Catastrophic Failure on EPOX 9NPA Ultra

[sjtrent]

Recently installed EPOX 9NPA Ultra NForce 4 board w/ AMD 4400+ X2 CPU and 2 Gb Dual channel DDR400 RAM. Set this system up for video processing. At about 3:00 AM Saturday morning, house smoke alarm goes off. EPOX board is frying away...

Attached pictures show front and back of board, and blown up capacitor and some other component. This seems extreme for a capacitor only problem; I had an EPoX 8KHA board that had the classic leaking capacitor problem, but it certainly didn't fail like this one did; the 8KHA lasted 5 years before it went belly up...

Any ideas? EPoX has been contacted, but they are currently leaning toward an install problem (short circuit w/ mounting board). I've installed several MBs, so its going to be cold day in hell before they convince me that this related to an install problem...

[davmax]

Re: Catastrophic Failure on EPOX 9NPA Ultra

Wow! Very nasty. The underside shot of the board might lead Epox to a short under the board to the case in that the copper buss is burnt through. However looking at the cap it is certainly burnt/blown away. Caps do not fail with a motherboard short to ground/case, the only short that could, would be short to a higher voltage rail that would destroy the cap (even a semi failure). The evidence suggests a short in the cap or semi, blowing the cap and the semiconductor.

I suspect this is your conclusion.

[dood]

Re: Catastrophic Failure on EPOX 9NPA Ultra

Ouch! It's rare for a new board to go like that, I'm sure that's why epox is leaning towards install error... Not to say anything about your capabilities at all, as it's certainly possible for a manufacturing defect to take out a board like that.

How long was the system operating normally?

[kc8adu]

Re: Catastrophic Failure on EPOX 9NPA Ultra

could have been a internal trace fault.i remember a 4 layer board a local company had issues with flameouts.
turns out the problem was a error in an inner power trace that put it too close to a ground.
each bare board had to be tested with high voltage before stuffing and soldering.
these were in a custom smps that put out 48v dc at 100 amps.the arc would not trip ocp till the thing was a fireball.exploding lytics would contribute and keep it going.worse yet the topcover was plastic!

[sjtrent]

Re: Catastrophic Failure on EPOX 9NPA Ultra - Update

EPoX has now agreed to take the board back and replace... Already ordered MSI board... Kind of down on EPoX given the earlier capacitor problem and now this flameout....

[Lance Thornton]

Re: Catastrophic Failure on EPOX 9NPA Ultra

Have you had the chance to check your other components, ie: the processor and memory? With any luck, they are still working properly and if they aren't, I'm really sorry.

[sjtrent]

Re: Catastrophic Failure on EPOX 9NPA Ultra

Thankfully no further damage to components. Got the MSI board up and running w/ no problems. Sending EPoX back for replacement tomorrow.

[gonzo0815]

Re: Catastrophic Failure on EPOX 9NPA Ultra

Which PSu your are using with that board? I think a bad PSu could cause many nasty things inlcuding frying new motherboards. And an X2 is a serious load. I woudn`t trust any PSu older than 2 years to power sutch a rig.

[Rob]

Re: Catastrophic Failure on EPOX 9NPA Ultra

Which version was your 9npa Ultra? Did it have the Hermei caps by the VRM or Rubycons?

[toastygoodness]

Re: Catastrophic Failure on EPOX 9NPA Ultra

I sort of don't really think an MSI is too reliable. I got an NForce4 with a bunch of crap caps. Of course I RMA'd it (luckily i ordered the wrong cpu) to newegg, citing wrong socket.