Hi! I bought a motherboard a month ago, an ASrock P55 Extreme for my i5. It uses traditional transistors, which are, from what I have heard, considered kinda bad. Anyhow, after overclocking my processor to a stable 4GHz with a full load temp at max 72C, I tried to start the computer after about a week and as soon as I pressed the button I heard a pop and gray smoke came out of the case. I inspected the motherboard and realized that 2 transistors in phase 1 and 2 in the voltage regulator circuit, under the heatsinks melted. So then I decided to take this motherboard back to the store and claim that it is faulty. However, one of the pins happened to bend while I was removing the CPU. Therefore, according the manufacturers, I can't get a replacement since there is physical damage caused by me. If I can prove that a broken pin does not result in melted transistors I can get a replacement since the board was already broken before I "broke it further". The PSU I was using (Corsair TX750W) is considered quite good I believe, in case anyone thinks it might be due to the PSU, which could still be a possibility since I'm not so sure. This is by the way my first post and hopefully one of few I will post on hardware failures Any answers are welcome.
Personally I'd say it shouldn't but it'd depend on what pin it was & what it touched. Connecting 2 voltage pins could blow something.
This is the hard lesson of overclocking it is a total risk of loss and gain. You gain performance but you could blow it and kill something, all serious overclockers here know this and have suffered the same pain. All i can say is you've lost, the company are now aware that the pins are bent, so they wont replace it. Tough luck.
ASRock aren't known for their quality overclocking hardware. I've seen a few burn out under stress (including the £350 boards)
Wow, nice, fast responses. That's really cool. Can someone please confirm if there is a chance that a broken pin may be the cause of melted transistors. I would also like to add that I had been using the computer for over a month until it burnt the transistors. Is it possible to use a computer over a month with a broken pin on the mobo? The reason I'm concerned is that if there is no chance, then they can't blame me for the melted transistors, unless they can confirm that I overclocked which I'm also curious about. Since they are traditional transistors, my guess that it could have happened to anyone, overclocker or not.
They may not be able to blame you for the blown transistors but breaking the pin would void any warranty (even if it was already broken). You might be better off talking to ASRock direct.
You might have broken the transistors yourself from applying too much voltage, mate. Chances are, you won't get a refund/warranty fix on this, but by all means try.
How badly is the pin bent? It may be possible to gently push it back into position. Depending on how badly the pin is bent (ie how large the air gap is between the pin and the cpu) the bent pin may give a high resistance contact which would result in a burnt pin or worst case may weld the pin to the cpu. If the pin was significantly bent or broken chances are the cpu would not work. The problem you have sounds like more current was pulled through the voltage regulator than it was rated to handle. Whilst that does point toward overclocking it may be difficult for the retailler/manufacturer to demonstrate that was the cause so they may accept a RMA.
Ok. I really appreciate the help. The pin is only slightly bent. I will firstly try and convince the manufacturers that I should get a replacement. If it doesn't work then I will bend the pin back and send it back If all fails then I might have to get a new MSI P55 GD65 since from what I've read, its probably the best mid class 1156 mobo especially for overclocking.
