Dead motherboard?

[2blzd]

I don't think any of the remaining motherboard companies have what would be considered good customer service. A person's best bet is to return it to the retailer whenever possible, and hopefully find answers to technical support questions on the various hardware sites out there.

All the motherboard companies that had good end-user support are now out of business. I might be dating myself a little, but at one time when Anandtech did their motherboard reviews, they actually used to pretend to be a customer with an issue and contact the motherboard company to see what kind of support they provided, and then would rate the various companies on how well, or how bad their customer service was.

Now all that is pretty much left are the big four: Asus, Gigabyte, Asrock, and MSI. There are a few other smaller ones as well, but those four probably control 90%+ of the retail motherboard market.

Ha that's great. I've been reading anandtech since inception, I vaguely remember that.

I've put together over a dozen systems in my lifetime, 4 for myself personally, and Ive never had a hardware fail like this. I always considered myself lucky or those who had issues were a small minority. Well I'm on the other side of that fence now, haha..but in my research during the purchase phase and now the troubleshooting phase, I'm seeing an unusual amount of faulty x99 boards.. I don't know if that should make me feel better about my situation or worse..

BTW I appreciate your help and patience with me. Thanks for replying

 

[UsandThem]

Ha that's great. I've been reading anandtech since inception, I vaguely remember that.

I've put together over a dozen systems in my lifetime, 4 for myself personally, and Ive never had a hardware fail like this. I always considered myself lucky or those who had issues were a small minority. Well I'm on the other side of that fence now, haha..but in my research during the purchase phase and now the troubleshooting phase, I'm seeing an unusual amount of faulty x99 boards.. I don't know if that should make me feel better about my situation or worse..

BTW I appreciate your help and patience with me. Thanks for replying

No problem. Most of us have had a build or two go wrong. While I don't have any hands on experience with x99 boards, I have seen many help threads with them. They seem like a lot of them are very finicky boards, especially with RAM. I really thought the manufacturers would have gotten the kinks worked out with their x99 refresh boards, but it still seems like there are some issues.

 

[2blzd]

Yea.. I thought I would have a ram issue based on my research as well. I got 4x8gb of ddr4 3200.. flipped the xmp on first boot and it worked flawlessly on all 4 dimms. I just hope the new board doesn't introduce any new problems that we've read about.

 

[bigboxes]

When I built the rig in my sig, I had issues with a couple sticks of ram and defective ram slots on the mobo. I'm a PC tech so I know how to troubleshoot. Asus was not the best of help, but they did try until we determined that it was a mobo issue. I returned the mobo to Asus for a replacement. Then the good ram would work in any slot, but had a couple that wouldn't and failed memtest. Sent back the bad pair to G.Skill and have been happy ever since. It was still maddening trying to get everything up and running. Usually, things go off without a hitch and when you experience the unusual you just have to be patient.

Sounds like Intel has your back. My file server died recently. After swapping out power supplies and unplugging everything it led me to mobo/cpu. Being an outdated platform I'm just resigned to build a whole new home server. But that's just me. I love doing things just because I can. Didn't want to waste any money on the old build when what I really wanted was a much better platform. I hope it works out for you OP.

 

[2blzd]

New motherboard came and has no cpu installation tool and the wrong backplate... Fml... Can I still install w.o cpu installation tool?

 

[UsandThem]

New motherboard came and has no cpu installation tool and the wrong backplate... Fml... Can I still install w.o cpu installation tool?

Yes. That's just something they give that is extra. I always install my CPUs by hand. Just look at the proper orientation, grip it between two fingers touching two sides (don't touch the bottom), and put it in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1w6UZNeGgXU

 

[2blzd]

OK I installed and this time the motherboard powers up, fan powers up. 00 q code. That mean my cpu dead too? Or does that mean it can't do anything and I need to hook up ssd and vga?

 

[bigboxes]

CPU installation tool...

It's called "fingers" LOL

 

[bigboxes]

OK I install and this time the motherboard powers up, fan powers up. 00 q code. That mean my cpu dead too?

Is the EPS 12V cable (8pin connector) not plugged in? You could also have a bad power supply. If you have tested everything (I did read the rest of the thread) then it would be time to consider the CPU and you've already have the green light from Intel.

 

[2blzd]

I just had the cpu, fan, and one stick of ram plugged in. Had 24pin and 8pin for cpu from psu plugged in. It powered up, fans spun. No red led. The last motherboard wouldn't do this.l and red led. Psu seems fine if everything is powering up now yea?

I'm asking if the 00 is generated because I have nothing else plugged in, vga and hdd

Edit: plugged in vga and hdd. Still 00. Dead cpu. Gg

 

[bigboxes]

Well, 00 would indicate bad CPU if all other possibilities have been exhausted. It happens. RMA and try again.

 

[2blzd]

Is this a bent socket pin? It looks fine from most angles but from top view it just looks slightly off
Far right middle 3-4 pins from the edge

 

[UsandThem]

It looks bent to me in the first picture. I can't tell on the 2nd.

 

[2blzd]

Yea it looks different from a high view when I get up close to inspect, it looks fine. What should I do?

 

[UsandThem]

You can try to bend it back in place. It is not the easiest thing to do since all the pins are so close.

You might want to look at the bottom of your CPU and see if it is damaged, and is causing damage. Maybe you had a bent pin on your first motherboard, and when you were moving cables around, it was enough movement to cause the pins to touch. Just a hypothetical guess of course, just trying to cover all the 'what if's'.

 

[bigboxes]

It's funny. On my old AMD Athlons the pins were on the CPU. Now, the weak link is the pins on the motherboard. Weird. I haven't had a problem with the Intel motherboard socket pins yet. I see the defect in the first pic. Not sure if it's your culprit. You got the motherboard replacement. If you received it in that condition I would report it immediately and send it back for a replacement. You probably need to RMA that processor, but you really don't want any motherboard issues.

 

[2blzd]

Yes thats the replacement motherboard. Missing the q shield io plate and cpu install tool. That pin only looks weird from one angle. Took some more pics

 

[UsandThem]

Yes thats the replacement motherboard. Missing the q shield io plate and cpu install tool. That pin only looks weird from one angle. Took some more pics

It definitely looks bent on the 3rd picture. I zoomed in, and it looks like it would make contact with the one next to it with the CPU installed.

If the board was missing all of those items, did Amazon send you a board from their Warehouse Deals (used) area? Those are the items that people typically forget to put back in the box when they return a motherboard.

I looked at the stock at Amazon, and buying it directly from them it states it usually ships in 1-2 months, although there were several 'fulfilled by Amazon' listings.

 

[2blzd]

It definitely looks bent on the 3rd picture. I zoomed in, and it looks like it would make contact with the one next to it with the CPU installed.

If the board was missing all of those items, did Amazon send you a board from their Warehouse Deals (used) area? Those are the items that people typically forget to put back in the box when they return a motherboard.

I looked at the stock at Amazon, and buying it directly from them it states it usually ships in 1-2 months, although there were several 'fulfilled by Amazon' listings.

Yea I actually bought it from Amazon warehouse because they no longer had any in stock to replace the first one with , and I definitely cannot wait till Oct 10th. So it was my idea to get one from the warehouse because they could 2day ship it for me and they assured me it was brand new, just damaged packaging. I got a 950 pro ssd from the amz warehouse and it was literally brand new, still sealed, just a damaged box, so I trusted him when he said the motherboard was brand new. It came with sealed parts so I thought it was new.

And to whomever asked, no my cpu didn't cause the bent pin, I took these pics and noticed it before installing the cpu. This was right out of the box.


So when the new cpu comes from Intel, do I try it on this board? You're all convinced it's bent?

 

[ReignQuake]

It's bent otherwise it'd be uniform. I'm sure the Amazon guy meant well but failed to spot such a small defect. I wouldn't risk the new CPU. Enough hassle, next time you build you'll want everything to work and the instant stress relief that comes with it.

 

[2blzd]

Sorry for the ignorance but the bent pin can hurt the cpu? I just assumed it wouldn't work or perform worse. It can damage it?

I finally got a good guy on amz customer care supervisor who was a computer guy himself and knew exactly what I was going through. I got some courtesy credits so I could step up to another model. It's not as new, maybe 6 months older. It's just not part of the broadwell-e refresh boards.

I currently have the asus x99-a II. It's a $230 model, the one I'm looking at is the Asus x99 strip a $330 model with wifi.

Thoughts?

 

[UsandThem]

Sorry for the ignorance but the bent pin can hurt the cpu? I just assumed it wouldn't work or perform worse. It can damage it?

I finally got a good guy on amz customer care supervisor who was a computer guy himself and knew exactly what I was going through. I got some courtesy credits so I could step up to another model. It's not as new, maybe 6 months older. It's just not part of the broadwell-e refresh boards.

I currently have the asus x99-a II. It's a $230 model, the one I'm looking at is the Asus x99 strip a $330 model with wifi.

Thoughts?

It can fry the CPU. That's why someone returned it to Amazon, instead of sending to Asus. When there is damage to the socket, the manufacturers make the people pay to replace the socket. Any socket damage is always assumed it was caused by the person, and is not covered under warranty.

 

[2blzd]

Sent the 2nd mobo packing.

Going to go up a model and get the asus x99 strix. $110 more but Amazon is going to make up the difference

 

[UsandThem]

Sent the 2nd mobo packing.

Going to go up a model and get the asus x99 strix. $110 more but Amazon is going to make up the difference

Hopefully the third time's the charm.

 

[2blzd]

Sent the 2nd motherboard with bent pins back this morning. I decided to abandon this model and go with the strix, the next model up. Was $110 more but after much back and forth I got $90 of that covered, so I came out of pocket $20 for it.

Most of my decisions were based on time because everyday I don't have my computer up and running is a day I can't work. The new cpu from Intel is expected to arrive today and the new motherboard had same day shipping so I had to jump on it fast. With the holiday weekend, if I tried anythint else, I'll be looking at Wednesday at the earliest and I cannot be off my computer for another 6 days.


I hope to God I don't have to reinstall everything because the motherboards are identical in spec and layout. Same USB drivers etc, same chipset obviously .. Same pcie configuration, same amount of USB ports, and u.2 and m.2 spec.

The only difference is the audio chipset used, but I don't think that would be an issue...



Thoughts?