So this is pretty much what is going on
I have an intel i7-4790k which was originally on a test bench. Well, something ended up happening and i did a linus and the bench fell while running. The motherboard is a MSI z97 gaming 5. When attempting to boot, i get a post code error 03 which according to the manual is pre north bridge initialization. Nothing comes up on screen, and it will freeze here until reset or psu is switched off. If left alone sometimes it will shut off and reset by itself showing post code 00 but usually itll just stay on and show 03. I have another motherboard which is much cheaper from MSI. It has no post code or beeps and when turned on it just sits there with the fan running nothing on the screen. The functionality of both boards is unknown as I do not have another cpu to test and ive never seen the cheaper board work. Do i assume the motherboard is bad and go for a new one? Or should i chase down another cpu/psu and see if one of those are the culprit? I am honestly lost at this point.
This is my first post here so im sorry if i did anything wrong