PC shuts off, Sparks from Motherboard

[psychobob]

This is the second time this has happened. Here are my specs:

Coolor master Silent Pro M 600W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171036

AMD 1055t CPU
ZALMAN CNPS8700
MSI 880-G45 mobo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130276

G.SKILL Ripjaws 8GB
WD 1GB HDD Black Caviar
DVD
MSI 5850 GPU
Thermaltake Lanbox lite

First time was when I was playing Crysis 2. After playing for 4 hrs straight, the PC just shut off. I tried turning it back on, but it almost seemed like it wasn't getting any juice. It would barely turn on for a split second then turn back off. Then there was a strange burning smell. I tried turning it back on again, but sparks flew. So I waited for a few minutes, put a house fan on top of it..and turned it on again and it appeared to be fine. After 20 minutes of just browsing the web, it shut off. It barely turned on and sparks flew again. After waiting for it to cool down, this time it wouldn't load Windows and I couldn't reinstall Windows. I took everything apart. The mobo didn't appear to have any burn marks. So I RMAd and installed everything again with the new mobo. This was 6 months ago and everything was fine until now..

Now the same thing has happened after encoding videos using handbrake. I noticed this software was using 95-100% of all cores. It was fine while using it for a couple hours straight a couple of days ago. But just yesterday, the PC shutoff. Before it did, there was that burning smell again. Tried turning it on, but it turned off right away. Then sparks flew. After a few minutes, it turned back on. I've been using it for the past few hours now without any problems thus far, but I haven't done anything CPU intensive. But I did test handbrake for a few minutes, and i noticed my CPU temp was hitting 62c with the cooler at max rpm.

Also, I used the cheap thermal paste and didn't do a good job applying it. After I got the replacement mobo, I just attached the cooler back on the CPU with whatever paste that was stuck on there already. Also, the sparks seemed to have come from part of the mobo near the CPU.

I've never overclocked the CPU or GPU.


So, anyone have any ideas whats going?

Oh, and I just ordered the arctic silver 5

Thanks.

 

[psychobob]

Ok, i'm reading some of lowest rate reviews for my mobo. I'm thinking that could be the problem.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130276

 

[psychobob]

ok, I also found this:

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1524927

Time for new mobo I suppose.

 

[GhislainG]

Sparks usually fly because there is a short or because components overheat and fail. You probably should consider getting a motherboard that can supports 125W processors. Then you'll be sure that it won't blow when the CPU is working hard.

Did you make sure that all PSU voltages are within specs?

 

[psychobob]

Sparks usually fly because there is a short or because components overheat and fail. You probably should consider getting a motherboard that can supports 125W processors. Then you'll be sure that it won't blow when the CPU is working hard.

Did you make sure that all PSU voltages are within specs?

When I purchased the motherboard, the CPU support list on the MSI site did include my 1055t 125w. I'm just finding out all 125watt CPUs were removed from it.

Thanks for the info.

 

[GhislainG]

I checked your motherboard on MSI's site and it supports the 1055T 95W version only: http://www.msi.com/product/mb/880GMA-E45.html#/?div=CPUSupport

 

[psychobob]

Thanks. Now question is, what motherboard to buy. Never going to touch MSI again.

 

[GhislainG]

I wouldn't blame MSI; you have a good motherboard, but it isn't designed to support 125W processors. Unfortunately most mATX motherboards don't support 6-core 125W processors.

Here are a few mATX motherboards that could meet your requirements, but you're the only one who knows if you need 4 memory slots, several SATA ports, etc.

- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138197
- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138283

 

[pjmelect]

I wouldn't blame the motherboard, sounds like you have a bad power supply. Anyway I would get a new power supply when you get a new motherboard why take the risk?