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Ahha! I found the problem!! Now what?

T

Transition

Banned
In response to this thread....

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=27&threadid=583368

I took out the mobo from the case and layed it on some foam then connected everything.. WTF it all worked. Apparently there must have been a short or something drawing power like the brass stand-off's. So, it all works now but my question is what should i use for standoff's? I thought that the brass stand-off's supplied with the Antec SX1240 case would be sufficient and wouldn't cause it to short itself out, apparently i was wrong. Do i need to get some plastic spacers/standoff's for the mobo? BTW, i used all available holes on the motherboard for mounting to the case (ECS K7S5A) - is that the problem? Or is there some special screws i should be using? Any help is highly appreciated!

Oh and the last thing is i booted and noticed BIOS said my CPU was 1050mhz - what's up with that? I got a 1.4ghz T-Bird.
 
In addition to the plastic standoffs, you will need at least two brass standoffs (to keep the mobo from moving, 3 is better) with the appropriate paper washers. You do not need to fill in all mobo holes with standoffs you need them only at least on all four corners of the mobo and then no the sections where you will exert force when you insert components like the PCI slots and the ram slots. The brass standoffs are required on holes that have silver lining around them. This is to make sure the mobo is grounded to the case. The paper washer is placed on top of the brass standoffs. I use glue to hold them in place. This is to prevent from scratching the underside of the mobo during installation. Use metal screws without any washers to bolt in the mobo which also grounds it to the case.
 
ok. can anyone finalize how those red felt washers should be installed!?!?!?!? i posted that question a month ago and got a totally different answer. which is which!?!? 😕 😕 😕
 


<< In addition to the plastic standoffs, you will need at least two brass standoffs (to keep the mobo from moving, 3 is better) with the appropriate paper washers. You do not need to fill in all mobo holes with standoffs you need them only at least on all four corners of the mobo and then no the sections where you will exert force when you insert components like the PCI slots and the ram slots. The brass standoffs are required on holes that have silver lining around them. This is to make sure the mobo is grounded to the case. The paper washer is placed on top of the brass standoffs. I use glue to hold them in place. This is to prevent from scratching the underside of the mobo during installation. Use metal screws without any washers to bolt in the mobo which also grounds it to the case. >>



Where do i get these red washers at? And since all of my holes on my mobo have silver lining around them that means i have to use all of the holes huh.. So, place a "red washer" underneath the mobo on top of the standoff and use the regular screws with no washers on the top (meaning i'll have the metal screw contacting the silver ring). I just want to make sure this is what your saying...

I appreciate the help!
 
There's got to be holes without silver lining on them. But if they all have silver lining on them, the holes on the case where they align, I doubt all have threaded holes on them. Brass standoffs are used only where they will thread in on the case holes aligning with the holes on the mobo. The red paper washers were designed to be placed between the mobo and the top of the brass standoffs. I know most will tell you that they go between the screw head and the mobo. In fact, you do not even need the washer if you place it between the screw head and the mobo. Because, the screw head is about the same size as the silver lining on the hole! But they will serve a purpose if placed on top of the brass standoffs prior to laying the mobo. This will prevent scratching the underside of the modo.
 


<< There's got to be holes without silver lining on them. But if they all have silver lining on them, the holes on the case where they align, I doubt all have threaded holes on them. Brass standoffs are used only where they will thread in on the case holes aligning with the holes on the mobo. The red paper washers were designed to be placed between the mobo and the top of the brass standoffs. I know most will tell you that they go between the screw head and the mobo. In fact, you do not even need the washer if you place it between the screw head and the mobo. Because, the screw head is about the same size as the silver lining on the hole! But they will serve a purpose if placed on top of the brass standoffs prior to laying the mobo. This will prevent scratching the underside of the modo. >>



ALL of the holes on the mobo align up with the holes in the case (hence i used all 12-13 brass standoff's which does indeed cover every hole in the mobo). So, once again i'll ask you where do i find these "Red washers". And i only need to place them between the mobo & standoff's? People told me i didn't need washers at all and it caused huge problems with the mobo grounding out. So, what's the real answer here?

 
You can buy a "computer screw kit" or "Stand off kit" which contains plastic standoffs, brass standoffs, paper washers and also veriety of screws used for HDD, CD-Rom mountings, mobo mounting, slot cards, etc. . .
 
I have built multitudes of computers and have never used insulating washers. I have never seen a motherboard that the area around the mounting holes was not connected to "power Ground". Undoubtably someone can state some obscure exception but the odds are that your trouble is the result of some other condition. Check out your motherboard with a multimeter and you will find that all that happens when you use metal standoffs is to connect the ground side of the motherboard to the chassis in more that one place. About the only negative effect this could present is the formation of very minor ground loops. Besides all that, the mounting holes generally are plated through so to be fully effective with your insulating washer you must also use some kind of insulating sleeve around the screws themselves. In my humble opinion you would be stomping on piss ants while elephants are running up and down the halls.
 
You can skip the paper washer if you do not have them. Mobo are always grounded. Now! do not confuse grounding with shorted to ground! Shorted to ground means "powered" or live wires are "shorting" to ground. Meaning power carrying wires or trace bypassed it's original circuit path through ground. English use the term "Earthed" but we US use the term "grounded". Technically, the mobo connector already provides ground for the mobo. If you use plastic standoffs on all holes on the mobo, and the mobo is not touching any part of the case, you should be good to go. If it doesn't work, then maybe you need to use brass standoffs. If the mobo worked outside of the case, you should be good to go with all plastic standoffs. On some cases though, the raised part of the case where the mobo lays sometimes touches the mobo. To alleviate this, use a sheet of paper underneath the mobo or better yet a thin card board or sheet of plastic. Goodluck.
 
Mother boards are designed to be grounded thru the metal stand-offs. That is why the screw holes on mother boards have a solder ring around them. I am willing to bet, your problem is either your power supply, that one of the power leads is shorting out somewhere inside of it, or you have a defective motherboard with one of the trace lines shorting out with the ground trace lines. Either way, if you don't find the actual problem and just hide it temporarily using washers and such, it will come back to haunt you. Most computers need to be grounded properly, or they will have odd behavior.


Daniel
 
Make sure all of the case stand offs line up with holes in you Mobo. DO NOT have any "extras". As long as they line up with the holes metal stand offs are fine. The the metal rings around the mobo holes are ground so should be contacting the case. Stand offs which do not line up with holes should be removed.

Edit:
As was stated above you need only enough stand offs to support the board. 4 -5 is more then enough. Take out all stand offs execpt those necessary for support. Be certian that they line up with mobo holes.
 
It goes like this


Screw head
Cardboard Washer
Mobo
STandoff
Case bottom/backplate

The washer goes between the screw head and the case to prevent shorting out on a trace by accident. Whoever glues them to the metal standoffs is not only wasting a lot of his time - he is wrong and could potentially damage his computer.
 
It says 1050 b/c the multiplier went back to defaults. Get into the bios and change the cpu setting back to 1400 mhz/133fsb.
 
The red washers, plastic standoffs, metal standoffs should come with the case. I have a ECS K7S5A and ALL of the holes are meant to be used with metal standoffs except for the 4 holes around the socket as they are used for heatsink mounting.
 
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