Mobo, PSU burned out

[l3jmr]

Hi,
i've been arount these forums lurking for a while just never registered/posted anything. This is what happened to me and was wondering if anyone had a similar experience or know which would cause this - bad mobo or bad PSU. Motherboard is Asrock 970 Extreme 4 and the psu is Corsair HX 1050W. It was running 5*7870 and power consumption measured at the socket was 960-980W and 4-5A current. It was running fine for about 2 months untill yesterday I only noticed because my miners went offline, but the fans on GPU's kept running and the PSU still turns on.

[Devine]

Looks like your motherboard was pulling too much juice... People tend to use powered risers to help avoid this. Although you provide power to your cards with the 6/8 pin cables - some of it still is drawn from the motherboard. Powered risers fix this problem. A setup with 5 x 7870's sounds like the right conditions for this.

[Buffer Overflow]

Yes powered rises will stop that. You can make your own.

[ranlo]

Ouch, this sucks! I ran into a similar issue when I installed a 7950 on my 480w PSU (that said min. 500). Exploded the PSU though, not any mobo/videocard damage.

I think you needed more power.

[l3jmr]

I only used power risers for 2 cards tho, since the board already got 3 slots that will fit the GPU. So can this still be the case ?

How can i make my own powered risers? I saw some on ebay but they cost 5 times as much as the normal ones.

[sebo]

Hi
you have to solder  wires from 12v line from  PSU to the pins in the normal riser (12v pins)

[ranlo]

I only used power risers for 2 cards tho, since the board already got 3 slots that will fit the GPU. So can this still be the case ?

How can i make my own powered risers? I saw some on ebay but they cost 5 times as much as the normal ones.

Good question, and not something I know enough about. However...

Your PSU was 1050w. You were pulling nearly 1000w from the wall.

My understanding is that PSU's "deteriorate" over time (based on power calculators), something about capacitor age or something. Someone who knows more may be able to chime in but I think this could be related? Ex. the power being pushed by the PSU decreased over time until it could no longer handle the load and then was overloaded.

[Kaepora]

Hi,
i've been arount these forums lurking for a while just never registered/posted anything. This is what happened to me and was wondering if anyone had a similar experience or know which would cause this - bad mobo or bad PSU. Motherboard is Asrock 970 Extreme 4 and the psu is Corsair HX 1050W. It was running 5*7870 and power consumption measured at the socket was 960-980W and 4-5A current. It was running fine for about 2 months untill yesterday I only noticed because my miners went offline, but the fans on GPU's kept running and the PSU still turns on.

http://shrani.si/f/2H/mu/3groVBHV/1/wp20130611009.jpg

http://shrani.si/f/m/Ct/3Ds0Byvb/1/wp20130611005.jpg

5 * 7870 was bad idea, are they overclocked or overvolted?

[kodo]

gotta get a new one

[l3jmr]

Hi
you have to solder  wires from 12v line from  PSU to the pins in the normal riser (12v pins)

That's above my experties, i neither have the tools or the knowledge to do that

I only used power risers for 2 cards tho, since the board already got 3 slots that will fit the GPU. So can this still be the case ?

How can i make my own powered risers? I saw some on ebay but they cost 5 times as much as the normal ones.

Good question, and not something I know enough about. However...

Your PSU was 1050w. You were pulling nearly 1000w from the wall.

My understanding is that PSU's "deteriorate" over time (based on power calculators), something about capacitor age or something. Someone who knows more may be able to chime in but I think this could be related? Ex. the power being pushed by the PSU decreased over time until it could no longer handle the load and then was overloaded.

I have heared about the deteriorating PSU's over time aswell, however my PSU was only 2 months old - same with the motherboard so i'm not sure if that applys to my case aswell. I have had experience with broken down PSU's in the past but never like this. It usually is generating extreme heat and you can smell the plastic burning and then it explodes and doesnt work anymore. Mine still works however so i dont know

[litecoin_messiah]

Yeah you have to use Powered Risers!

[puppetmaster]

Does your motherboard have an extra 4 Pin Molex or 6 Pin PCI E connector? Generally if you are running alot of cards at once, you want one with one of the connectors to supply more power, so you dont burn out your 24pin.

[lbr]

clean it and plug again, it's probably alive ; )

[l3jmr]

Im not sure, it's this one http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/970%20Extreme4/ it does have 8pin voltage connector or whatever that is near the CPU if that's what you ment?

[l3jmr]

clean it and plug again, it's probably alive ; )

clean what the PSU? should i do anything about that burned cable or is it a fire hazard now?

[lbr]

He meant this - http://www.google.com/search?q=M2A581&rls=com.microsoft:en-za:IE-SearchBox&oe=&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=TsS4UZfLD4jK4ASOrIG4Bg&biw=1440&bih=704&sei=UMS4UaF2yffhBJ7DgeAL

see, there is a molex power above the first PCI-e slot.

Clean - take all the melted plastic away and make sure there is a contact between those pins that have burned.

It burned because there were too much Amps going, powered risers would have prevented this.
It was not PSU problem.

[kodo]

Something similiar to this happend to my miner except I was able to smell the burning and stopped the power.

[lbr]

should i do anything about that burned cable or is it a fire hazard now?

totally, make sure there are no shorts and don't turn the rig on with the same config(5x7870).

[l3jmr]

Would it be ok if i replace 2*7870 with 2x7850? That would reduce power consupmtion for about 80W or so if my calculations are correct.

Thanks for help , i really appreciate it 

[lbr]

Would it be ok if i replace 2*7870 with 2x7850? That would reduce power consupmtion for about 80W or so if my calculations are correct.

Thanks for help , i really appreciate it 

mm.
See, GPUs are using not only the power supplied by PCI-E power cables(http://www.hardcore-games.tk/images/psu/pcie6.jpeg) but also the power from PCI-e slot itself - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express#Pinout, see there are +12V power lines?

So what happened to your rig -
motherboard takes +12V from PSU using the ATX power plug(the one which burned)
motherboard then does something with that power(or not) using voltage regulator on the motherboard and gives it to GPUs on the PCI-e slot.
And your GPUs took too much power from PCI-e slots - so the weakest link burnt, usually the weakest link is the ATX power connector itself.

Now to anwser your question(replace 7870 with 7850) we need to know exactly how much power 7850/7870 are using from PCIe slot itself and for how much max power your ATX connector is rated and assuming that not only the connector burnt but also motherboard voltage regulator also - how much max power it can give.

That's a lot of questions ; )) That's why ppl usually use powered risers - consuming +12V directly from PSU and not using it from motherboard.