PC crashed, no more post

[Niels Vdb]

Hi,

 

First of all, sorry for breaking the first rule. As I have tried a lot of things, i wanted to be thorough and list them all up.

 

My pc crashed during a bit of youtubing. So no major load or anything.

It hasn't been able to start up since then. all fans are running though.

No blue screen, just an instant shutdown like a power outage or something.

 

so the issue is: Not being able the get to post/bios/ have anything show on a monitor at all (with a previously working system)

 

I built the system last year and has been running with no issues thus far.

All drivers and windows were up to date.

I occasionaly checked temperatures of the hardware, but never had any issues.

 

 

Setup:

Tomahawk B450 max

Ryzen 3700X

RTX 2080 super; latest driver (the battlefield2042 [Yikes] one)
32gb (2x16) DDR4 3200Mhz corsair vengeance lpx
Samsung evo 970 1tb ssd M.2

Cant really check what exact windows version I had, but it was a pretty recent update.

64-bit system

No overclocking, only changed the RAM hz to the correct value in the bios (day 1 of the pc)

 

 

So far I've tried:

 

• Peripherals:
  • First thing I did was remove everything, all tests below were performed without anything externals plugged in (ocassionaly a keyboard)
• CPU:
  • checked for damage, there were no bent pins
    • double and triple checked at a later time
  • re-applied thermal paste and cooler
• RAM
  • resetting the RAM (removing & adding back in)
  • booting with 1 RAM stick (in the correct slot)
  • booting with no RAM
• GPU:
  • tried on board HDMI cable to a monitor which changed nothing
  • At this point I removed the GPU to avoid any damage, almost all troubleshooting was without a gpu installed
• Clear CMOS
• Flash bios with latest version
• Booting:
  • with or without M.2 SSD 
  • booting with no RAM/ 1 RAM stick
  • no CPU
  • and combinations of the above.
• PSU:
  • Paperclip test, which worked
  • Measuring the 24-pin and 8pin connectors with a multimeter. every connection gave the correct value
• Mobo:
  • Checked for damage, nothing.
  • At this point i thought it was dead and ordered an aorus X570 elite, but It gave the exact same issue.
  • I've done basicly everything inside AND outside the case, on cardboard/ the bigass LTT mousepad.
• Monitor:
  • I always used the same monitor when testing. which worked fine when plugged into a laptop (also HDMI).

 

 

On a side note: The EZ debug LED on the mobo has a lit up CPU light. However, this has been on for the past year with no issues.

Found some ppl on reddit who had this too. So I'm not really trusting that one. The new mobo had no debug LEDs. 

 

A 2nd sidenote: At the end of my testing I might have accidentaly added/ removed RAM with the power still on the motherboard, is this a problem -.. ? The system was powered off

 

At this point I have no clue what to do next without ordering new parts as I have no spare PSU/ CPU/ RAM laying arround.

Any recommendations or tips ? 

 

Thanks in advance!

 

 

 

 

 

[Bad5ector]

Replace PSU.

[Niels Vdb]

18 hours ago, Bad5ector said:

Replace PSU.

 

Original post didn't mention the PSU, which is corsair RMX750x. 

I ordered the same one yesterday and tested it this morning.

Unfortunately,that didn't do anything. 
 

[Mark Kaine]

3 hours ago, Niels Vdb said:

 

Original post didn't mention the PSU, which is corsair RMX750x. 

I ordered the same one yesterday and tested it this morning.

Unfortunately,that didn't do anything. 
 

Have you reused the old cables?

 

I mean the symptoms totally sound like psu so it's difficult to think of another cause tbh.

 

 

[Niels Vdb]

2 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

Have you reused the old cables?

 

I mean the symptoms totally sound like psu so it's difficult to think of another cause tbh.

 

 

I did use the new cables, yes.

 

 

I took the system to a friend of mine who has a nearly identical build, and we did some more troubleshooting.

Turns out, the B450 max does not output a hdmi signal without a processor with integrated graphics. And guess what, the Ryzen 3700X does not have that.

To get a video signal, the mobo needs a gpu.

 

After some more testing we found out that it was both my CPU and motherboard that were fried.

 

• My RAM & GPU were  working in his system. 
• We put his CPU in my old mobo and it didn't boot.
• My CPU in a new mobo also didn't boot.
• His working CPU in the new mobo, with my RAM and my GPU worked like a charm.
• Everything was tested with my old PSU, so that was definitely not the problem.

 

Now the question remains how the hell it failed in the first place. 

Perhaps the motherboard shorted and took the CPU with it. But I guess we'll never know.

I'd love to hear some ideas;)

 

Anyways, thanks for the advice!

[Mark Kaine]

58 minutes ago, Niels Vdb said:

Now the question remains how the hell it failed in the first place. 

Perhaps the motherboard shorted and took the CPU with it. But I guess we'll never know.

I'd love to hear some ideas;)

 

Anyways, thanks for the advice!

I see, yeah that is mysterious.  Could be the board took out the cpu or vice-versa... but one can only guess.

 

Glad you found the issue(s) though,  that was some good troubleshooting (which is "easy" if one has the parts to do so )