Overclocking fail - Will not Post

[nonameguy321]

MB: MSI b450i Gaming Plus AC

RAM: 2x16gb Corsair Vengeance LPX 3200 - Samsung b-Die

CPU: Ryzen 3700x

 

Let me first say, I removed the battery and power supply overnight and reset the CMOS multiple times.

 

Admittedly, this is the first time I've OC'd RAM but did my research before starting and did everything incrementally.  Thaiphoon Burner gave me the RAM details, The values in the Ryzen DRAM Calculator were way off from being stable, so I began adjusting values one by one.  Voltages were never outside the recommended voltages with the exception of DRAM voltage, which was recommended by the calculator to go no higher than 1.39v.  Reading the forums though, DDR4 is rated up to 1.45, which I never touched -- I went as high as 1.42.

 

I spent the day tweaking, resetting the CMOS, tweaking, until I just about had it dialed in.  Then a couple boots bluescreened, so I scaled back again to the last working value.  I was making one change at a time and saving the BIOS settings, so I have a USB with an absurd amount of saves on it now. 

 

Then it wouldn't post -- and that's where I'm at now.  I left the battery and power supply disconnected overnight, it didn't help.  Today I swapped out every component (thankfully my unRAID box uses compatible hardware so I have a spare everything).  I changed CPU, videocard, power supply, RAM - all with the same results.  Those same components that didn't work on this motherboard, worked on the unRAID board so I can definitively say - it's the motherboard.

 

My understanding was that OC'ing RAM won't kill a motherboard, even if the overclock fails -- especially if you don't get crazy with the voltages.  Can anyone confirm what may have gone wrong here, or give suggestions on what else to try to get the board functional again?  I opened an RMA with MSI (the board is only 40 days old!  Just missed the retailer window).

 

Thanks

 

[nonameguy321]

9 minutes ago, PatrikYT_98 said:

Remove all ram stick and put only 1 in and try again if it  boots clear the bios and put the other ram stick back too

Tried, and failed.  I tried a single stick in each slot, and used the RAM that was not part of the overclocking - sadly no post,

[Aree Soothsayer]

2 minutes ago, nonameguy321 said:

Tried, and failed.  I tried a single stick in each slot, and used the RAM that was not part of the overclocking - sadly no post,

Have you tried downloading a new bios from the manufacturer and installing it? MSI is known for Mobos that can install bios with only a power supply connected,

[nonameguy321]

28 minutes ago, Aree Soothsayer said:

Have you tried downloading a new bios from the manufacturer and installing it? MSI is known for Mobos that can install bios with only a power supply connected,

I have not, can certainly try it but how would I make it boot from USB if I can't get to the BIOS?  Also, the BIOS update files in the driver section of their page is a standalone file that needs to be applied from within the BIOS, it's not actually bootable.

[Aree Soothsayer]

4 minutes ago, nonameguy321 said:

I have not, can certainly try it but how would I make it boot from USB if I can't get to the BIOS?  Also, the BIOS update files in the driver section of their page is a standalone file that needs to be applied from within the BIOS, it's not actually bootable.

My apologies. I should have looked into your board instead of just seeing the MSI. I've been looking around and if you place a USB Fat32 stick into a top usb slot the board will look at it and if it sees the bios automatically install it. I do not know if your board is one of those. 

[firedrop]

does the motherboard beep with the RAM completely removed?

[nonameguy321]

2 minutes ago, firedrop said:

does the motherboard beep with the RAM completely removed?

It doesn't beep - I'm not sure an mITX board has a speaker on it, but I can confirm the DRAM indicator light, which indicates a problem, lights up on the board with no RAM installed.  As soon as RAM is inserted, the light goes out.

[firedrop]

sorry i didn't read the bottom half of your original post  i know you pulled the battery, have you tried shunting the cmos pins? If shunting the pins doesn't work and you're not able to fix the bios via USB flash drive you're probably SOL.. my opinion anyway. But there's probably someone here that knows a lot more about it than I do

 

edit: maybe the bios battery got damaged? Do you have another bios battery you could try?

[C17H23NO2]

Try with other Ram sticks then the ones you tried to overclock. Maybe they got damaged. 
Just look if you have another whatever size DDR4 stick you are sure is working , or maybe a friend can give you one, and try to boot. 
Can't think of really anything else. 
Cmos reseting done correct ? no loss of power while board was doing sth important? 
 

[nonameguy321]

2 minutes ago, firedrop said:

sorry i didn't read the bottom half of your original post  i know you pulled the battery, have you tried shunting the cmos pins? If shunting the pins doesn't work and you're not able to fix the bios via USB flash drive you're probably SOL.. my opinion anyway. But there's probably someone here that knows a lot more about it than I do

 

edit: maybe the bios battery got damaged? Do you have another bios battery you could try?

I'm trying to figure out exactly how I would boot via USB - haven't solved that one yet.

 

In regards to a battery, that will be difficult.  These small boards put things in odd places - changing the battery is not as easy as usual, it's kind of wrapped up in it's own little shrink wrapped housing and stuck to part of the ethernet port.  Hard to describe, but equally as hard to replace.

[nonameguy321]

1 minute ago, C17H23NO2 said:

Try with other Ram sticks then the ones you tried to overclock. Maybe they got damaged. 
Just look if you have another whatever size DDR4 stick you are sure is working , or maybe a friend can give you one, and try to boot. 
Can't think of really anything else. 
Cmos reseting done correct ? no loss of power while board was doing sth important? 
 

I've checked both of those boxes - replaced with different, working RAM in each of the slots and no go.  CMOS was reset correctly, the same way I did it 100 times before while trying to tune the RAM.  No loss of power no.. just a dead board it seems like!

[C17H23NO2]

Maybe , at least with my board , DRAM voltage is next to SOC voltage. If you set SOC voltage too high by accident that might be a reason to kill the board, but normally they are very resistent.. strange 

 

Correcting myself. Putting the Bios version on a USB drive , plugging it into the PC ( preferably usb port on mainboard itself ) , should start M-Flash automatically. 

[nonameguy321]

30 minutes ago, C17H23NO2 said:

Maybe , at least with my board , DRAM voltage is next to SOC voltage. If you set SOC voltage too high by accident that might be a reason to kill the board, but normally they are very resistent.. strange 

 

Correcting myself. Putting the Bios version on a USB drive , plugging it into the PC ( preferably usb port on mainboard itself ) , should start M-Flash automatically. 

Unfortunately all the documentation I'm finding shows M-Flash has to launch from within the BIOS - the driver file for my board (b450-i) from MSI doesn't include anything that would be bootable.  I'd love to try this but am just not sure how to go about it.

[Aree Soothsayer]

30 minutes ago, nonameguy321 said:

Unfortunately all the documentation I'm finding shows M-Flash has to launch from within the BIOS - the driver file for my board (b450-i) from MSI doesn't include anything that would be bootable.  I'd love to try this but am just not sure how to go about it.

Just make sure the usb is formatted Fat32. Won't work with anything else currently.

[nonameguy321]

8 hours ago, Aree Soothsayer said:

Just make sure the usb is formatted Fat32. Won't work with anything else currently.

I tried - every USB port, but it did not work.

 

I'm resigned to the fact I killed the motherboard and am going to move forward with an RMA.