Shorted 16x PCIE slot dodgy repair(story time!)

[Darkcon]

Hiya all
this forum has given me so much help simply by existing, thought I'd throw something up someone might find useful.

edit: because its come to my attention fire is hot
DISCLAIMER: DO NOT TRY ANYTHING YOU SEE ME DO, JUST BECAUSE I HAVEN'T CAUGHT FIRE YET, DOESN'T MEAN YOU WON'T

story time! (check bottom for TLDNR)

So I'm broke as hell, and my computer was last built new when you could comfortably build a high end gaming machine for $1500NZD or under these days high end graphics cards cost that alone here in NZ.
as a stop gap as I am saving to pay off all my debt so I can buy a house, I'm upgrading/keeping alive my grandpa of a machine using faulty parts found cheap off my local equiv of ebay(trademe here).
mainly graphics cards and repairing them, they tend not to last long, they are often well abused before I get em.

My current setup is:
4690k delidded, liquid metaled, resealed, lapped.
Gigabyte Z97-HD3 motherboard
24gb o mixed DDR3
RX 470 4gb G1 Gaming(gigabyte)
only new part in the system, an FSP group 750w PSU

so, long story short, I brought the faulty RX 470 G1 gfx card(for $30) that had been used for mining in a humid shed, was covered in rust.
loaded it up, found it had the wrong and a corrupt bios at the same time, found the right one, flashed it, away it went tho to keep it stable I had to underclock it by 10mhz on both mem and core clock.

This one got me thru lockdown playing warzone, woot!
Then I started to get a ghost monitor issue one idle tuesday, this in itself isn't an issue, as I can set it to disabled, and ignore it, the issue was, it was coming and going serveral times every 10 seconds or so.
freezing the computer as it detected, loaded drivers for it, detected it was gone, unloaded, over and over and over, making the computer unusable.
so, after some hours mucking around and trouble shooting, I cranked up my phone and brought another faulty RX470, this time a sapphire nitro+ mining variant listed as faulty.

While I waited for that to arrive via post I decided to remove the display ports I don't use on this card as they were covered in corrosion and so was the PCB of the RX 470 G1 gaming, so I cleaned the PCB, ripped out the displayports(it has dvi and HDMI and if I ever get a monitor good enough to use displayport, I will upgrade to a better gfx card) cleaned the pcb and reinstalled.

Tested it, still the ghost monitor problem, after doing some reasearch apparently this was a reasonably common problem with this card.

at this point I was pissed off at it, so I set afterburner to stupidly high overclocks(that still remained stable) maxed the power slider, set furmark running in fullscreen and left for an hour to go have dinner with the firm thought in my mind of "screw you card if you're not going to work, burn".

Came back after dinner, found the ghost monitor was now a permanent feature, thats not a problem, set it to disable, and set windows to only display on display 2(the actual monitor) and did some testing, the card was now stable while overclocked! and not longer having the ghost monitor come and go, it was permanently there so thats a win.

High off this unexpected win my RX 470 mining edition had arrived, usually when I get a card, I pull it apart to clean all the fans/fins, check for missing components/messed with components and check for shorts to ground before I put it in my PC, this cards screws looked like they had never been touched(and they hadn't) and in my eagerness to have a backup RX 470 incase my main one played up again, I put it in my computer and tested it.

slight spark sound(so slight I wasn't sure), pc turned on, no display, got into windows(using intergrated gfx), no card showing in windows, or to the amdflash tool.

after some tinkering trying to get it to show and some repeated bootups and shutdowns I shrugged and put my old gfx card back in as I was going to work on the mining one later


as soon as I turned it on, full fan spin on the working card, no display, get into windows, the working one isn't showing up anymore.
Pissed and in a hurry, I had a look at the broken card closer, and spotted this:

http://imgur.com/rS9x77W

Notice the blob of badly done solder all over the most likely blown 10A PCIE fuse
this card is shorted, whoever owned it bypassed the fuse, and it blew my main 16x PCIE slot.

no problem, I have a second 16x on my Z97-hd3 right? WRONG its a 4x with a 16x slot, and its gen2 not gen 3, and it disables all the PCIE1x slots when its active. and it bottlenecks a lonely RX 470.
I put my working RX 470 G1 into the second slot, tested that it did indeed work in that slot, and then also discovered a gfx card in the second slot covers all my SATA ports aswell...

so limited FPS and only 1 hard drive(I had 1 90 degree sata cable that could just barely be squashed under the card)

not ideal.

Alot of swearing and hunting for a new motherboard later, I discovered three things:

Z97 boards aren't sold new anymore
Z97 motherboards are hard to find
Z97 motherboards must have somehow turned into diamonds and gold while I wasn't paying attention because the price of them is 3x what they cost new.

after spending the night learning how to play OSRS on my old laptop of slowness, I got fed up and thought screw it, my Z97 is buggered now, it can't get much worse.

so, I Know the 16x PCIE slot is toast, and the 4x works, so the PCIE lanes aren't dead, so...time for some testing

after doing some probein around with my multimeter, I found the 16x pcie wasn't shorted to ground.
I looked up a PCIE pinout, found the 12v VCC+ pins, and checked them, low and behold, all the other PCIE ports on the board had continuity on the 12v VCC+ pins between each other(both the 12v VCC+ pins on the PCIE slot, and between pins on each slot aswell), but not my main 16x slot.
solution:

http://imgur.com/zSX7HKn

so after checking my 16x 12v VCC+ pins weren't shorted to ground(fairly important)
I figured since the fake arse 16x slot that is actually a 4x slot that also covers the sata ports pissed me off so much in my time of need, I'd pilfer its power rail.

DODGY FIX WITH SOME RANDOM WIRE I FOUND IN THE BOOT OF MY CAR

http://imgur.com/zoaPIGh

Could it have been done better? yes
is there a fuse for the VCC on the mobo for the 16x slot? probably
could I find said fuse? no


TLDNR some idiot bypassed a fuse on a gfx card, some other idiot put a card into his pc without checking first(me), blew the PCIE slots 12v VCC+, repaired it by pilfering from another slot.
and it works, very well indeed.

edit: sorry for the spelling/grammar mistakes, I'm a lazy typist.

 

[Caring1]

DODGY FIX WITH SOME RANDOM WIRE I FOUND IN THE BOOT OF MY CAR

Probably stole it from the brake lights, who needs them right?

 

[Darkcon]

Probably stole it from the brake lights, who needs them right?

Hey! I've got 2 others, one even has a bulb in it

 

[Apocalypsee]

Thats a nice save and fike troubleshooting, at least you dont make it worse.

By the way 4690k also work with Z87 chipset, if you still looking for motherboard. The extras that Z97 have over Z87 is Broadwell support and native M.2/mSATA AFAIK

 

[Darkcon]

Probably stole it from the brake lights, who needs them right?

Hey! I've got 2 others, one even has a bulb in it

Thats a nice save and fike troubleshooting, at least you dont make it worse.

By the way 4690k also work with Z87 chipset, if you still looking for motherboard. The extras that Z97 have over Z87 is Broadwell support and native M.2/mSATA AFAIK

Oh sweet, didn't know that, thought the z97 was the only overclockin board for my cpu
That being said, I did get desperate enough to search every chipset in the wiki on trademe, only 2 boards total, both were 2x what i paid for mine new, then a bunch of "gaming" PC's with boards in them and really crap components

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

This is why you go with AMD .


(someone had to say it, right?)

 

[Darkcon]

This is why you go with AMD .


(someone had to say it, right?)

This PC was built to replace my AMD system, I had a 955 black edition setup, I waited years for them to bring out something competitive that didn't cause instabilities in games, I waited year after year overclocking my 955 to the max, got sick of power sucking poor performance cpu's coming out, and still being way slower than intel, I finally had to cave and go intel....then they brought out ryzen a couple years after that...fml

 

[delshay]

When buying second hand stuff I never, never plug it into my main computer. Always plug it into an old motherboard to check there is no shorts. Never put your main computer at risk with second hand stuff. I have a test motherboard that does all the dirty work. So if it blows up, I don't really care.

You should return the card or make a complaint because that blob of solder is not normal, that is clear cut malicious & deliberate to destroy your motherboard, even thou it is marked as not working. It's there to burn your motherboard intentionally. Whoever put that there knew what they were doing. FULL STOP.

 

[Darkcon]

When buying second hand stuff I never, never plug it into my main computer. Always plug it into an old motherboard to check there is no shorts. Never put your main computer at risk with second hand stuff.

yea, I usually don't either, unless I've tested with meter, but was being extra stupid that day

 

[tabascosauz]

DODGY FIX WITH SOME RANDOM WIRE I FOUND IN THE BOOT OF MY CAR

Could it have been done better? yes
is there a fuse for the VCC on the mobo for the 16x slot? probably
could I find said fuse? no

TLDNR some idiot bypassed a fuse on a gfx card, some other idiot put a card into his pc without checking first(me), blew the PCIE slots 12v VCC+, repaired it by pilfering from another slot.
and it works, very well indeed.

10/10 maybe it's just me @ 2am but I goddamn love your style and would sign up for storytime with you again

I've got an all-stock 4790K and an ITX H97 board (probably been crying out in unheatsinked pain for the last five years) and recently figured I would finally get around to exploring the voltage it actually needs and maybe delid the sucker, only to realize that it's my only SFF platform and I might soon have to rely on it again and take it 5000mi away for the umpteenth time which led me to the same conclusion at which you arrived:

Z97 boards aren't sold new anymore
Z97 motherboards are hard to find
Z97 motherboards must have somehow turned into diamonds and gold while I wasn't paying attention because the price of them is 3x what they cost new.

 

[Assimilator]

Helllooo fire hazard.

 

[Mussels]

This is so bad, i love it

 

[Darkcon]

Helllooo fire hazard.

its only 6.2 amps running thru what is now an unfused 12v rail, with an unfused cable capable of taking 15 amps with half arsed solder joints that if broke would ground on all sorts of handy nearby metal, what could possibly go wrong?
...actually brb adding 7amp fuse holder/fuse and epoxy gluein it all down.

edit: redneck restorations computer version
you want to see true redneck computers, the PC in this picture(Circa 2005-2012 in various different forms, this being its final form), has rust holes from flood damage, that PSU on top is a SECOND PSU because I was a student at the time and far to broke to pay for a decent power supply(after said flood destroyed the original PSU), so one $10 350w generic PSU for the mobo/hard drives, one $10 350w generic psu for the gfx card/CPU connector, and everything is duct tapped together, true fire hazard at its finest.

this computer should get the name ramen noodles, cause thats what it was to the PC world.

http://imgur.com/dNH3UQi

On a serious note:
I did actually glue the wire down when I was finished bench testing, and make sure the solder/wire height was far less than that of the mounting plate and kapton taped it, additionally I used an 80w iron to make sure the joints weren't cold, and I chose to use the 12v source from another PCIE slot instead of say, a molex connector because the worst that can happen is another dead PCIE slot(where as a molex connector can carry enough current to set fire to things easily before the PSU even knows whats going on)

10/10 maybe it's just me @ 2am but I goddamn love your style and would sign up for storytime with you again

That makes me think we should make a big post of everyone sharing the redneck do not try this at home style computer fix/fail stories lol

I've got an all-stock 4790K and an ITX H97 board (probably been crying out in unheatsinked pain for the last five years) and recently figured I would finally get around to exploring the voltage it actually needs and maybe delid the sucker, only to realize that it's my only SFF platform and I might soon have to rely on it again and take it 5000mi away for the umpteenth time which led me to the same conclusion at which you arrived:

I've delidded a 3570k (Hammer and vice method) and this 4690k(Razor method) its fairly scary, tho apparently now days there are tools for it.
my 4690k and Z97 originally came in a gaming machine sold on trademe for $800, it had about $1700 worth of parts in it for the time
downside was the guy who put it together had NFI how to build a PC, but had chosen awesome parts, everything high end(must have had a friend make the parts list), but when I got it home, it was covered it thermal paste(all over the motherboard)
EDIT: when I say covered in thermal paste, I mean it, there is the pea method, the spread method, the diagonal line method, the bigger the glob better the job method, then there is this guy. His method is "if the cpu is floating up off the board from thermal paste, add more with a concrete trowl it hasn't floated away yet".
3 CPU socket pins were broken/bent/missing(also covered in thermal paste), one brass standoff was stuck in the motherboard because a wrong thread screw was put into it, and it looked like he tried to dig it out with a pair of pliers(again, covered in thermal paste)

somehow, after all this, cleaning it all up, delidding, liquid metal TIM(back when it was hard to get, only 1 place sold it), resealing with permatex ultra black RTV, and lapping, the CPU and MOBO still worked.
and has spent the rest of its life heavily stupidly overclocked, its the computer from this post, and is the computer I am typing this reply on, so this motherboard started life hard, and things haven't improved for it one bit.

sadly, the Z77 from the 3570k died in a "I don't want to turn on randomly if I have too much ram or a gfx card plugged in" kind of way(TBH the board has some extreme bend around the CPU now, and its quite possibly due to the 3D gigabyte rocket GT cpu cooler it started life with(full copper, stupidly heavy), and it got demoted to file server.

 

[Assimilator]

Your stories are simultaneously incredibly amusing and incredibly terrifying. It's a rare skill!

 

[Darkcon]

Update: still running well, even recording games with obs

 

[Darkcon]

UPDATE: REPLACE EVERYWHERE I SAID 12V+ WITH 3.3V+, I wasn't paying attention when I made the img, and then wrote everything else while thinking 12v, gets stuck in my head alot, work on alot of car stuff.

if a mod can edit the top post and change all 12v with 3.3v that'd be appreciated

 

[Mussels]

UPDATE: REPLACE EVERYWHERE I SAID 12V+ WITH 3.3V+, I wasn't paying attention when I made the img, and then wrote everything else while thinking 12v, gets stuck in my head alot, work on alot of car stuff.

if a mod can edit the top post and change all 12v with 3.3v that'd be appreciated

hell i'm too lazy for that, you get a copy paste

edit: ah damn not my section so you get nothing

 

[xtreemchaos]

needs must, well done !. i do like a good fix it story it feeds my brain "i know where it is i just carnt find it"

 

[Darkcon]

needs must, well done !. i do like a good fix it story it feeds my brain "i know where it is i just carnt find it"

Well in a month (cause aliexpress) it'll be story time again, got a gtx 1070 a chip and a dream

Will it work?
Will it set fire to my pc?
Will I screw up my first attempt at hot air rework replacing a chip with a $35 rework gun?

Tune into the gfx forum to find out lol

 

[xtreemchaos]

is it coming balled ? because thats half the battle if its new it should be, plenty of flux and a really clean pcb is the key. and if a first you dont suckseed then by a parrot na try again.
.

 

[Darkcon]

is it coming balled ? because thats half the battle if its new it should be, plenty of flux and a really clean pcb is the key. and if a first you dont suckseed then by a parrot na try again.
.

Its a qfn20 package, so 4 pinheads in size no balls luckily all outside edge pins with a big center pad, im goin to spend an arvo practicing on the gfx card in this story that blew my pcie, by giggling manically while i remove all the chips

 

[xtreemchaos]

i was thinking a gpu chip, small SMDs are a walk in the park im sure you will do fine.

 

[Darkcon]

Its a windforce 1070, so its memory power components are all over the board(caps on back, chokes middle of nowhere end o card, buck converter middle right, power control back middle) its such a mess I can't work out where to probe to check the resistance o the ram chips

 

[Darkcon]

Update: i successfully installed the up1666 buck converter, in the process I knocked off 3 sand sized resistors n a cap, gave up n got a 1660 super

 

[MarcusTaz]

Update: i successfully installed the up1666 buck converter, in the process I knocked off 3 sand sized resistors n a cap, gave up n got a 1660 super

@Darkcon I'm wondering if you can help me. My power supply just went bad somehow my 6600 XT shorted out and I suspect it's killed the first PCI-E on my MSI Z77A-GD65 Gamer board. I was just searching the internet and found this post! Anyway it seems a row of chips on the top side of the pcie slot get piping hot in a millisecond and the board shuts off. I suppose the 12 volts is probably dead shorted. Anyway you can help me troubleshoot it? It's out of warranty so MSI doesn't want to hear anything and I don't know of a third-party repair service. I know it's old but this board is important to me. Below you'll find two pictures, these are the chips that get piping hot in an instant, they blistered my finger!