I have now gone through 4 motherboards. Something about my rackmount case is cooking them! Help!!


When I assemble the bare bones systems outside the case, everything is peachy. It boots up, shuts down, posts, I can fiddle with the BIOS, etc.

As soon as I sick it in the case, and try to boot it up, the CPU fan spins a couple times and then everything goes dead. No post. I take the motherboard back out of the case but that doesn't change anything. Parts of the mobo still seems to function when the power is on. Ethernet lights blink a couple times when I plug a cable in. The green light on the ASUS board comes on, but when I try to power up, nothing. I've tried several different boards that are different makes and models. Same problem.

I've been trying to find out what is wrong, but each time I try something different and it doesn't work, I have to slap down another $200 for a new motherboard.

I find it hard to believe that a simple grounding problem would totally render the motherboard useless. Most people who talk of grounding problems usually say it works again once they remove it from the case. I also thought it might be a problem with the swap-bay back plane, but it's already been replaced once.

I've already ordered a new case, but has anybody ever heard of something like this? This is a totally new problem for me, and if the new case doesn't fix the problem I'm throwing the stupid thing in the lake!!

Are these boards a total loss? Is there anyway to revive them? What exactly is getting fried? I'm wondering if maybe an electrical current is clearing the ROM somehow. Would ordering a new ROM fix this?

This isn't much to go on, but given I cook the motherboard every time I try to figure out what is going on, I don't know much either!

Are you putting the standoffs in!!!!????

The motherboard should not touch the case. There should be risers for the screws that lift it slightly off the bottom of the case

Same thought here Jbennet. Or maybe one of the risers in the case is touching the MB incorrectly resulting a short circuit.

are you using the same psu? if there is a different psu in the case, that could be your problem.

when you place your mobo on the casing don't power it on, check the + supply of the mobo through the atx conn if it's shorted to the ground, if it is not shorted then it could be your psu is the culprit...

The PSU has been the same. It's a Thermaltake W0131RU 850W.

@jbennet: yes, I'm using the standoffs. Although they aren't brass ones like I've usually seen.

@cguan_77: How would I go about checking for the grounding problem you described? I have a meter, but I'm not sure exactly what points to measure from, and for that matter what is considered "normal" and what is not.