Motherboards and my curse...

[pbrad08]

Ok, so over the past year and 1/2 I have gone through 3 motherboard changes, all that hae failed. I am asking here if I am doing something horribly wrong that vexes all my attempts at updating my pc.

This past month, specifically, I went through 2 motherboards. One being an ECS P45T-A and the other being an XFX 750i SLI. Apon recieveing the motherboards from Newegg, Tigerdirect, etc.:

The ECS board did not work (or it seemed not to) right out of the box. The board refused to post, even after: 1) Having only 1 RAM DIMM active and 2) clearing the CMOS. I finally narrowed it down to (I suspect) a power-routing issue with the CPU 4-pin connector. So, alas, no post, I could not figure what was wrong with the board.

On to the XFX...I got this board to POST, after some fidgiting. Apperently, the ECS board I previsouly bought toasted a RAM stick of mine, and the XFX board did NOT like that I was placing it in a DIMM, so it would not POST initially. After some working I found out the bad stick of RAM, removed it, and the board posted and operated fine....for 24 hours.

Here is where my curse (it seems) to start. My VERY first problem with motherboards came when i got a new case and cpu cooling unit. Alas, I trasfered all the innards of my pc to this new case while installing the new cooling unit, which was a watercooling unit. Well, that went horibly wrong. The WCU completely wasted that motherboard, along with the CPU (Q6600). I was so perplexed at when the PC would just power-cycle loop after loop that I called a PC guy (I'm fairly knowledgable in PC-building). He determined that the board shorted and took the CPU with it (just as I suspected). Total cost to get it functioning agian: $480 (ouch!).

So that is where it all started. I fried a motherboard and CPU by placing (drumroll...) a new cooling unit with a BACKPLATE on the motherboard. This has failed on me 3-times now; My first attempt, the ECS board, and then the XFX board.

The xfx board lasted, like I said, 25 hours. Untill I was listening to music and the PC shut off, never to turn on agian. Luckily I still had my trusty old build on standby. Disassembled the new build and placed everything back on this motherboard, and it worked. So I determined that I am NOT destined to EVER have a cpu cooler with ANY sort of backplate to it. The CPU cooler that I used for the ECS and XFX build was a ZALMAN FS-C77, which has a plastic backplate that gets placed on the back of the motherbaord.

I've built PC's for 2 of my friends, both with only the stock intel cooler that comes with new CPUs (push-pin design ) and have had no problmes with those builds at all.

To sum this wall-of-text up: Does using a CPU cooler with a backplate DRASTICALLY increase the chance of mobo. failure? All the push-pin CPU coolers I have used for builds have caused no problems at all. Am I safe to assume backplates suck?

[thephilosophizer]

What I do know is that thousands of cooler back plates get installed all the time. I just did my first actually on my new i7 build. All I can say is try to be a bit more careful, and maybe you don't need a liquid cooling system?

[Aaron_8015]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pbrad08

To sum this wall-of-text up: Does using a CPU cooler with a backplate DRASTICALLY increase the chance of mobo. failure? All the push-pin CPU coolers I have used for builds have caused no problems at all. Am I safe to assume backplates suck?

I think you have been having a case of bad luck... (well tbh I dont know what you where expecting picking up an ECS board). Never heard of any backplate problems other than shorting the mobo (yours is plastic so we can rule that out) or it being screwed on too tight causing the board to warp (although this normaly does not cause any problems).

I would RMA that XFX board and try the replacement and try that when you get it back.....

[pbrad08]

I did RMA the XFX board (already got my $ back) I have since then have pretty much given-up on building PC's, it seems when I try to update them for myself something goes horribly wrong. But when I build them for other people they work fantastic.

I was thinking about ordering another of my old DP965LT Intel boards (I call it ol' faithful caus it has saved my ass both times the ECS and XFX boards failed) and putting that in my new case with a ArcticFreezer 7 pro (pin-model) and hoping to god it operates succesfully.

However, I really have just lost the motivation for myself with motherboards...I dont understand why they will work for everyone else (even when I build them for others) except for me.

[Aaron_8015]

You should just pick up a gigabyte P45 board.... afraid XFX is fairly new (compared to the others) in the motherboard manufacturing scene so I have no idea on how reliable their boards are....

[RicheemxX]

I hate to say it but user errors, user errors and more user errors cause more problems than actually receiving bad components.

What are the specs of this build, including PSU's and bad ,mobo's aside?

PS XFX makes pretty damn good boards, ECS on the other hand

[pbrad08]

The build was going to be as follows:

-Windows 7 Pro 32-bit
-XFX 750i SLI Extreme edition -or- ECS Black P45T-A
-620W AeroCool "ZeroDBA" PSU (SLI and Cross-fire supported)
-Intel Q6600 Kentsfield (Revision B3) 65nm
-ZALMAN FS-C77 cpu cooler
-4GB DDR2 800Mhz 5-5-5-15 RAM (1.8v?) (now 3GB cause the ECS board toasted a stick)
-EVGA 8800GT Superclocked 512mb
-Creative X-fi XtremeAudio
-DLink wireless G PCI network card

Case: Enermax STARAY

Like I said, the XFX build ran fine for 24 hours, then crapped out in the middle of a song.

[pbrad08]

I take VERY good care handeling motherboards, being careful not to cause ESD. Now, on the other hand, when me and my one friend was building his new build (same XFX board) he man-handled the crap out of that board, and it still runs to this day....

[Aaron_8015]

Well first mistake would be that PSU.... (since when did areo cool make PSU's) A 620W unit and it only has 30A on +12v.... I would guesss that it is a fairly cheap unit.

I would change that before I do anything else....

[pbrad08]

Really? It got some pretty good reviews and was $116.99 when I bought it.