- Dec 31, 2007
- 36
- 0
- 18,540
There must be SOMEBODY out there who can help me. Please? Surely I’m not the only one who’s had this problem. I have 5 other threads (see below) on the issue with no solution yet. Although I have not solved my problem, I did learn things from those previous threads and got good ideas on things to try or look at. It seems to me that threads go stale quickly and if you don’t get an answer in the first few days, you’re probably not going to get one. So I keep asking the question a little differently and here I am with #6, which incorporates advice from the first 5. Those other threads should be closed because they seem to be dead with no solution. If anyone has advice on how to present my problem to get more interest, I would like to hear from you. Here’s my problem.
I built 2 identical computers. One worked, but the cpu fan on the other one stopped about a second after power-on. I asked here. No solution. I called Intel. They issued an RMA & I exchanged the cpu & stock cooler. Same problem. Replaced thermal compound on stock cooler with Artic Silver and problem seemed to be solved. Put things back in case one at a time, testing at each step. Installed SSD & HDD SATA devices without incident. Upon installing the SATA DVD, the data cable melted (the insulation burned away from the red hot wires for pins 1 & 7). I didn’t see any damage to the wire for pin 4, but it’s in the middle of the cable and surrounded by more material. After that, the data cable melted for any device. Pin #4 in the HDD showed damage & pin #4 in the SSD was gone. Pins 1, 4 & 7 are the ground (common) wires.
ASRock issued an RMA for the motherboard. In preparing it for return I forgot that the plastic cap that snaps over the cpu socket goes over the retaining clip and tried to put it under. Then I noticed several severely bent pins in the cpu socket, which voids the RMA. Don’t know if I damaged it in packing it up or earlier. Bought & installed a new motherboard and VERY CAREFULLY installed the cpu (using Artic Silver). Same problem: everything OK up through installing SATA power cable, but connecting the SATA data cable and powering on melts the data cable. Except I’m getting better at turning the power off quickly, so I only get hot cables & a wisp of white smoke.
Disassembled everything again and laid it all out on a non-conducting surface. Tested the psu in standalone mode and got the following voltages: +12.37v (yellow), -11.4v (blue), 3.33v (orange) and 4.98v (red). Those voltages are between the colored wires and the black wire(s). Same numbers between the colored wires and the cpu case.
I tested each of the SATA devices I had tried in the broken computer in an old computer and they all seemed to be OK. I did not check functionality – just that they didn’t melt the data cables.
Then I tested each one on the disassembled system:
• cpu out of the case and on a towel over wooden desk
• motherboard mounted on the removable motherboard tray resting on same towel with memory installed, 24 pin power cable connected & 8 pin cpu power plug connected (no HD audio or USB header or case fan connections, no front panel connections except for 2 wires to the power-on pins [I touch the wires together to start the psu])
• SATA devices on the same towel connected one at a time using SATA connectors 0,1,4 & 5 on the motherboard. (I didn't test every SATA device with every motherboard plug)
No smoke!
I connected the motherboard tray to the psu case with a wire and confirmed negligible resistance between the psu case & motherboard. I repeated the tests with the same results.
I returned the psu & motherboard to the case and screwed them in. I connected the case power button to the appropriate 2 pins on the front panel header but nothing else to that header. Connected 24 pin & 8 pin power cables to mobo. Put DVD unit in case & connected power cable. Powered on. Everything seemed OK. Connected data cable to DVD (cheapest SATA device) and powered on and got smoke. Turned everything off, got a beer and watched TV.
With everything in the case except SATA devices, I can get into the BIOS and I don’t see anything wrong there.
System Specs:
CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K
Motherboard: ASRock H97Z Pro4
RAM: 8 GB (2 x 4GB) Corsair Vengeance CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9 DDR3 1600
PSU: 430W Corsair CX430M v2.3 80 Plus Bronze Certified
SSD: 250GB Samsung 840 EVO
HDD: 500GB WD Black WD5000BPKX (SATA3 2.5")
Case: SilverStone SST-PS07B MicroATX.
Previous threads (oldest to newest):
Why is my computer smoking? - Started 1/31/2015 - ID 2515280
SATA data cables keep melting - Started 2/2/2015 - ID 2519689
Is the psu the cause of melting SATA cables? - Started 2/25/2015 - ID 2551309
Really simple basic question about power supplies - Started 3/3/2015 - ID 2558590
Will a SATA device [work] without pin 4? - Started 3/5/2015 - ID 2562080
I built 2 identical computers. One worked, but the cpu fan on the other one stopped about a second after power-on. I asked here. No solution. I called Intel. They issued an RMA & I exchanged the cpu & stock cooler. Same problem. Replaced thermal compound on stock cooler with Artic Silver and problem seemed to be solved. Put things back in case one at a time, testing at each step. Installed SSD & HDD SATA devices without incident. Upon installing the SATA DVD, the data cable melted (the insulation burned away from the red hot wires for pins 1 & 7). I didn’t see any damage to the wire for pin 4, but it’s in the middle of the cable and surrounded by more material. After that, the data cable melted for any device. Pin #4 in the HDD showed damage & pin #4 in the SSD was gone. Pins 1, 4 & 7 are the ground (common) wires.
ASRock issued an RMA for the motherboard. In preparing it for return I forgot that the plastic cap that snaps over the cpu socket goes over the retaining clip and tried to put it under. Then I noticed several severely bent pins in the cpu socket, which voids the RMA. Don’t know if I damaged it in packing it up or earlier. Bought & installed a new motherboard and VERY CAREFULLY installed the cpu (using Artic Silver). Same problem: everything OK up through installing SATA power cable, but connecting the SATA data cable and powering on melts the data cable. Except I’m getting better at turning the power off quickly, so I only get hot cables & a wisp of white smoke.
Disassembled everything again and laid it all out on a non-conducting surface. Tested the psu in standalone mode and got the following voltages: +12.37v (yellow), -11.4v (blue), 3.33v (orange) and 4.98v (red). Those voltages are between the colored wires and the black wire(s). Same numbers between the colored wires and the cpu case.
I tested each of the SATA devices I had tried in the broken computer in an old computer and they all seemed to be OK. I did not check functionality – just that they didn’t melt the data cables.
Then I tested each one on the disassembled system:
• cpu out of the case and on a towel over wooden desk
• motherboard mounted on the removable motherboard tray resting on same towel with memory installed, 24 pin power cable connected & 8 pin cpu power plug connected (no HD audio or USB header or case fan connections, no front panel connections except for 2 wires to the power-on pins [I touch the wires together to start the psu])
• SATA devices on the same towel connected one at a time using SATA connectors 0,1,4 & 5 on the motherboard. (I didn't test every SATA device with every motherboard plug)
No smoke!
I connected the motherboard tray to the psu case with a wire and confirmed negligible resistance between the psu case & motherboard. I repeated the tests with the same results.
I returned the psu & motherboard to the case and screwed them in. I connected the case power button to the appropriate 2 pins on the front panel header but nothing else to that header. Connected 24 pin & 8 pin power cables to mobo. Put DVD unit in case & connected power cable. Powered on. Everything seemed OK. Connected data cable to DVD (cheapest SATA device) and powered on and got smoke. Turned everything off, got a beer and watched TV.
With everything in the case except SATA devices, I can get into the BIOS and I don’t see anything wrong there.
System Specs:
CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K
Motherboard: ASRock H97Z Pro4
RAM: 8 GB (2 x 4GB) Corsair Vengeance CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9 DDR3 1600
PSU: 430W Corsair CX430M v2.3 80 Plus Bronze Certified
SSD: 250GB Samsung 840 EVO
HDD: 500GB WD Black WD5000BPKX (SATA3 2.5")
Case: SilverStone SST-PS07B MicroATX.
Previous threads (oldest to newest):
Why is my computer smoking? - Started 1/31/2015 - ID 2515280
SATA data cables keep melting - Started 2/2/2015 - ID 2519689
Is the psu the cause of melting SATA cables? - Started 2/25/2015 - ID 2551309
Really simple basic question about power supplies - Started 3/3/2015 - ID 2558590
Will a SATA device [work] without pin 4? - Started 3/5/2015 - ID 2562080
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