Low pop sound and smoke from PC, now showing RAM error light despite good ram

[yeahcool946]

After returning to my previously perfectly functional PC after a week I tried turning it on (same wires and everything) and it made a low pop sound and smelled burnt. Now I am getting an orange blinking light on my ASUS 450I Mini ITX motherboard. This is a RAM code. All fans and drives spin up, the GPU does too, but no post.

 

I thought for sure my PSU blew so I bought another one but still keep getting the RAM error light (blinking orange light on asus board)

I plugged both of my RAM sticks into another pc and they worked there. I even plugged in new sticks and I’m still getting this error. I’ve tried every possible combination and number of sticks. It’s not the ram that seems to be the issue.

So I moved onto the CPU and made sure no pins were bent as well as reseating it. Twice. Still same light.

I reseated all of the cables from my new PSU connecting to my MB and GPU. Same error.

At this point I think it’s either an issue with the memory controller on the CPU or it’s a motherboard issue. I don’t have access to a new CPU or motherboard due to my current arrangement.

And yes I’ve triggered the reset button on my MB. It doesn’t have a cmos so I can’t change that.

Any help?? Many thanks in advance this has happened at a very bad time.

Specs: ryzen 1600
ASUS 450I STRIX MB
GTX 1070
EVGA Supernova 550w
Corsair Vengeance LPX 2x16GB

[TheEpicDuck]

It's likely that the power supply could have damaged components on the motherboard and other hardware. There isn't too much you can do other than test the components in isolation.

[Somerandomtechyboi]

Basically nothing to lose here so try

 

Disconnecting the board from everything, dunking the socket with 99% isopropyl alcohol, covering it with something (i use tissue), and leaving it for 24h to dry

 

Ive saved my board a few times doing this method

[leclod]

38 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

Basically nothing to lose here so try

 

Disconnecting the board from everything, dunking the socket with 99% isopropyl alcohol, covering it with something (i use tissue), and leaving it for 24h to dry

 

Ive saved my board a few times doing this method

You're not sure it was the alcohol that saved it, are you ? maybe it was the Reconnecting. A socket doesn't get bad by itself

[Somerandomtechyboi]

17 minutes ago, leclod said:

You're not sure it was the alcohol that saved it, are you ? maybe it was the Reconnecting. A socket doesn't get bad by itself

Yep, the alcohol cleans the socket

So if you have a dusty socket then yea it does work

 

You can even dunk your entire board in isopropyl but i prefer not using that method cause it literally takes a liter of it to even submerge my p5q

[yeahcool946]

1 hour ago, TheEpicDuck said:

It's likely that the power supply could have damaged components on the motherboard and other hardware. There isn't too much you can do other than test the components in isolation.

Well there very clearly is something that happened to something on the MB but it seems strange that turns on normally and acts like it has a RAM problem. Could it have selectively fried something that controlled the ram? 

[leclod]

2 hours ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

Yep, the alcohol cleans the socket

So if you have a dusty socket then yea it does work

 

You can even dunk your entire board in isopropyl but i prefer not using that method cause it literally takes a liter of it to even submerge my p5q

I understand the alcohol cleans the socket, it's not what I wrote

[Hairless Monkey Boy]

Most likely a dead motherboard. Sounds like the RAM VRM died, which is pretty odd. You left it for a week, so maybe a critter got in there?

 

How does this part of the board look/smell?

 

 

If not there, can you locate where the burn smell is originating from?