How to tell if my cpu is dead?

[Ayala]

My pc build isn’t starting, and apparently my cpu could be dead based on what’s happening. Is there any way I could test this? I don’t have any other compatable cpu’s for my motherboard (it’s z370). 

[hconverse02]

Reseating the ram, clearing the bios or taking out the graphics card and starting without it.

What are your symptoms? Does the computer loop at all/fans spin up or does turning on the computer from the motherboard not do anything?

[DildorTheDecent]

7 minutes ago, Ayala said:

My pc build isn’t starting, and apparently my cpu could be dead based on what’s happening. Is there any way I could test this? I don’t have any other compatable cpu’s for my motherboard (it’s z370). 

Any Q-code/POST LEDs on the motherboard? Look up the manual and see what they say about them.

[doomsriker]

11 minutes ago, Ayala said:

My pc build isn’t starting, and apparently my cpu could be dead based on what’s happening. Is there any way I could test this? I don’t have any other compatable cpu’s for my motherboard (it’s z370). 

Welcome to PC troubleshooting, here is a video to get you started. Good luck. 

 

[Ayala]

5 minutes ago, hconverse02 said:

Reseating the ram, clearing the bios or taking out the graphics card and starting without it.

What are your symptoms? Does the computer loop at all/fans spin up or does turning on the computer from the motherboard not do anything?

What do you mean turning on the computer from the motherboard? When I turn on the power supply the motherboard lights come on for half a second and then go out. The light on the gpu stays on, and none of the fans spin. I have disconnected and reconnected all of the cables, and nothing changed. 

[hconverse02]

1 minute ago, Ayala said:

What do you mean turning on the computer from the motherboard? When I turn on the power supply the motherboard lights come on for half a second and then go out. The light on the gpu stays on, and none of the fans spin. I have disconnected and reconnected all of the cables, and nothing changed. 

I just mean either short circuiting the pins or using the power button on the case.  Doesn't sound like a cpu problem unless there's something in the motherboard manual that says so.  Have you tried reseting the bios/clearing cmos and reseating the ram?

[DildorTheDecent]

5 minutes ago, Ayala said:

What do you mean turning on the computer from the motherboard? When I turn on the power supply the motherboard lights come on for half a second and then go out. The light on the gpu stays on, and none of the fans spin. I have disconnected and reconnected all of the cables, and nothing changed. 

Look at what the debug LED shows, then use the manual to look it up.

 

There should be a page with all the codes on it. Could potentially help save some time.

[Ayala]

33 minutes ago, DildorTheDecent said:

Any Q-code/POST LEDs on the motherboard? Look up the manual and see what they say about them.

They would be on the panel with the led numbers right? I didn’t see if they showed anything, but I doubt it. Mostly it was just the rgb leds that came on, mostly white but sometimes other colors. Sometimes a red light near the cpu came on, but not always. I’ll check if there were any debug codes when I can. 

[Ayala]

29 minutes ago, hconverse02 said:

I just mean either short circuiting the pins or using the power button on the case.  Doesn't sound like a cpu problem unless there's something in the motherboard manual that says so.  Have you tried reseting the bios/clearing cmos and reseating the ram?

Also, the reason I think it’s a cpu problem is because I delidded my cpu. 

[hconverse02]

49 minutes ago, Ayala said:

Also, the reason I think it’s a cpu problem is because I delidded my cpu. 

Well did you put it back together correctly and make sure you didn't break anything? Pins are all straight on the motherboard, lid is property secured and cooler is correctly contacting the cpu?

[Shadow_Storm56]

2 hours ago, Ayala said:

Also, the reason I think it’s a cpu problem is because I delidded my cpu. 

Unless you broke the chip or bent a pin then it is not likley a chip issue.... even if it had a bad thermal connection it would be protected by the board from overheat and you should still get to the bios before it crashed Due to overtemp. Unless you really did crack the chip somehow. I would unplug It, take out the cmos battery, push the power button a few times to make sure caps are discharged and let it sit for an hour or 2. Oh take the ram out too. Basically this clears the cmos and drains all power from the board. Full reset. If you get to bios check the chip temp first and then try and boot. If not then look for a board code.

[Ayala]

4 hours ago, Shadow_Storm56 said:

Unless you broke the chip or bent a pin then it is not likley a chip issue.... even if it had a bad thermal connection it would be protected by the board from overheat and you should still get to the bios before it crashed Due to overtemp. Unless you really did crack the chip somehow. I would unplug It, take out the cmos battery, push the power button a few times to make sure caps are discharged and let it sit for an hour or 2. Oh take the ram out too. Basically this clears the cmos and drains all power from the board. Full reset. If you get to bios check the chip temp first and then try and boot. If not then look for a board code.

This makes me a lot less worried. Is it a possibility that I messed up on any of the cables? I was pretty sure that everything was in the right place but I’m a first time builder and could easily have made a mistake. 

[Ayala]

5 hours ago, hconverse02 said:

Well did you put it back together correctly and make sure you didn't break anything? Pins are all straight on the motherboard, lid is property secured and cooler is correctly contacting the cpu?

I was almost 100% sure that I didn’t break anything during delid. I minimal liquid metal, and none of it went of the die. I put the ihs the right way up, and made sure to align the triangles. I’m pretty sure the cpu cooler is touching the cpu, I took it off and the thermal paste was spread on the cpu. 

[Shadow_Storm56]

48 minutes ago, Ayala said:

I was almost 100% sure that I didn’t break anything during delid. I minimal liquid metal, and none of it went of the die. I put the ihs the right way up, and made sure to align the triangles. I’m pretty sure the cpu cooler is touching the cpu, I took it off and the thermal paste was spread on the cpu. 

Cables could be wrong yes

[SupaKomputa]

The pc will boot as long as you put the cpu correctly.

If you mess up the lidding, it will still boot for a while until its overheated and then restarted by itself due to thermal protections.

 

[Ayala]

1 hour ago, Shadow_Storm56 said:

Cables could be wrong yes

What cables are essential for booting? I know that the 24 pin mobo cable and cpu cable are in, and i have the cooler cable plugged in the sys fan port or whatever it is, but I thought that that’s basically all that’s necessary for booting. Obviously I plugged in more cables but what could i have done wrong?

[Princess Luna]

1 minute ago, Ayala said:

?

Photos would be helpful?

[Shadow_Storm56]

11 minutes ago, Ayala said:

What cables are essential for booting? I know that the 24 pin mobo cable and cpu cable are in, and i have the cooler cable plugged in the sys fan port or whatever it is, but I thought that that’s basically all that’s necessary for booting. Obviously I plugged in more cables but what could i have done wrong?

Cpu power pin in?

[Psittac]

If you are powering down after turning on the power supply, then you have a short to ground.  Perhaps you left a screw behind the motherboard.  I suggest removing everything from the case and set up the computer ontop of the motherboard box.  Just cpu, cooler and power supply, don't need ram but you can put it in.

 

did you put the IHS back on? the chunk of metal ontop of the cpu.  If not that'll cook the cpu but it will still do some sort of a boot, even a dead cpu will boot better than you are describing.

 

*notice: a naked cpu will cook without being protected, I did it once 15+ years ago and once within the last year

[Ayala]

40 minutes ago, Psittac said:

If you are powering down after turning on the power supply, then you have a short to ground.  Perhaps you left a screw behind the motherboard.  I suggest removing everything from the case and set up the computer ontop of the motherboard box.  Just cpu, cooler and power supply, don't need ram but you can put it in.

 

did you put the IHS back on? the chunk of metal ontop of the cpu.  If not that'll cook the cpu but it will still do some sort of a boot, even a dead cpu will boot better than you are describing.

 

*notice: a naked cpu will cook without being protected, I did it once 15+ years ago and once within the last year

 

1 hour ago, Princess Cadence said:

Photos would be helpful?

 

[Princess Luna]

Is the CPU power deliver correctly connected on the motherboard? you didn't use a PCI-e connector there right? sorry I can't see it all clearly.

[Ayala]

1 hour ago, Princess Cadence said:

Is the CPU power deliver correctly connected on the motherboard? you didn't use a PCI-e connector there right? sorry I can't see it all clearly.

Cpu power is the 8 pin on the top left right? and aren’t pcie connectors the vga cables? for the gpu?

[hconverse02]

10 hours ago, Shadow_Storm56 said:

let it sit for an hour or 2

more like 30 seconds, 2 minutes if you're feeling hasty

[Iggledude]

1st:  Be safe.  Unplug the PSU everytime, then:

 

2nd:  Start with all of the hardwire connections.  Make sure every cable and wire and plug is connected to the correct cable in, wire in, and/or plugin (and plugged in well at both the PSU source and the Mobo source).  Make sure to check the manual and all of the connections are in well..  Ensure all of these are correct via the manual, then try and fire it up.

 

3rd:  Unplug PSU (you'll see a trend starting here).  If it still didn't start, as was mentioned earlier... take the CMOS battery out and all ram out.  Hit the power button about three times.  Wait a half-hour or maybe a little less.  Then place the CMOS battery back in. And then install one stick of ram in the correct slot--check manual.  Plug in the PSU and fire it up.  Make sure that stick of ram is slotted in the right place, very important.

 

4th:  If nothing again, go through all the steps in 3rd step but replace ram stick with other ram stick in same spot.  Be safe, PSU unplugged.  Once other ram stick is in, plug psu up and try and fire it up.

 

5th:  (Optional)  Repeat step three and four with ram sticks in other corresponding correct slot (usually outside one stick slot).  Refer to the manual but usually the best way to test for ram failure is to check the manual and start at the first slot.  Usually the closer of the two correct slots for one stick ram usage -- closest to the cpu--most are differing colors--like grey and black.  Be safe, unplug psu every time>>>  A pain in the butt, but safe AND effective.

 

6th:  If there are any beeps or a code you hear or see, it can save you a LOT of time by looking them up in manual or even online via another pc of some sort (laptop maybe).  This suggestion prolly should be number one, but I can see you've already covered beeps and codes above through other posts.

 

7th:  With a magnifying glass, or grandpa's glasses (lol), look for any crack(s) or chip(s) on the motherboard---front and back.  Make sure your cooler is coming on and running correctly.  Make sure the cooler is seated properly.  Look for any cracks or chips on the motherboard--they can hide in hard to see places--that's why I say good lighting and magnifying lens is your good friend here.

 

8th:  Be safe.  Take it all apart and inspect the cpu and mobo pins so very closely.  Good light and magnifying lens.  If all looks good, put it all back together slowly, making sure to adhere to the manual at all times.  Ensure the CPU is seated correctly, no force, just a nudge and a wiggle, no force needed--that's the Mobo/CPU clamp's job.  Also, support from both the mobo maker and cpu maker MAY BE of SOME service to you.  Just hush-hush on the delidding part of the story, if ya know what I mean.

 

 

That's all I got.  I hope it helps.  I pray all is ok with both the board and CPU.

 

Last thing here:  If there is another desktop PC in the home, make sure that power supply in this new PC can crank and run that other machine -- worth a shot if all else fails.

 

Regards,

Iggledude

[Shadow_Storm56]

4 hours ago, hconverse02 said:

more like 30 seconds, 2 minutes if you're feeling hasty

Normally yes, but I had systems before that still liked to hold settings for a bit and took more time. Could not figure out why though and thus why I thought a good precaution.