MSI Motherboards are they any good?

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KASPhoto

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Jun 11, 2015
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A customer of mine had a custom built computer with an MSI motherboard, Model: B85M-P33
LGA:1151 socket with a 4th gen Intel i7. The computer was used for searching the web, occasional word processing and game of Boggle. It was kept relatively clean and used in a air condition condo. Never been overclocked if anything under used and failed after 3.5 years. I can't find anything useful on this motherboard why it failed so soon other then my opinion its a POS/poorly made board. My Question is MSI a goood or bad product. I usually lean towards Asus, Gigabyte, EVGA, or (ASRock on the low end). No I didn't build the computer for the person.

-Power Supply tested fine.
-Used a jumper with a momentary switch attached to see it was the case switch.
-Installed another graphics card known to be good.
-Installed another power supply known to be good
-No beeping or noise of any kind to indicate any failure of components on the motherboard
-nothing comes up on the screen totally black
-Motherboard is dead to the point were I can't even use a motherboard testing device to get a code off it
-The day I went my clients computer was functioning in the morning and dead an hour before i even got there. My client said there was no blackouts or surges. It was functional one minute dead the next. There no sign of failing before hand.
-Not Bad memory because a bad memory module would register an error of some kind or cause the computer not to boot correctly...
 
Solution
Karadjgne
Yeah, it's gonna take some investigation. I've actually seen mobo's shorted out just by a spider coming across contacts behind the mobo, so anything is really possible.
To be fair, my Asus board is an LE, it's the absolute lowest grade Z77 that Asus made at the time, barely any heatsinking on it, so hard OC vrs software OC was probably the culprit there, differences in V/A needs vrs just bumping the BCLK. But Asus did replace the board twice without any undue hassle, which many have complained about. I've been dealing with Asus support for more years than many ppl are old, so I'm not sure where they get their info, Asus has always been decent about RMA's.
Cap failure is usually a primary cause of mobo death, but it's not limited to...
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K

KASPhoto

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Jun 11, 2015
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I have seen blown CPUs and I would still get some kind of error message either on the screen or audibly. Right now I don't have access to another computer with the proper socket or a CPU with same pin configuration so this test isn't possible for now..... A bad solder joint is the strongest possibility.
 
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KASPhoto

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Jun 11, 2015
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Thank you. The board is past the warranty period, it's 2 months shy of 4 years old and my client will get a new computer before spending money on repairing the motherboard.
 
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KASPhoto

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Jun 11, 2015
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I built a computer for myself with an Asus MOBO its 6.5 years old and still working. I still use it for photo editing on occasion. x58 chipset, LGA1366 socket, with an Intel i7-950.
 
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Karadjgne

Karadjgne

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And I'm running a i7-3770k at 4.9GHz on an MSI Mpower Z77 motherboard without issue, my i5-3570k is at 4.3GHz on an Asus p8z77-v LE which has been RMA'd twice now.

Broad statements about Asus being better and MSI always breaking are both bogus, if anything, MSI is more reliable than Asus as there's multiple reports of Asus voltage protections on the mobo's being far too sensitive and creating havoc.

No way after that amount of time that it's a bad solder unless the pc was subject to abuse by bouncing the case and breaking the gpu slot or ham-fisted ppl tinkering. More than likely its a simple case of a capacitor popping, which happens to every manufacturer at some point. At this point it's really a moot point as to the cause of mobo failure unless you can find that exact cap and replace it, simplest and cheapest solution is to simply replace the motherboard, which'll run @$60-$80 vrs a full-out pc costing better than $500
 
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KASPhoto

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Jun 11, 2015
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10,510



I know what your talking about and I highly doubt its a bulging/bad capacitor. A blown capacitor was one of the first things I checked. I haven't had the chance to pull the board out to see if there has been a short of some kind on the backside that was caused by dust or some thing else getting into the computer. If it is a bad capacitor this is the first time in 16 years that I've seen a computer go completely dead where nothing happens. A low voltage control circuit, open pot, a bad choke, etc. maybe. Sorry to hear that you had problems with Asus, I've have had good luck with there products. Tyan MOBO on the other hand I've had bad luck (personally) with, 2 boards one with bad Capacitors.....
Thank your for your input
 
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Karadjgne

Karadjgne

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Yeah, it's gonna take some investigation. I've actually seen mobo's shorted out just by a spider coming across contacts behind the mobo, so anything is really possible.
To be fair, my Asus board is an LE, it's the absolute lowest grade Z77 that Asus made at the time, barely any heatsinking on it, so hard OC vrs software OC was probably the culprit there, differences in V/A needs vrs just bumping the BCLK. But Asus did replace the board twice without any undue hassle, which many have complained about. I've been dealing with Asus support for more years than many ppl are old, so I'm not sure where they get their info, Asus has always been decent about RMA's.
Cap failure is usually a primary cause of mobo death, but it's not limited to them, a VRM mosfets can also fail, or any other transistor, for any reason, and it not be entirely visible to the naked eye, you'd actually have to run an o-scope over them and check all the individual transistors, a seriously daunting task. 4th gen i7's are still extremely viable cpus, so if it comes to replacement of the mobo vrs total mobo, cpu, ram upgrade, in your clients case, it's honestly not worth the upgrade for the small % boost new gen sees. I'd seriously consider keeping all the original build and just replacing the mobo, it's far cheaper comparatively.
 
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K

KASPhoto

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Jun 11, 2015
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Thank you for your input. My client decided to get another computer. He didn't want to spend the money on repairing the computer. All he wanted from the computer was the hard drive and he said I can do whatever I want with the rest of the computer.
 
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K

KASPhoto

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Jun 11, 2015
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I know I'm beating a dead horse but I have to update some info, the MOBO is an LGA1150 not a LGA1151 and the CPU is a 4th generation i5 not a i7. Sorry for the mistake.

 
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