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Some Core I7 5960X + X99 Motherboards Mysteriously Burning Up

Posted by timothy on from the think-of-it-as-a-feature dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Intel's Haswell-E Eight-Core CPU and X99 motherboards just debuted but it looks like there may be some early adoption troubles leading to the new, ultra-expensive X99 motherboards and processors burning up. Phoronix first ran a story about their X99 motherboard having a small flame and smoke when powering up for the first time and then Legit Reviews also ran an article about their motherboard going up in smoke for reasons unknown. The RAM, X99 motherboards, and power supplies were different in these two cases. Manufacturers are now investigating and in at least the case of LR their Core i7-5960X also fried in the process."

4 of 102 comments (clear)

  1. Looks like... by Kyrubas · · Score: 4, Informative

    ...a failure to contain the magic smoke.

  2. Easy to repair by ArcadeMan · · Score: 5, Informative

    All you need is this little kit.

    --
    Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
  3. Not just one mobo by gman003 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Since nobody reads TFA, Phoronix killed an MSI X99S, and LR lost an Asus X99 Deluxe. It was also different RAM (Corsair vs G.Skill). However, both reported the burn was near the VRMs (Phoronix also reported a second event near the northbridge). The two mobos might be using identical parts for that, but I was unable to find out for sure.

    1. Re:Not just one mobo by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Informative

      It took nine months to realize that this caused the FPGAs to reset during heavy logic switching because the single VRM + the greater length of the traces meant that the VRM couldn't keep up with the demand.

      FPGAs use synchronous logic, so they pull power in spikes as the logic switches. If it took 9 months to realize there was a problem, you can probably make some small modifications to get it working reliably. Make sure the leads from the VRM are as fat as possible, preferably have it feed into full ground and power layers, and make sure no other traces are splitting those planes. Clock all three FPGAs from the same xtal, and use a delay gate or tune the length of the traces so the signal is skewed enough that the power spikes from each FPGA are not hitting simultaneously. Add plenty of decoupling caps on every power and ground pin. Make sure the caps have leads that are fat and short. It is better to have a physically small cap (0201 or 01005) in close than a bigger one further out. Good luck.