PC Troubleshooting Question (1 Viewer)

[BigJohn]

Built my daughters identical pcs's for Christmas.

Quick and dirty specs:

ASRock B450M-HDV R4.0 AM4 AMD Promontory B450 SATA 6Gb/s Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

AMD Ryzen 3 3200G 4-Core Unlocked Desktop Processor with Radeon Graphics

OLOy WarHawk RGB 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3000 (PC4 24000) Desktop Memory

Kingston A400 120G Internal SSD M.2 2280 SA400M8/120G

So, youngest daughter's pc just quit one day.  100% dead.  Found out she was shutting it down by holding the power button down.  I verified the PSU by hooking it up to the other PC.  Worked fine.  Tried jumping the motherboard.  Nothing.  Sent it back to ASRock.  They sent me a new one, and put it in tonight.

Here is where it goes off the rails.

When I took everything off the motherboard to send it back, I put the CPU, cooler, RAM, M.2 drive, screws all in the motherboard box and set it at the end of my desk.  So, I got the new motherboard in the case, and reached over to grab the box and it slipped and everything fell to one side.  Got the CPU out and went to install it and it wont seat........At first couldn't figure it out, then flipped it and realized I had a few bent pins..   So, I got the sharpest tool I could find and went to work bending the pins back.  About 6 pins.  After a few attempts, finally got the CPU to seat.  Didn't feel like I had to force it so I was hopeful.

Well, good news is it powers up.  LED comes on, optical HDD spins, but no signal to my monitor.  Tried VGA and HDMI.  Nothing.  Boot drive is the M.2, so I can't tell if it's trying to post or not.

Any thoughts?

 

[Nick Vermeil]

Built my daughters identical pcs's for Christmas.

Quick and dirty specs:

So, youngest daughter's pc just quit one day.  100% dead.  Found out she was shutting it down by holding the power button down.  I verified the PSU by hooking it up to the other PC.  Worked fine.  Tried jumping the motherboard.  Nothing.  Sent it back to ASRock.  They sent me a new one, and put it in tonight.

Here is where it goes off the rails.

When I took everything off the motherboard to send it back, I put the CPU, cooler, RAM, M.2 drive, screws all in the motherboard box and set it at the end of my desk.  So, I got the new motherboard in the case, and reached over to grab the box and it slipped and everything fell to one side.  Got the CPU out and went to install it and it wont seat........At first couldn't figure it out, then flipped it and realized I had a few bent pins..   So, I got the sharpest tool I could find and went to work bending the pins back.  About 6 pins.  After a few attempts, finally got the CPU to seat.  Didn't feel like I had to force it so I was hopeful.

Well, good news is it powers up.  LED comes on, optical HDD spins, but no signal to my monitor.  Tried VGA and HDMI.  Nothing.  Boot drive is the M.2, so I can't tell if it's trying to post or not.

Any thoughts?

Is there a video card? Is it seated properly?  

 

[BigJohn]

Is there a video card? Is it seated properly?  

No video card

 

[Nick Vermeil]

Is there a video card? Is it seated properly?  

I see probably no video card. Make sure all power cables are connected to the board. Outside of that, sounds like faulty board or busted pins.  

 

[Sea Duck]

Can you swap CPUs to rule out that issue?

Also, check the boards of both machines to verify that all switches and cables are in the same location.

 

[jrt103]

I think most motherboards have a light or series of beeps that indicate any sort of pre post issue, might be in the maual or on the asrock website

 

[BigJohn]

Can you swap CPUs to rule out that issue?

Also, check the boards of both machines to verify that all switches and cables are in the same location.

I’m so afraid I’ll go from 1 working computer to none.  I’m going to stop by my local repair shop and see if he has a cheap cpu I can buy...

 

[BigJohn]

I think most motherboards have a light or series of beeps that indicate any sort of pre post issue, might be in the maual or on the asrock website

This is a budget board. No lights or beeps...

 

[Rustoleum]

This will sound dumb, but have you tried disconnecting it all and putting it all back together again? Could be a random cable or RAM not seated all the way. I’ve had things inexplicably fire up when I swore  was all good previously.

The bent pins are concerning though.

edit: Wait...when the whole system died they only replaced the motherboard? Processor could have been dead all along?

 

[John123]

This is a budget board. No lights or beeps...

Being a budget board is probably not the reason for no beeps.  In the old days cases came with speakers in them.  Most newer cases don't but the motherboards still have outputs for them.  I looked at the manual for your motherboard and it does have a speaker connector.  For just this reason, I bought the following about a year ago to help with troubleshooting my own builds:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MR1A4NV/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I can't guarantee you'll get beeps because the manual for your budget board doesn't specifically say you will, but I'd be shocked if you didn't.   BIOS'es are pretty standardized and POST beep codes are a pretty standard feature.  However, since your manual doesn't talk about them you'll have to use the google box to find out what they mean if you do get them.

 

[BigJohn]

Being a budget board is probably not the reason for no beeps.  In the old days cases came with speakers in them.  Most newer cases don't but the motherboards still have outputs for them.  I looked at the manual for your motherboard and it does have a speaker connector.  For just this reason, I bought the following about a year ago to help with troubleshooting my own builds:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MR1A4NV/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I can't guarantee you'll get beeps because the manual for your budget board doesn't specifically say you will, but I'd be shocked if you didn't.   BIOS'es are pretty standardized and POST beep codes are a pretty standard feature.  However, since your manual doesn't talk about them you'll have to use the google box to find out what they mean if you do get them.

Dude.  Thanks for looking into this.  

 

[BigJohn]

This will sound dumb, but have you tried disconnecting it all and putting it all back together again? Could be a random cable or RAM not seated all the way. I’ve had things inexplicably fire up when I swore  was all good previously.

The bent pins are concerning though.

edit: Wait...when the whole system died they only replaced the motherboard? Processor could have been dead all along?

I get power with the new motherboard.  I got absolutely nothing before it was replaced.

I'll be taking it all apart when I get time this week.  Troubleshooting it outside the case.  This is a mini-ATX system, so it's real cramped.

 

[Osaurus]

This will sound dumb, but have you tried disconnecting it all and putting it all back together again? Could be a random cable or RAM not seated all the way. I’ve had things inexplicably fire up when I swore  was all good previously.

The bent pins are concerning though.

edit: Wait...when the whole system died they only replaced the motherboard? Processor could have been dead all along?

This. Happened to me. It came DOA. I was miffed as it was a 10-core I9 to say the least.