power. And to that, surge and spike protectors are little more than fancy and expensive extension cords. So I recommend all computers be supported by a "good" UPS with AVR (automatic voltage regulation). Understand it is the AVR that matters most. Battery backup during a full outage is just a minor bonus feature.

I don't see a need to replace the case, but you sure should verify there are no foreign objects or extra standoffs under the motherboard. This will be especially true when you swap out motherboards again with a different brand and model. Note that cases are designed to support 1000s of different motherboards. So, it is common for cases to have more motherboard mounting points than boards have mounting holes. And while the ATX Form Factor standard dictates where motherboard mounting holes “can” be on motherboards, it does not dictate where they “will” be. So, one board may have a mounting hole in a specific place while another may not.

A common mistake by the less experienced and distracted pros alike is to insert one or more extra standoff in the case under the motherboard. Any extra standoff creates the potential for an electrical “short” in one or more circuits. The results range from "nothing" (everything works perfectly) to odd "intermittent” problems to "nothing" (as in nothing works at all ). So, you might want to verify you only inserted a standoff where there is a corresponding motherboard mounting hole. I believe this is what Solaris17 means by risers.

The system is plugged into a UPS. I guess it's possible that the UPS could have something to do with it, but he has no issues with other devices plugged into the UPS.
The standoffs are kind of my thing. I have built 3 systems in the last 12 months, so I make a point of checking them, but I would think that the failure would be on first startup, not 5-6 months later.
Since the pandemic is an issue, I will probably do the following:
1. Total disassembly of the system.
2. Test the power supply. Keep it as a spare just in case.
3. Check the case for extra standoffs.
4. Check the case for shipping damage. It was damaged when I initially shipped it to him. F* UPS.
5. Using the MB box as a test stand, test the system as I install components.
6. Install CPU, Thermal Compound and Memory.
7. Attach new PSU to MB and power on, reviewing POST codes.
8. Download the latest BIOS and drivers for the MB and install it on a USB flash drive from my personal system. (New Ryzen chip). Latest GPU drivers too.
9. Install the GPU making sure the RTX 2070 Super is using different power leads from the PSU for the power connectors.
10. Hook up monitor, keyboard, mouse and power on.
11. Flash the new BIOS.
12. Boot to BIOS screen and verify setting.
13. Shut down and install M2 drive and boot into BIOS to verify drive is recognized and operational.
14. Install 2nd drive (SATA SSD) Boot and verify in BIOS.
15. Install 3rd drive (SATA HDD) Boot and verify in BIOS.
16. Now, the M2 drive has his old install of Win 10 and Office Pro. Should I try booting into Windows and run recovery, or blow that all away and reformat the M2 and do a clean install of Win 10 and Office Pro? He works from home now and has kids, so there is a lot of stuff on the system.

Hi,
I returned an rm850 seemed like an empty box compared to a evga 850P2 there is also super flower 850 worth looking at.

Gigabyte has never been on my radar.

Yeah, this box has an EVGA 850 in it, but when I put this one together, there was a shortage of PSUs and the Corsair was all that was available. TomsHardware rated it as one of the best units at the time.

 

[Ruru]

There are no crappy Corsair 850W gold rated units, so i doubt that's the reason, unless it's a really old one and has led a long, hard life...

I'll disagree.

Corsair RM850 Power Supply Review: A Solid Value

The Corsair RM850 power supply is a more affordable version of the highly successful RM850x, featuring good performance and silent operation.

www.tomshardware.com

Tier F Elite caps on the secondary side.

 

[DoesNotCompute]

How long have you had it?

Honestly, I would probably replace the case and check all my connections first. Depending on how long you have had the PSU, I might even do both.

Make sure you are assembling it correctly as well. I don't just mean things in the right spot. I used to see clients come in all the time with custom rigs missing mount screws for the motherboard, or using the wrong ones with the incorrect thread pitch and they would stop a millimeter or so before the board and it would just kind of "float".

Make sure you don't have stray risers behind the board, make sure your mounting or backplate for your cooler etc has the proper tape on it to prevent arcing.

Things might look and work ok, but might cause problems under higher voltage/amperage load. If it looks iffy, it gets corrected or replaced.

Last MB replacement I talked my son through it. I will be closely reviewing his work, but he had labeled all the connections and had taken pictures of everything prior to removing the bad MB. He compared before and after shots to make certain everything matched up.

 

[freeagent]

I'll disagree.

Corsair RM850 Power Supply Review: A Solid Value

The Corsair RM850 power supply is a more affordable version of the highly successful RM850x, featuring good performance and silent operation.

www.tomshardware.com

Tier F Elite caps on the secondary side.

I thought the best Corsair units were made by Seasonic?

Asking for a friend

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

Tier F Elite caps on the secondary side.

Those are known to bulge with light use!

 

[Solaris17]

I thought the best Corsair units were made by Seasonic?

Asking for a friend

iirc it depends on the model.

 

[Bill_Bright]

It's not of the highest importance, but it's not immaterial.

It IS immaterial in the context of my comment. You just took out of context the first sentence of my comment, then ignored the rest which was the qualifier.

You said, "There are no crappy Corsair 850W gold rated units". That may be true. But in the context of this thread, that is immaterial.

How a PSU is rated certainly is important when doing your homework and researching parts before you buy. But once you have made the purchase and installed your specific unit in your computer, how [a different specific unit] was rated is now immaterial. And this is because even the most reputable makers of the highest "rated" model can make a bad unit every now and then.

You might get a lemon. Or your unit could be damaged by an excessive power anomaly. Or maybe the box fell out the back of the FedEx truck before it was delivered to your house.

Just because a "test sample" of a PSU model is top rated in a testing lab, that, IN NO WAY, guarantees your specific unit will perform the same way in your computer - upon delivery, or for the life of your computer.

So again, in the context of this thread and the OPs problem, how at test sample of the OP's PSU was rated in a test facility is immaterial here.

 

[HenrySomeone]

I'll disagree.

Corsair RM850 Power Supply Review: A Solid Value

The Corsair RM850 power supply is a more affordable version of the highly successful RM850x, featuring good performance and silent operation.

www.tomshardware.com

Ahh, but of course someone will! Have you actually read the review? The pros and cons at the very least? How exactly does this unit qualify as crappy?

It IS immaterial in the context of my comment. You just took out of context the first sentence of my comment, then ignored the rest which was the qualifier.

You said, "There are no crappy Corsair 850W gold rated units". That may be true. But in the context of this thread, that is immaterial.

Great job preaching against something and then doing it yourself in the same sentence (or at least paragraph), that is taking things out of context. I never stated that the PSU is completely disqualified from (possible) blame, merely that I don't believe it to be the most likely cause and neither does the most useful comment here (by Solaris17).

 

[Ruru]

Ahh, but of course someone will! Have you actually read the review? The pros and cons at the very least? How exactly does this unit qualify as crappy?

Do you willingly get a PSU if you know that it has F-tier caps inside?