Hi, I recently had my Crosshair V Formula melt down during a stability test using Prime95 for a modest 4.4ghz overclock with the HT and NB both at 2600mhz. I started to smell burning plastic while monitoring core temps (staying below 60C) and I later found the 4 pin ATX power connector on my 750W PSU had melted (damaging the board). It left a burned plastic residue in the 4 pin socket so I'm not sure if I can use it again. The board is now frequently refusing to post on boot from shutdown (I can get it to boot by resetting the bios, but it seems flaky).
I'm disappointed because this seems like it could have been easily avoidable. The manual did not specify using the 8 pin over the 4 pin (or both) for overclocking, it simply instructed using one or the other (no warnings, no cautions, no guidelines, nothing). When I first installed the board I couldn't even find the 8 pin connector because of the cap that covered half of it, so I assumed the manual was inaccurate and there were just two 4 pin connectors to choose from. I tried to confirm which one to use in a chat with an Asus tech online, and I was told I could just use either one (with no preference given to using the 8 pin connector for overclocking). The forums and internet contain some debates about this and let's just say there isn't a clear consensus on whether or when to use the 8 pin vs the 4 pin (or both). Clearly, I should have been using the 8 pin connector (or both the 8 pin and 4 pin) for even modest overclocking of the FX-8150, and I feel the manual should have been clearer to recommend these configurations for overclocking which Asus may not support but their product is intended for.
This is my 2nd Asus board, and I can say I'm a real fan of Asus products. I understand why Asus does not officially support overclocking, but for a product that is made for it and marketed directly to enthusiasts, with lots of tools and software provided to encourage overclocking, I would have expected some better guidelines in the manual. I've already invested in a replacement for the PSU with the burned out connector, so I'm sincerely hoping I don't have to spring for a motherboard and/or cpu replacement on top of that.
I'm continuing to troubleshoot the boot issues I'm having, and I'm hoping that Asus will allow me to RMA the board under warranty (if necessary) on the basis that I followed the instructions in the manual to the letter and the board still melted down (so it either didn't perform to spec or the instructions in the manual were inadequate and misleading). Any help with diagnosis or RMA process would be most appreciated (how do I contact cl-jeffrey or cl-scott? Are those email prefixes to which I need to add
@asus.com?).
