Advice on possible faulty CPU

[Soundwave61]

Hey guys I was hoping for some advice. I recently built a new pc and had it running for about a day before it died and failed to start up again.
Processor : AMD Ryzen 5 3600
Motherboard : MSI X570-A PRO (AMD AM4) DDR4 X570
Memory : Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB 3600mhz
PSU : Kolink Enclave 700W 80 Plus Gold Modular Power Supply
GPU : Asus Radeon RX 5700 ROG Strix OC 8GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card

So yeah it ran for about a day I got Windows 10 installed, a few other things ran a couple of games to check it out seemed all fine. Then it just died, tried firing it back up and it did eventually run again. I thought I'd update the Bios through the MSI Dragon program and after doing the recommend reset it never fired back up. Nothing on screen but all the lights and fans where running. Checked CPU power supply (I'm missing the CPU2 supply but I've heard it's not important unless intended to overclocker and the pc was running for a day without one)

So after a few checks I noticed the EZ debug LED indicator showing a PCU fault.
I did what they recommended :
"CPU-LED lit on: please reinstall the CPU and check if there is bending CPU pins or other abnormal on the CPU and CPU socket."
Well when trying to remove the fan the processor came off with the fan! The thermal paste stuck it to it. We'll I was as careful as could be, cleaned the processor and fan with isopropyl and checked no noticeable damage to the processor.
Thought well maybe i didn't fit it correctly when first putting it in. Refitted it, new thermal paste all back together.

Still the CPU fault LED is on nothing on screen. So my question is do I now try returning the Processor where I got it? Could it possibly be the motherboard at fault? Do I contact AMD about repair /replacement for the processor?

I bought the processor and motherboard on 24/05/20
Processor from Amazon
Motherboard from Overclocker

 

[Soundwave61]

Btw it's late for me and I have work so I'll have to pick up from people in the morning. Just wanted to get this down before bed. Any advice is most welcome, cheers.

 

[Jamin280672]

Btw it's late for me and I have work so I'll have to pick up from people in the morning. Just wanted to get this down before bed. Any advice is most welcome, cheers.

Personally I wouldnt of gone for that PSU......they are cheap for a reason, but lets skip that for now, your biggest mistake was updating the bios through Dragon Centre, MSI make bios flashing the proper way very easy with a utility built into the bios itself called M-Flash, all you would do is download the bios file from the MSI site for your board, extract it to a USB stick and then boot to the bios, select M-Flash and it will reboot to M-Flash, you would then select the bios file and leave it to do its thing.

First try and clear the cmos, there is usually a button on the back of the board for this, but yours doesnt have one, look in the manual for the clear cmos jumper pins, or remove the power cable, press the power button on the case a few times to drain the remaining power from the PSU and remove the battery on the motherboard, leave it out for 10 mins and then put it all back together again, see if it boots now.

Next REMOVE THAT RUBBISH SOFTWARE DRAGON CENTRE, you dont need it for anything, you can get drivers for your board and GPU etc yourself from the AMD website, and things like wifi and LAN, get it from the MSI site I linked below for your board......manually.

Lucky for you, if you have knackered the board up by flashing the bios through software, which is more likely than a CPU fault, there is a get out of jail free card on the back on the board, its called bios flashback, and this is how it works (Video below), you will need to make sure you download the correct bios from MSI website for your board and extract the bios file only to the root of a FAT32 formatted USB stick, not in any folders and you dont need the readme file either, just the bios file, rename the bios file to MSI.ROM otherwise flashback wont recognise it, now look in the manual for which USB port is the bios flashback port and stick you USB stick containing the file into it, press the flashback button and wait for 5 seconds as per the video, your bios files are here, download the latest one: https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/support/X570-A-PRO

 

[Soundwave61]

Ah, I do hope your right and it isn't a hardware fault. I started down that path as it was the Cpu fault light that came on.

Anyway I'll do as you suggested, checking the manual I need a jumper cap for the CMOS. Ill have a go tonight, off to work for now. Will report back after giving this a go.

 

[Jamin280672]

Ah, I do hope your right and it isn't a hardware fault. I started down that path as it was the Cpu fault light that came on.

Anyway I'll do as you suggested, checking the manual I need a jumper cap for the CMOS. Ill have a go tonight, off to work for now. Will report back after giving this a go.

No you just need something metal for the jumper pins, flat head screw driver, car key, kitchen knife, just to complete the circuit to connect them together.

I used to use an old front panel connector out of an old case when I was overclocking, it required a lot of cmos resets when testing, so id just connect the black plastic connector to the jumper pins permanently, then it was just a case of twisting the wires together to complete the circuit to clear the cmos, if you never use the reset button on your case for instance, then connect that connector to your clear cmos jumper pins, just remember that the reset button now clears your cmos every time you press it, just an idea.

 

[Tetras]

If the BIOS flash completed successfully and it asked you to restart, then it's unlikely to have bricked the board. A CMOS reset might well fix it for you.

 

[Soundwave61]

So I've done all that was suggested, both the bios flashback and the CMOS with no change. Still no signal to the monitors and the Cpu fault light on.

 

[Jamin280672]

So I've done all that was suggested, both the bios flashback and the CMOS with no change. Still no signal to the monitors and the Cpu fault light on.

Oh dear, time to start RMA'ing then I guess, you wont have any problem getting the chip exchanged from Amazon, but if OCuk find a fault with the board, they could blame you for it if its due to the bios flash.

Id RMA both at the same time, may as well, whilst one is gone, have the other being looked at.

 

[pc-guy]

are you running everything in stock setting? I assume your CMOS clear was succesful so it should have been stock. Did you clear the CMOS with the pwer supply unplugged from socket and counted to 30?

were you not able to reboot after the BIOS update? what exactly happened to the BIOS update...did the windows programme successfuly completed it, ie did the machine reboot and load up bios updating processes?

If you are confident that the BIOS is updated and CMOS has been cleared then do the following
- re-seat your CPU and reappy thermal paste and make sure everything is hand tightened. and use the stock cooler.
- pull out all of your ram and install a single stick in a different ram slot and also if the system doesnt boot try a different single stick and boot again.
- pull out your GPU and resear it
- Pull out all the power supply connectors and reinstall
- disconnect all of the HDD/SSD or anything other things you got running see if the system will boot and POST.

if after the above the system still doesn't POST then I would recommend you order a motherboard from the rainforest and see if the same issue persist. reason for the rainforest is that they have very good return policy. if the system posts then it is the board that is the problem. you can look to RMA with whoever you bought it with or sort it out with MSI directly.

Your PSU is unlikely to be the problem here, plus fans and stuff runs meaning the PSU has not blown.

 

[pc-guy]

So I've done all that was suggested, both the bios flashback and the CMOS with no change. Still no signal to the monitors and the Cpu fault light on.

hang on, how did you manage to do a BIOS flashback with the system no POSTing? You can only flash BIOS on this motherboard if the board POST so via M-Flash or through BIOS

EDIT: this board has a USB flash bios feature,so techinically you can flash bios with POST. are you sure this has been done successfuly? also with CMOS clear, you can take a jumper off any other headers, and put it on CMOS then put it back. that way is the best IMO

Only the FAT32 format USB flash drive supports updating BIOS by Flash BIOS Button.
1. Connect power supply to CPU_PWR1 and ATX_PWR1. (No other components are
necessary but power supply.)
2. Plug the USB flash drive that contains the MSI.ROM file into the Flash BIOS Port
on rear I/O panel.
3. Press the Flash BIOS Button to flash BIOS, and the LED near the Button starts
flashing.
4. After the flashing BIOS process is 100% completed, the LED would be off
simultaneously.

 

[Soundwave61]

I followed instructions in the youtube vid posted above. The led was flashing as it does in the vid and stops after the right amount of time. Try powering back up and no go.

I'll try it over again with gpu disconnected, and 1 stick of ram and all drives disconnected. And dis/reconnecting the power connectors.

 

[Tetras]

What happens exactly when you boot up? Just a black screen with fans running, or nothing at all?

 

[Soundwave61]

OK so I've disconnected everything but one stick of ram, aux power and cpu1 power.
Plugged in mains and switched on rear switch. Nothing happens as I'd expect.
Press on button, cpu fan and motherboard fan run. EZ Debug Cpu fault light is on and no signal detected on monitor.
No change after CMOS.
No change after Flash BIOS.
(I performed the bios flash as per the instructions of the video above. The motherboard responds in a similar fashion to that of the video other than after the process is complete no change to outcome).
I've also tried using all three similar output on the power supply for the Cpu1 power.

I don't think I can honestly afford to buy another motherboard just to check this one functions.
Unless someone else here can think of something I possibly missed I think I may go and do as Jamin280672 suggested and return both the motherboard and the processor.
I'll happily receive back whichever is still working fine.

What I find unusual is how the pc functioned fine for a whole day to cut out with me doing nothing (I was on a call sitting in front of it without anything running on it at all)
To then start up again without any change after which I thought "Oh better update bios incase that was it" to then dies for good. (sure I used what sounds like a bad way to do it through the MSI software but it is there own software, surely it wouldnt brick the thing)

Do people think there will likely be a problem with me returning these items?
My best hope now is that amazon replace the cpu and overclocker test and find no fault with the board, the cpu warning light was working as intended, all is right with the world and I ride my pc off into the sunset.

Is this too much to hope for?

 

[muon]

Oh dear, time to start RMA'ing then I guess, you wont have any problem getting the chip exchanged from Amazon, but if OCuk find a fault with the board, they could blame you for it if its due to the bios flash.

Id RMA both at the same time, may as well, whilst one is gone, have the other being looked at.

A bios flash doesn't void any warranty. Why would you say that and scare the OP?

What are they gonna say? You shouldn't have used MSI's official software to flash an official BIOS.

Of course it's fine. It's no different than following any other supported BIOS flash process as you've suggested the OP do.

I do agree that motherboards are far more likely to break than the CPU.

 

[pc-guy]

If would suggest you contact OCUK and find out your options. If they won’t accept RMA then you can always contact MSI.

I very much doubt the CPU is at fault. I think something happened during your bios flash.

 

[Jamin280672]

OK so I've disconnected everything but one stick of ram, aux power and cpu1 power.
Plugged in mains and switched on rear switch. Nothing happens as I'd expect.
Press on button, cpu fan and motherboard fan run. EZ Debug Cpu fault light is on and no signal detected on monitor.
No change after CMOS.
No change after Flash BIOS.
(I performed the bios flash as per the instructions of the video above. The motherboard responds in a similar fashion to that of the video other than after the process is complete no change to outcome).
I've also tried using all three similar output on the power supply for the Cpu1 power.

I don't think I can honestly afford to buy another motherboard just to check this one functions.
Unless someone else here can think of something I possibly missed I think I may go and do as Jamin280672 suggested and return both the motherboard and the processor.
I'll happily receive back whichever is still working fine.

What I find unusual is how the pc functioned fine for a whole day to cut out with me doing nothing (I was on a call sitting in front of it without anything running on it at all)
To then start up again without any change after which I thought "Oh better update bios incase that was it" to then dies for good. (sure I used what sounds like a bad way to do it through the MSI software but it is there own software, surely it wouldnt brick the thing)

Do people think there will likely be a problem with me returning these items?
My best hope now is that amazon replace the cpu and overclocker test and find no fault with the board, the cpu warning light was working as intended, all is right with the world and I ride my pc off into the sunset.

Is this too much to hope for?

Unfortunately bios flashing in windows has always been quite a risk, I've had gigabyte boards die from it and MSI boards, when you take in to account that you have all of those processes running in the back ground, any of them could be up to something you are not aware of at the time whilst the flash is also taking place, a very risky one would be windows update itself which as we all know can decide to reboot the pc when it want too, that's why DOS or bios in bios flashing is best, there's no background tasks going in.

Yes RMA both at the same time, you could RMA just the board and find its the CPU, then you have twice the amount of time to wait whilst you then later RMA the CPU.

 

[pc-guy]

Have you tried a different USB stick and tried to download the BIOS again. The rom file has to be extracted. If the ROM file is somehow corrupted or USB stick isn’t right for some reason then the process might finish but BIOS not flashed. Also make sure the ROM file is the only thing in the USB.

also I would suggest use a small USB stick like 1GB or 2GB. Also make sure the USB is formatted to FAT not FAT32. Not sure that makes a difference but the instruction says FAT. Use command prompt to do the formatting as oppose to the windows format

 

[Soundwave61]

Well guys i thought id give an update on the situation.
The PC is up and running again hurrah!!

I managed to get a replacement CPU quite quick from amazon so tried it in the motherboard and as many of you expected the same fault was occurring. Sent back the motherboard to OCuk and they replaced it and we're back in action!

I want to say thanks to you guys too, i'm not the most PC savy person and feel a little nervous attempting repairs. I've only just sorted it so here's hoping it doesn't conk out on me again.

P.S. I've removed the Dragon center app as advised and I'll stick to flash drive updates from now.

o/

 

[pc-guy]

Well guys i thought id give an update on the situation.
The PC is up and running again hurrah!!

I managed to get a replacement CPU quite quick from amazon so tried it in the motherboard and as many of you expected the same fault was occurring. Sent back the motherboard to OCuk and they replaced it and we're back in action!

I want to say thanks to you guys too, i'm not the most PC savy person and feel a little nervous attempting repairs. I've only just sorted it so here's hoping it doesn't conk out on me again.

P.S. I've removed the Dragon center app as advised and I'll stick to flash drive updates from now.

o/

Good to know it’s all sorted. Ya stick with USB stick and flash inside BIOS