5punk

Ive finally decided to make the jump from my awfully slow AMD 3500+ to core2duo. I have a cunning plan to overclock a cheaper C2D processor up to the speeds od a 500/600 quid processeor rather than fork out lots of cash. So i have ordered the following:

Cpu

RAM

Mobo

CPU Cooler

Roll on payday.

Well so much for the new bits - I've received information from my spies (well, a phone call from Chicken) that this particular setup has caused two motherboards to be sacrificed to the gods of blue sparks and smoke. Chicken blames the cooling, although that sounds odd to me. Anyhow, pictures to be posted of said cooked mobos as soon as Mr Chicken can get a working machine

Muted by the gods.

Stoat wrote:Muted by the gods.

LOL

I think it's time for a repost

i've not heard of anything like that before, kinda worrying, has he tried the oem heatsink?

sounds like a fucked fan rather than a mobo issue.

Sparks and smoke? Sounds to me like the motherboard standoffs on the case are in the wrong place.

Poor cooling almost certainly wouldn't fry a mobo.

eion wrote:Sparks and smoke? Sounds to me like the motherboard standoffs on the case are in the wrong place.

That is a very good point, sounds most likely.

Yeah, I've done that myself so it did cross my mind too. I figured Chicken's experienced enough not to make that mistake, but I suppose we all make simple mistakes sometimes. The blue sparks is something arcing, and that is generally caused by a motor dying on it's arse or by (more rarely) a short. If his PSU still works though then it won't be that and he didn't mention the CPU fan being borked, so a short on the mobo could be a good start to his investigation.

Righto, to defend my honor...it's the scummy oem cpu cooler thats at fault. Pants is correct in assuming that i know enough about pc's not to balls up a simple mobo, cpu and ram change. It would appear that the cooler fan connection is causing a short down the mobo fan power lines causing them to totally fry. now i know its not the psu as all the old bits work just fine when reinstalled.

Rest assured when i get the mobo and cooler exchanged i WILL be getting the company to do it.

p.s. im on the wii typing this

Ahh, thinking about it, I have heard of this kind of thing... but the normal scenario is someone replacing an OE CPU fan with a higher-powered one that the mobo can't handle and killing stuff that way, rather than the OE cooler itself being at fault.
I shall add this to my mental troubleshooting database, under "what can occasionally go wrong if you're really unlucky".

Glad to hear you solved the problem.

Seems unlikey that'd be the cause, the oem fan isn't overly beefy and has a weirdy 4-pin connector so it gets fed enough.

still, if it did happen, it's good to kniw,