Motherboard Problem

[The Fugitive]

I have an Asrock Z77 extreme 4 mother board. All of a sudden it starts running like I'm only on one cylinder. It moves slow, has a very hard time accessing the drives and so on. The last time I did this I rebooted and it stalled with an error 64. Looking up the error someone said they had an issue with a bent pin on the CPU socket. I had my son look ( better eyes) and he found 3. Using a needle he twisted them back in shape and I put it all back together and it booted no problem. I've been running it a week or so and it is doing it again.

So now I'm thinking I should buy a new motherboard (this one is well out of warranty). Replacing the MB is going to mean a re-install of win7 correct? The board I have is rated highly at Newegg, should I get the same board and hope my issues were a fluke? Should I get a different board? Looking at THIS ONE.

Any tips or help would be appreciated.

EDIT: changed the one I was looking at, didn't notice it was a micro.

[guncrasher]

the second one you listed is a micro mobo which is a lot small er than what you have right now.   if it was me I would stick with a full size.


midway

[ebfd11]

Fugi

I have the EVGA Z77 FTW http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188120&Tpk=z77%20ftw and I must say it rocks... I have had absoulutly no problems with it and it looks nice in my rig. Just a little expensive but worth every penny.

LawnDart

[The Fugitive]

Well that one is a bit out of my price range.  The last few computer we built around here all had ASUS boards in them and we never had any trouble. I found one for a few dollars more that has more room to grow. I think I'll get that one.

The other issue is how much trouble am I going to have switching it over? I never just changed a MB. I've always added/upgraded video, ram, sound cards power supplies, but when it was time to swap out a MB I usually was rebuilding the whole thing.

Any little gremlins I should prepare for?

[guncrasher]

check your cpu make sure thal is not the reason the pins are bent.   check where you hd will hook up some mobos are picky about it.


midway

[cattb]

You have to reinstall the OS, different board, . One thing I noticed is the USB 3 ports won't work untill the drivers are in. I used the USB 2.0 ports for my mouse and keyboard while installing OS and drivers. I use USB wireless keyboard and mouse, your situation may be different.

Good Luck.

[Bizman]

Reinstalling the OS would probably be the best solution in the long run, but: If your current setup is either unstable or unbearably slow to safely get your valuables to another media (i.e. an external hard disk), in many cases you might be able to get a running system even without a reinstall. A regular surfer might not see any difference, whereas a heavy gamer might see some lack of performance.

The trick is to remove all the old motherboard devices. That can be done assisted by a Microsoft code in the Device Manager. I have compiled a small script to simplify the process, just copy and paste the three lines below to Notepad, save the file as 'devices.bat' and run it as an administrator. It will open the Device Manager with the opportunity to see non-present devices (=your old mobo) when you choose 'Show hidden devices' in the Options menu. Just remove everything that is greyed.

@echo off
devmgr_show_nonpresent_device s=1
start devmgmt.msc

[The Fugitive]

Well most of my stuff is on an external drive, only the things I was using often were on the internal. The computer would just stop, the mouse would be ok, but what ever was up would go to "not responding". these freezes would last a second or so to 5-6 and then it would work again. I had the stock cooler on the CPU as I had no intention of over clocking it.... yet  It was one of those that has the plastic split points that go through the board and an insert that expands it in the hole on the MB to attach it. While I don't bounce the computer around I never liked the way is attached. I think the weight was twisting the heat sink and maybe twisting the CPU in its socket. With the pins being out of alignment that little bit was enough to cause the issue.

So I ordered a new cooler as well. Thanks for the "bat" file, I run it once I'm up and running again.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Well most of my stuff is on an external drive, only the things I was using often were on the internal. The computer would just stop, the mouse would be ok, but what ever was up would go to "not responding". these freezes would last a second or so to 5-6 and then it would work again. I had the stock cooler on the CPU as I had no intention of over clocking it.... yet  It was one of those that has the plastic split points that go through the board and an insert that expands it in the hole on the MB to attach it. While I don't bounce the computer around I never liked the way is attached. I think the weight was twisting the heat sink and maybe twisting the CPU in its socket. With the pins being out of alignment that little bit was enough to cause the issue.

So I ordered a new cooler as well. Thanks for the "bat" file, I run it once I'm up and running again.

Freezing like that may point to harddrive problems. If your mouse moves but the applications fail to respond it may be due to not being able to access the drive. Have you tested your hdd for errors? Of course if the cpu pins are bent that may explain everything.

[Skuzzy]

If it is hard drive, you can see the errors being logged in the Windows Event Viewer, under Administrator Tools.

[The Fugitive]

When it started acting up yesterday I tried many things, and for the most part it would stall. Most of my "test" programs are on the external drive and I couldn't access it. When I rebooted it I got the error 64 again, and it won't boot. I'm pretty sure its the MB, from all that I've researched. I do have a spare drive if that turns out to be the case after I put the new board in.

[dhaus]

Fugi - just installed that same motherboard on my new build.  When i did the external build recommended by Newegg, I got an error code that translated as "looking for scsi device."  I did have the asrock screen on my monitor, and after wasting time looking for the "solution" just went ahead with the rest of the build.  Same error when all was in the case, but I could go into BIOS, reset the build priority and install Win7.  All of a sudden, no error and all is well.  Maybe just reinstalling the OS would work?  

[The Fugitive]

Mine ran fine for a little over 4 months. Then it gave me troubles. I pulled it apart and didn't see any thing wrong (old eyes) and put it all back together. It ran for a week or so and did it again. My son looked at it, adjusted the socket pins, and we put it back together. It ran for a few weeks this time. Long enough that I thought we were out of the woods. And then it did it again. I'm still leaning toward that socket issue due to the weight of the cooling fan and heatsink. We'll see.

[Bizman]

The pins in the cpu socket don't bend by themselves, you're totally correct about that. Back in the days of yore AMD told not to exceed 300g while transporting if the heatsink was only held in place by the spring thing. Today, I've know of massive heatsinks triple the weight attached to the motherboard with mere plastic clips. Although, on second thought, the flat surface of the processor doesn't have the tools to bend the pins... Could it be possible that the pins were bent before you installed the CPU? If they have been bent for a long time, they tend to revert to that position. That you've accidentally bent them during the installation is out of the question, of course. 

[The Fugitive]

The pins in the cpu socket don't bend by themselves, you're totally correct about that. Back in the days of yore AMD told not to exceed 300g while transporting if the heatsink was only held in place by the spring thing. Today, I've know of massive heatsinks triple the weight attached to the motherboard with mere plastic clips. Although, on second thought, the flat surface of the processor doesn't have the tools to bend the pins... Could it be possible that the pins were bent before you installed the CPU? If they have been bent for a long time, they tend to revert to that position. That you've accidentally bent them during the installation is out of the question, of course. 

Well anything can happen, but I am always very careful around the CPU.... those things ain't cheap ya know. I suspect that it was an issue strait out of the box as I have found a number of tech posts saying others have had the same issue with this board. Well new board should be in today..... if UPS is on time, which will give me all weekend to pull my hair out while installing it