Questions about my dead 880gm-e41

[Herox]

I was OCing and it seems my 12v cpu connector shorted out on the motherboard. This is the second time it happened, but I was wondering a few things. Did I overvolt it and cause the short? The msi guy seems to believe my psu was at fault, but it has no issue on other pcs. The last voltage I used was 1.507 on a Phenom II x4 925 and it was clocked at 3.5ghz. I feel that I probably pushed my voltage too high in hopes to get a stable clock. Is that a more legit way cause the issue? I also know my 12v rail was also showing 11.880v in the bios, but I have never seen it while not OC'd and of course now the mobo is dead. The psu is a Coolermaster extreme 600w. I can RMA it no issue, but I'm looking to buy a different brand now, and probably sell that board to a friend. I'm aiming towards gigabyte/Asus, but I wont have a budget till I get payed tonight.

To summarize:
Did I short it out or is it my psu?
Is the bios 100% correct on the 12v rail or is it possible its running perfectly fine?

 

[RGone]

1. RMA/Replace the power supply.

2. RMA the motherboard and or get another.

3. Ensure that power supply to motherboard connection/s are tight.

4. Anything other than a digital voltmeter such as software in a computer is subject to some error be it big or small. Get a digital voltmeter if you wish to more accurately monitor power supply voltages.

5. 1.5 Vcore on an air-cooled system is more or less asking for trouble with what is generally a less good voltage regulation circuit on the boards with intergrated graphics which in general are not destined to be the primo overclocking platform.

 

[Herox]

psu seems to be just fine. I was told by a few people already that, that dip is probably minimal and won't hurt a thing. ALso I was told its probably mis reading it slightly. As for the mobo, I am aiming twards Gigabyte and asus. I have experience with gigabyte, and the board was great but lacked voltage options. I still was able to increase my cpu 200mhz. I have not personally used this board in 9 months.

cpu is air cooled by a cmh 212+.

 

[RGone]

psu seems to be just fine. = Okay then.

I was told by a few people already that, that dip is probably minimal and won't hurt a thing. = Okay maybe so. Probably within 5% rating.

ALso I was told its probably mis reading it slightly. = Okay maybe possible.

As for the mobo, I am aiming twards Gigabyte and asus. = Good get the brand you prefer.

I have experience with gigabyte, and the board was great but lacked voltage options. = Okay get the brand you have experience with.

I still was able to increase my cpu 200mhz. = Good deal but that little increase in cpu mhz coupled with 1.5Vcore does not sound like much for the high Vcore. But if you were happy, then okay.

I have not personally used this board in 9 months. = Okay if it has been dead that long.

cpu is air cooled by a cmh 212+. = Pretty economical cooler with pretty good cooling for its' price.

 

[RGone]

Phenom II X4 925
C2 2.8 GHz 4x 512 KB 6 MB 2 GHz 14x 0.850 - 1.425 95W
AM3 May 11, 2009 HDX925WFK4DGI

C3 2.8 GHz 4x 512 KB 6 MB 2 GHz 14x 0.9 - 1.400 95W
AM3 November 4, 2009 HDX925WFK4DGM

There are two versions of the Phenom 2 925 as shown above and they both have different min / max voltages.

In checking the MSI website for supported cpus the 925 is there as well other processors with 95W TDP or less since that is the max TDP MSI recommends for that motherboard. However in g00gling that motherboard and overclocking it appears it is not well recommended for overclocking since the VRM circuits are not up to the standard of high current regulation. When you overclock and overstress a 95Watt TDP processor you can exceed that recommended TDP and cause motherboard parts failure.

Best to get a much more performance oriented motherboard before trying to overspeed compents or failures may occur.

 

[Bobnova]

IMO you should RMA both the motherboard and the PSU.
If the 12v CPU power connector ate it, that likely damaged the PSU plug as well.

 

[Herox]

I have decided to just rma and use it again. I'm going to lower my clock to around 3.2 and get it stable. The issue was not a stable cpu really, it was the damn HT. I was getting HT sync flood errors while playing BC2, and everything I saw pointed to my cpu needing more voltage. the NB was already kicked up 2 ticks. Ram voltage was up to 1.6v and thats a lot if you ask me, because the ram I have us 1600mhz, but running it on a 1:3 divider made it 1620mhz. Loosened timings on it were 10-10-10-27 and memtest+ proved it fine over night test, about 6 hours. It was just this damned HT. So I kept using p95 and getting one of my workers stopping, so I kept trying different things. It went 3 hours, I walked away for 20 minutes and it was dead.


I'm positive it was too much voltage on the cpu that caused this. Just bad luck of the draw, and it probably has a bad zone somewhere. A bad zone is how I describe the range the cpu wont work on. Like it wont work from 3.3 to 3.7 IE.

C3 2.8 GHz 4x 512 KB 6 MB 2 GHz 14x 0.9 - 1.400 95W
AM3 November 4, 2009 HDX925WFK4DGM

If I remember right, this is what I have because when I changed it from [auto] voltage it was below 1.425w. Unless that doesn't mean anything?
Any who, thanks for the help.

 

[trents]

My observation is that in recent years MSI quality has fallen behind the other major motherboard manufacturers. Without a doubt we get more reports of failed MSI boards than we do Asus, Gigabyte, ASRock or Biostar.

 

[Herox]

My observation is that in recent years MSI quality has fallen behind the other major motherboard manufacturers. Without a doubt we get more reports of failed MSI boards than we do Asus, Gigabyte, ASRock or Biostar.

asrock and biostar, really? Damn what has happened.