Destroyed motherboard while installing. Really?

They are on the QVL now. Kingston Fury Beast (Hynix modules). The seller has the mentioned G skill too.
 
I use that memory I posted earlier and haven't had any serious issues with it. A couple different bios so far no issue with cpu/ram stability. VR on the other is rough right now 🙄
 
I picked the RAM after doing a bit of research. Bullzoid did some YT videos looking at RAM and which where using what brand of modules. The Kingstons are SK Hynix. We'll se what the test show.
 
Maybe bios issue regarding memory and bus multis. This chipset is finicky about them and bios are immature at this stage. X570 required many bios updates before it really worked and even then there were some lingering questions. Really hoping they'll have it all sorted by April/May if not I'm switching to Intel.
 
As it is I can't even use the system. It crashed often in games and corrupted Windows twice in the little time I did try. I'm already looking at a new board just trying to decide which....but better start a new thread about this (if there aren't already one) and keep this about the issues with the "old" board.
 
I haven't had AM5 pass through my hands (yet) but if their LGA is anything like Intel's they are definitely sensitive to mounting pressure and even-ness across the socket. If a custom cooling block/tower cooler is used with enhanced mounting pressure you have to watch out for that. I could not tell you the frustration I went through with losing a stick of ram here and there just from having too much pressure on my Thermalright towers. This was on LGA1366. 2011 seemed to be not as sensitive however I was using more turnkey solutions thanks to AIOs becoming popular.

And of course, any time you have those pins on the socket exposed there's always a risk of damage from contact from *anything*. They are so fragile. If you can see the slightest aberration you can be assured you're going to have some weird thing going on with the system. And getting it back to normal is a seemingly futile task involving hours under a powerful magnifier using ultra sharp tweezers.
 
I'm using a noctura nh-d14 (edit: but it is upright through all this testing).

I do have access to a powerful professional magnifier in our workshop and the pins are as new.
 
Just because the bios update stated improved Dram compatibility doesn't necessarily mean it was optimized for the dimms you purchased especially if they aren't on the QVL list. Many times vendors optimize for the most popular memory modules at the time and later bios updates optimize for less popular memory IC's. Do any of your local vendors sell these memory modules from G skill?

F5-6000J3238F16GX2-TZ5N​

I have been buying bullshit RAM for years (bullshit RAM = the cheapest crap I could find) that is never on the QVL list and I have never had an issue with any motherboard. I have a tendency to buy cheap mainboards too. Aside from Intel ones that will cap RAM speeds (in the past) I have always been able to dial in the settings.
The RAM will be testet by the seller. If they find no fault I'll buy a motherboard, test if with the components and if it works keep it and otherwise send it back. Can't see what else I can do. Any happiness for the upgrade is gone which is what annoys me the most.
I know this feeling. I have been building systems for people and performing an annual upgrade cadence for myself for some time. When I attempted to move to AM5, it killed my optimism. I ended up trying 2 motherboards, 2 sets of DDR5 and the 7700 and none of it worked. In the end, I had 2 bad sets of RAM, one dead mainboard and one finicky mainboard that refused to update it's BIOS. I gave up, sent the Amazon stuff back and drove to Microcenter and returned the other Mainboard, CPU and Dead RAM they sold me... MC was a 3 Hour Round trip.

I switched to Intel, 13th Gen, flawless upgrade with ZERO issues.
 
I haven't had AM5 pass through my hands (yet) but if their LGA is anything like Intel's they are definitely sensitive to mounting pressure and even-ness across the socket. If a custom cooling block/tower cooler is used with enhanced mounting pressure you have to watch out for that. I could not tell you the frustration I went through with losing a stick of ram here and there just from having too much pressure on my Thermalright towers. This was on LGA1366. 2011 seemed to be not as sensitive however I was using more turnkey solutions thanks to AIOs becoming popular.

And of course, any time you have those pins on the socket exposed there's always a risk of damage from contact from *anything*. They are so fragile. If you can see the slightest aberration you can be assured you're going to have some weird thing going on with the system. And getting it back to normal is a seemingly futile task involving hours under a powerful magnifier using ultra sharp tweezers.
Still, I will take the pins in the socket over the pins on the CPU any day. When I was moving my 5600x over to another motherboard (pulled and dropped in a 5900x) damn thing slipped out of my fingers and bent 4 pins... took me a about 45 minutes and some massively magnified glasses to bend em back. Lots of patience and looking at the chip sideways. In days of old, this was a non issue. When there are a shitload of pins on the chip... Ugh. Long Story short, it works. But for a bit there I thought i had just pissed away the 300 bucks I paid for the chip originally...
 
Still, I will take the pins in the socket over the pins on the CPU any day. When I was moving my 5600x over to another motherboard (pulled and dropped in a 5900x) damn thing slipped out of my fingers and bent 4 pins... took me a about 45 minutes and some massively magnified glasses to bend em back. Lots of patience and looking at the chip sideways. In days of old, this was a non issue. When there are a shitload of pins on the chip... Ugh. Long Story short, it works. But for a bit there I thought i had just pissed away the 300 bucks I paid for the chip originally...
and had dropped it on an intel socket it would have mangled 20+ pins...
 
and had dropped it on an intel socket it would have mangled 20+ pins...
True, but I would rather replace the mainboard than the CPU generally speaking. I say that from the perspective that the MB is cheaper than the CPU. However, that's not really the case these days... On my intel the mainboard was sub 300 bucks, compared to my nearly 600 buck 13900K. On the AM4 side of things the mainboards were like 100-150 bucks for an average X570 and would much rather replace that than the 300-500 dollar CPU I was running on them.

I couldn't even imagine trying to correct pins on the 13900K if it had them.... 1,700 Pins.... good god.
 
"I couldn't even imagine trying to correct pins on the 13900K if it had them.... 1,700 Pins.... good god."
I just did this about a week ago on a socket 1700 and it was not fun at all but I got a DDR4 Z690 for 20 bucks so I may end up using it if she works. My micro tweezers look absolutely giant compared to the pins of this socket at 28X magnification on my digital microscope.
 
True, but I would rather replace the mainboard than the CPU generally speaking. I say that from the perspective that the MB is cheaper than the CPU. However, that's not really the case these days... On my intel the mainboard was sub 300 bucks, compared to my nearly 600 buck 13900K. On the AM4 side of things the mainboards were like 100-150 bucks for an average X570 and would much rather replace that than the 300-500 dollar CPU I was running on them.

I couldn't even imagine trying to correct pins on the 13900K if it had them.... 1,700 Pins.... good god.
It's easier to work on than the socket pins. I'll take pins on the CPU over the socket any day of the week for repair work.
 
It's easier to work on than the socket pins. I'll take pins on the CPU over the socket any day of the week for repair work.
I guess it comes down to personal choice. I never really had an issue with pin repair until I started going blind at the ripe old age of 49. But if you have to do all these sorts of repairs on a regular basis, I suppose the pins are easier than realigning the LGA ones.
 
Still, I will take the pins in the socket over the pins on the CPU any day. When I was moving my 5600x over to another motherboard (pulled and dropped in a 5900x) damn thing slipped out of my fingers and bent 4 pins... took me a about 45 minutes and some massively magnified glasses to bend em back. Lots of patience and looking at the chip sideways. In days of old, this was a non issue. When there are a shitload of pins on the chip... Ugh. Long Story short, it works. But for a bit there I thought i had just pissed away the 300 bucks I paid for the chip originally...
I kept a 0.5mm mechanical pencil around for that. Sometimes the pins are really mangled and snap off when straightening and then you are generally f'd as getting that worked out is beyond the scope of most enthusiast level repairs and patience levels. ;-)

LGA chips themselves are quite durable and most of the ones that founder are victims of botched delidding I suppose.
 
I guess it comes down to personal choice. I never really had an issue with pin repair until I started going blind at the ripe old age of 49. But if you have to do all these sorts of repairs on a regular basis, I suppose the pins are easier than realigning the LGA ones.
The socket pins have just become more difficult with the continual big jumps in pin count. I've done tons of repairs on socket 1151 and older boards but 1700 is not fun.
 
The socket pins have just become more difficult with the continual big jumps in pin count. I've done tons of repairs on socket 1151 and older boards but 1700 is not fun.
Yeah, I have a buddy who could fix the older boards sockets. Totally see where you are coming from on the 1700. It's getting worse moving forward too.

I was merely commenting on the fact that I would rather replace the mainboard than the CPU. But in the context of our conversation, I understand and can respect your opinion as well.
 
Yeah, I have a buddy who could fix the older boards sockets. Totally see where you are coming from on the 1700. It's getting worse moving forward too.

I was merely commenting on the fact that I would rather replace the mainboard than the CPU. But in the context of our conversation, I understand and can respect your opinion as well.
The pricing has even made that decision more difficult with lots of boards that used to cost $200-$300 now cost ~$500.
 
The pricing has even made that decision more difficult with lots of boards that used to cost $200-$300 now cost ~$500.
Yes, this is true as well. Everything has gone nuts with the inclusion of PCI-E 5 lanes and high end NICs and such that I would typically just carry from one board to the next... Now, you gotta pay to play.
 
Another update. The RAM was found faulty by the seller and I got new sealed package of RAM:

IMG_20230222_180027_copy_1000x750.jpg

IMG_20230222_180756_copy_1000x750.jpg
 
To clarify: That's the new RAM, just tested. Games and apps also crash. I'm gonna throw with something soon....
 
A local seller (I'm not in the US). I wrote back and said the problem was still there. Now waiting for reply. I can't believe I still don't have a working system after a month of frustration.
 
A local seller (I'm not in the US). I wrote back and said the problem was still there. Now waiting for reply. I can't believe I still don't have a working system after a month of frustration.
Time for them to swap over to the Gskill kit for you. Either your mb REALLY doesn't like those Kingston modules or they are just a junk batch.
 
Me too. Crucial DDR5 5200. 2 x 32 GB. RMA'd.
Kingston Fury 5600 Expo c36 2 * 16 GB.


Unless the motherboard is bad it shouldn't have a problem with the RAM as they are on the QVL should it? But we'll see what the seller says.
 
Kingston Fury 5600 Expo c36 2 * 16 GB.


Unless the motherboard is bad it shouldn't have a problem with the RAM as they are on the QVL should it? But we'll see what the seller says.
any updates?
how about you run single stick first plugging to dimm B2 (when you receive it again from the seller), and then try to run it default, boot into windows, and run memtest or TM5 to check.
If one stick is fine, then try the other stick, same on dimm B2.
Both sticks fine? then try to install those 2 on dimm A2 and B2, using default settings.
 
No update on the second RAM sticks yet (edit: I forgot one update, they said they didn't think it was the RAM if it happened again but I was welcome to send it back, which I did).

I tried with both one and two sticks first time around, A2 B2. Board doesn't boot at all in A1 B1 but according to the manual that configuration isn't supported. I tried both default (auto), EXPO 1, EXPO 2, EXPO 1@4800, EXPO 2@4800, and with added voltage. Tested by booting into Memtest86 and with games (Sniper elite 5, Atomic Heart).
 
Me too. Crucial DDR5 5200. 2 x 32 GB. RMA'd.
Replacement RAM good.

As a side note, the new RAM booted no problems in slots A2 and B2 in my ASUS ROG board. In contrast, in slots A1 and B1, the motherboard beeped right away, signalling a problem with RAM.
 
AM5 appears to be just as finicky with RAM as AM4 was initially. I went with the GSkill expo 6000 and it's been working quite well fortunately.
 
I just got an update on the RAM: Money fully repaid.

Now to figure out what to buy instead that is priced similarly. I admit I know little of RAM but thought I did my homework. I specifically bought the RAM I did to be sure it was using Hynix modules but now I have no idea what to buy instead. So far i'm looking at these as they are in stock and my searching says they are good:

G.Skill Ripjaws S5 DDR5-6000 WH C30 DC - 32GB

Edit: they are now sold out, so got these instead:​

G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo RGB DDR5-6000 BK C36 DC - 32GB (AMD EXPO)

Edit: Those are Samsung, not Hynix, unlike the Kingston I had.
 
Last edited:
Currently testing. In auto mode the g.skill failed test 8 instantly. I'm now trying EXPO as a Reddit thread said that could fix it (someone who also had bad experience with Kingston and then tried g.skill). So far no errors EXPO 2@6000.
 
Last update (hopefully):

The new RAM fixed it. Seems it needs the higher voltage (1,35v) that EXPO sets because default settings doesn't work at all. However I have no need for the 4800mhz when 6000 is stable... so... problem solved. Motherboard work just fine. No errors in Prime95, Memtest86, games, etc.

I saw a video on YouTube (bullzoid) that showed even a little more voltage then default at whatever MHz could lead to instability unlike what is normal when overclocking. So adding voltage at default RAM speed does not help on stability (I tried up to 1,34v). Bumping both voltage and MHz does help though.

Thank you for the input 👍
 
Last edited:
Update: Long story short: The problem was bad Ram. Nothing wrong with the motherboard.


So apparently after having installed PC components since my early teens around 30 years ago I absolutely ruined the last motherboard i installed (pictures here, here, here and here). I returned it to the seller because the PC was crashing. Only in one game but after testing it had an error once in Prime95. The PSU was too weak so i upgraded it which of course didn't help and then PC BSOD'ed and corrupted Windows. Then I returned RAM, motherboard and CPU for testing.

I'm shocked that there's so many tiny scratches as I see myself as both careful and used to installing components. The tech is seriously behind schedule and my first though was that it simply must be them having f'cked the motherboard while testing in a hurry but 1) I didn't take pictures before sending it in since I trusted the shop and 2) I would not really have any recourse anyway. So now I'm doubting if I am actually not carful enough or the boards are extremely easy to scratch. I've look at other boards and I see nothing like this even on my old P67 Sabertooth board that have been in and out of PCs lots of times.

So.... anyone know if boards have become easier to damage? Or have I just been lucky so far? What do you think of the damages?


Board: ASUS PRIME X670-P
I think none of the traces are cut.
 
Back
Top