URGENT!! Is my Mobo Dead!?

geekbanter · Post by **geekbanter** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 3:23 am

Last week be had a heat wave here in Seattle (yeah I know) and I ran into some instability on my computer. I popped the lid to find one of the plastic pegs that attaches my NB47J to my motherboard had broken and the HS was dangling precariously.

I reattached the 47J using the plastic pegs from the original heatsink. It was a scare and I was afraid I had damaged my motherboard.

3 Days Later-
While listening to music on my computer last night, it locked up and I rebooted. Half way though the loading process it locked up again, so I again reset it. Now it won't boot at all.

I have an Epox 9NPA+ Ultra and the code on the board says 44. The book doesn't give an explaination for the code, merely mentioning it is "reserved".

Oh god I'm going out of my mind, my pc is my baby, I'm going on vacation thursday, and my college classes start a week after I return from vaction.

I doubt I will get back any useful info from Epox, if I ever receive anything.

****, did the failure of the NB47J kill my mobo?

If things take a turn for the worst, what would you recommend for a motherboard around $100? (prefer high-stability, decent overclocking, passive optional, firewire, value must)

EDIT: Looking through Newegg I'm still drawn to the 9NPA+

PLEASE PLEASE HELP!!! I don't want it to give up the ghost

nici · Post by **nici** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 4:45 am

Well you could try some freezing spray.. Or whatever itÂ´s called, stuff in a can that cools things down to -50Â°c in a few seconds. ItÂ´s meant for electronics troubleshooting, i think this qualifies as such

I would try spraying on the heatsink first, and be careful not to get any melting ice on the mobo

geekbanter · Post by **geekbanter** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 5:04 am

erm, not too sure I've ever heard about a freezing spray. Something I forgot to mention is that my 47J previously used to reach up around 60-64C, but after remounting it would only reach mid to low 50sC. The springs on the push pins from the original heatink aren't as strong as the the ones from the 47J, so maybe having lower tension keeps the NB from cooling well enough. I've yanked everything but the CPU and still no-go. I really, really hope I didn't fry my board. And of course it just picked the perfect time to give me problems.

One question I have is: Why would the computer run for hours with no HS attached to the NB, but die days later after having the HS reattached?

nici · Post by **nici** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 5:17 am

geekbanter wrote: One question I have is: Why would the computer run for hours with no HS attached to the NB, but die days later after having the HS reattached?

I have no idea why it would work like that..

Freezer spray.

ihategg_b · Post by **ihategg_b** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 5:26 am

Hmmmm, I had my zalman NB47J hanging too. Luckily my case had a window, but now it doesn't. Is there any other way of attaching it? The plastic thingy seems to have lost its "tension/spring"

nici · Post by **nici** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 5:29 am

Nylon nuts and bolts. No idea where i could find any of them, but they exist and should work well.

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 5:37 am

Something I forgot to mention is that my 47J previously used to reach up around 60-64C, but after remounting it would only reach mid to low 50sC.

You could always try thermal adhesive, after all it's not as if you will ever want to run the northbridge without a heatsink. You could try a process of elimination to find out which part is broken, but depending on whether you have enough spare parts to do that, it could end up just as expensive as buying a new motherboard. However northbridges can generally tolerate quite high temps, so I would want to know for sure that the mobo was dead before buying a new one.

Out of interest, how are you measuring the temp of the NB47J? IR thermometer?

geekbanter · Post by **geekbanter** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 5:40 am

ihategg_b wrote:Hmmmm, I had my zalman NB47J hanging too. Luckily my case had a window, but now it doesn't. Is there any other way of attaching it? The plastic thingy seems to have lost its "tension/spring"

<snif-snif> I smell a defective product. On my next MB I will get an HR-05.

You do need the spring. I dunno what to tell you, check the stock heatsink and see if you can snag a spring from it.

nici wrote:Nylon nuts and bolts. No idea where i could find any of them, but they exist and should work well.

That they would, but yeah, good luck finding some. I gave my PC another shot at booting, got the error code for RAM (C1) this time. I reinstalled my RAM and that darn code 44 came back

geekbanter · Post by **geekbanter** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 5:46 am

jaganath wrote:
Something I forgot to mention is that my 47J previously used to reach up around 60-64C, but after remounting it would only reach mid to low 50sC.
You could always try thermal adhesive, after all it's not as if you will ever want to run the northbridge without a heatsink. You could try a process of elimination to find out which part is broken, but depending on whether you have enough spare parts to do that, it could end up just as expensive as buying a new motherboard. However northbridges can generally tolerate quite high temps, so I would want to know for sure that the mobo was dead before buying a new one.

Out of interest, how are you measuring the temp of the NB47J? IR thermometer?

I was using a cheap digital thermometer (jab-tech), and threading the probe down into the center of the 47J. I too was considering thermal adhesive, but I don't have any. Would Best Buy have any? Its about the only computer store in the area. Gosh, if I only had a few more days... leaving on the 5th just doesn't leave enough time to get anything shipped in...

geekbanter · Post by **geekbanter** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 11:35 am

I went ahead and remounted the original northbridge heatsink. I cleaned it up, popped it on, plugged it in, and it said "44". I couldn't find any burn spots or defects on the motherboard

<snif-snif> I guess its dead

Anyways, I been looking at motherboard to buy this fall when i retun from vacation, any thoughts/opinions/caveats/or praise for any of these boards (or any of your suggestion)?

EPoX EP-9NPA+Ultra
ABIT AN8 SLI
Gigabyte GA-K8N Pro-SLI
ASUS A8N-SLI
ASRock 939SLI32-eSATA2 (Bro has Dual SATA II)

Any others you might recommend? I kinda quit paying attention to motherboards last year after I had finally decided on the Epox.

Please let me know what you think

(on a side note I run linux, so if you know anything about these boards and any problems/issues with linux please let me know)

Thanks for the help guys, it just sucks that I've fried my first motherboard.

nici · Post by **nici** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 4:30 pm

geekbanter wrote: Thanks for the help guys, it just sucks that I've fried my first motherboard.

DonÂ´t worry, it happens to everyone..

Not me though, iÂ´ve never broken a mobo because of a failed psu mod or a dropped pc.