Jaeger - Motherboard Replacement

In my previous post, I was able to confirm that my rig's motherboard needed replacement. The good news: the problematic component was finally identified. The bad news: it's the frigging motherboard!

The motherboard might not usually be the most expensive component of a system but it is, in my opinion, the most troublesome component to replace. Many times, replacing the motherboard means also replacing the processor. It means unplugging everything from the old board and plugging them all back into the new one. It means cleaning dried thermal paste from the processor and doing a new application. It's also recommended to reformat and do a clean install of the operating system to avoid driver compatibility issues down the road. In other words, it's like rebuilding the whole system using old parts.

Replacement and Preparation

Before anything else however, I needed a replacement motherboard. My old one (Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD3H) was a Z87 chipset motherboard which has an LGA1150 CPU socket supporting my Haswell Intel CPU. I could have bought the same exact model, but I learned that I could instead buy a motherboard with the newer Z97 chipset which still has an LGA1150 CPU socket. This means a newer board with more features at roughly the same price without needing to replace my processor. Sweet! I ended up buying a board from MSI (MSI Z97-GAMING 5).

Pro tip: Buy extended warranty for your precious hardware. The extra few dollars will be worth it down the road.

If I were to reformat, I needed a way to backup files from my SSD (Solid State Drive) boot drive. I only had my mom's laptop to do this but I still needed some sort of adapter so I can just plug the drive via USB (Universal Serial Bus). They sell SATA (Serial AT Attachment) to USB adapters online, perfect!

Reassembly

[✔] All the replacement parts and tools had arrived by mail.
[✔] The SSD had been backed up.
[✔] I had every piece unbolted, cleaned and organized in a messy array across the floor.
[✔] Newegg TV's "How to Build a PC" video was ready for reference.
I was ready to start building, and so I did.

It had been more than three years since the last time I was really familiar with the innards of my rig. Many a time I found myself asking "Where does this go again?" and "How the heck was I able to make that fit there before?" and eventually realizing "Oh.. now I remember, I had to do work-around A to avoid B, or I could do C". It was time for rediscovery, like rediscovering my CPU case had a manual fan controller all along which I never used.

A few hours went by and the build was done. It was POST-ing and was booting from the yet-to-be-reformatted SSD drive. I knew I had to do a clean install. I read that Windows ties itself to the motherboard and that I may need to call Microsoft to request for reactivation of my Windows 8.1 license. I was worried because mine was an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) copy which basically means less to no support from Microsoft. Fortunately, my worries were unfounded and I was able to reformat and do a clean install without a hitch.

After installing some of the drivers, my mouse suddenly stopped working. It was working in the BIOS but not when Windows boots. I plugged in a different mouse in the same USB port and that worked fine. I did some quick troubleshooting and when nothing worked, I decided to re-reformat. It only took a few minutes and the mouse issue never happened again.

Windows 8.1 to Windows 10

I was using Windows 10 before the motherboard failure. I started with Windows 8.1 then got a free upgrade to Windows 10 sometime in the past. Unfortunately, that free upgrade offer ended last year. Although, there's a work-around if you can flat out lie to Microsoft's face about your usage of assistive technologies, meant for people with "significant vision, hearing, dexterity, language or learning needs". I lied 😐 but hey, free Windows 10 upgrade, amirite? 😉 (link to free Windows 10 upgrade)

Conclusion

After upgrading to Windows 10, I reinstalled all my hardware drivers and utilities then let Windows Update run until it can run no more. When I was sure everything was updated and the way I want it, the final piece was to create a system image for quick resets in the future. Now, Jaeger has fully recovered and thriving.

Jaeger - Postmortem

Symptoms

My gaming rig of more than three years (Jaeger - i7-4770K - GTX780) started to restart unexpectedly during light loads (surfing or playing Stardew Valley). I monitored the system using MSI Afterburner but did not notice anything out of the ordinary like overheating or memory usage spikes. Windows Memory Diagnostic reported no issues with the RAM. Windows Event Viewer proved useless and I was absolutely clueless as to what was causing the issue.

The issue happened more frequently and eventually, a standstill - the system was stuck in a never-ending loop of turning on and off. When it turned on, all the fans and pump started spinning, only to turn off immediately after. It didn't even get to POST (Power-on Self-test).

Troubleshooting

Time to put on the old PC building hat! I took the whole tower upstairs to my room, brushed off the dust from my PC building kit and prepared myself to hunker down until it's fixed. All my components were conveniently out of warranty and I did not have any spare parts to swap in. As per usual, my goal was to identify which part(s) is/are causing the issue.

• Any software or the operating system was out of the picture as it won't even get past POST, more so to get it to boot.
• Any peripherals were also disconnected.
• I unplugged each remaining component one by one. The video card, then the optical drive, then my SSD and HDD storage. The only components left were the processor (and its cooler), the memory, the power supply, the motherboard and the case itself.
• I heard that the case itself can sometimes short something out if the wrong metals are touching the wrong components, so I took the system out of the case as well.
• I switched around the two memory sticks and tried plugging them in the other two unused DIMM slots. I cleaned both sticks using the pencil eraser trick. I tried removing one. Then I removed both.

By this time, I had a bare-bones system with only the motherboard, the processor (and its cooler) and the power supply. The issue is still happening!

• I removed the CMOS battery. I went out and bought a brand new one.
• The motherboard had dual BIOS (Basic Input/Output System). I forced it to use the backup BIOS, then back to the main BIOS.
• To test the power supply, I plugged it out of the system and jumped it to run on its own using the paperclip trick. It was able to provide constant 12 volts to one of the case fans I attached to it. I went out and bought a multimeter then tested each pin for 12, 5, 3.3 and -12 volt readings.

I was almost certain that the power supply is not the culprit. But among the remaining three components, it was the power supply that was the most likely to have failed so I needed to make extra sure. I bought a cheap low-wattage power supply (EVGA 400W ATX Power Supply) and swapped that in just to make sure. True enough, the power supply was innocent. Now I have a spare power supply for future endeavors.

It was down to the motherboard or the processor. I didn't know a way to further test the processor and between the two, it was more likely that it was the motherboard. I finally decided to buy a replacement motherboard (MSI Z97-GAMING 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard). It arrived and with it, finally, the system POSTs!

Conclusion

Looking back, I'm still not certain what exactly was wrong with the motherboard. The motherboard itself is composed of multiple components like chipsets, capacitors, etc. But I have a hunch that it may be the BIOS getting corrupted, both main and backup BIOS. I've read that the BIOS chip can be replaced with a little solder and a fresh chip from the manufacturer or from some guy in ebay but it's too late to know now. It took two weeks, but Jaeger is now back to life and recovering (link to motherboard replacement).