Bad motherboard, want more confidence

[tsmspace]

I bought a used computer advertised as "does not start, fans come on". The seller said it sat in his closet for maybe 2 years. Msi z97 mate, i7 4790k. 

 

I, however, fiddled around with it until it worked, then installed windows, but didnt install antivirus. I was downloading things, installed steam, drl racing, then during smartpropoplus, computer froze. It started several times and froze while trying to figure it out, and now basically never starts, the psu and cpu fan blink on then everything dies, and it repeats unless I interrupt it for maybe a minute or longer. 

 

Maybe the motherboard failed as the seller believed it had, and because it sat it had some life,,, maybe i got a virus. I swapped basically all of the other parts to other machines, (even the cpu into an all-in-one lenovo), and besides 1 bad ram card, all parts worked . (I must have broken that ram card, but the computer behaves the same with other ram than the ones it came with) 

 

A dang motherboard is far away (to actually test a build of all of these parts except a motherboard). 

 

What else can I do for confidence?? What if its a virus? Some caps look worn, so perhaps intermittent problems came from them,,, but smartpropoplus might not be safe, although i have it on other computers, ... i dont really want to just start buying motherboards for 100 plus without knowing its my only real option,,, replacing caps, though, i should have a spare motherboard anyway, chances of failure are probably high. I dont even know how to buy caps. 

[boey]

try a new boot drive?(without any other drives)

[Jurrunio]

Virus doesn't do anything until the system actually starts, so not that.

 

Try reset CMOS?

[tsmspace]

19 hours ago, _d0nut said:

try a new boot drive?(without any other drives)

I did. I used a drive with lubuntu on it. 

[tsmspace]

19 hours ago, Jurrunio said:

Virus doesn't do anything until the system actually starts, so not that.

 

Try reset CMOS?

I did a bunch of times. left out the battery, etc. I'm 100% sure that cmos reset because while it was still more intermittent, it would say that cmos was reset. Even the last time I tried it , one time and one time only, it got far enough in boot up to show that cmos was reset. Then it loses power and shuts off. 

 

the rest of the times I try to push the start button only the psu and cpu fan come on for just an instant, then it shuts off. the sysfan doesn't even start. I did wonder if the fan might cause the problem, brushless motors can short , resulting in huge power draw,,, and causing power loss,,, I flew FPV drones for a while, and bad motors can cause all kinds of weird behavior in those... but I honestly didn't try it in other places, besides, even the fan led doesn't come on, so I just think that it doesn't get to that point in boot. 

 

I was worried that a virus that corrupted the very first phase of startup might exist. additionally I'm worried that if I use the same boot drive on another motherboard, and it IS a virus, it would corrupt that board,,.... 

 

I've ordered a board just this morning, I forget which one but it's a used board from a spcs or something, a chinese reseller. It claims its tested and was only 65$ after shipping. It should support overclocking because its still a z97, but it's not the board I would really want. Ideally, I could make the board that it has work. 

[tsmspace]

update, the replacement board i ordered (for anyone who casually is interested) is a Gigabyte GA-z97-HD3 ,,, ordered from SPCP , an electronics and accessories supplier in china. 

 

The board was used, and cost 65$ after shipping, but declares in its description that it was tested for 24 hrs. 

 

https://spcpshop.com/products/gigabyte-technology-ga-z97-hd3-desktop-computer-motherboard-1150-socket-ddr3-atx-z97-hdmi?utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=Google Shopping&cmp_id=1714455738&adg_id=66541051629&kwd=&device=c&gclid=Cj0KCQjwjYHpBRC4ARIsAI-3GkHMivBdxGXcx38KiIIxw4aKF4lresziHY1PHSyiz3-M9KqxLQQh5T4aAgUlEALw_wcB

[OCGUY4LIFE]

Did the board you ordered from SPCP arrive in good condition and work? I saw a board I am after there but cannot find much information on the site.

[tsmspace]

It did. In fact, I'm on it right now. It's running fine,, it did look used, and certainly showed age in the metal io shielding, but no corrosion, but I did have worries that overall longevity might not be what i might hope for, and I've never overclocked it, so I don't know if extra power might also cause failure. The board looked possibly blown off but otherwise just literally pulled and bagged. 

 

I won't try overclocking it until I roll most of my games onto a new computer, which is built but doesn't have storage, because I don't want a failure that keeps me from my favorite games!! ( I only have the computer for games. I play starmade for courses I make, orbital racer I just started playing yesterday, and drone racing games). 

 

 

[Subhendu Panskura]

Dear Sir,

How long did it take you to get the order delivered from SPCP?, I  ordered for a Mobo from them before a week, they provided me a tracking number, that did not working. I do not understand how long to wait to receive the order

[midas97]

On 8/1/2021 at 8:21 PM, Subhendu Panskura said:

Dear Sir,

How long did it take you to get the order delivered from SPCP?, I  ordered for a Mobo from them before a week, they provided me a tracking number, that did not working. I do not understand how long to wait to receive the order

Did you get the motherboard? How long it took to arrive?