Possibly damaged ASRock Z97 Extreme6? Or is it still likely okay / safe to run (won't kill connected parts)? Or, time to replace?

[PianoPlayer88Key]

So ... I came home the other day to find this - my piano bench pushed up against the back of my ASRock Z97 Extreme6.

 

 

Apparently someone had pushed the piano bench into the back of the motherboard, by the CPU socket.  I've been swapping hard drives in and out, cloning drives (also my dad recently got an 850 Evo SSD to replace his 500GB WD Black in his laptop), etc, which was why the side panel was off.  I had to leave to go do some other things that day, and the computer was powered off at the time.

 

Here's a somewhat closeup of the bench up close and personal with the mobo, from a different angle.

 

 

 

Upon closer inspection, I find this by the CPU socket - I believe by the VRMs or something like that.

 

 

Does anyone have any idea what that broken-looking part left of the upper chip ("i 68 / 11ACR2 / F431WN") is, and what its purpose might be?  My dad thinks it's maybe a capacitor possibly shunting across ground or something, and thinks due to having other of the same configuration that it might be somewhat redundant or something like that.  I'd like to get some other opinions/ideas as well.

 

Here's a zoomed-out pic of the same area.

 

 

 

And, here's a view cropped from another photo, taken some time ago before the incident occurred.

 

 

 

I haven't attempted to power on the system since that part broke, as I'm not sure what the consequences are.  There are a few possibilities running through my mind  ....

• Would it be fine, and the system work normally?
• Since it's near VRMs, maybe it might be unstable if I overclock it (or maybe even at stock which is what it's been running)?
• Is it a critical part and we somehow killed the mobo? 
• Maybe the mobo will power on, but the loss of that little part will kill something connected to the mobo (like a CPU, video card, hard drive, DIMM, or something)?

 

For now I'm waiting to attempt to power the system on, until I can be sure that doing so won't kill something else.

 

 

 

Best case scenario, I think, would be it's fine and I don't need to worry about it.

 

I was originally going to wait until like 2020-2022 or later to get a new board/CPU/RAM platform upgrade.

 

That ASRock Z97 Extreme6 has an i7-4790K cooled by a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo, and 4x 8GB DDR3-1600 G.Skill Ares RAM, to reference current specs.

 

 

 

But ... if I *DO* need to get a new board ....

 

I'll need to figure out what I'd want to replace it with.

 

My dream wishlist would be something that would last me 10-15 years (or through 2 or 3 Corsair AX / SeaSonic Prime power supplies, each dying of old age), before having to get a new board due to incompatibility with upgrade parts, and have a CPU that'd have pretty significant performance - like Threadripper 1950X, Epyc 7601, Xeon Platinum 8180, etc, and supporting 2+ TB RAM.  

 

Coming more back down to earth, though ... 

 

 

I do have a laptop I've been using as my "de facto" main system - it has an i7-6700K, GTX 970M, 40GB RAM, 250GB + 1050GB SSD, 1080p IPS G-Sync display, etc.  (It's a Clevo P750DM-G.)  So, I'm not in a huge rush to replace the system, if the board is dead.

 

 

One possibility is to make a NAS -- to get a board, a different case (I'm liking my Thor V2 less and less, and the Define R5 looks appealing as much as I hate swinging front doors on cases), and either put my 4790K in it, or the i3-6100 I have laying around (depending on the board I get).  Maybe you've seen my other posts where I have a lot of hard drives.  (Another case option, for a NAS, might be the Node 804.)

 

 

If I was to get the desktop working again, if I need to replace parts ...

 

I'd be possibly leaning toward Ryzen 7 1700X with the ASRock X370 Taichi board, possibly, a couple 8-port LSI SAS/SATA controllers off ebay, 2x16GB DDR4 (likely G.Skill). and a Define R5 or similar case with lots of 3.5" HDD bays, or something like that.  (One important thing on the case, is the drive trays have to be compatible with the high capacity hard drives that don't have the middle screws, but just the far-spaced ones.)

Other possiblities might be Ryzen 5 with a lesser board, maybe Coffee Lake i5 or i7 (but I'm not really sure on that one), Threadripper 1900X (if budget could stretch, cause having more RAM & PCI-E lane support would be nice), Sandy Bridge Xeon E5 (LGA 2011), or I might consider other suggestions, if needed.

It'd be nice to keep a new board until like 2030 or later (upgrading CPU & RAM a few times along the way), but I don't think my budget would allow for like a $400-700+ TR4 or LGA3647 board.   So I'd probably be replacing it anyway when DDR5 and PCIe 5.0 are out, which was my original plan to replace my Z97 board anyway.

 

 

 

 

Anyway though ... before I start shopping for a new board + CPU + RAM + cooler + case + SAS controller, I'd need to be sure my board didn't die due to that part being broken.  And, before I power it up and see if it still works, I want to be sure it won't kill something else, as I mentioned earlier.

 

 

[comicsansms]

It's a capacitor.

Measure the value of the capacitance of the capacitor in the identical spot ib the circuit below the one that was damaged, and replace accordingly.

[PianoPlayer88Key]

8 minutes ago, Comic_Sans_MS said:

It's a capacitor.

Measure the value of the capacitance of the capacitor in the identical spot ib the circuit below the one that was damaged, and replace accordingly.

That's what my dad and I were thinking.  We did try measuring it with some tools he has, but were having trouble getting readings on it.

 

Also would it be safe to power on while it's still busted, or better to attempt to replace the capacitor before I attempt to power the system up?

 

As for what to replace it with, I presume someone at ASRock might know, but fat chance of them wanting to tell me so I could service my own board  (I'm pretty sure it's out of warranty btw.)  Also I'm not Luis Rossman, but then maybe I wouldn't need a reflow station to solder that part.

[MageTank]

2 minutes ago, PianoPlayer88Key said:

That's what my dad and I were thinking.  We did try measuring it with some tools he has, but were having trouble getting readings on it.

 

Also would it be safe to power on while it's still busted, or better to attempt to replace the capacitor before I attempt to power the system up?

I wouldn't attempt it. Look's like a VRM driver. 

[PianoPlayer88Key]

Just now, MageTank said:

I wouldn't attempt it. Look's like a VRM driver. 

That's what I'm afraid of.  I'm pretty sure it's related to VRMs, cause on the other side of the board is a built-in heatsink, with the chokes (or whatever) nearby.

[MageTank]

Just now, PianoPlayer88Key said:

That's what I'm afraid of.  I'm pretty sure it's related to VRMs, cause on the other side of the board is a built-in heatsink, with the chokes (or whatever) nearby.

Yeah, looks exactly like a VRM driver. Best case, you are able to power it on and be fine whilst not under load, worst case is, you turn it on and see the magical blue smoke. I personally wouldn't chance it. 

[PianoPlayer88Key]

15 minutes ago, MageTank said:

Yeah, looks exactly like a VRM driver. Best case, you are able to power it on and be fine whilst not under load, worst case is, you turn it on and see the magical blue smoke. I personally wouldn't chance it. 

Yeah, I'm preferring to play it safe.  Not sure if I should try replacing that part, or just say to heck with it and get a new board.

[Zodiark1593]

I would say some Dum Dum owes you a new board. You may consider selling the RAM and CPU, and going with a Ryzen though depending on what you're doing with the thing. Then again, as you've already the cpu and RAM, this could go either direction tbh.

[PianoPlayer88Key]

14 minutes ago, Zodiark1593 said:

I would say some Dum Dum owes you a new board. You may consider selling the RAM and CPU, and going with a Ryzen though depending on what you're doing with the thing. Then again, as you've already the cpu and RAM, this could go either direction tbh.

Yeah, maybe so.  I do a lot of multitasking, am wanting to get more into video editing, possibly streaming, etc.  Also might consider running VMs, running a NAS, etc.  I also do some gaming, but I don't need high settings or refresh.  (I have a 3GB 1060 in that system and it's plenty for me for now for games.  Even before I got the GPU, and was using the iGPU, many of the games I was playing & settings I was using were fine on just that.)

 

If I go with a newer system (and don't either get another LGA1150 board for my 4790K, or an LGA1151 board for the i3-6100 I have laying around (don't have any desktop DDR4 though) - it had been in my laptop before i upgraded to a 6700K on a $260 black friday deal), I'd be leaning toward, as I mentioned earlier, R7-1700X or something like that.

 

If I sold the 4790K and the 32GB DDR3 (2 of these), I wonder how much I might get for it.  I'm guessing maybe $250 top for the CPU, probably more like $160-200, and maybe anywhere from $150-200 for the RAM.  Even that might be a bit high - maybe I should price the CPU about 20% below what a 4c/8t Ryzen 5 1400 goes for at MicroCenter, and the RAM about 20% below what the price per GB was last year before prices spiked...

[dexT]

Let's get to the root of the issue. Sell the pointy wooden upright and get a Yamaha S90 ES and a standing height X or Z stand

[PianoPlayer88Key]

3 hours ago, dexT said:

Let's get to the root of the issue. Sell the pointy wooden upright and get a Yamaha S90 ES and a standing height X or Z stand

Haha

 

I actually do like that Hamilton (Baldwin) upright, though. Although I am thinking of someday also getting like a Roland Juno-DS88 or FA-08, when I have the $.  (And I have another Hamilton in the other room, too.  I'd put up a couple YouTube links to songs played on them, but I'm not sure the rules allow that.)

 

Something I was just thinking of ... is how would I offload stuff off my laptop's 2.5" SSD (when it gets full again) onto one of my 3.5" HDDs, when I don't have a functioning motherboard.  Idk if I could jury-rig a connection from my laptop's 2nd 2.5" bay's SATA ports to a 4/5/8TB HGST Deskstar NAS, for example.

Maybe I could power the HDD off my Corsair AX760 (shorting the relevant pins on the 24-pin connector to turn it on) and run a SATA data cable from the laptop's port to the drive?

 

I do have an external 3.5" enclosure, but it's USB 2.0 I think, and only supports up to 2TB drives.  (Newest 2TB or less drive I have is a WD20EZRX from Aug 2014.)  Or I could get a 2.5" HDD (I don't trust my 2TB Seagate/Samsung Spinpoint M9T with its 38 or so bad sectors), or a newer USB 3.0 enclosure to support 3+TB HDDs.

 

I don't really want to rush getting a new motherboard+CPU+RAM if I don't have to.  Soonest I'd get one is next few days or so, longest I'd wait is when DDR5 and PCI Express 5.0 are available on both AMD & Intel on mainstream (not just HEDT).

[dexT]

13 minutes ago, PianoPlayer88Key said:

Haha

 

I actually do like that Hamilton (Baldwin) upright, though. Although I am thinking of someday also getting like a Roland Juno-DS88 or FA-08, when I have the $.  (And I have another Hamilton in the other room, too.  I'd put up a couple YouTube links to songs played on them, but I'm not sure the rules allow that.)

I've played a Fantom, if the FA 08 is based on that it sounds good.

 

Got a Yamaha EX5 and Waldorf Blofeld Keys myself sitting pretty much unused since a hand injury.

[PianoPlayer88Key]

Okay, so … update:  I decided to ? a little.

 

Not entirely though, as I did remove 3 sticks of RAM (leaving a single 8GB stick installed), remove the video card (3GB 1060), and unplug all storage devices (including removing a PCIe to SATA/IDE controller).  I left fans, front panel connectors, etc. hooked up of course.

 

 

Powered on the system.  It did post, and I was able to get into UEFI.  Looked around in there, mostly at the HW tab, and I didn't notice anything that stood out as being unusual.  (I probably should have taken a pic of it though.)  Glad I didn't kill the CPU and the stick of RAM I had in there - I guess that broken-off part is relatively insignificant, for now at least.

 

Then I shut down, plugged in my blu-ray writer and the SSD that has Windows & Linux installed on it, and booted up.  It comes up to Windows just fine.

 

I have HWInfo64, but haven't looked at it in much detail.  I did notice the screen would go black & come back a couple times every few minutes for a little bit, though, not sure what that's all about.

 

I haven't run any other tests yet.  Should I try a temporary OC while running Prime95 or Cinebench or something?  (I don't have Aida64 installed on thi1s fairly fresh install, and the one I had previously turned out to be a semi-dud key that someone was "kind" enough to give me - it works for that version, but un-upgradeable and the few keys he gave me are buried somewhere.)  Maybe try some brief OC'ing until I reach instability?  (Previously, that would happen with about 4.8 GHz at 1.25V, or 4.9 or 5.0 GHz at 1.35V - would BSOD within a few seconds or so when applying that in ASRock Tuning Utility while a stress test was running - or instantly when trying 5 GHz.)

 

Sooo …… it looks like I may have dodged a ?.  Maybe I can wait until DDR5 and PCI Express 5.0 (or early 2020s) to replace the system, as originally planned.

 

I am still thinking about building a NAS, though, and would also like to move to a smaller case for my main rig.  If my system had turned out to be dead, then another option would be to build a Ryzen/AM4-based system.  (Not sure I would have gone with Coffee Lake even if I waited for availability/prices to settle down.  I don't like how Intel makes their platforms not last or be upgradeable in the distant future.)

 

 

TL;DR:  Apparently dodged bullet.  Unplugged a bunch of things except bare essentials, powered on, it worked.  Plugged in boot drive, it boots okay.  What tests, if any, should I run, before deciding the system is good enough to continue using as normal?

[PianoPlayer88Key]

Well, it passed Cinebench 11.5, with a score of 8.34, and single-thread 1.76 score.  I was running at stock settings.

 

I used that version cause I wanted to compare to my dad's laptop, which won't run R15.  He scored 1.04 multi and 0.56 single, ±~0.02.  My laptop did ~8.86/=1.76.  (We had just (finally) disabled wuauserv on his laptop, which was causing an svchost.exe to hog half his CPU or more and a few hundred MB of RAM.)

 

So, should I consider it good to go, to plug everything back in and use? Or should I run some more tests first, maybe try OC to 4.8 GHz @ 1.35V and test that?