Burnt Mobo
Update:
I sent of the burnt mobo, with the original northbridge fan. I also included the firewire cord that was destroyed and instructed them to replace it as the burnt mobo was the cause of its demise.
I received a replacement mobo in the mail, with little/no indication of the problem, pretty much nothing included other than the mobo itself. Seemed a little strange.
However, I put it in and everything appears to be working fine, except I have the DVD-R problem I had when I first got this machine put together. If I attached the DVD-R to the nVidia SATA connector, it burns the disc 99% complete and then locks the machine HARD. If I connect it to the Silicon Image SATA controller, I can’t boot into windows. I fixed this before, but I forgot how I fixed it. I downloaded some updates from Asus so hopefully one of those will help me.
7/24/2006 – Update:
I sent off an email (to rma@asus.com) on Friday, but it was probably after business hours. I was hoping for a reply today. Nada. So I decided to call. Waited on hold for 5 min (not too bad) and the woman took my info and I should be getting the RMA instructions in email from them shortly. Strangely, she said to leave on the “northbridge” fan, but I really don’t like that idea. Maybe I’ll put on the original one (instead of the Vantec one I bought to replace the original that squeeked like mad!)
She said they are going to test it and determine the cause, this should be interesting (how could it be my fault?).
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Came downstairs this morning (Friday, July 21st) to find my desktop was not running. It should always be running and I never shut it down. So I hit the power button and the UPS beeps. So I decide to unplug the desktop from the UPS (and everything else) and plug it directly into the wall. Hit the power button again and hear a short noise like its about to start up and then it quits.
I look down and there’s a little smoke. I disconnect everything, pull the tower out and open it up, some more smoke! Nice burn spot in the lower left corner.
Turns out to be the USB/Firewire connector for the front of the case, which I NEVER use!
So I go online (with another computer of course) and chat with newegg (cuz that’s where I bought it from) live chat. I ask what I should do, and they say to contact Asus cuz I bought it over a year ago.
I go to asus.com and create a login, register my mobo, only to find out their support site says “contact the reseller”. I take a screen shot and email it to newegg. Newegg, after checking my invoice number/date, says its more than a year old and to contact Asus. I forward the email to Asus and now we wait.
Here are some pictures:
Luckily nothing was in the slot, so it wasn’t hurt. Doesn’t seem anything was damaged. Obviously I’ll need a new mobo and a new cable. I might switch back to Abit after this, depending how Asus treats me.
I also remembered, the mobo had a bad “northbridge” fan. It squeeked HORRIBLY until I replaced it. If I get a replacement mobo, I hope its not the exact same revision with the same faulty fan, because the one I put on this board is stuck with thermal tape. I guess (hope) Asus won’t need me to ship them this mobo, and then I can take the fan off, scrape off the tape and reuse the fan (very good Vantec fan).