No POST - CPU/DRAM LEDs

Chaffy · February 23, 2020

Specs are listed at the bottom of this post. Obligatory "not my PC" to start things off. This was a friend of mine, and I've tried everything I can to help him out. Here's what happened, and what steps we've tried:

- Bought new cables for the PC from PhanTeks, installed new cables and PC POSTs

- PC worked fine, was in the middle of watching YouTube when PC suddenly brought up a BSOD (SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION), PC rebooted, all was okay

- 30 minutes later, PC brings up same BSOD, however it stayed at 0% progress

- Friend did not realize how to properly turn off PC by holding power button, unplugs power cable from PSU (with PC still on), plugs back in, and boots computer. (Yes, he now realizes how to turn off a PC properly when it's stuck on a BSOD. We're currently in the damage control stage to see if anything is fried.)

- PC no longer okay. CPU and DRAM LEDs are flashing back and forth. CPU LED lights for a split second, then switches to DRAM LED for 2-3 seconds, and repeats.

- Friend swapped to old cables in case those were causing problems, so new cables are out of the picture for the time being

Things we've tried to troubleshoot:

- Reset CMOS, gave it 10-15 minutes, then reseated and booted. No POST

- Pulled RAM out of each slot, tried booting with 1 stick at a time in every slot, total of 16 separate boots. No POST

- Tried with no RAM completely, POST gets stuck on DRAM LED

Also tried with CPU power unplugged, POST gets stuck on CPU LED (these 2 tests showed me that the motherboard was at least detecting these two things separately; more of a S&G's kind of test)

- Tried with no GPU. No POST

As mentioned in the 4th step of what happened, yes he unplugged directly from the PSU with the PC still on, and that's likely where something went wrong. We're in damage control mode now, trying to figure out what particularly is broken/fried. Is there anything else we can try besides using different RAM/CPU?

Thanks a bunch!

Specs:

Windows 10 OS

Motherboard: MSI MPG Z390M Gaming Edge AC

CPU: i7-9700k @ 4.2 GHz (stock 3.6 GHz)

RAM: 4x8GB (32GB) Corsair Vengenace 3200MHz

PSU: Corsair CX650M Gold Certified

GPU: ZOTAC Gaming RTX 2060