Could a processor-motherboard incompatibility be represented as no video output?

[guplem]

A few days ago I was helping a friend build his 1st computer through a video call.
When we finished the build, we found that we were in a no-post situation.

W've tried to troubleshoot it, but we have had no luck on finding a possible cause. We tried to boot the motherboard with only one component a ta time, playing with the ram sticks, ... Tried a lot of things that we didn't even expect to work and did almost all reasonable things we found on the internet. So we concluded that the motherboard, somehow, could be dead (however, no significant damage could be seen with the naked eye).

Today, I was listening to the WAN Show of 8th of May 2020. At the minute 12:38 Linus mentions a story about how an incompatibility between the motherboard and the CPU due to the bios, a computer didn't post. So I was wondering if this was possible to be happening on my case or if you have any clue about what could cause this problem.
 

The computer's specs are:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 1600 Stepping AF 3.6GHz BOX
• Motherboard: MSI B450M-A PRO MAX
• Graphics: MSI Radeon RX 570 Armor 8GB OC GDDR5
• PSU: Seasonic SS-520GM2 - Power Supply of 520 W
• RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX, 16GB, 2 x 8GB DDR4 3000MHz XMP 2.0 C16
• HSD: Stock 
• HDD: Seagate BarraCuda 1TB Internal Hard Drive HDD – 3.5 Inch SATA 6 Gb/s 7200 RPM 64MB Cache (ST1000DM010)
• SSD: INTEL SSD 660P Series (1.0TB, M.2 80MM PCIE 3.0 X4, 3D2, QLC) 
• Case: Tempest Spectra RGB USB 3.0 with Window

Here you have the video,
Thanks for your time.

[boggy77]

ram in slots 2 and 4? have you try resetting CMOS?

 

ryzen 5 1600AF is quite new, so if the motherboard is a bit older, it might not have the right bios to support the cpu.

[databreach]

2nd gen ryzen and b450 should be no problem and MAX mobos are ryzen 3000 ready. So, it's not mobo/cpu problem. It could be a faulty gpu or bad ram. Just try with another (even low-end) known working GPU.

[boggy77]

i assume you're plugging the monitor into the gpu, and not into the motherboard, right?

[paddy-stone]

Check your power cables, especially the CPU power and 24 pin, if the 24 pin is a 20+4, then make sure the +4 is being held down by the 20 part, there are little tabs.

[guplem]

40 minutes ago, boggy77 said:

ram in slots 2 and 4? have you try resetting CMOS?

 

ryzen 5 1600AF is quite new, so if the motherboard is a bit older, it might not have the right bios to support the cpu.

There are only 2 ram slots in that motherboard. Tried with none, either one or the other and both.
And yes, we cleared the CMOS.

What I found in this webpage is that all CPUs are compatible with the same version, so I presume that my version is compatible with my CPU...?

[guplem]

45 minutes ago, databreach said:

2nd gen ryzen and b450 should be no problem and MAX mobos are ryzen 3000 ready. So, it's not mobo/cpu problem. It could be a faulty gpu or bad ram. Just try with another (even low-end) known working GPU.

Sadly, I do not have any knowing GPU to try it out with.

Shouldn't the bios or at least any message be displayed even if the GPU is dead and/or we are plugging the display into the motherboard?

Couldn't be dead motherboard also the problem?

[guplem]

48 minutes ago, boggy77 said:

i assume you're plugging the monitor into the gpu, and not into the motherboard, right?

Tried both. Same result: black screen and all fans spinning and leds lighting up.

[boggy77]

the first time it powers on, it takes some time to train the ram. try to turn it on an leave it for 10-15 minutes.

[guplem]

34 minutes ago, paddy-stone said:

Check your power cables, especially the CPU power and 24 pin, if the 24 pin is a 20+4, then make sure the +4 is being held down by the 20 part, there are little tabs.

I'm pretty sure they are all properly connected. All fans spinning and leds lighting up. The CPU gets warmer.

[paddy-stone]

2 hours ago, guplem said:

I'm pretty sure they are all properly connected. All fans spinning and leds lighting up. The CPU gets warmer.

Ahh, you never mentioned that before. It's possible that the build is completely fine, you're just not getting video output. Try a different output if you can, also try another cable. If the fans are spinning etc, and it's not shutting off again, or on/off, then I'd say it's actually posting, you're just not seeing it.

[guplem]

3 hours ago, paddy-stone said:

Ahh, you never mentioned that before. It's possible that the build is completely fine, you're just not getting video output. Try a different output if you can, also try another cable. If the fans are spinning etc, and it's not shutting off again, or on/off, then I'd say it's actually posting, you're just not seeing it.

The cable (HDMI) and monitor work fine displaying output from other devices (and sadly it is not "very easy" to find a VGA right now under the lockdown we are having).
Even with that information, do you still think that a cable swap could be worth trying before sending the motherboard for reparation?

[paddy-stone]

17 hours ago, guplem said:

The cable (HDMI) and monitor work fine displaying output from other devices (and sadly it is not "very easy" to find a VGA right now under the lockdown we are having).
Even with that information, do you still think that a cable swap could be worth trying before sending the motherboard for reparation?

Yes, for sure... I myself have used known "working" cables and been surprised that they didn't work on another system/device. It's less likely of course, but always worth checking.

[guplem]

3 hours ago, paddy-stone said:

Yes, for sure... I myself have used known "working" cables and been surprised that they didn't work on another system/device. It's less likely of course, but always worth checking.

We got a new HDMI cable. Same result.

However, we realized that there might be a video output, but just pitch black.

[guplem]

On 5/11/2020 at 4:28 PM, boggy77 said:

the first time it powers on, it takes some time to train the ram. try to turn it on an leave it for 10-15 minutes.

Already tried. Nothing displayed after almost 20 minutes and multiple reboots after them.

[guplem]

3 hours ago, paddy-stone said:

Yes, for sure... I myself have used known "working" cables and been surprised that they didn't work on another system/device. It's less likely of course, but always worth checking.

NOW IT JUST WORKED.

 

IT WAS THE F***N MONITOR

 

We dismissed it because the monitor is brand new and works perfectly connected to a laptop with exactly the same cable at the same ports as we were testing the PC.

Thanks a lot for your help!

This community is the best

[guplem]

2 hours ago, guplem said:

NOW IT JUST WORKED.

 

IT WAS THE F***N MONITOR

 

We dismissed it because the monitor is brand new and works perfectly connected to a laptop with exactly the same cable at the same ports as we were testing the PC.

Thanks a lot for your help!

This community is the best

Further testing seems to indicate that the FreeSync of the monitor was causing the issue. We say so because another monitor with FreeSync that we tested showed the same problem but two TVs didn't. 

Installing the AMD drivers using their automatic detection tool solved the problem.

Thanks again for your help!

Here is my friend when the computer displayed something for the first time after too many hours of dealing with a PC for the first time:
 

 

[paddy-stone]

A good rule of thumb is:-

 

• If the PCs staying on when booted, but you have no display, it's most likely display related.
• If the PC is turning off again, or rebooting itself, then it's more likely to be BIOS/OS/RAM/PSU issues, in my experience.