Chronicles of a Hot Mess with 2 Dead PCs

[TheScrinch]

Hi guys. I’ve been a long-time lurker, so this is my first actual topic. I’ve found myself in quite a predicament with failing PC’s, as if the PC gods have placed a curse on me. This will be a long story so please bare with me.

I had been using a setup for almost exclusively gaming for about a year and a half, and it was mostly played on a TV using a controller. I decided to move it to my home office room to play it the good old fashioned way with Mouse and Keyboard, and on the third day, when I turn it on it abruptly shut-off while it was booting as if there was a power outage. I hit the power button to try to turn it on again, and it slightly powered the fans for like a second and shut-off again. I began to pick up a distinct burnt smell coming from it, so I assumed something got messed up bad. After opening the Desktop, I noticed the smell was coming from the PSU which was around 5 years old, so I guessed it was time to replace it, so I did.

I buy and install a new PSU, hit the power button, and the machine powered up fine… except it wouldn’t go through POST. It just remained turned on but frozen in limbo. Fans are spinning, RGB lights are on, but no LED lights indicating errors with any hardware components, no beeps, no signal on the monitor. Also, hitting the power button while it was in this state didn’t turn it back off, not even holding it down. So I thought that massive PSU failure must have screwed up the motherboard or something else. I tried removing different components and testing, GPU, RAM, re-seating cables, nothing worked. So I RMA’d the board…

Here’s when things get really complicated. I was planning to build a secondary PC to leave it as a TV gaming setup anyway, so I took the opportunity to order a different board and an extra PSU while I got the old board replaced. I had another old case I could reuse, so I just set everything up in there. I named this machine Hex. It had basically everything from the other machine, except the motherboard and PSU. I booted it up, and noticed that my secondary HDD wasn’t being detected, but it still booted fine with the primary SSD. Looks like the HDD was killed off as well. Also, the keyboard wasn’t working… so that got screwed too (RMA’d it and got a working replacement). Anyway, I just left it as it was and reinstalled Windows and some games, and all was working fine. I was playing again. However, on it’s third day when I got home from work and was ready to play, it just wouldn’t respond to the power button… until I removed a USB stick I had left plugged-in and then it worked so I thought it was a short of some kind. Until the next day, while I was playing, it suddenly shutoff again, and it was not responding at all to the power button again. Nothing lit up, fans didn’t spin, nothing worked, nothing happened. Again I decided to curse the gods and attempt to troubleshoot by removing components, even trying the other PSU to no avail. I figured this new MoBo was probably bad as well…

But hey, at least I got the other motherboard replacement so I eagerly install it and all of the other components on the original case. I will name this PC Nexus, the one that will be my Keyboard and Mouse gaming rig. I put everything the way it was, flip the PSU switch, the RGB LED’s light up on the board, so far so good, but pressing the power button did nothing… I rechecked the Power Switch and Reset Switch cables in the board, flipped them around in case I had them backwards, and randomly it started to boot up! I was like YES! So I turn it off, plug in my peripherals, and… it’s dead again… the power button does nothing… Even though the RGB LED’s are on, and a Power LED indicator on the board is also turned on indicating that it’s getting power…

I have no idea what is happening right now. I was beginning to suspect it was the CPU, but when I remove it to try to power on the device there is no change in behavior. The power receptacles appear to work because I’ve tried plugging in a lamp and other things to it and they work fine. Also the PSU I use gives me a steady 120V input reading. So… what is this? I tried powering on Hex with only the CPU fan connected, and IT ACTUALLY TURNED ON WTF!? So is it the CPU? Is it the replacement motherboard? Is it BOTH!? Are BOTH my new PSU’s fugged? What should I try next?

I thank you for your patience in reading all this. It’s been rough. Here are the components in question

Ryzen 1700X CPU
8x2GB G.SKILL 3000Hz RAM
Samsung 970 Pro SSD (512 GB)

Original RMA’d Motherboard: Asus ROG STRIX X370-F Gaming (for Nexus)
New Motherboard: MSI Gaming Pro Carbon AC B450 (for Hex)

New PSU’s: EVGA BQ 750 W and Corsair 750 W Bronze+
Old and discarded PSU: Thermaltake 750 W Bronze+

[bbull]

I’d try testing the components out of any cases to rule out any shorts and verify if they are indeed working or not

[TheScrinch]

Thanks @bbull. I just tested the Asus board outside of the case with nothing but the CPU fan connected to it. Same behavior, RGB LED and Power LED turns on as soon as I flip the PSU switch to On, but when I short the power pins there is no response at all. I then tried putting everything back into the case with the new MSI board, and it turned on but failed to POST, giving me a red CPU warning LED indicating a problem with the processor… I then tested this setup with the other PSU to make sure it wasn’t defective and the same thing happens, so both PSU’s appear to be OK. Now I wonder if it’s both the CPU and the replacement Asus motherboard that are screwed… I just bought a Ryzen 3600 to see if this resolves at least the no post in the MSI board.

Another thing I noticed, was that when I placed the really difficult to install Corsair 212 air cooler, Hex booted for a while and then shut-off… I think I might have over-tightened the screws so I loosened them up a bit and then it powered on normally (still no POST).

[bbull]

Sounds likely your thoughts on the CPU was right, which you’ll be able to confirm when you get your 3600. You’ll also be able to confirm if the replacement board is a problem, maybe it’s a refurb that got sent to you

[Airstripone]

Given you recently moved things around and have swapped components, try a CMOS reset just to be sure it’s not confused by the moves. And check everything is in properly.

Also if you can swap the power lead and try a different outlet, reseat all cables ( nothing half in). Sorry if this sounds basic but I’ve done the same thing a few times in office moves and it’s the weirdest bugs (monitor or power lead, duff outlets) that waste time and lead to avoidable RMA.

I would check you aren’t overloading the outlet too as that may be root cause.

[TheScrinch]

I appreciate your response with the tips @Airstripone, though basic you can never be too thorough with troubleshooting and I agree that going through RMA can be a massive waste of time and certainly a pain in the ass. But yeah, I did try the CMOS reset procedure on both boards and swapped the power leads and different outlets. I also don’t think I’m overloading the outlet since the only things connected to the UPS is the PC, monitor, small stereo PC speakers and WiFi router.

To post an actual update, I installed the Ryzen 5 3600 on the MSI board and the machine booted without problems. I played Borderlands 3 last night for a few hours without issues either, so I guess I’ll be processing the old 1700X with AMD’s warranty. Also, given that the replacement Asus motherboard simply won’t respond to power-on with absolutely nothing but a fan connected, I’m going to assume this was a damned refurbished defective unit that was sent to me as @bbull suggested… so I guess I’ll be going through RMA with Asus again as well.

At least Hex is a working machine again for now… and I hope it stays that way. I will update once again if this changes and once I get yet another replacement mobo from Asus. Didn’t imagine a PSU failure could be this catastrophic to other components.