Motherboard problem? I blew one ferrite choke by accident!

[crowman34]

hi everybody,

This is my first post. I always have benefited a lot from reading your comments.

The problem: I have an asus p6x58d premium motherboard and by accident I blew one ferrite choke and spilled a few drops of destilate water when re-installing my cpu waterblock. I turned on the computer later and ran prime95 for 10 minutes and no issues of temps ( averaged at around 65 degrees celsius).

1- do you think I have to try to solder the blown ferrite choke?
2- with a missing ferrite, is it risky to OC the cpu (i7 930) to 3.8 ghz?

thanks and sorry if I should have posted this in another category

 

[mavroxur]

It's impossible to tell what the ferrite choke actually did without seeing the board and which choke it was. And even then, it's hard to tell, sometimes impossible without a schematic of the board. If you blew a choke and the board still runs, it could be one of the phases for the CPU Voltage Regulator section. Some boards use several chokes in parallel for each phase, and have several phases. If one goes, the board will still work, but under a load, the increased current going thru the remaining chokes could cause a catastrophic failure of the remaining choke(s)

 

[crowman34]

here there is a picture of the motherboard (found on internet). The choke I blew is the one on top of the CPU socket to the left (the first choke if you count from left to right).
1- Can I get away with not doing anything and overclocking the cpu to 3.4 ghz?
2- What can it happen in worst of cases? I have expensive components like a crossfire of HD 6950, one ssd, 6 gb ram corsair denominator, etc
3- If you suggest soldering the blown choke, can I use the same choke I blew?

 

[crowman34]

sorry, here is the picture link

http://www.hardwareluxx.de/community/f219/asus-p6x58d-premium-intel-x58-679336.html

 

[geekapproved]

One reason why water and electronics don't mix.

 

[mavroxur]

Those are the chokes for the CPU voltage regulators. Being that your board is technically damaged, I wouldn't tempt fate by doing any overclocking. Overclocking will increase the current load on the chokes, and being that one is gone, that would increase the load on the remaining chokes in that phase of the VRM. I don't recommend the average person solder ANYTHING on a motherboard.


If you push your luck and decide to OC anyways, the results could be bad....very bad. Fried motherboards tend to ruin one's day. If i were to guess, i'd say that pushing your luck, overclocking, and frying the board, you most likely would lose more than just the board. If you don't mind losing CPU, RAM, and possibly video cards, then by all means, overclock it. I wouldn't.....

 

[Toxxyc]

The biggest problem with fried motherboards isn't damage to the motherboards themselves, but rather to your expensive equipment installed on it. Imagine a voltage spike that fries your (very nice) Crossfire HD6950 setup...? Now THAT would suck.