Dead Mainboard?

[Johnathan Doe]

Hi Guys! I've been trying for a long time but haven't found anything that helps me at all.

 

Before I go over to the issue, these are my specs: 

Ryzen 5 5600X

msi b450 a-pro max

Crucial Ballistix 2x8GB 3200 CL16

AMD RX 460

650w seasonic power supply

(GPU and PSU are know working cause I've used them before and RAM isn't directly on the QVL, but has the same specs as one of the kits that are listed on it)

 

 

As for the problem I'm facing, it's once again the classic old 'PC doesn't POST' issue. Yes I have tried everything in the stickied thread on this topic forum, and none of them have changed anything. I have made sure to flash the bios update that allows support for zen 3 on b450 boards thanks to the handy flashback tool, and I'm pretty certain nothing went wrong there. 

As for now, as soon as I power up my PC, it cycles through some debug LEDs but doesn't stay lit on any of them (4 in total, CPU - DRAM - VGA - BOOT). Sometimes it does stay lit on BOOT, but there's nothing I can observe from it. ((see attached video)) I also had the CPU Fan ramp up to about 80% sometimes, but most of the time it is at a steady speed. GPU fans spin up and off again in little pulses but I also had the gpu fans at a steady speed once.

RAM, Chipset and CPU heatsink are warm to the touch so there's definitely some amount of heat getting generated, but nothing you wouldn't expect from a PC at idle.

 

I have checked all cable connections (including gpu/monitor) and they're about as tight as I can get them without snapping the entire board in half. Also reseated all components and of course got the snaps on my gpu and ram. Messed around with the tightening of the cpu cooler aswell to see if that would change anything.

I have re-flashed the BIOS multiple times and it always did successful runs (blinking for about 1 ½ minutes, fast blinking for about 6 and then it restarts), cleared CMOS numerous times through both shorting the pins and just taking the battery out, even swapped the battery with an older one from a working PC for the same result. Checked case stand-offs aswell and they're all in the correct spot and short nothing.

 

This is the first time I really saved up for new and decent components

Spoiler

 

so it's pretty frustrating and demoting to see it just not work at all, not to mention all the dead ends I followed with random guides I found about this very same issue on similar b450 boards. I've troubleshooted myself out of really bad situations before so I definitely know how to do something, but in this case I'm basically lost and have to hope I can encounter the special person that just gives me the solution I need.

 

I'm greatful for any solution you give me even if it doesn't work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 18, 2021 by Johnathan Doe
added some more info

[Bombastinator]

I notice the motherboard is pre-5series.  Has the motherboard ever had an earlier cpu in it and had its bios updated?  If so was it before ryzen3 came out?

[Johnathan Doe]

9 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

I notice the motherboard is pre-5series.  Has the motherboard ever had an earlier cpu in it and had its bios updated?  If so was it before ryzen3 came out?

As I've said in the post, I've updated the bios per flashback which doesn't require a cpu to be done.

[Bombastinator]

Not sure what debug system that motherboard uses.  It’s not throwing any codes?  It might be posting but merely not showing post, which would be a display thing.  I’m wondering if the bios flash didn’t take or something.  It SHOULD work, which means either some update of something is being missed or something that is supposed to be known good isn’t. Wondering about the possibility of some driver or bios or what have you being not up to date.  460 is an old card.  I don’t know how well ryzen3 deals with those. I’ve had problems with 9series Nvidia cards and windows with an old quite odd monitor I had.  

Edited September 18, 2021 by Bombastinator

[Johnathan Doe]

9 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

It might be posting but merely not showing post, which would be a display thing.

Yeah I've kinda thought about that for a bit but as of now nothing I tried to get it to display worked. I've used both a display port and HDMI, even tried seeing if it outputs a signal through the mainboard (which it obviously doesn't). As shown in the video, the debug LEDs all light up and then turn off, which should mean that there's no issue with those components. Something I could try would be to flash an older BIOS version that doesn't support my 5600X to see if it throws up a CPU error, which should confirm that the BIOS I currently have is indeed updated to support it.

[Bombastinator]

10 minutes ago, Johnathan Doe said:

Yeah I've kinda thought about that for a bit but as of now nothing I tried to get it to display worked. I've used both a display port and HDMI, even tried seeing if it outputs a signal through the mainboard (which it obviously doesn't). As shown in the video, the debug LEDs all light up and then turn off, which should mean that there's no issue with those components. Something I could try would be to flash an older BIOS version that doesn't support my 5600X to see if it throws up a CPU error, which should confirm that the BIOS I currently have is indeed updated to support it.

My current worry is that the 460 may not play nice with ryzen3 simply because of age difference.  I got no information on that myself.

[Johnathan Doe]

1 hour ago, Bombastinator said:

simply because of age difference

I highly doubt it. Although the rx 460 is an old GPU, it's no where near the age to be causing any compability problems. It has DX 12 support, PCIe 3.0, same architecture as the rx 470 and 480, meaning also the rx 580 to that extend, which is a pretty common pair up for the 5600X due to them being dirt cheap before the price spike.

[Bombastinator]

1 hour ago, Johnathan Doe said:

I highly doubt it. Although the rx 460 is an old GPU, it's no where near the age to be causing any compability problems. It has DX 12 support, PCIe 3.0, same architecture as the rx 470 and 480, meaning also the rx 580 to that extend, which is a pretty common pair up for the 5600X due to them being dirt cheap before the price spike.

Maybe maybe not.  More worried about the 60 bit than the 4 bit. It’s lookuppable I’m sure.  There are good reasons to think it wouldn’t be.  I don’t have info one way or the other.  Sometimes driver manufacturers just don’t include things.