Desoldering Power Connection

[GSTARR]

Hey guys,

 

Im going to desolder my X99 Deluxe's 8-pin power connector. Im pretty sure that is the source of my problems, and have also accepted the damage is (probably) already done to my cpu socket (although, maybe the socket will be okay, just the old cpu will be fried?)

 

My question is, when I take the connector off, what should I look for? What are signs of a bad connector? I cant see anything externally.

 

 

[Sjaakie]

First of all, what is the issue? The socket and power connector are just metal wiring, if there is any damage you would probably see it in burn marks / bent pins.

[RONOTHAN##]

2 minutes ago, GSTARR said:

Im going to desolder my X99 Deluxe's 8-pin power connector. Im pretty sure that is the source of my problems

Not likely, The 8 pin is very hard to kill, whereas the VRM is a lot easier to kill. 

 

2 minutes ago, GSTARR said:

What are signs of a bad connector?

It's melted. If it's not melted it's probably not bad. 

 

If you really want to check, grab a multimeter and check the resistance between these two sections:

If the resistance there is low across all pins, the connector is fine. If the resistance there is high across at least one pin, then there's something up with the connector, but I'd highly doubt that. 

[AI_Must_Di3]

Are you talking about a 8 pin EPS connector? Why do you think its THE problem? If the cpu socket is damaged why even do that? CPU fried? Why even do that? The only signs that would be on the connector would be discoloration or melting, the problem usually lies in the rest of the voltage traces and components. Hay, its your stuff though and you can do anything you want to it!

[GSTARR]

1 minute ago, AI_Must_Di3 said:

 

@RONOTHAN##

@Sjaakie

Here's the post explaining my issue:

What I didnt add, because nobody responded to it so I didnt think to edit it, was that without the 8pin connector the motherboard wouldnt post, but would not power cycle either. plugging in the 8 pin would then start the power cycling. So i figured that was the place to start...

 

 

But it seems like you guys think its my vrm...how would I go about testing or replacing that? That's under the top heatsink right?

[GSTARR]

9 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

Not likely, The 8 pin is very hard to kill, whereas the VRM is a lot easier to kill. 

 

It's melted. If it's not melted it's probably not bad. 

 

If you really want to check, grab a multimeter and check the resistance between these two sections:

If the resistance there is low across all pins, the connector is fine. If the resistance there is high across at least one pin, then there's something up with the connector, but I'd highly doubt that. 

Also, just to double check, you know one of the things you circled is a hole for a mounting screw?

[IkeaGnome]

Just now, GSTARR said:

Also, just to double check, you know one of the things you circled is a hole for a mounting screw?

The metal around that hole works as part of the ground plane. 

[AI_Must_Di3]

Yes, if the socket pin is bent you have to straighten it out or its going to hit the chip pad wrong and when heatsink pressure is applied on clamp down its going to slide even further. Of course were talking about micro sizes of movement here but its usually enough to bork the board. That pin may be the one causing the error.

[Sjaakie]

11 minutes ago, GSTARR said:

What I didnt add, because nobody responded to it so I didnt think to edit it, was that without the 8pin connector the motherboard wouldnt post, but would not power cycle either. plugging in the 8 pin would then start the power cycling. So i figured that was the place to start...

 

 

Sound normal to me, the board will just behave different whether the 8 pin is connected or not.

 

Seems some defective part, probably the board, but if there is no visible damage there is not really a point in desoldering stuff. It could be anything.

 

To be sure the components will need to be tested seperately with other components.

 

Edit:

3 minutes ago, AI_Must_Di3 said:

Yes, if the socket pin is bent you have to straighten it out or its going to hit the chip pad wrong and when heatsink pressure is applied on clamp down its going to slide even further. Of course were talking about micro sizes of movement here but its usually enough to bork the board. That pin may be the one causing the error.

The pin does seem a bit off indeed, could be worth a shot to try and straighten it. Though this bend wouldn't suddenly happen on an assembled pc that is working.

[RONOTHAN##]

Just now, GSTARR said:

Also, just to double check, you know one of the things you circled is a hole for a mounting screw?

Yes. Screw holes are wired to the ground plane, and it was a convenient place to circle in the photo. Realistically there are over a dozen different places where you can measure ground from, that was just the first one I saw. 

 

What you're doing there is checking to make sure the ground pins of the 8 pin are connected to the ground plane, which if they are means that the connector is fine. 

 

5 minutes ago, GSTARR said:

But it seems like you guys think its my vrm...how would I go about testing or replacing that? That's under the top heatsink right?

The easiest thing to test for is short circuits, and the way to go about that is checking the resistance between each of these three sections.

Blue is +12V, Green is ground, red is the VRM output. 

 

There are other ways the VRM can fail, say the controller dies and it either doesn't turn on or always sends something ridiculously high into the CPU (5V or something), that won't be tested with this, but it's a good first step for diagnosing a power failure. One of the issues though is that if it's power cycling like that, it's not likely a short circuit. One thing some ASUS X99 boards have done in the past is randomly set the CPU VCore to 2V and kill the CPU near instantly like you're experiencing. The board will still work with new, working CPUs, but it has a chance to just do that again and realistically the board should be considered a loss at that point if that turns out to be the issue. 

[goatedpenguin]

1 hour ago, GSTARR said:

Hey guys,

 

Im going to desolder my X99 Deluxe's 8-pin power connector. Im pretty sure that is the source of my problems, and have also accepted the damage is (probably) already done to my cpu socket (although, maybe the socket will be okay, just the old cpu will be fried?)

 

My question is, when I take the connector off, what should I look for? What are signs of a bad connector? I cant see anything externally.

 

 

first off your 8 pin connector is prolly not damaged it acts like a medium to transport power to the cpu socket, what may be your actual problem is the psu or the 8 pin cable etc. Why desolder something when some components can still be tested?

[GSTARR]

50 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

Yes. Screw holes are wired to the ground plane, and it was a convenient place to circle in the photo. Realistically there are over a dozen different places where you can measure ground from, that was just the first one I saw. 

 

What you're doing there is checking to make sure the ground pins of the 8 pin are connected to the ground plane, which if they are means that the connector is fine. 

 

The easiest thing to test for is short circuits, and the way to go about that is checking the resistance between each of these three sections.

Blue is +12V, Green is ground, red is the VRM output. 

 

There are other ways the VRM can fail, say the controller dies and it either doesn't turn on or always sends something ridiculously high into the CPU (5V or something), that won't be tested with this, but it's a good first step for diagnosing a power failure. One of the issues though is that if it's power cycling like that, it's not likely a short circuit. One thing some ASUS X99 boards have done in the past is randomly set the CPU VCore to 2V and kill the CPU near instantly like you're experiencing. The board will still work with new, working CPUs, but it has a chance to just do that again and realistically the board should be considered a loss at that point if that turns out to be the issue. 

But would you consider it normal that without a cpu, it would be power cycling? I.E. if it did kill the cpu, but everything else is fine, wouldnt it do something other than power cycle? Or without a cpu it just doesnt have the instruction set necessary to function...

 

Thanks for your advice on this. Im sure the board is toast, but given the prices of things nowadays I really wanted it to have a fix

[GSTARR]

14 minutes ago, goatedpenguin said:

first off your 8 pin connector is prolly not damaged it acts like a medium to transport power to the cpu socket, what may be your actual problem is the psu or the 8 pin cable etc. Why desolder something when some components can still be tested?

The psu was switched out with an older one, who also had a different cable. So i feel quite certain that isnt the issue

[GSTARR]

@RONOTHAN##

 

Btw, I looked at my vrm because of your comment and it looked caked with a sugar substance. I cant remember the last time I spilled something on my desktop...

 

Regardless, I cleaned it up by drowning the vrm and the 8pin connection right above it in 91% IPA, and it no longer power cycles on and off repeatedly. It stays on, just idling. Nothing on screen.

 

Does that give you an indication of anything?

[goatedpenguin]

39 minutes ago, GSTARR said:

The psu was switched out with an older one, who also had a different cable. So i feel quite certain that isnt the issue

wait... did you mix the psu cables by any chance?

[GSTARR]

2 minutes ago, goatedpenguin said:

wait... did you mix the psu cables by any chance?

No, they each have their own set. I kept both.

 

Ive heard mixing them is bad, what would happen?

[RONOTHAN##]

25 minutes ago, GSTARR said:

Does that give you an indication of anything?

Not really. It could have been some sort of short, but it's not super likely. 

 

43 minutes ago, GSTARR said:

I.E. if it did kill the cpu, but everything else is fine, wouldnt it do something other than power cycle? Or without a cpu it just doesnt have the instruction set necessary to function...

Some boards will bootloop with a dead CPU installed or with no CPU installed, while other boards will just stay on. 

[goatedpenguin]

3 hours ago, GSTARR said:

No, they each have their own set. I kept both.

 

Ive heard mixing them is bad, what would happen?

it would screw your pc if you mixed them

[goatedpenguin]

2 hours ago, RONOTHAN## said:

Not really. It could have been some sort of short, but it's not super likely. 

 

Some boards will bootloop with a dead CPU installed or with no CPU installed, while other boards will just stay on. 

if the OP think his cpu is dead then he can try using another cpu and see what the problem is.

[GSTARR]

11 hours ago, goatedpenguin said:

if the OP think his cpu is dead then he can try using another cpu and see what the problem is.

Well, he had mentioned in another post that some X99 motherboards had shot the Vcore up to 2V and fried the cpu, and would do so to any CPU's that followed.

 

I will probably just have fun with this motherboard and tinker with it. Maybe buy a 5820k and see if it works if I find anything of note. Probably not though

 

Thanks for yalls help!

[goatedpenguin]

3 hours ago, GSTARR said:

Well, he had mentioned in another post that some X99 motherboards had shot the Vcore up to 2V and fried the cpu, and would do so to any CPU's that followed.

 

I will probably just have fun with this motherboard and tinker with it. Maybe buy a 5820k and see if it works if I find anything of note. Probably not though

 

Thanks for yalls help!

Out of curiosity, did you OC your chip?

[Echothedolpin]

22 hours ago, GSTARR said:

@RONOTHAN##

 

Btw, I looked at my vrm because of your comment and it looked caked with a sugar substance. I cant remember the last time I spilled something on my desktop...

 

Regardless, I cleaned it up by drowning the vrm and the 8pin connection right above it in 91% IPA, and it no longer power cycles on and off repeatedly. It stays on, just idling. Nothing on screen.

 

Does that give you an indication of anything?

Power component ‘caked with sugar substance’ in a capacitor-dense area of the board combined with power problem screams leaky or blown cap to me. 

[GSTARR]

20 hours ago, Echothedolpin said:

Power component ‘caked with sugar substance’ in a capacitor-dense area of the board combined with power problem screams leaky or blown cap to me. 

I will take another look, but everything looked ok and i ran my fingers lightly along the capacitors and they didnt wobble...

[Echothedolpin]

1 hour ago, GSTARR said:

I will take another look, but everything looked ok and i ran my fingers lightly along the capacitors and they didnt wobble...

Wobbling won’t indicate whether it’s blown or not. I’m not familiar with the caps on that board, but if they’re electrolytic they could’ve leaked and be bad, or otherwise internally damaged. That could kill the cpu or otherwise cause power problems.