Lightening strike

Had a strike a few days ago and didn't really see anything going on on the boxes to raise any flags. Came down Thursday and had one box shut down. After troubleshooting I found a bad power supply and a bad motherboard. The board is a P5QL Pro. I gives me a USB overvoltage error plus it doesn't see the USB mouse or keyboard. Tried with a regular mouse and keyboard with the same results. Spent about an hour with tech support only to find out that the board would need a new cmos chip. If I sent it in it would be at least $129 to repair and since it is a soldered in chip i'm not going to try.
Looked around and noticed a P8Z77 LE-V board on ebay and picked it up. Since it is a 1155 board you know that I needed a new cpu. Well after watching ebay and seeing what the used chips were selling for I decided new was best. Ordered a i7 3770K from the Egg this morning. This setup will replace my 775 core 2 duo. Now just hope the stuff comes when the wife is gone.:>:>:>

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Originally Posted by c303a

...Since it is a 1155 board you know that I needed a new cpu...a i7 3770K from the Egg this morning....Now just hope the stuff comes when the wife is gone.:>:>:>

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Haha! Oh man, leave it to you to turn an unfortunate situation into a hilarious one! :D Hope the new hardware works awesome for you and you're going to LOVE that new i7 3770K!

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Originally Posted by DrPop

Haha! Oh man, leave it to you to turn an unfortunate situation into a hilarious one! :D Hope the new hardware works awesome for you and you're going to LOVE that new i7 3770K!

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Ditto!

You'll really like the 3770k's. I just upgraded 2 of my rigs with the 3770k. I overclocked both to 4.4ghz without much effort. The first one was a more traditional, voltage increase, enable this, disable that and it runs very stable. The 2nd one I did nothing more than bump the multiplier to 44 and it remained stable, voltage is 1.1659, pulling about 59 watts (about 10 watts less than its twin with the voltage bump) at 100% load on PG with a high core temp of 75c. Have fun with it!

Thanks for all the info. I usually use Asus AI Suite II and just let it go. Right now it is running my 2600K at 4.3 and 67 degrees under full Boinc load.
2nd thought....if anyone has the means to repair and use the P5QL I would be happy to give it away for shipping. I have cd and the manual to go with it. Send me a PM and as soon as I get it out of the box I can get it packaged up and have the wife ship it.

Fire$torm might be able to do it! :D He's pretty good with soldering electronics. Probably depends on how many pins are coming out of that chip - well, that will determine the time it will take at least. ;)

I just don't get along with things electronic even though when I went into the Army all my tests said I should go into that field. That would have been a disaster. I hate things that are small and precision. Give me something BIG like a radial helicopter engine to work on. No problem!
This is a decent board and I don't think shipping would be that much. Maybe someone can use it. I don't think I could sneak all the parts necessary to build another box with that board past the wife.

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Originally Posted by c303a

Thanks for all the info. I usually use Asus AI Suite II and just let it go. Right now it is running my 2600K at 4.3 and 67 degrees under full Boinc load.
2nd thought....if anyone has the means to repair and use the P5QL I would be happy to give it away for shipping. I have cd and the manual to go with it. Send me a PM and as soon as I get it out of the box I can get it packaged up and have the wife ship it.

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I forgot to mention that the stock cooler is fine at stock clocks up to about 3.7ghz. After that you'll need something better. For me the Hyper 212 EVO in Push/Pull, works well at 4.4ghz. The other 3770k has the Noctua NH-D14 is a monster that works as well or better that most closed loop coolers.

I have a CoolerMaster V6GT that I am planning to put on it. It has done a good job on the 2600K so I will put the stock cooler back on the 2600K and reuse the V6.I have the 2 120mm fans on it so it should do a good job.

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Originally Posted by c303a

I have a CoolerMaster V6GT that I am planning to put on it. It has done a good job on the 2600K so I will put the stock cooler back on the 2600K and reuse the V6.I have the 2 120mm fans on it so it should do a good job.

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That'll work.

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Originally Posted by c303a

Thanks for all the info. I usually use Asus AI Suite II and just let it go. Right now it is running my 2600K at 4.3 and 67 degrees under full Boinc load.
2nd thought....if anyone has the means to repair and use the P5QL I would be happy to give it away for shipping. I have cd and the manual to go with it. Send me a PM and as soon as I get it out of the box I can get it packaged up and have the wife ship it.

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Hey c303a, great idea offering it to the team. I'll look up some pics of that MB just to get an idea. If no one else PMs you, I'd be interested for sure.

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Originally Posted by DrPop

Fire$torm might be able to do it! :D He's pretty good with soldering electronics. Probably depends on how many pins are coming out of that chip - well, that will determine the time it will take at least. ;)

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Thanks for the vote of confidence bro :-bd As to the chip, that is what makes the challenge so much fun. Most BIOS chips have 16 pins or less as I recall, so not a big issue. I do have some GPUs on my "Things To Fix" list but should have them out of the way in a week or two.

Just send me a PM and I will get it packed as soon as I get the new board. (I need a static proof bag and I hope the new board has one.)

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Originally Posted by c303a

Just send me a PM and I will get it packed as soon as I get the new board. (I need a static proof bag and I hope the new board has one.)

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Cool, and thanks for making the offer. :-bd

PM sent.

Got it and I sent you details.

No wives for at least one month. :D

http://cosmicconvergence.org/wp-cont...63-877-618.jpg

or maybe they have the power ...

http://tipsyalcophobic.files.wordpre...-lightning.jpg

Duke, You have too much time on your hands. Why not take a month off and come visit the US. At least that way you would have something to do.:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::D:D:D

Question of the day. The P8Z77 arrived today. Is there an easy way to change the board from the P8Z67 to the new board without losing everything in Windows 8 and all the program settings or am I going to have to go through the hassel of reloading Win 8 then put up with re-installing all my programs and of course putting up with M$ to get the activation again?

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Originally Posted by c303a

Duke, You have too much time on your hands. Why not take a month off and come visit the US. At least that way you would have something to do.:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::D:D:D

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:(( I have not enough money to go to the US but thanks for the invitation, 6 ex and one wife is a lot of work for a poor Duke. I will try to rest a while in between ....

http://www.funnyrush.com/funny-pictu...-tired-one.jpg

If I go to the US ... well, I am afraid I would marry again. X_X

http://www.wingdamage.com/wp-content...arry-a-cat.jpg

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Originally Posted by c303a

Question of the day. The P8Z77 arrived today. Is there an easy way to change the board from the P8Z67 to the new board without losing everything in Windows 8 ...

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I would just swap everything over to the new board and plug it in ...it will probably work with just a minor driver update for the chipset and NIC or sound if they upgraded that as well. Certainly wouldn't hurt to try, but don't think those two boards are that different to cause Windows to make you reactivate and all that.

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Originally Posted by DrPop

I would just swap everything over to the new board and plug it in ...it will probably work with just a minor driver update for the chipset and NIC or sound if they upgraded that as well. Certainly wouldn't hurt to try, but don't think those two boards are that different to cause Windows to make you reactivate and all that.

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Or just the opposite of what Jed said. Jed had very good luck doing exactly that. I, on the other hand, spent the better part of a day getting things back up and running. Including reinstall of the os and reactivation. It's a crap shoot...Good Luck!

Thatt's what I figured. I will just plug it in and hope for the best.

Unlike Linux, Windows is very, very S T U P I D! M$ has really never ever moved away from its DOS days. M$ just keeps piling more crap onto the OS kernel to disguise this fact.

I said all of that because in the old days DOS, do to the way the DOS kernel functions, it had to be written for specific CPU families. Windows does the same thing only more so. When you install Windows, it actually writes code within the installed OS to configure it to the hardware. So any major change to the hardware infrastructure like MB or CPU, Windows will crash, always. This necessitates reinstalling Windows for the new hardware. M$ also uses this "Locking In" as a way to justify their licensing policy. If you read the Windows End User License Agreement closely, changing hardware requires a new license, which of course you have to pay for!!! Bollocks to all that!

Anyhoot good luck.

Oh ya, btw, Windows may force you to call a toll free number to activate it. When the automated attendant asks the question, "How many computers has this copy of Windows been installed on?" your answer needs to be ONE. No other answer will allow activation!!!

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Originally Posted by Fire$torm

When the automated attendant asks the question, "How many computers has this copy of Windows been installed on?" your answer needs to be ONE. No other answer will allow activation!!!

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+1
It's very important you answer "ONE" even if the real answer is 19 or 0. Just tell them what they want to hear so you can get on with your day :)

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Originally Posted by John P. Myers

+1
It's very important you answer "ONE" even if the real answer is 19 or 0. Just tell them what they want to hear so you can get on with your day :)

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I learned that answerr a long, long, long time ago. I have been ree-installing Windows for a long time and I have talked to the activation line a lot.

I decided to put the board and cpu in a Win 7 box for now. I have tries sme minor ocing and have it running at 4.3 on AI Suite II. That is less than the 2600K for now. I will probably go through the trouble of changing out the board and cpu to my main box this weekend.

We just had a lightning strike about 2 hours ago near here, and I expect to read tomorrow what it hit. But it must not have hit the power as it did not go down or surge at all! X_X

But it did help me catch the GPU that was about to melt down as the fan had quit turning! Quick re-oiling and it is off again!

Wow! Glad you caught it in time, and hope all you guys with the lightening bug are safe these days! :)

So lightening did something good. Glad you caught it. I had another PSU quit yesterday. I wonder if that is part of the strike. It was about 5 years old though. Now I don't have any spares left. Got to fo out and find some cheap but running 2x GTX570s it won't be that cheap.

After much searching and reading I have found out that there is very little difference in the 2 boards so............pulled the 3730k from the Z77 board and just insstalled it in the Z68 board. No problems on boot except the bios reset for the chip. Simple except that the chip is running at 70 c even with the V6 cooler. Going to have to look into that tomorrow.

eep! 70c not good....

If my Quad hit 60c it was time to clean the HS.... mind you that was at stock speed with a stock fan...

Meh. My 6-core SB are running at 80c just fine, for over a year now.

Yeah, 70C is just fine - that is overclocked temp, right? ;)

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Originally Posted by DrPop

Yeah, 70C is just fine - that is overclocked temp, right? ;)

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That is the problem, that is stock speed! It is in a full case Thermaltake Black Shark with 120 mm intake and exhaust and I added a 120 side fan plus it has a Coolermaster GT V6 cooler eith dual 120mm fans. I just can't get it down. I am going to pull it later today and reseat the heat sink but if I can't get it down I will order a closed loop water system (Tired of this sh*t) If I can't get any speed out of it it doesn't do me any good. But trust me, I WILL WIN THE BATTLE!!!!!:mad::mad::mad:

You might have an air bubble, strand of hair or a speck of dried thermal paste trapped between the CPU and the Cooler's cold Plate.

After you wipe off the thermal paste, I would recommend that you use an old (but clean) tooth brush and some isopropyl alcohol to clean up the cold plate especially if it does not have a mirror finish. Then wipe it with a clean micro fiber cloth (with the grain) to insure a clean surface.

I always clean with alcohol and wipe dry with a very fine piece of cloth. No luck I now have it up to 4.2 at 69 c. Believe it or not but I took out the 2nd fan. I ordered a closed loop from the egg. The price is right after rebate. If it works well I will have one shipped to one of the kids and I will use it on the 2600K.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103180

Inexpensive and a $30 rebate. It should do the trick for what I need, I hope.

Question: Is this a new CPU or one you've had for awhile?

Brand new from the egg. I have not tried the stock cooler. That is on the 2600K because a mounting leg snapped off. Darned plastic legs.

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Originally Posted by c303a

Brand new from the egg. I have not tried the stock cooler. That is on the 2600K because a mounting leg snapped off. Darned plastic legs.

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Then I think the reason for your high temps is the CPU itself. Some time back, Intel & AMD stopped soldering the IHS (Integrated Heat Spreader = the metal top of the CPU). Now they use thermal paste to mate the IHS to the CPU chip inside. But, paste can be applied wrong and/or dry out. Also it does not conduct heat as well as solder as the process of soldering creates a mechanical bond at the molecular level.

Just for reference take a look at this informative post on OverClock's site ---> IHS Removal How-To

And my post with a video How-To ---> http://www.setiusa.us/showthread.php...or-you&p=61363

Edit: Another possible reason might be that the IHS is not as flat as it should be. I bought a used Core i7 on eBay that ended up with this problem. Had to lap the IHS. It was so bad that when I was done, I also had to grind down the CPU socket retention bracket so my cooler's cold plate could make full contact with the IHS.... :(

P5QL Update:

Well, I get the same error as you do c303a. But looking at the board I discovered that the BIOS chip is not soldered to it. The chip is an 8-pin IC package and socket arrangement. Wish I had gone ahead and researched this puppy like I said I would, before you sent it off to me. Sorry about that. :(

There is a seller on eBay with great ratings, that has new BIOS chips flashed to the most recent Asus update for the P5QL. Price is about $13.00 shipped. I won't be able to order it until the first of the month as I just did replace my keyboard. My trusty 13 year old HP had started flaking out a couple of months ago, with more and more keys not registering properly or at all as time went on. (Which totally sucks when gaming)

Anyhoot, I'll keep you updated on my progress, or lack there of....

F$

That shows you how much Asus knows about their own boards. They said it was a soldered chip. Aw well, live and let someone who knows what they are doing handle the things that you know nothing about.;)

OK! Got the Coolermaster Seidon 120 XL installed on the i3770K. Temps are now running at 34 c at idle and hovering between 67-68 at full load. CPU is now running at 4595 according to Asus Suite II with a full load of 8 cores on Convector plus WUProp and the GTX 570 is running GPU Grid.

Install was easy and clean. This is a great cooler for the price. If you need a cooler hurry as this rebates ends the 29th at the Egg.