Deadripper - is this even possible? (bad X399 board fries CPUs)

Zinn

Zinn

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My husband was setting up his new X399 computer (Gigabyte X399 Aorus Xtreme) and it wouldn't POST. After trying pretty much all the components in other computers we narrowed the problem down to either the CPU or the motherboard.

I already had a working Threadripper build so I swapped my CPU out into his board to test it, and his still wouldn't POST. So bad board, RMA. BUT THEN when I swapped it back into my own PC mine would no longer boot and would just get stuck on a post code (55) that isn't even documented.

We ended up running out to Microcenter and bought a replacement CPU for my PC and it immediately booted after doing the headless BIOS flash to enable 2nd-gen Threadrippers.

So it seems like my husband has a bad board that also fries CPUs...? Is that possible? I've never even heard of that.
 
Most certainly possible. The first Ryzen system I built had a board that would fry memory sticks.
 
I would fight Gigabyte about it. They need to buy you a new cpu or compensate you and they probably will pending you have proof.
 
tangoseal said:
I would fight Gigabyte about it. They need to buy you a new cpu or compensate you and they probably will pending you have proof.
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Good luck. You may get them to cover something on good will, but keep your fingers crossed.

RMA/Warranty often covers just the protected product. If anything else fries as a result of that - tough and too bad.

A few things may cover other components (UPS and Surge Protectors come to mind, but their entire purpose is protection), but the vast majority of products severely limit their consequential damages
 
Brian_B said:
Good luck. You may get them to cover something on good will, but keep your fingers crossed.

RMA/Warranty often covers just the protected product. If anything else fries as a result of that - tough and too bad.

A few things may cover other components (UPS and Surge Protectors come to mind, but their entire purpose is protection), but the vast majority of products severely limit their consequential damages
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Yea I agree, I'm not going to fight Gigabyte on it, just send it back to Amazon and hope the replacement doesn't fry CPUs.

Still a weird situation. The silver lining is me going from a 1920X to 2950X with my spouse having no room to complain about spending money since he fried my chip, so I'm not too salty :p
 
Just to add, I was also using a gigabyte board when burning through ram sticks.
 
Zinn said:
My husband was setting up his new X399 computer (Gigabyte X399 Aorus Xtreme) and it wouldn't POST. After trying pretty much all the components in other computers we narrowed the problem down to either the CPU or the motherboard.

I already had a working Threadripper build so I swapped my CPU out into his board to test it, and his still wouldn't POST. So bad board, RMA. BUT THEN when I swapped it back into my own PC mine would no longer boot and would just get stuck on a post code (55) that isn't even documented.

We ended up running out to Microcenter and bought a replacement CPU for my PC and it immediately booted after doing the headless BIOS flash to enable 2nd-gen Threadrippers.

So it seems like my husband has a bad board that also fries CPUs...? Is that possible? I've never even heard of that.
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Yes, this is absolutely possible. I've serviced, built, and worked with thousands of computer systems over more than two decades. I would say actual processor failures are relatively rare. In total I've seen probably only about a dozen or so bad CPU's between AMD and Intel. However, almost two thirds of those were killed by a bad motherboard necessitating the replacement of both the motherboard and CPU. I've replaced many motherboards over the years without having to change the CPU, but, the reverse certainly isn't true. Most bad CPU's had to be replaced along side a bad motherboard.
 
Yes. And PSUs can also fry mobos.. etc.
Had a DVD drive cause very intermittent BSODS before too.
 
I have actually seen a PSU fry virtually every single component inside a computer before. This was way back in the late 1990's or early 2000's. It was some Chinese junk unit and almost nothing inside that machine survived.
 
It might be bent pins in the socket. Take a high resolution pic of the socket and then try to see if anything looks out of place.
If you do have bent pins then any motherboard company might just say it's your fault and you are screwed. I would try to RMA it anyway. If it's just some bent pins I hear some manufacturers will just charge some money to fix it which is better than tossing it and buying something new.
 
pgaster said:
It might be bent pins in the socket. Take a high resolution pic of the socket and then try to see if anything looks out of place.
If you do have bent pins then any motherboard company might just say it's your fault and you are screwed. I would try to RMA it anyway. If it's just some bent pins I hear some manufacturers will just charge some money to fix it which is better than tossing it and buying something new.
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If you tilt the motherboard under a bright light, sometimes you can spot the irregularities in the pins that are bent. Fixing them however, is another story. You can use very tiny tweezers, or a very small (.05mm) mechanical pencil to pull the pin upwards as they normally get bent down and fail to make contact.
 
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That TR is damn near impossible to fix by hand without needlenose tweezers and a desk mounted magnifying glass, and then it is still a very delicate operation. Don't even touch those unless you are sure they are already fubar.
 
FrgMstr said:
That TR is damn near impossible to fix by hand without needlenose tweezers and a desk mounted magnifying glass, and then it is still a very delicate operation. Don't even touch those unless you are sure they are already fubar.
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Indeed. My post unfortunately didn't convey the actual difficulty in fixing one of those sockets. TR4 is the worst LGA style socket to repair in this way by a long shot.
 
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