Misbehaving DisplayPort cable causes....

[Lucas Tanure]

Hi, 

 

A few days ago, I had a major issue where my CPU cooler stopped working.

But it was working during the first 5 seconds of power-up, so it was not a hardware issue.

I did a lot of investigation about it:

- The same CPU cooler would work fine if installed in any other motherboard FAN header.

- The BIOS was reading the CPU temperature as -55 Celsius degrees.

- The option in the BIOS setup to turn off FANS if the very low temperature was off. So no reason to turn off the CPU fans.

- My CPU temperature reading from Windows was fine. Reporting something like 65-85 degrees. 

Later on, my computer stopped booting at all, and I panicked. I tried everything:

- Update BIOS,

- Clear CMOS in 3 different ways.

 

I later used other motherboard fan headers for the CPU fans and bought a new motherboard for me. The real issue was the cost.

I have an AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3970X and TRX40 AORUS MASTER. I copied the exact same build from :

 

Having a Threadripper is not fun anymore. The only available motherboard was an £899 British pounds:
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus-rog-strix-trx40-xe-gaming-socket-strx4-atx-motherboard-mb-6e1-as.html

 

I am a kernel developer and want a lot of CPU cores, but I am also a gamer, so I also need a good GPU. So my PC was very expensive, and having to fork another 1000 to fixed was very traumatic.

 

After I bought the motherboard, I continue to search for my issue, and I found this:

And I did give it a go, removed all my display port cables and used one HDMI cable. 

After a few tries, it worked! 

I did a test a little more, and after a few hours, I cancelled the new motherboard.

 

The bottom line:

I am impressed about how a Display port cable can make your CPU cooler stop, make your BIOS misbehave and later totally break your computer.

I am also disbelieving AMD as my Radeon 7900 XTX doesn't have protection for this.

I wish more people were aware of this.

 

Thanks

Lucas Tanure <tanure@linux.com>

 

 

[LogicalDrm]

@Lucas Tanure, this thread has been split from LTT video suggestions thread. It sounds/seems like you aren't actually suggesting video topic, but want to share your own findings. Best way is to just make a thread on its own so that there can be discussion on the subject.

 

If you would like to suggest something to LTT to test (thought finding similar DP cable that caused your issues could be hard), you can still do that. But maybe keep the background to shorter or link to thread where you have discussed about it more.

 

Also, as pro-linux-nerd, having your email there as well as your real name you must be aware of taking risks of spam and ID theft.