Question Melted Pin

[thok794]

Hello
So I own a MSI Z390 ACE for less than 2 months and had a lot of stutter in games so I decided after trying everything inside windows 10, I decided to make a hardware check and I found out that the back side of my motherboard where the CPU goes is like this. It looks completely melted I do not know if the motherboard was like this when purchased or it happened later. What are these "pins" (I hope I call them right as pins) used for ? How do they affect performance and I guess motherboard should be replaced?
These are the images of the backside of the mobo.

https://imgur.com/vSILjfq

View: https://imgur.com/vSILjfq

https://imgur.com/OqcW4GD

View: https://imgur.com/OqcW4GD

https://imgur.com/v88Ll52

View: https://imgur.com/v88Ll52

 

[jimmysmitty]

Those are not pins but resistors. They are there to help control the flow of voltage and current.

I would say you need to start a RMA with MSI on that. I have never seen that happen personally. The closest I have ever seen is when someone spilled liquid and the PCB starts to burn but never that area. Looks like a possible defective part to me.

 

[thok794]

I see. Could that affe

Those are not pins but resistors. They are there to help control the flow of voltage and current.

I would say you need to start a RMA with MSI on that. I have never seen that happen personally. The closest I have ever seen is when someone spilled liquid and the PCB starts to burn but never that area. Looks like a possible defective part to me.

I see, thank you very much for you reply and help. Could also that explain why the games stutter with a high end PC?

 

[TJ Hooker]

I could see it maybe affecting stability, but I don't know about stuttering. Full system specs? Max CPU/GPU temps under load/when stuttering occurs? What resolution/refresh rate is your monitor, and do you have any gsync/freesync/vsync/etc enabled?

Edit: clean install of windows for this build?

 

[thok794]

I could see it maybe affecting stability, but I don't know about stuttering. Full system specs? Max CPU/GPU temps under load/when stuttering occurs? What resolution/refresh rate is your monitor, and do you have any gsync/freesync/vsync/etc enabled?

Edit: clean install of windows for this build?

CPU: I7 78000k
GPU: Palit rtx 2080 gaming OC
RAM: 16gb Ram G.Skilll
MOBO: Msi Z390 Ace
CPU cooler: Cryorig H7
PSU: HX 850i
Monitor: Benq Zowie XL2411P ,144HZ,1920x1080
These are the specs, these are all disabled. The temps are max 80oCYes I did a clean win 10 pro instaltion twice. Even fixed the unclean cache RAM issue.

 

[jimmysmitty]

It may not be causing the stuttering but it is still possible it could be if the voltage to the CPU is not stable enough to keep clocks stable on all cores. And be it the issue or not damage like that is never a good thing to keep running. It could cause an eventual short and/or fire on the board which would result in more damage to other components. A RMA through MSI would be the best start and then if you still have stuttering issues we can continue to troubleshot them with a known good motherboard.

 

[thok794]

It may not be causing the stuttering but it is still possible it could be if the voltage to the CPU is not stable enough to keep clocks stable on all cores. And be it the issue or not damage like that is never a good thing to keep running. It could cause an eventual short and/or fire on the board which would result in more damage to other components. A RMA through MSI would be the best start and then if you still have stuttering issues we can continue to troubleshot them with a known good motherboard.

Alright I will contact MSI or the store I bought the mobo and check again how the stutter will go. Thank you very much for your help much appreciated

 

[thok794]

UPDATE: I unscrewed the motherboard and apparently that wasnt the only ressistor that was at that state. There are almost 15 more resistors melted like that.... What could cause this? I will send the motherboard on Monday at the store I bought it since MSI Greece is not taking this kind of responsibility nor has a service for this kind of matters.

 

[jimmysmitty]

I am not sure what would cause that. I have never seen those do that unless there was a short due to a misplaced standoff or liquid damage. Otherwise it was just a faulty board.

 

[thok794]

I see thank you for your help. I replaced it with a new motherbard. The stuttering tho keeps happening on games.

 

[TJ Hooker]

Please run userbenchmark and post link to your results here:
https://www.userbenchmark.com/

 

[thok794]

Please run userbenchmark and post link to your results here:
https://www.userbenchmark.com/

UserBenchmarks: Game 124%, Desk 101%, Work 99%
CPU: Intel Core i7-8700K - 108.6%
GPU: Nvidia RTX 2080 - 153.6%
SSD: Corsair Force LE 240GB - 97.2%
HDD: WD WD5000AVDS-63U7B1 500GB - 46.9%
RAM: G.SKILL Trident Z RGB DDR4 3000 C16 2x8GB - 70.8%
MBD: Gigabyte GIGABYTE Z390 AORUS Ultra


Here it is, hope it is the right way.

 

[Rogue Leader]

Did you do a fresh install of Windows with your new motherboard?

 

[TJ Hooker]

UserBenchmarks: Game 124%, Desk 101%, Work 99%
CPU: Intel Core i7-8700K - 108.6%
GPU: Nvidia RTX 2080 - 153.6%
SSD: Corsair Force LE 240GB - 97.2%
HDD: WD WD5000AVDS-63U7B1 500GB - 46.9%
RAM: G.SKILL Trident Z RGB DDR4 3000 C16 2x8GB - 70.8%
MBD: Gigabyte GIGABYTE Z390 AORUS Ultra


Here it is, hope it is the right way.

Looks like your RAM is only running at 2133 MHz. Go into the BIOS and enable the XMP profile. You can confirm that your memory is running at its rated speed by running CPU-Z and looking at the Memory tab (it should list a memory clock of 1500 MHz, which corresponds to an effective memory speed of 3000 MHz).

Everything else looks good though.

 

[thok794]

Did you do a fresh install of Windows with your new motherboard?

Yes i've done that when i re-installed the new motherboard

 

[thok794]

Looks like your RAM is only running at 2133 MHz. Go into the BIOS and enable the XMP profile. You can confirm that your memory is running at its rated speed by running CPU-Z and looking at the Memory tab (it should list a memory clock of 1500 MHz, which corresponds to an effective memory speed of 3000 MHz).

Everything else looks good though.

I'll do that as well.Though I changed vsync too adaptive inside the game and the stutter is almost reduced to 0. Could it be an a compability problem with the monitor and the GPU?

 

[jimmysmitty]

It could be frametime. VSYNC is desinged to remove stutter and lines in a game by maintaining a constant FPS.

 

[MasterMadBones]

Those are not resistors, they are ceramic capacitors. What's more, capacitors of this type don't melt - they burn. As the Userbenchmark results demonstrated, your system performs just fine (except for the XMP profile). My guess is that it's just been some blobs of glue.

 

[TJ Hooker]

I'll do that as well.Though I changed vsync too adaptive inside the game and the stutter is almost reduced to 0. Could it be an a compability problem with the monitor and the GPU?

So vsyn was previously off completely, but now you turned on adaptive sync?

 

[thok794]

It could be frametime. VSYNC is desinged to remove stutter and lines in a game by maintaining a constant FPS.

I see, so this could be a possible cause of the problem? Most gaming posts were saying to have vsync off. My own guess is that something between vsync and rtx is messy or the frame rate of my monitor is off compared to my GPU.

 

[thok794]

So vsyn was previously off completely, but now you turned on adaptive sync?

Yup, it was off and now on adaptive.

 

[thok794]

Those are not resistors, they are ceramic capacitors. What's more, capacitors of this type don't melt - they burn. As the Userbenchmark results demonstrated, your system performs just fine (except for the XMP profile). My guess is that it's just been some blobs of glue.

Hmmmm what could burn them then? Also what do you mean by blobs of glue?

 

[jimmysmitty]

Those are not resistors, they are ceramic capacitors. What's more, capacitors of this type don't melt - they burn. As the Userbenchmark results demonstrated, your system performs just fine (except for the XMP profile). My guess is that it's just been some blobs of glue.

Either or it doesn't matter which. I have never seen even a cheap end board look like that. Not sure what they would ever use glue (I would assume hot glue) for on that since the majority of boards are either wave soldered or done by precise machines. I would have returned the board as well is I saw that.

I also assume the new motherboard does not show the same issues otherwise the OP would have stated so or not used it.

I see, so this could be a possible cause of the problem? Most gaming posts were saying to have vsync off. My own guess is that something between vsync and rtx is messy or the frame rate of my monitor is off compared to my GPU.

A more modern way to check GPU performance is Frame pacing. It measures how ling it takes between each frame. There is also tearing which happens when the next frame arrives in the middle of the old frame.

VSYNC was designed to make the GPU match the refresh rate of the monitor, so if you have a 60Hz monitor it would try to stay at 60FPS. This works great if you have a game that your GPU can keep a constant 60FPS or higher. For example if you played Half Life 2 maxed out on your system you would probably peg the game engines max of 300FPS almost always making VSYNC a viable option. Would be smooth as butter.

However since most modern games are more demanding even on top of the line hardware there is now Adaptive SYNC, known as G-SYNC and FreeSync. Instead of the GPU being matched to the monitors refresh rate the monitor has a dynamic refresh rate and can match the GPUs performance instead to a certain limit. Some have a small band, like say 1-60Hz, while some others have a wide band , like 1-240Hz. So now if the GPU fluctuates between say 30 and 60FPS the monitors refresh rate will adapt and remove tearing and micro-stutter.

Stuttering can also come from drivers or poorly optimized games but if enabling it fixed yours you should be good to go.

 

[ElectrO_90]

1-60Hz,

That's a bit too low, I think you'll find its from 35-48hz in minimum, and obviously 240 is max on certain monitors

 

[jimmysmitty]

That's a bit too low, I think you'll find its from 35-48hz in minimum, and obviously 240 is max on certain monitors

NVIDIA GeForce G-SYNC Gaming Monitors

Search for GeForce G-SYNC gaming monitors.

www.nvidia.com

Just going based on nVidias list here. I also doubt there is a 1Hz low range but they say multiple do support it. It might be because they require LFC support for G-SYNC where as FreeSYNC does not.