Is my motherboard faulty

royaltiger · 17-02-2011, 10:29

Started to develop a fault with the computer just before christmas where the mouse would freeze and computer would lock so only way to recover was switch the power off, pc would work a couple of hours maybe longer then mouse freezes. Another glitch developed where screen went blank so had a look at the video card and noticed that a coupleof drips of cooling fluid had seeped onto card so replaced card with a new one and everything seemed ok then back to mouse freezing, I then decided to change the mouse its a usb connection not ps2 and again still not working right, now if I change the video card and put it into another slot sometimes there is no boot at all just a long beep followed by 3 short on the bios startup, I then used another slot and all seemed fine started to do a backup and again everything locked, I'm running windows 7 pro on asus striker II extreme with a Q9650 processor overclocked to 4Ghz with 3 x2ghz of ballistix tracer, I did a mem86 test on the ram, I just did the once over pass as it seems to find fault with ram instantly so assume ram is ok, tested each stick individually, but in the same slot, so possibly I could check in the other slots indivdually to double check, I have also run pc at default clock speeds to make sure it was not the overclocking, highest temp was 57c so dont think its too hot, my gut feeling is that some of the cooling fluid that dripped onto video card is the root to the problem and possibly shorted in the slot although not sure why it starts ok and then a few hours or could be minutes it locks, the confusing bit is if I changed video slots it does the same so could I be wrong, I restored to 3 months ago seemed ok then locked so confused on the matter, could it be a software update so not sure what next to do other than to start disabling peripherals to illiminate hardware problems and see if the problem occurs on bare minimum hardware. Any thoughts and help highly appreciated, has anyone else had this problem.

haydnwalker · 17-02-2011, 10:40

From what you've described, its highly likely that it is the cooling fluid dripping issue, maybe some has got on the motherboard and damaged some of it.

Your only test for that would be new mobo with the rest of your equipment (except the cooler obviously) in it and see if all is well?

I doubt it's software related...if you can find any other BIOS diagnostics online that would be useful...rather than just a memory test, a full on stress test etc.

17-02-2011, 10:49

I thought proper cooling fluid isnt conductive? like its only elements in water that make it conduct electricity in theory you could run anything electrical in pure water without issue same as you see some pcs in oil

is the memory voltage high enough? could still be the memory or a power issue over the mobo I would borrow a PSU from somewhere and try that first

---------- Post added at 11:49 ---------- Previous post was at 11:46 ----------

Overclocking does stress componants and they will not last as long once you start throwing extra volts at it

royaltiger · 17-02-2011, 11:13

The cooling fluid turns into a sticky type waxy compund,when I pulled out the video card there was a thin layer on the contacts of the card, you think all your pipes are tight for a couple of days and fine then drip when your complacent with machine, yes your right about stressing the board but only had it 11 months thought it would last a lot longer, its only the processor thats overclocked.

17-02-2011, 12:09

if the fluid isnt conductive even in its sticky form what damage would it do? Time and Tiny computers used to use a glue gun to stop you messing with cards and other stuff in the computer

royaltiger · 17-02-2011, 14:00

have reset motherboard to default and so far running ok, I reckon it could be a voltage issue as you said ooogomaflop as that was the only other settings changed, so could be a process of illimination as to what setting caused the problem, Been running a couple of hours now no problem, might run prime 95 to make it work harder.

Scrubbs · 17-02-2011, 18:42

I would also look at the m/b onboard battery because a dicky battery can cause all sorts of glitches

royaltiger · 18-02-2011, 08:42

Definately voltage as reset to all defaults on motherboard and no problems so far, I must of tweaked sometime and forgot to make note of the change as I usually just restore a profile from bios.