MotherBoard Melt Down

[Brian K Glass]

Based upon the August 6, 2001 review of the ECS K7S5A Motherboard by Sysopt, I purchased one and assembled a computer In December.

http://www.sysopt.com/reviews/ecs-k7s5a/index3.html

I followed the test system configuration in the article, see above (with the exception of a XP1900 Processor.)

The ECS web site (and the engineer I e-mailed there) said the K7S5A supports up to XP1900. Anyway, The computer worked fine until this week.

The K7S5A literally "melted down". When I pulled the computer apart, the solder connections had just melted and flowed all over the place shorting out god knows what.

Have you folks heard about any recalls of said motherboard or any of the components in your article? If so, please let me know before I get into a screaming contest with ECS trying to return / replace their board. I am out of the 30 day warranty period and the processor vendor / motherboard vendor both insist I go to the manufacturer.

Have you heard about any thermal problems with the new XP processors? I got the biggest fan available for that too.

I have been assembling computers since the Altair and have never had this happen, If you folks have any insight, please let me know!

:confused:

[Steve R Jones]

Welcome to SysOpt:)

A power surge from your electric company could have cause this. Not to mention the power supply could have gone south first...Were you sitting at the machine when it happened?

[Brian K Glass]

The system was on and I had just walked out of the room for about ten minutes. When I came back, the system was shut down and I smelled that unique smell of ozone/smoke that comes with a meltdown. That's when I popped the cover and discovered the problem. All components (Including power supply/case) were brand new. I had the computer on surge protection. I also had another computer on same circuit with no ill effect (they are on a KVM switch.) I'm still scratching my head. :confused:

[Dave_Whittle]

Is the Heatsink and PSU on the recomended list on AMD's website? The vendor won't take it back did they not give a one year warranty, I wouldn't buy anything from them again!

[Brian K Glass]

The vendor is the one who sold me the heat sink for the processor. I have my suspicions though. They have a 30 day return policy, after that you must go through the manufacturer.
I still can't figure out why it melted down though, any ideas as to how to avoid this in the future? Thanks

[frank5]

Is your cpu still in tact? If so, your lucky. If not, did you properly place the fan and heat sink on the cpu? If turned the wrong way, you could slill probably get it on ,but it wouldn't fit flush and would create an excessive heat problem.

[Brian K Glass]

The fan was pretty much idiot proof. It only went on one way. I did however use the sticky patch provided (you pull the tape off it and it sticks to the processor and then attaches to the bracketon the motherboard.) I just wonder if I should of scraped the tacky stuff off and used thermal paste. In the past I've always used the patch provided by the manufacturer and never had a problem.

As far as the processor goes, I'm going to test that on a buddys PC and see if is still functional. I'm not holding my breath though.
:)