X99 Classified smoked

[GTXJackBauer]

Here's my post from EVGA's forums about my experience with the blown MB.

I am one of the unfortunate ones that had my X99 Classified blew up (lots of sparks and smoke) and took my GTX 480 with it as well and worrying it might have taken my CPU (5930k) and original GPU (780 Classified Hydro Copper) with it. I waited a long time assembling it since I had things coming in to upgrade my existing rig and truly make it a dream rig of mine.

It all started when I couldn't boot to BIOS as I've read for sometime now, other folks had the same issues booting and posting. I was getting a number 67 on the LED bug check and stayed on that number the whole time, which either means "CPU DXE initialization is started" or it was the temp of my CPU all while the lights on the MB, GPU all worked as they should. All the lights and fans worked just fine. Would get the activity light for the first 5 seconds on the "Reset button" on the MB while the Power button stayed on RED. It just stayed in that state while no video signal to my monitors. I decided to take the following steps as others have to move beyond this stage.

(I knew the CPU was seated properly because I doubled checked that prior as no pins were damaged or any signs on the CPU itself.)
1. Clearing CMOS.
2. Switching to each BIOS in case there wasn't one installed and had the USB stick with the updated BIOS file on the ready.
3. Check RAM seating.
4. Took the Ram out except one. Changed to another individual stick in case the stick I was using was bad.
5. Cleared CMOS again, just for added measure.
6. Took my GTX 480 from another build and installed it in my PCI-E slot #2 and disabled Slot 1 via PCI-E dipswitches and took the power out of GPU #1 and installed power to GPU #2.

At that point I felt possibly the 1st GPU was having issues, mind you I've been using all the existing gear in the case for a long time now while obviously excluding the CPU, MB and Ram and was confident enough it would finally start with a minor hiccup not letting me post.

The dreaded outcome was around the corner in seconds. As soon as I powered it on, 5 secs later I hear something and than see a orange glare to the side of rig. I see smoke and sparks and had a split second "omg" moment @ 3:30 a.m. while everyone else is sleeping above me and wondered if this thing was going to start a fire while having nothing to put it out with if I needed. It ran for less than 5 secs from the time I witnessed this to realizing this is not good and I shut it off via PSU. I couldn't believe what just happened and was overwhelmed. I just wanted to get this thing off the ground and enjoy it but unfortunately I ran into a brick wall. Add to insult to injury, my GTX 480 seems to have caught the end of the stick as well. It won't power my other 2nd PC on after doing a few tests. The other teamed up GTX 480 powers up the 2nd PC no problem but the one I used with the x99 doesn't. I am so scared that my CPU (5930k) and RAM (Crucial 2400) might have all gone with it as well. I don't know what to think or what to do at this moment. Buying replacements via funds is out of the question since I used whatever I had to get this rig finalized.

I ran around the web and researched only to find basically an identical incident on the tube with the same MB, only he ran it longer than I did and obviously more than once being the second time recording it. I was in awe and realized I wasn't the only one.



I am not here sharing my story to bash EVGA whatsoever or say that they make bad boards but sharing it as it should be told to others it might have happened too. I have been working with computers for over 15 years and have never had any issues even close to this. I know everything was properly installed and grounded and the PSU works just fine.

I am going to share some pictures to show the extend of the damage and other parts to show it was only concentrated to a certain part of the board.












Before installation (Sorry about the lighting. I had a different setting setup.)



After Incident.



And here's the other victim and might also include a i7 5930k, Crucial 16GB 2400 DDR4 and GTX 780 Hydro Copper.



I hope my issues can get resolved and will keep everyone updated through this process.

I saw about the Asus X99 boards having issues. The issue with legit reviews were with the VRMs on the board. That is a whole other drama story that took months (3+?) to figure out and get replacement parts for legit review, even though they had a few of x99 and CPUs as backup. Nonetheless the 5960x and that board were fried or $1500 worth of parts gone. Knowing that scares me about my CPU, GPU and RAM during this incident.

Edit: Here's the other story that involves a MSI x99 MB.

 

[Witchdoctor]

Have you contacted eVGA ?

I am sure they will make this right

 

[GTXJackBauer]

Have you contacted eVGA ?

I am sure they will make this right

Yes I have. Went through the RMA process and need to ship out the MB and GPU next week and hope the rest of the parts are still ok but nothing is for sure atm.

 

[Witchdoctor]

Hopefully your kit and cpu made it through

Once they have it they may be able to determine if this has or has not effected the CPU and memory

 

[GTXJackBauer]

Hopefully your kit and cpu made it through

Once they have it they may be able to determine if this has or has not effected the CPU and memory

The tech rep I spoke to on the phone said, given the area of the blow out and since it took the GPU in slot 2 with it, its very possible that the CPU got zapped, given the area that this happened. PCI-E Lanes had a bad current or a weak spot and its possible it got channeled to the CPU. Possibly a bad current spiked to it possibly but I won't know till I get the new board and pray that isn't the case. Plus, no LEDs were indicating anything wrong with the CPU which is a good sign. I am hoping the same outcome for the RAM.

This build is dragging. At this rate I probably won't have this six-core x99 running till next year in January.

 

[Witchdoctor]

Well if it did take the CPU will they cover it since their board was defective.

Don't know much about eVGA boards of recent, as the last one I has was the 1366 Classy
\
That was a strong board

 

[GTXJackBauer]

Well if it did take the CPU will they cover it since their board was defective.

Well, they told me to deal with intel in that aspect which was odd to me if say the CPU was fried. I figured they'd possibly take care of it for me as well but I guess we'll have to wait and see.

 

[Hippogriff]

My first Asus X99 killed also the 5960x and it took me one month to have stuff back.

For the CPU, I contacted Intel and after one hour of arguing with customer service, they accepted the RMA request.

 

[iAmCodeMonkey]

Reading stuff like this makes me not want to upgrade...

Hope it all goes well for you in the end.

 

[Theocnoob]

Been reading about A LOT of problems from experienced forum members about X99. Making me hesitant.
I find it odd that EVGA would not cover the cost of ALL parts fried by this ordeal.

Sorry dude and I hope this all works out for you.

It sucks to spend so much money and have your mobo blow out like this.

Merry Christmas and best of luck .

 

[Bishoff]

Gah...scary to see that! Well hopefully they will make it right for you. Looks like it's Z97 for Intel builds...

 

[EarthDog]

**** happens... and that sucks. I hope you get a quick turnaround!!

 

[ihrsetrdr]

Well, they told me to deal with intel in that aspect which was odd to me if say the CPU was fried. I figured they'd possibly take care of it for me as well but I guess we'll have to wait and see.

I'm sorry to say, but I don't find that surprising...what would surprise me is if vega offered to cover any component other than the mb.

 

[RGone]

I can count on my one hand and not use a thumb, the number of times that I have ever heard of mobo maker warranting anything but the mobo.
RGone...ster.

 

[Theocnoob]

I can count on my one hand and not use a thumb, the number of times that I have ever heard of mobo maker warranting anything but the mobo.
RGone...ster.

Ya but if the guy is running a known good PSU from a known good power source and this kind of BS happens... come on. The mobo maker should cover everything. It was their board that took out the CPU, the GPU, the RAM, etc.

 

[GTXJackBauer]

Let me add a few more to the story. I was recommended by a member to replace the PSU and that the PSU could be the culprit as well. I did leave some other information out prior to the MB frying. Another lower watt but same line "old batched" PSU in another story was questioned as to possibly frying the VRM on the EVGA X99 Classified from Legitreview which turned out to be a long waited finger pointing circus.

Copying what I had wrote on EVGA forums to keep everyone here up to speed.

What I didn't add to this event because I felt it was irrelevant and possibly I was being NAIVE/INDENIAL but I didn't want to side track it all with a faulty Corsair Link Mini that also had gotten fried before the MB did. The Link had fried around the first few attempts. It was removed and than the attempts to post continued. I should have added this story to the equation but I didn't want it to turn out to be a circus with both companies finger pointing at each other (like the great example from legit review that took 2+ months) and me being the suffering middle man. I was worried by the time I get the core components up and running, they'd be a generation old with a new line of CPUs and MBs released already. I still think the Link Mini was faulty while that being their new gen. design, I had the same connections done to the old gen. design with no issues. This made me feel I had a faulty Link Mini plus the way the packaging looked "used" if you will. Sure, there's always a possibility that the Link was a warning sign of whats to come. Maybe the MB was faulty and set off the Link Mini first before going off itself, maybe they both were irrelevant to each other and maybe the PSU spiked too many amps while OCP is not enabled by default with the older firmware batched PSUs just like what had happened to legitreview, but the issue there was the BIOS. The ASUS BIOS needed a update. Bad sodering and joints could have been the cause of mine compared to their case. Again, different areas of the board got fried compared to the legitreview CPU VRMs story so they both are irrelevant from each other at this point.

Regardless, I am going to attempt to RMA this old batched (original) PSU. I really hope they do me right since they made quite a few changes.

To recap Legitreviews Story.

Update 9/16/2014 - We are still working with Corsair to find out more on the firmware update that was done on their power supplies back in 2013. We have asked for dates and power supply lot numbers, so users can find out if they have one of the original ‘old’ AXi series power supplies that has no OCP by default. We also pointed out to Corsair that there is no mention of this in the instruction manual and that many users might not be aware that their flagship PSU has features that aren’t enabled unless they do so manually. From the sounds of it Corsair just updated the firmware and went to a multi-rail configuration. We’ve talked to several people about this issue and it was unclear if there was a hardware change and that is still being looked into. The bad news is that the firmware is not end-user upgradable. We have asked Corsair what if anything current customers can do since the firmware can’t be upgraded in the field. If you have an AXi series power supply we highly suggest downloading the Corsair Link software and programming the OCP setting.

Update 9/18/2014 - Corsair has gotten back to us with some answers to some questions that we asked earlier this week. It turns out Corsair shipped AX760i/AX860i/AX1200i power supplies for about four months before they changed the firmware on them without notice. The firmware is not field upgradeable and Corsair will not be offering exchanges for anyone with an ‘older’ model that wants to swap out a PSU for one with the latest firmware on it. Corsair also said that by the motherboard makers [ASUS] own admission, the X99 Deluxe motherboard was the root cause for the failures. Corsair also said this which we will directly quote: “Would an OCP-defaulted AXi or a competitor OCP-enabled PSU have save the CPU? We’re skeptical, but maybe.” So, right now it looks like the board had a failure and then when the system was restarted the PSU without OCP may or may not have taken out the CPU through the boards failed VR circuit. We are still waiting on ASUS to give us an official statement as to what happened to the board and were told that a typhoon in the region this week has slowed things down. In the meantime here are some answers to a Q&A that we gave Corsair that you can take a look at.

- When did Corsair change the firmware on the AXi series of power supplies?
AX760i/860i implementation date 3/15/2013 Lot#:13119560
AX1200i implementation date 3/8/2013 Lot# Lot#:13099520
Corsair shipped the AX760i/AX860i/AX1200i for about four months before they changed the firmware on them. If you bought one of these models when they first came out you likely have one with old firmware. The Corsair AX860i first was made available for sale with Amazon on November 1st, 2012, so just a heads up to early adopters.

- Can you please highlight what all changes with the new firmware?
PSU set to multi-rail (which by definition is OCP).

- So, you went from a default configuration of one +12V rail with no OCP to a virtual multi-rail setup with OCP enabled by default?
Yes.

- Why was this change not made public?
We saw no need for an announcement. The PSU design and its features stayed the same and this isn’t a design fault.

- Can end users with the original PSU design update their firmware at home?
No.

- How can an end user know what firmware is on his/her PSU? (Can users identify by the serial number what PSU they have? )
By the serial number. The first four digits are the date code. The first two digits are the year and then the next two numbers are the week of the year that the power supply were produced. The image above shows a Corsair AX860i Power Supply with serial number 1249954 that was made the 49th week of 2012 and would be running the original firmware.
AX760i/860i implementation date 3/15/2013 – First Lot number was: 13119560
AX1200i implementation date 3/8/2013 – First Lot number was: 13099520

- If users cannot upgrade the firmware at home, can users exchange their PSU for a model with OCP enabled by default?
No.

- How many Amps does the OCP default to on the AXi series. I heard it is different for each PSU?
By default, 40A. This is configurable.

- I was told that Intel Haswell-E processors are using up to 47A when overclocked to 4.4GHz and that it exceeds the OCP on some PSUs. Some motherboard makers are telling us to stay away from certain PSU’s. What are your thoughts on this?
When you have a PSU with multiple +12V rails, OCP can easily trip if the CPU is overclocked and running over load. This is why Corsair PSUs with Link Digital allow the user to disable OCP and why all other Corsair PSUs feature a single +12V rail.

- ASUS designed the VR circuit on their X99 platform with 60A components. Corsair came out with the AXi series in 2012 with an adjustable OCP that was off by default. Was Corsair foreseeing a situation in the future where end users could customize the OCP setting depending on what motherboard they were using?
Initially, Corsair was simply following our existing trend of providing power supplies with a single +12V rail. Since OCP is most beneficial during the initial build stage of putting together a PC, it made sense for the PSU to have the OCP on by default and therefore we decided to make the change.

Update 10/23/2014 - ASUS released UEFI 1004 for the ASUS X99 Deluxe today and we have been told that this update includes an EC (Embedded Controller) Firmware update that fixes something discovered by our board failing here at Legit Reviews. We don’t have the official response from ASUS yet, but Legit Reviews highly suggests that all ASUS X99 Deluxe owners update to UEFI build 1004 due to the fixes implemented in it for the way the board power is being handled. The build date on this UEFI is 10/16/2014, so it has been around for a week before it was made public. ASUS also reprogramed the memory tables after receiving new microcode from Intel. That made a world of a difference on our board when running memory kits beyond 3000MHz with 1T Command Rates. Here is a list of the key changes:
ASUS X99-DELUXE BIOS 1004 Change Log:
1. Update EC FW
2. Fix crash free issue
3. Fix Xonar card compatibility issue
4. Revise Thunderbolt memory resource
5. Enhance Xeon CPU compatibility
6. Rebuild SteamOS boot option
​

If anyone is interested in reading the full story, be my guest. I would like to hear what you think about that whole debacle as well as mine and possibly any relation. Could my old batch PSU be the culprit even though it worked for about 2 years just fine with my X58 system?

Also, here's the MSI X99 story.​

 

[EarthDog]

RMA the board, and RMA any other parts that got taken out. It is what it is.

As others have said, it is highly doubtful EVGA will take care of anything outside of their name brand. The other vendors will RMA their parts with no problems.

 

[Ajay57]

How come its you who gets into these kinda issues bro!! Well i hope everything turns out OK in the wash at the end best of luck!

Merry Xmas,

Ajay.

 

[GTXJackBauer]

How come its you who gets into these kinda issues bro!! Well i hope everything turns out OK in the wash at the end best of luck!

Merry Xmas,

Ajay.

Thank you and Merry Christmas to you too. I haven't had any trouble really since the beginning but this whole thing takes the cake or makes up for all the good times. lol

 

[JSmith2]

Funny thing one week ago I fried my sabertooth x79 board . Replaced it with a second one two days later with the same cpu i7 3960x and corsair 1200ax psu it happened again. This can get pricey . Thanks for the info because I'm using the psu on an older computer till my parts come back maybe i should turn it on and off a few times.This psu ser# 12129502 seems to be the older one. Maybe the same guy did the soldering on that board too.