GA-EP43-S3L fried after 30 min of prime95?

[Rascal1]

Tried running prime95 to test the stability of my recently overclocked q6600 at 3510mhz (vid 1.47500v). It reached 79°C max according to core temp. At some point after about 30 minutes it blacked out and I wasn't able to power it up again.

There was no burning smell afterwards, no blown capacitors, no burn marks around the cpu area nor the entire board for that matter.
When powering up it doesn't show any signs of life, no post, no fans, the only thing it does is blink the 4 leds for a split second after which nothing happens.

I've tried disassembling everything and clearing the cmos for almost 2 hrs but it didn't help either. By all accounts it appears to be dead, though I might be wrong. Has anybody else had any similar experience?

 

[VirtualLarry]

That particular mobo was not one of their "overclocking" boards, that was a "lite" board, probably with lesser VRM phases. You probably simply burned them out. Time to look for a new board.

 

[Rascal1]

Alright, is the ep45 any better? I'm looking for something in the similar price range because investing more than 70$ seems pointless considering how old the whole rig is.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Has anybody else had any similar experience?

Remove the P4 power connector and try powering it up? Any difference?

Mostly likely the CPU power delivery has been badly damaged. Not a quick fix by any means.

 

[Rascal1]

That explains everything lol. I tried soldering it, but to no avail.

Edit: Forgot to add that it does power up without the P4 connector.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Well, you could start with replacing the bad mosfets and see what else is damaged. That's quite a bit of work, to be honest.

What did you try soldering, by the way?

 

[Rascal1]

I tried soldering that wire in the pic, which is located directly underneath the cpu (it was pointing upwards when I first saw it lol).

Either way, it seems like too much work. I'd be better off selling it for half the price and buying a new motherboard.
Currently my options are Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3L for $77, EP43-DS3L/UD3L for $70, Asus P5QL PRO for $68 or the same one I have right now (EP43-S3L) for $67.

My guess is that the EP45-UD3L is the best bang for the buck, though I might be wrong.

 

[Magic Carpet]

I tried soldering that wire in the pic, which is located directly underneath the cpu (it was pointing upwards when I first saw it lol).

Either way, it seems like too much work.

You will need spares, good soldering skills and time. Not worth it, if you haven't got all three


I would just use this as the opportunity for an upgrade. If you have the budget to also buy a new processor and RAM, by all means, go for it. Unless you are, of course, personally attached to your stuff ;-)

I like this board personally. Extremely good value for money, imo.

EDIT: Unless you also must use Windows XP. Windows XP is not fully supported past the Ivy Bridge (1155 socket) series. It works but you will miss out on useful power features, etc.

 

[Rascal1]

I thought I could use the opportunity to upgrade to 1155 or 1366. But it turns out that 1155 quads are still way out of my price range, and the same goes for 1366 motherboards. Therefore I'm better off with 775 for now.

 

[Magic Carpet]

I see, it's up to you then. Good luck with assembling everything back together. That gigabyte board is fine, but I don't know how it overclocks, so you might as well google for it. I know that when I was trying to find decent, new 775 boards with good OC capabiltities, I couldn't, so I switched to 1155, even though, I had to pay more