Everything is HOT!

[TransformedBG]

So no really, i have a Crosshair III mobo with a phenom II 965 140w edition 16 gigs of ram 5 2tb HDs in raid 5 in an 5 bay in closure a 1tb wd green a 500mb wd green just for extra storage. 600w bronze evga PSU not over clocked or anything. Last night my fans all shot up to high and my computer crashed. I could just feel the heat radiating from the system. the ram stickers started to melt off etc.. Its still posting still showing 16 gigs of ram etc. the only thing funny i note is that in the bios looking at power management it shows my ram at 2.7v!!! IM LIKE WTF.... none of the light on my mobo show extreme voltage or anything ive pulled ram and cpu and re seated it, only thing i can think of is maybe i lost a cap or something? I was just getting ready to hook this thing up as just a server for now, its an old gaming computer... so i was like need something to do with it.

Any ideas?

 

[Robert17]

Look at the caps; bulges = bad. Have you re-TIM'd the CPU? I recall my 965BE liked better TIM than the stock goo that came with the HS.

2.7v on the RAM and it still functions, marry it.

 

[TransformedBG]

Look at the caps; bulges = bad. Have you re-TIM'd the CPU? I recall my 965BE liked better TIM than the stock goo that came with the HS.

2.7v on the RAM and it still functions, marry it.

Honestly i dont see any swollen they all look good... Im using Antec forumla 7 on it.

and yeah im surprised its still posting.. they just get hot as hell! I was thinking maybe my psu died but guess im going to yank it all out and see if i see anything else... its just weird. but then again its 8 years old lol

 

[Suppressor1137]

2.7v ?! If its getting hot enough to melt stickers, I'd inspect it in another system if possible and run a memtest on it.

 

[TransformedBG]

Well so far no luck.. I have changed out PSU's just in case one of the 3v or 5v rails went out. Tried to boot with only 1 stick of ram no luck.. Swapped out CPU's to an older Phenom i had. Still no luck.. So its either the Motherboard or the Ram.... I just dont have anything to test the ram in to see if that is the cause.

 

[trents]

For what it's worth, after reading your description of what happened I would not trust any main component of that system to be unharmed by this thermal event. You cannot rule out the PSU as not being the root cause of the issue unless you have tested it with a multimeter or in another known working system. To swap in another known good PSU proves nothing unless the system starts working again when you do. And quite frankly, I would be very reluctant to test any of the components in another running system for fear it would do harm to the running system.

You can test the PSU with a multimeter offline to see if either of the three voltage rails is far off. Straighten out a paper clip and use it as a jumper between any black wire pin and any green wire pin on the main 24 pin connector of the PSU. That will simulate it being plugged into the motherboard. The multimeter will close the circuit when you jump the pins on one of the molex connectors. Each molex has one pin that serves as a ground and each of the others carries one of the standard PSU rail voltages.

 

[TransformedBG]

For what it's worth, after reading your description of what happened I would not trust any main component of that system to be unharmed by this thermal event. You cannot rule out the PSU as not being the root cause of the issue unless you have tested it with a multimeter or in another known working system. To swap in another known good PSU proves nothing unless the system starts working again when you do. And quite frankly, I would be very reluctant to test any of the components in another running system for fear it would do harm to the running system.

You can test the PSU with a multimeter offline to see if either of the three voltage rails is far off. Straighten out a paper clip and use it as a jumper between any black wire pin and any green wire pin on the main 24 pin connector of the PSU. That will simulate it being plugged into the motherboard. The multimeter will close the circuit when you jump the pins on one of the molex connectors. Each molex has one pin that serves as a ground and each of the others carries one of the standard PSU rail voltages.

I used a psu loop back plug to power my psu and checked each pins voltages... Im pretty familiar with doing that...I mean its still posting with all 4 ram slots in, So im assuming either the ram is toast or ive lost a choke or a capacitor on the motherboard. I can not control the power delivery on the bios any more. I can turn it down to 1.5v and its still showing 2.7v. The only other thing i could try would be putting it in a cooler and try flashing the bios to an older version and seeing if my bios was corrupt. But i have no idea what else to try.

 

[trents]

But you said you tried to boot with only one stick of RAM and it didn't boot. But it will boot with both sticks of RAM? Did you try each stick in every RAM slot one at a time? I'm confused here. Maybe some of the RAM works and/or some of the slots but not all.

 

[EarthDog]

If your sticks were actually getting 2.7V, they would be dead already... system fans do not spin up for DRAM temps.

 

[TransformedBG]

If your sticks were actually getting 2.7V, they would be dead already... system fans do not spin up for DRAM temps.

thats what i thought but normally it wouldnt post...


as you can see im still posting... it has to have all 4 sticks of ram though... it will not post with juat 1 or 2 or 3, muat have all 4 sticks. 4x4

 

[EarthDog]

Reset cmos. If that doesnt work, reflash bios.

Is the ram actually hot sitting the bios...? Etc?

 

[Robert17]

Or a bad sensor?

 

[TransformedBG]

Reset cmos. If that doesnt work, reflash bios.

Is the ram actually hot sitting the bios...? Etc?

its cool for about 30 seconds then all my fans spin up. i havw tried resetting cmos bout 12 times...still nothing..

Or a bad sensor?

what sensor would you thing. i may take a stab at repairinf this mobo.

 

[EarthDog]

So... two things i would try....

1. Put you hand on the sticks and see if they get hot before it shuts down.
2. Flash the bios again.

 

[TransformedBG]

So... two things i would try....

1. Put you hand on the sticks and see if they get hot before it shuts down.
2. Flash the bios again.

yes they are hot...

And do you think that would be safe to do with them hot.. i wouldn't want them getting so hot then thermal locking in the middle of a bios flash.

 

[UltraTaco]

Do it quick.
I learned which buttons to push before bios locks up because of ram overclocked and only stable 2-3 seconds before bios locks up. You can basically get into bios, but barely enough time to change to lower speed before it freezes.

Learn correct stroking and repeat until you know it by hand, then go quick! You may have enough time for flash before it melts.

Also stuff some ice packs between ram sticks. It will help

 

[Alaric]

Also stuff some ice packs between ram sticks. It will help

DDR4 4800 here I come!

 

[EarthDog]

yes they are hot...

And do you think that would be safe to do with them hot.. i wouldn't want them getting so hot then thermal locking in the middle of a bios flash.

If they are hot... maybe tbey are getting that voltage... but i wouldnt expect them to last long if they arent dead already.

Can you try other ram in there??

Put a fan blowing directly on them to keep them cool?


Something needs to happen, clearly.

 

[Mr.Scott]

Board is history.
CH III was over rated anyway. There are better boards for that platform for less money.

 

[trents]

Yes, the board at least needs to be discarded. The fact that it won't boot without all RAM installed is tell-tale to me. But have you tried moving the four RAM sticks around in the slots to determine if any of them are bad? Use all four at one time but change them around.

But it might be hard to find a stout replacement board in that generation at a decent price. You have to decide if you want to invest in that old technology. Were you overclocking the 965 CPU?