Z88 Extreme4 mobo, can I troubleshoot and fix what's wrong? Fried by PSU melt-down?

jsflynn603 · Oct 22, 2017

Circa 2012: Asrock z77 Extreme 4, running a EVGA GeForce GTX 480 with an OcZ ModX Stream-Pro 700w power supply. 5 years and still a fine computer (though I only play D3). Turned it on the other day to be greeted by a mini roman candle (spray of sparks). It was a stream of sparks, yikes. At first I thought a stray wire had shorted. But I've taken the ps apart and you can see in the photo where the problem occurred. Ok, so I buy a new PS EVGA 750GE. (I guess links to photos or photos themselves are not allowed--I tried)

I bought a new EVGA750G3 PSU, plugged it in with zero ram the CPU fan runs. But The lights that normally go on are absent. No beep, no LED troubleshooting numbers. No burn mark on RAM, no burn mark anywhere on the board. I haven't pulled the CPU to check it for burn marks. Pulled battery and shorted to reset, no change.

It has an on mobo push-button start that should be lit, but though it does start/stop the CPU fan there is no led

I'll assume something got fried on the mobo. Is there anyplace I can send the board to to get it fixed? ASRock doesnt't make it anymore and worse the CUP I5 3750 fits a socket 1155 and I can't find a good replacement board as it's 2 Gen's behind. Any possibility of troubleshooting it myself?

Yes, I have checked the new PSU output w/ Voltmeter, all looks good there. Even used z77 Extreme 4's sell for $200+ on ebay, so others think also that it's a good board. I really hate to lose it. The CUP + the DDR3 won't fit in much else.

Any suggestions of what to do now? Any common components that are the first to get hit if there's a voltage surge?

Btw are photos allowed and if so how to add them?

Thanks

Kasper Jorgensen · Oct 22, 2017

I'm sorry to hear that, but roughly speaking that is what you get from going cheap on the PSU and the reason many of us always pushing people to spend more on their PSU.
There is really no way to fix a fried mobo and you will need to buy a new one. Even worse, maybe it's not only the mobo that fried, you could also have lost your CPU, GPU, RAM and hdd, well everything if you are unlucky.

jsflynn603 · Oct 29, 2017

Kasper Jorgensen :

Thanks for the response Kasper, I guess I was lucky after all...

The PSU had a 4star rating (1224) on Newegg, and in 2012 it was $80, not cheap by any means and in 2012 at least it was considered a respectable psu. It was: "PC Power & Cooling ModXStream Pro Series 700 Watt 80+ Semi-Modular Active PFC Performance Grade ATX PC Power Supply (OCZ700MXSP)" It's still listed on Newegg but OOS.

On a good note, since I have an exact duplicate system, I exchanged the CPU and RAM onto my 2nd, good Z77, and oddly all is fine. So the CPU, the RAM the HDD's and seemingly all the peripherals,including the vid card survived. So strange since the cooling fan runs when I start it up, but no beep and the LED Dr trouble (whatever the name is) shows no activity.

I looked the motherboard over carefully (both sides) with a magnifier, no sign of a burn trace, no sign of any change to any of the cans, no burned pins or connectors, no anything at least visible.

I wonder if this might have a soldered inline fuse of some sort. What a waste. Are there any repair shops that can trace what's going on?

I've bought a Asus P8H61-I R2.0 LGA1155/ Intel H61(B3)/ DDR3/ A&GbE/ Mini-ITX Motherboard MB-P8H61R2 $79.99 from superbizz and lucked out a bit. I had one in my cart on zon, waiting to check to make sure the CPU and RAM worked, and went to order it, OOS. So I used google shopping and found one at superbizz and at $20 less, (superbizz hasnice rating on resellerratings so reliable). There are few LGA1155 left. I suspect others will be going through the same problem (There are plenty if you want to take a chance shipped from China, good luck with that. I think it only costs them a few $ to ship it here but that ain't what you find when you try to ship a faulty one back!)

I'm double lucky, the RAM from the dead system is PC32166 which works fine on the Z77 but would not work on the new replacement board. The 2nd system had 1866 and that does work on the replacement Asus.

I bought a Cooler Master N200 - Mini Tower Computer Case with Fully Meshed Front Panel and mATX/Mini-ITX Support $36.25 delivered after $10 rebate and Prime free shipping.

So for $120 I have salvaged, what I think, is still a high quality system, even for many games. The vid card is an EVGA GeForce GTX 1050ti.

Maybe this info might be useful for others as the older 1155's start to fail. Nothing lasts forever.

If anyone knows of a company that does repair mobo's please let me know, I consider the used one worth more than $100 still, it's an oldie but a goodie.

Kasper Jorgensen · Oct 29, 2017

jsflynn603 :

Kasper Jorgensen :

Thanks for the response Kasper, I guess I was lucky after all...

The PSU had a 4star rating (1224) on Newegg, and in 2012 it was $80, not cheap by any means and in 2012 at least it was considered a respectable psu. It was: "PC Power & Cooling ModXStream Pro Series 700 Watt 80+ Semi-Modular Active PFC Performance Grade ATX PC Power Supply (OCZ700MXSP)" It's still listed on Newegg but OOS.

On a good note, since I have an exact duplicate system, I exchanged the CPU and RAM onto my 2nd, good Z77, and oddly all is fine. So the CPU, the RAM the HDD's and seemingly all the peripherals,including the vid card survived. So strange since the cooling fan runs when I start it up, but no beep and the LED Dr trouble (whatever the name is) shows no activity.

I looked the motherboard over carefully (both sides) with a magnifier, no sign of a burn trace, no sign of any change to any of the cans, no burned pins or connectors, no anything at least visible.

I wonder if this might have a soldered inline fuse of some sort. What a waste. Are there any repair shops that can trace what's going on?

I've bought a Asus P8H61-I R2.0 LGA1155/ Intel H61(B3)/ DDR3/ A&GbE/ Mini-ITX Motherboard MB-P8H61R2 $79.99 from superbizz and lucked out a bit. I had one in my cart on zon, waiting to check to make sure the CPU and RAM worked, and went to order it, OOS. So I used google shopping and found one at superbizz and at $20 less, (superbizz hasnice rating on resellerratings so reliable). There are few LGA1155 left. I suspect others will be going through the same problem (There are plenty if you want to take a chance shipped from China, good luck with that. I think it only costs them a few $ to ship it here but that ain't what you find when you try to ship a faulty one back!)

I'm double lucky, the RAM from the dead system is PC32166 which works fine on the Z77 but would not work on the new replacement board. The 2nd system had 1866 and that does work on the replacement Asus.

I bought a Cooler Master N200 - Mini Tower Computer Case with Fully Meshed Front Panel and mATX/Mini-ITX Support $36.25 delivered after $10 rebate and Prime free shipping.

So for $120 I have salvaged, what I think, is still a high quality system, even for many games. The vid card is an EVGA GeForce GTX 1050ti.

Maybe this info might be useful for others as the older 1155's start to fail. Nothing lasts forever.

If anyone knows of a company that does repair mobo's please let me know, I consider the used one worth more than $100 still, it's an oldie but a goodie.

You cannot count on user ratings on newegg from random people who don't know what they are doing. After all the 4 star rating could just be from the fact that the PSU did work when they got it and it was delivered in time.
Also i doubt it was a respectable PSU back then, maybe you just asked the wrong people.
It's a low tier unit, cheap and low quality unit with cheap Chinese caps inside and without all of the safety/protection circuits installed.

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Z88 Extreme4 mobo, can I troubleshoot and fix what's wrong? Fried by PSU melt-down?

jsflynn603

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