Mainboard screwed?

[Fat Tone]

Having problems with my new system (Q6600, MSI P35 Neo2, 2*1GB Corsair Dominator 800MHz, Saphire 512MB HD2600Pro, 500GB HGST SATA2). From the start I've had a hot smell, which lessened when I put a fan in front of the HDD. Usually temps are ~44C for all cores, ~30C for the HDD and ~42 for the GPU. I've replaced the TIM on the GPU with no change. Can't find anything hot to the touch.

Yesterday I installed my MP600 all-in-one. During that I upgraded and rolled back the driver for the network chipset. Otherwise no changes.

This morning I turned on and it kept rebooting before getting to the desktop. Safemode would hang before the desktop. I swapped the gfx card for a 7900GTX I have borrowed for trouble shooting. The smell is still there. Then I did the MSI Live update thing and it wanted to update the BIOS so I did through Windows (I know, I know, but I've done this tons of times before with MSI boards and no problems). It went from 1.1 to 1.3. After a reboot it sticks in the initialisation phase. I've reset CMOS, no effect. According to the diagnostic code (it has a 4-led red/green code on the mobo) it is stuck at Processor initialization.

So its completely dead now, apart from the fans coming on at full whack and the various leds on the board. Any suggestions before I send it back?

[Evildead666]

ANY hot smell is bad, especially when you don't know where its coming from.

If its under guarantee, RMA it...I'm not sure they'll accept a bad BIOS flash tho...
As usual, you can try to take out as many peripherals as possible, hard disks, USB devices, and just leave the bare minimum.

If it still is dead, then really RMA.

Are the voltage regulators cooled by heatsinks ? they would get pretty hot with a quad wouldn't they ?

[Fat Tone]

Ta. After a lot of trial and error I'm starting to think (hope) this is a PSU issue.

I've tried the hdd and dvdrw in another system: no burning smell there.
Tried booting with barest system: got memory detection failure if no ram present, got 'copying bios to ram' failure if any memory inserted.

Then tried swapping PSU: no more hot smell! This is a very simillar spec psu, but doesn't have the 8-pin EPS connector, only 4-pin which I used anyway. After multiple (auto) retries failing at various stages it will eventually boot to the bios. (it seems more successful without the strain of a hdd attached). In there I can see the bios has been updated to 1.3. However every time it does get here it goes to failsafe settings and I have to go into the BIOS again.

I'm thinking I need a little extra oompf from the PSU (these are both 3.3@32/34A, 5@40A and 2*12v@15/16A) so will try to pick one up in the morning.

Or does this sound too hopeful?

[Evildead666]

I suppose its possible.

The Quads need more power in Amps, and it could be a little 'on the limit' with your actual PSU...

Its worth a try

[Fat Tone]

Nothing available locally with enough watts and the right set of connectors. Guess I'll be lugging it all in to work tomorrow and doing more swapsies.

[Fat Tone]

OK, so the hot smell was defo the PSU, but another PSU doesn't solve the problem. I've put the Q6600 in another system and it works just fine there, so it really looks like a fried mobo/bios. I'm gonna see if I can re-flash the bios on one of those rare opportunities I can get in to it, but I don't hold much hope out. RMA looking likely.

[Fat Tone]

So, the answer:

1. Faulty PSU. I'll have another soon.

2. Known/common problem with flashing on this board: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/24...rade-plat-bios

There is hope that I'll be able to recover it, when I have the time and strength.

[knirfie]

I have a heavier system which runs fine with these PSU ratings: +3,3V: 26A, +5V: 28A, +12V1: 20A, +12V2: 20A

Ofcourse it could be that your PSU is faulty, but it should have more then enough power...

[Fat Tone]

I tend to agree. The swapped PSU is only 600W (vs 650) and runs an even heavier system just fine (3HDD, 2*7900GTX).

There's a good PSU on ebay just around the corner from my house that finishes tomorrow night. Hopefully I'll get that and save a few pennies. Its the same as the swapper, a Silverstone Strider 600W ST60F.

[rugger]

T

I'm thinking I need a little extra oompf from the PSU (these are both 3.3@32/34A, 5@40A and 2*12v@15/16A) so will try to pick one up in the morning.

Or does this sound too hopeful?

You are going to need a MUCH more modern PSU.

Athlon 64s/Intel P4s and Core run off the 12V rails, not the 3.3/5V rails. That means that all modern PSUs have switched to providing a LOT of 12V, and not much 3.3/5V.

Even if your current PSUs can supply enough 12V, they may not be able to handle to load distribution.

[The PIT]

Damn lucky you didn't fry the bios flashing through Windows on a dodgy system.

[Fat Tone]

@rugger: I got the Silverstone Strider ST60F for £55. Its got 13A + 18A + 16A + 7A on the 12V rails, so fingers crossed. I hven't had chance to use it yet though.

@TP: That remains to be seen, but I'm hopeful I'll get away with it. I has to be said that apart from the dodgy smell I didn't actually have any other problems at the time of flashing. I was getting a litttle gfx corruption so thought the smell maybe was from that.

[The PIT]

@rugger: I got the Silverstone Strider ST60F for £55. Its got 13A + 18A + 16A + 7A on the 12V rails, so fingers crossed. I hven't had chance to use it yet though.

@TP: That remains to be seen, but I'm hopeful I'll get away with it. I has to be said that apart from the dodgy smell I didn't actually have any other problems at the time of flashing. I was getting a litttle gfx corruption so thought the smell maybe was from that.

I buggered a phone up by using a pc with dodgy memory. Very stupid of me.

[Fat Tone]

New PSU in place, managed a reflash of 1.3, not much joy. Managed a reflash back to 1.1, no joy whatsoever. RMA time