- Joined
- Oct 11, 2002
- Location
- The Empire State
So a few days ago while I was swapping coolers on my sons rig, I found 2 bulging caps. Tho the board still functioned, it was only a matter of time until one or both caps pop giving up the mobo's ghost. In need of replacement caps to repair the board, Alaric was kind enough to send me an 8pac of 'em (Mad kudos brutha! 
)
So I get the new caps, and commence my repairs. Not the first time I've replaced bulging/leaky caps on boards. Anyhows the entire job took about 20 minutes. Slap on the new Xigmatek HDT-S1283 cooler (courtesy of Stereo555), and proceed to boot up. To my horror the mobo boot display lit up with the dreaded "FF" code of death. Tried every single thing to troubleshoot to no avail. Figured the board gave up the ghost under the cap surgery
Spoke to another member (S_I_N) and he had a replacement mATX combo which he was gonna send.
Today after my errands I decided to have another look at the XFX board and see if I missed something. Unscrew the mounting bracket and remove the sink. Remove CPU, check pins, everything looked normal. Decide to swap the mounting mechanism from screw down to push pin/clips, the same found on the stock coolers. Pop the sink on using the push pins, 1 stick of ram and power. Hit pwr button and the sucker came on! Booted right into the bios. Everything checked perfectly in the bios.
So I go ahead and install everything back in the case and hit pwr button again..Boot cycle...yayyy!! Boots into winders....double yayy!!
Came to realize that the screw down bracket was the culprit. Maybe I cranked it down too tight or something. 
So, moral of the story? Don't be a dunce like me. PC building 101: Check and recheck everything. Sometimes what you least expect or the simplest things like checking the mounting on the sink/water block will result in a dead board that isn't dead.
My son is gonna have a nice rebuilt rig back!
)So I get the new caps, and commence my repairs. Not the first time I've replaced bulging/leaky caps on boards. Anyhows the entire job took about 20 minutes. Slap on the new Xigmatek HDT-S1283 cooler (courtesy of Stereo555), and proceed to boot up. To my horror the mobo boot display lit up with the dreaded "FF" code of death. Tried every single thing to troubleshoot to no avail. Figured the board gave up the ghost under the cap surgery
Spoke to another member (S_I_N) and he had a replacement mATX combo which he was gonna send. Today after my errands I decided to have another look at the XFX board and see if I missed something. Unscrew the mounting bracket and remove the sink. Remove CPU, check pins, everything looked normal. Decide to swap the mounting mechanism from screw down to push pin/clips, the same found on the stock coolers. Pop the sink on using the push pins, 1 stick of ram and power. Hit pwr button and the sucker came on!
Booted right into the bios. Everything checked perfectly in the bios.So I go ahead and install everything back in the case and hit pwr button again..Boot cycle...yayyy!! Boots into winders....double yayy!!
Came to realize that the screw down bracket was the culprit. Maybe I cranked it down too tight or something. So, moral of the story? Don't be a dunce like me. PC building 101: Check and recheck everything. Sometimes what you least expect or the simplest things like checking the mounting on the sink/water block will result in a dead board that isn't dead.
My son is gonna have a nice rebuilt rig back!
