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ASRock x79 Extreme6 - blew a capacitor(?), fried a fan header...

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    ASRock x79 Extreme6 - blew a capacitor(?), fried a fan header...

    Here's what happened: I noticed my PSU was very hot to the touch, so I decided I should plug in a molex to 4 pin fan adapter and connect it to the PWR_FAN header on my motherboard to see if it was having issues spinning or something. I dunno. I thought it would be nice to be able to monitor my PSU fan. So I plugged it in. A capacitor or something exploded. There was a loud POP followed by smoke rolling out of my case.

    Why was I plugging a molex adapter into a fan connector and plugging it into the board? That would mean it's SUPPLYING power, which is also what the board does, meaning I was feeding power into the header. Of course it would explode. Complete brain fart on my part.

    I immediately unplugged the power, unplugged the 4 pin fan adapter from the fan header, and tried to restart my computer...and it booted. It works fine. Runs smooth as butter. There are no issues...yet.

    Naked eye inspection of the board yields no real information. None of the tall gold plated capacitors are visibly damaged and none of the small ceramic ones seem to be either. The first tiny capacitor under the fan header itself (to the left of the header in the accompanying image) does seem a bit different than the rest, but I'm unsure if that's damage or just a board imperfection. It might have been the one that blew, if it was a capacitor.

    image: http://i.imgur.com/vwh7M65.jpg

    So, my question is, will this cause me any real problems down the line, aside from being unable to use the PWR_FAN1 header (I plugged another fan I had lying around into it, it's completely dead)? I can still RMA the board, or, optionally, could have the capacitor (whichever one blew) replaced if needed, but if it's not necessary, then I probably won't. What do you guys think?

    Specs:
    * Case: Cooler Master HAF XM
    * Motherboard: ASRock x79 Extreme6
    * PSU: Corsair Enthusiast Series TX650 V2
    * CPU: Intel Core i7-3820
    * HSF: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
    * GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST Superclocked
    * Memory: 8 GB DDR3 SDRAM @ 1866MHz
    * HDD: 2x Seagate Barracuda (SATA II @ 7200 RPM)
    * OS: Windows 7 Professional

    #2
    Re: ASRock x79 Extreme6 - blew a capacitor(?), fried a fan header...

    x79? thats an expensive high end board. strongly suggest u rma it since its an expensive board. will be costly or difficult to get a replacement later on if it craps out on you.

    Comment


      #3
      Re: ASRock x79 Extreme6 - blew a capacitor(?), fried a fan header...

      You're lucky you didn't blow anything important.
      Attempting to connect a PSU molex connector to a fan header is just plain stupid.

      Most PSUs don't have any kind of RPM monitoring for the fan.

      Comment


        #4
        Re: ASRock x79 Extreme6 - blew a capacitor(?), fried a fan header...

        You probably blew a smd fuse or a reverse protection diode. Kinda hard to visually notice them blown.
        Worst case scenario, you blew the super-io chip (fans ps2 serial etc etc)

        RMA it.

        Comment


          #5
          Re: ASRock x79 Extreme6 - blew a capacitor(?), fried a fan header...

          that's a good motherboard - it explodes and still works

          Comment


            #6
            Re: ASRock x79 Extreme6 - blew a capacitor(?), fried a fan header...

            Originally posted by ddscentral View Post
            Attempting to connect a PSU molex connector to a fan header is just plain stupid.
            I didn't come here to be called stupid, I came here for advice.


            Originally posted by mariushm View Post
            You probably blew a smd fuse or a reverse protection diode. Kinda hard to visually notice them blown.
            Worst case scenario, you blew the super-io chip (fans ps2 serial etc etc)
            I'm guessing it was a fuse or something of that nature as well. I've been running Prime95 for 20 hours now with no problems whatsoever. While I know this is neither foolproof nor comprehensive, it will generally shake out any voltage stability issues you might have. Generally. Everything on the board functions, including my fans, PS/2 ports, etc. So I didn't blow the super i/o chip, that's good. I really think it was probably a fuse or something like that.

            Everything on the board still works, save for the PWR_FAN1 header. It is obviously deader than Dillinger, but everything still functions up to this point. I called a local PC repair place and told them what happened and they said if everything is working up to this point, then I'm probably fine. If something was destroyed or caused enough damage that it would cause another component to fail, it would have by now, was their statement. They also said if it was a blown capacitor, they would replace it for $35 labor + the cost of the capacitor. I'm not sure how knowledgeable they are, and I'm still worried, but my mind is a bit more at ease. I'm still considering RMAing the board, of course. I'm worried about my RMA getting denied, though, for obvious reasons, so the fact still remains that I may be left with this board.

            So, other than telling me how stupid I am, does anyone have anything to contribute?
            Last edited by Murderbydeath; 05-10-2013, 11:19 AM.

            Comment


              #7
              Re: ASRock x79 Extreme6 - blew a capacitor(?), fried a fan header...

              RMA it... doubt it'll get denied. Brain farts happen to everyone. You were lucky this time tho. Make a note to yourself for later on: A PSU only supports fan monitoring IF there's a 3-pin female fan type connector coming from inside it, which you directly plug into the mobo.
              Originally posted by PeteS in CA
              Remember that by the time consequences of a short-sighted decision are experienced, the idiot who made the bad decision may have already been promoted or moved on to a better job at another company.
              A working TV? How boring!

              Comment


                #8
                Re: ASRock x79 Extreme6 - blew a capacitor(?), fried a fan header...

                A clear picture of a burn on the back of my case: http://i.imgur.com/S2EBFbw.jpg
                Prime95 finishing running for 24 hours: http://i.imgur.com/U69TeY1.png

                If anyone can weigh in on the most likely component to have blown, it'd be nice to have more information.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: ASRock x79 Extreme6 - blew a capacitor(?), fried a fan header...

                  Originally posted by Murderbydeath View Post
                  If anyone can weigh in on the most likely component to have blown, it'd be nice to have more information.
                  Hard to tell on this board since it's black. Would need a lot of high quality high resolution pictures of the area around the fan header. You would also need a multimeter to troubleshoot this.

                  Looks like the output of Q15 (small SOT-23 transistor) may be going to that fan header but I could be wrong.

                  Since the board runs, you probably got really lucky and nothing else blew up, so the board should be fine the way it is. Fan headers on most modern motherboard nowadays tend to be controlled by a MOSFET or transistor of some sort, so that may have gone open-circuited. I have an older ECS P4IBMS that had a dead CPU fan header. Turns out, a small PNP BJT in SOT-23 package responsible for driving the fan was open.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: ASRock x79 Extreme6 - blew a capacitor(?), fried a fan header...

                    Originally posted by Murderbydeath View Post
                    A clear picture of a burn on the back of my case: http://i.imgur.com/S2EBFbw.jpg
                    Prime95 finishing running for 24 hours: http://i.imgur.com/U69TeY1.png

                    If anyone can weigh in on the most likely component to have blown, it'd be nice to have more information.
                    You want me to go to work for you too?
                    X99 5930K
                    X99-gaming 9
                    EVGA 1080 Vanilla
                    Gskill 16GBRip JAWS@2400
                    SSD'S
                    Corsair AX1200

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Re: ASRock x79 Extreme6 - blew a capacitor(?), fried a fan header...

                      Umm, this was a topic from last year...
                      Originally posted by PeteS in CA
                      Remember that by the time consequences of a short-sighted decision are experienced, the idiot who made the bad decision may have already been promoted or moved on to a better job at another company.
                      A working TV? How boring!

                      Comment

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