ASRock A320M-DGS Freezing / Locking up solid even at idle

TrufflesG

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Jul 7, 2011
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Title says it all.
Brand new computer.
ASRock A320M DGS
AMD AM4 A10-9700 cpu

Runs abit (kinda hot) then stops. CPU shuts down...cannot wake. Have to power off and restart.
I noticed there are 4 grey square things near the CPU that get Terribly hot....like 95C measured with Laser Thermometer. They burn my finger if I touch them. This seems unusual.
I can't imagine any component lasting at those temps.

You can see the 4 gray squares about 2 inches to the left of the CPU slot at about the 10 o'clock position, right next to 4 silver capacitors. They look to be about 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch.

iu


What causes them to run so hot? Wish I knew what they were.

I've initiated contact with the vendor about a return. Very disappointed.
 
Solution
Those four grey blocks are chokes (a.k.a. inductors/coils) and are part of the CPU's power VRM (i.e. Voltage Regulation Module) circuit. They are passive components.

The twelve smaller square devices to the left of the chokes are the VRM MOSFETs. These are active components (i.e. semiconductors) and need proper cooling.

TrufflesG

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Jul 7, 2011
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Thank you for your time ;)

Oddly, after I updated the BIOS to the latest version, the temps dropped dramatically. I have no clue why.

 

TrufflesG

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Jul 7, 2011
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Unfortunately, it still freezes about 1% into any OS install...no matter what OS...and with different hard drives

There appears to be some bottleneck in the pipelines between the CPU and hard drives. It slow to a crawl then moves at a rate one might expect from the early 8088 processors. It would literally take several weeks to install an OS at the rate it's going. Maybe a month. It doesn't stop....just slows to an incredibly slow pace.

And the CPU seems to go "cold"
 
Those four grey blocks are chokes (a.k.a. inductors/coils) and are part of the CPU's power VRM (i.e. Voltage Regulation Module) circuit. They are passive components.

The twelve smaller square devices to the left of the chokes are the VRM MOSFETs. These are active components (i.e. semiconductors) and need proper cooling.
 
Solution