To Fix or not to Fix, that´s the question. Beyond repair or Easy Fix?

[Tau-Tau]

Hi all,

So, let me tell you an interesting story, filled with a nasty hint of BAD LUCK and nerve wrecking "your whole life flashing before your eyes".

I have a msi Z270m Mortar motherboard, in a Thermaltake Core V21 Case, during use, the led strip connected to the motherboard carrying 12v just unglued from the top of the case and because the mobo is in an horizontal position, the strip hit precisely the 2 pins marked as “JCI1” which I believe is from the case intrusion.
Just to get this straight, the led strip could have fallen in many places, but it fell precisely and aligned with the 2 pins on the motherboard with the contacts of the LED Strip. One in a thousand possibilities. Fl*ck Me hah?

Anyways, right after the contact, the motherboard immediately shuts down never to turn on again, not one sign of live, even after clearing CMOS. 
Basically the sign to turn on the PSU isn´t even sent.

After some troubleshooting, and testing components I was pretty sure only the mobo was wrecked, so I´ve ordered a new, same line motherboard and the other components are working fine with no issue. Hurray!

This is where it gets interesting, a normal person would just thrown away the old mobo and get along with his/her life. It just so happens I MAY have an OCD where I hord computer components and I have a really hard time throwing stuff away if I´m not 100% sure they are unfixable, and even they aren´t fixable, I´ll probably reporpuse them. For exemple, if I cannot fix the mobo, I´ll just put it in a frame for a nice painting on the wall. Nite.

Anyways, I don´t want to give up on this one, so I´ve checked the PCB extensively to look for signs of any blew or torched point, but I couldn´t find anything. NOTHING. Physically the motherboard seems to be fine. 

Hence, yesterday I connected a old PSU that I have to the motherboard and tricked the PSU into thinking to turn on using a Jumper (while using another jumper in "POWER SW” located in the motherboard).
To my surprise the motherboard lights up and the fans connected to it do turn on, and the CPU light turns on (which is normal since I didn´t have any CPU placed in the socket, my 7700k is on the new mobo).

After some research and some more serious eye concentration checking the connections on the board, I´m pretty sure the 12V went directly to the BIOS chip. And that´s the problem. The BIOS CHIP!

At this moment, I find myself with 3 possibilities.

1- I have a corrupted BIOS, that can be easily fixed placing a crappy CPU into the board and flashing the BIOS and installing it again.

2- I have a completly destroyed BIOS but an healthy chip, in which case I have to use a flashcat and install the bios from another PC using the USB adapter to the JSPI1 connector.

3- I have a completly destroyed BIOS and a completly destroyed ROM in the chip in which case its just a paper weight for an ant. And the only way to salvage it, is to weld a new BIOS Chip (which i dont know if I can buy one online, if so, I can try it, I guess...)

Having  that said, i´m trying to make up my mind if its indeed fixable and if it justifies to buy a crappy intel celeron G3930 and flash the bios and if that doesn´t work, try to use the flashcat adaptor. If it comes to this, the overall price to repair it myself will be somewhat close to a new mobo. 

What do you guys think? I really appreciate any suggestions or past experiences that any of you might and that could help me?


Sorry for the long post and thank you in advance!
 

[Ginger_]

If I understand what you're saying and you ran 12v through the bios chip, well it's probably dead. 

 

You could look on ebay for a replacement, although replacing it could be easy or a pain. My asrock z170 has a socketted for easy replacement, but my Asus b350 is soldered. If it's soldered you're going to need a hot air rework gun as well

[Peskanova]

z270 rma playing dumb?  Dear msi  I was not touching anything and suddenly a 12v spark was created from your mobo and the last words that came from my speakers was a tiny little voice saying RMA please y want to be close to my creator!! 

 

Something like that.... z270 should be 7 gen less than 2 years  warranty with luck

[KrYpToCiD]

12 minutes ago, Ginger_ said:

If I understand what you're saying and you ran 12v through the bios chip, well it's probably dead. 

 

You could look on ebay for a replacement, although replacing it could be easy or a pain. My asrock z170 has a socketted for easy replacement, but my Asus b350 is soldered. If it's soldered you're going to need a hot air rework gun as well

It would be that easy if that would be the only thing damaged. Mobos have power protections only on power inputs so it is very possible to get much much more things fried

[Tau-Tau]

Hey Ginger, 

First of all thank you.

Second, my BIOS Chip is welded, although I´ve the tool to make small welds, but never did one on a Motherboard Bios chip, to be honest.

Third, the LED connection in the motherboard says 12V, but the LED strip itself is made for a 5v. So, i´m not sure in that department. Don´t know if the LED strip was indeed carrying 12V or only 5V.

Let me post a pic,

And again, thank you for helping.

[Tau-Tau]

Peskanova, yes, the mobo is supposely still in warranty, it has a bit less than 1 and a half years. I guess I didn´t went with that stroy because i reckon they would be able to figure out that something happen than just a factory defect. I guess I´m still in time.... although I´m normally way honest. 

[KrYpToCiD]

4 minutes ago, Tau-Tau said:

Peskanova, yes, the mobo is supposely still in warranty, it has a bit less than 1 and a half years. I guess I didn´t went with that stroy because i reckon they would be able to figure out that something happen than just a factory defect. I guess I´m still in time.... although I´m normally way honest. 

plug the 24/20 pin in mobo and power the PSU*******. look for any leds show up. if there are leds it means that is not all fried. You can try to lie about " I didn't do it, it was in case and I haven't touch it for more than a week because i was gone in hollyday................." and so  =) 

 

 

**** DON"T POWER UP THE MOBO ,JUST PLUG IN THE PSU AND TURN THE PSU ON

[Peskanova]

to weld a chip on the mobo i think is like reballing a gpu -> near imposible 

[Tau-Tau]

9 minutes ago, KrYpToCiD said:

plug the 24/20 pin in mobo and power the PSU*******. look for any leds show up. if there are leds it means that is not all fried. You can try to lie about " I didn't do it, it was in case and I haven't touch it for more than a week because i was gone in hollyday................." and so  =) 

 

 

**** DON"T POWER UP THE MOBO ,JUST PLUG IN THE PSU AND TURN THE PSU ON

I´ve done exactly that.
The motherboard LEDS light up, fans work and the CPU light turns on, but that´s because, as I said, I dont have any spare 6th or 7th gen cpu. So its normal that the mobo acuses a missing CPU.

[KrYpToCiD]

7 minutes ago, Tau-Tau said:

I´ve done exactly that.
The motherboard LEDS light up, fans work and the CPU light turns on, but that´s because, as I said, I dont have any spare 6th or 7th gen cpu. So its normal that the mobo acuses a missing CPU.

then is more probably to get your cpu fried and mobo to be intact. talk with the mobo supplier and ask them what is going on. either you will get a new cpu if it is fried or a new mobo if a power rail heading to CPU is damaged. Assuming that they will not void the warranty. Most suppliers are doing that only to save themselfs form loosing money.

[Tau-Tau]

5 minutes ago, KrYpToCiD said:

then is more probably to get your cpu fried and mobo to be intact. talk with the mobo supplier and ask them what is going on. either you will get a new cpu if it is fried or a new mobo if a power rail heading to CPU is damaged. Assuming that they will not void the warranty. Most suppliers are doing that only to save themselfs form loosing money.

The CPU is working well, GPU, PSU, RAM, SSD and HDD are all in the new mobo. All are working fine with no problem.  I´m pretty sure its only the BIOS, just dont know if its totally lost or I can get into it and flash and install the new BIOS version. But for that, I need a CPU that isn´t my 7700k.  As I said, if I roll the dice, it will be a celeron G3930.

[KrYpToCiD]

Ok. it's your call then =)) I'm a freshman student and right now I'm working in a quite big PC workshop (around 150 people are working here) and we've seen some amazing stuff. Anyway, you said that the CPU isn't detected? Did you get a POST code? Or it is just your instinct?

[Tau-Tau]

6 minutes ago, KrYpToCiD said:

Ok. it's your call then =)) I'm a freshman student and right now I'm working in a quite big PC workshop (around 150 people are working here) and we've seen some amazing stuff. Anyway, you said that the CPU isn't detected? Did you get a POST code? Or it is just your instinct?

First of all, congrats. I´m not in the business but I´ve allways been so into this stuff. Makes me wonder If I get into the right business. I like what I do.. but computers are a passion whitout a doubt, So kudos to you. 

Anyways, the board lights up and the CPU light turns on because at the moment I dont have any CPU placed in the socket. So the CPU its not detected, which is normal, because there´s no CPU. Regarding the post Code, the mobo doesnt have any CODE display, although I did placed a BEEPER in it and doesn´t give any sound. only the CPU light turns on. Hence, grabbing a cheap celeron and try to get into the BIOS, because I dont want to place my i7 7700k which kind of is a golden silicon lottery one.. so I dont want to risk it. 

Would you buy the Celeron and try your luck?

[KrYpToCiD]

3 minutes ago, Tau-Tau said:

First of all, congrats. I´m not in the business but I´ve allways been so into this stuff. Makes me wonder If I get into the right business. I like what I do.. but computers are a passion whitout a doubt, So kudos to you. 

Anyways, the board lights up and the CPU light turns on because at the moment I dont have any CPU placed in the socket. So the CPU its not detected, which is normal, because there´s no CPU. Regarding the post Code, the mobo doesnt have any CODE display, although I did placed a BEEPER in it and doesn´t give any sound. only the CPU light turns on. Hence, grabbing a cheap celeron and try to get into the BIOS, because I dont want to place my i7 7700k which kind of is a golden silicon lottery one.. so I dont want to risk it. 

Would you buy the Celeron and try your luck?

Thanks =)) yeah, i feel ya. You might have a good chance to be with the CPU crashed or to have just a spark on mobo. As you said, only the silicon lottery outcome could tell. I wish you best luck with this =))

[Tau-Tau]

2 minutes ago, KrYpToCiD said:

Thanks =)) yeah, i feel ya. You might have a good chance to be with the CPU crashed or to have just a spark on mobo. As you said, only the silicon lottery outcome could tell. I wish you best luck with this =))

In this case its not even about the CPU, that I know its working well on the new replacement motherboard.
It just comes to the point of having a corrupted BIOS in the old board with the change of recovering it or no (in the case of a dead bios chip). Anyways, i´m not pulling out my 7700k off my computer to try it in the old currupted mobo.
Anyways, thanks for your help

[KrYpToCiD]

9 minutes ago, Tau-Tau said:

In this case its not even about the CPU, that I know its working well on the new replacement motherboard.
It just comes to the point of having a corrupted BIOS in the old board with the change of recovering it or no (in the case of a dead bios chip). Anyways, i´m not pulling out my 7700k off my computer to try it in the old currupted mobo.
Anyways, thanks for your help

Yeah. Pretty hard to get a new BIOS chip. If it is just soldered it is pretty easy job to replace it, but if it is BGA then you need that special machine....