Anything salvageable from this?

Stubbsy

Stubbsy

Stubbsy

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Joined
8 Aug 2004
Posts
162
Location
Sussex
Current specs (can't believe how long it's been since I built this)

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X Processor (8C/16T, 36MB Cache, 4.4 GHz Max Boost)
GPU: PowerColor Radeon RX 5700 XT Red Dragon 8GB
PSU: Corsair RM1000e
MB: MSI B450-A PRO MAX (Socket AM4) DDR4 ATX
Memory: Team Group Vulcan TUF Gaming Alliance 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit

Unfortunately something's gone pop and I haven't diagnosed what yet. Is anything worth saving / could be re used?

If I wanted to spend no more than £995 what would you recommend, please?

I play games but not necessarily worried about them being at the highest res or best FPS; just playable. Do some photo editing.

Thanks!
 
What do you mean by gone pop, is it not powering up at all?

It's hard to say what might or might not be salvageable until we know the failure points, but AM4 is still a very relevant platform and given you already have 16gb of DDR4 you should stick with it. RAM prices are absolutely shocking right now, you're looking at almost £400 for new 32gb sets of DDR5, even if you have a failed motherboard you'd be better off replacing it than going for a full platform jump.
 
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Stubbsy said:
Current specs (can't believe how long it's been since I built this)

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X Processor (8C/16T, 36MB Cache, 4.4 GHz Max Boost)
GPU: PowerColor Radeon RX 5700 XT Red Dragon 8GB
PSU: Corsair RM1000e
MB: MSI B450-A PRO MAX (Socket AM4) DDR4 ATX
Memory: Team Group Vulcan TUF Gaming Alliance 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit

Unfortunately something's gone pop and I haven't diagnosed what yet. Is anything worth saving / could be re used?

If I wanted to spend no more than £995 what would you recommend, please?

I play games but not necessarily worried about them being at the highest res or best FPS; just playable. Do some photo editing.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
depends whats gone pop...rm1000e must be fairly new, so that's a keeper if working..mobo also if working...I'd look at getting something like a 9070 (£560)/9070xt(£600...my choice)..both cards are 16gb vram so should be ok, and capable of 4k(esp the 9070xt) gaming, 32gb ram would be nice if you can pick some up 2nd hand...what resolution do you play at?...if you play at lower res the the 9600xt 16g or 5060ti 16gb cards...would then maybe look at maybe am5, or at least a 5000 series am4 cpu
 
Gray2233 said:
What do you mean by gone pop, is it not powering up at all?

It's hard to say what might or might not be salvageable until we know the failure points, but AM4 is still a very relevant platform and given you already have 16gb of DDR4 you should stick with it. RAM prices are absolutely shocking right now, you're looking at almost £400 for new 32gb sets of DDR5, even if you have a failed motherboard you'd be better off replacing it than going for a full platform jump.
Click to expand...
Cheers for the reply. I hadn't appreciated that RAM had gone so mad (again).
Something's tripping the power (in fact it's worse than that, something fried the socket) but it may not be the PC... We'll see. On the assumption that everything still works (or maybe just PSU dead), if I fancied spending some money what I'm hearing from you is that on a budget I could stick with the AM4 socket mb and memory, and then upgrade GPU and CPU.
 
It's not a bad PC, especially if you have £995 to spend on it.
Find out what's gone wrong first. Can you post the problems and what you've tried to do to fix it?

If you can replace the problem component, stick a 5800X CPU and 9070XT GPU you should see a fantastic jump in performance. Check the mobo can support the CPU first of course since you're jumping a generation. Might need a BIOS update.
 
Invest in a UPS?
Deffo gives peace of mind. When we moved into the house im in we had a lot of problemes with the power not been in spec, lots of trips and such in the house, not just for the PC.

See whats working to be honset, and see if you can upgrade to a 5700x 5800 or 5800x.

If your wanting a GPU now is the time before prices go higher as people are predicting.
 
Stubbsy said:
On the assumption that everything still works (or maybe just PSU dead), if I fancied spending some money what I'm hearing from you is that on a budget I could stick with the AM4 socket mb and memory, and then upgrade GPU and CPU.
Click to expand...
For casual gaming a 3700X and 5700 XT is still good enough, assuming you don't play at 4K.

Otherwise, 5000 CPU of some sort (doesn't matter that much) plus a 9070 / 5070 or better.
 
Craig_d1 said:
depends whats gone pop...rm1000e must be fairly new, so that's a keeper if working..mobo also if working...I'd look at getting something like a 9070 (£560)/9070xt(£600...my choice)..both cards are 16gb vram so should be ok, and capable of 4k(esp the 9070xt) gaming, 32gb ram would be nice if you can pick some up 2nd hand...what resolution do you play at?...if you play at lower res the the 9600xt 16g or 5060ti 16gb cards...would then maybe look at maybe am5, or at least a 5000 series am4 cpu
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Thanks for your reply. Yeah the PSU is only about 12 mo old since I replaced the last one. I run the computer in a garage and I do wonder if little arachnids decide to kamikaze into the PSU lol.

Anyway thanks for your steer towards a GPU upgrade. If I'm honest I swore I'd never buy Radeon again after the 5700xt has been so damn unstable, but you don't have to Google much to confirm that. Perhaps the driver issues are isolated to that card/set. Do you have a 9070xt or equivalent?

I have a 4k monitor and stuff is best in 4k of course but it's not the end of the world if I resort to a lower resolution. Often I'll play simulation games like Oxygen Not Included or Dyson Sphere Programme and then the CPU is the bottleneck anyway. But I also like my dota and CS.
 
Stubbsy said:
Cheers for the reply. I hadn't appreciated that RAM had gone so mad (again).
Something's tripping the power (in fact it's worse than that, something fried the socket) but it may not be the PC... We'll see. On the assumption that everything still works (or maybe just PSU dead), if I fancied spending some money what I'm hearing from you is that on a budget I could stick with the AM4 socket mb and memory, and then upgrade GPU and CPU.
Click to expand...

How old is that PSU, and do you have a different one you could try?

Tripping the power suggests a PSU failure to me if it's happening when you try to start the computer, and Corsair changed the OEM for their RME series a little over the year ago, the series has seen a decline in quality.

I've heard of numerous failures since, as well as other issues such as the included 12VHPWR cables not working with modern Nvidia cards while the adapters are fine. The 12VHPWR thing might just be bad luck and it's an anecdotal observation on my end, but I'm aware of that being the case with 3 + different RME models purchased within the past year or so.
 
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PSU is from march 24. It shouldn't be that unless it's a spider related short circuit :)

The MSI website appears to list some fantastic CPU compatibility for my mobo: https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/B450-A-PRO-MAX/support#cpu
I'm genuinely surprised. Seems like this is a viable upgrade route assuming I can get stuff up and running. Almost too many to choose from on the list!

Lots of people have replied to this thread and I really appreciate it, thanks.
 
Stubbsy said:
PSU is from march 24. It shouldn't be that unless it's a spider related short circuit :)

The MSI website appears to list some fantastic CPU compatibility for my mobo: https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/B450-A-PRO-MAX/support#cpu
I'm genuinely surprised. Seems like this is a viable upgrade route assuming I can get stuff up and running. Almost too many to choose from on the list!

Lots of people have replied to this thread and I really appreciate it, thanks.
Click to expand...

The problem in part is availability, if the most intensive task you do is gaming a 5600 would offer good uplift for relatively cheap, especially if you can source one second hand. For gaming X3D's are the best, but it is dependent on game and they're like hens teeth at the moment and stupidly expensive.

After that and assuming you'd like a faster gaming experience, a 9070 as suggested by micky is hard to beat, with the way prices are going right now it's probably worth it in the long term as I can see availability/pricing being poor for another 12-24 months if not longer. That's with anything memory related too, so adding more storage is probably a good idea too.

Try and trouble shoot as best you can, fingers crossed if it is the PSU it hasn't damaged anything else. I'm kinda loathe to suggest buying anything in particular until you've narrowed down the problem.
 
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Stubbsy said:
Thanks for your reply. Yeah the PSU is only about 12 mo old since I replaced the last one. I run the computer in a garage and I do wonder if little arachnids decide to kamikaze into the PSU lol.

Anyway thanks for your steer towards a GPU upgrade. If I'm honest I swore I'd never buy Radeon again after the 5700xt has been so damn unstable, but you don't have to Google much to confirm that. Perhaps the driver issues are isolated to that card/set. Do you have a 9070xt or equivalent?

I have a 4k monitor and stuff is best in 4k of course but it's not the end of the world if I resort to a lower resolution. Often I'll play simulation games like Oxygen Not Included or Dyson Sphere Programme and then the CPU is the bottleneck anyway. But I also like my dota and CS.
Click to expand...
I'm running a sapphire 9070xt nitro+. I'd always been nvidia (though my first build had a 3dfx voodoo in it. Still kicking myself after having it for 20yrs my wife made me take it to the skip..like throwing away a bit of my past, even if I hadn't turned it on in 20yrs+)). i just couldnt justify the uplift in price between the 9070xt and 5070ti (was over £200 differece where I was). Been rock solid for me. Got my son a 2nd hand 7800xt card to try out as it had 16gb vram also ....on a budget it's good, but fsr3 is poor and as soon as you try any RT it grinds to a halt, so I don't recommend it (not that its a 4k card anyway). RT actually works on the 9070xt..path tracing no, but setting RT to medium and away you go..upscaling on FSR4 is leaps ahead of FSR3, and coming from a 3000 series card, is better than dlss3.0. Not tried dlss4.0 or above but from reviews just behind dlss4 (beats it in some senarios, looses in others)...seeing as i was happy with dlss3.0, more than happy with fsr4
I don't really use frame gen tbh so I'm not going to comment on it too much...games like flight sim would be great, fast paced fps don't think so. I'd consider a 5070ti, but really the price would have to be close to a 9070xt to justify it for me, and if you're on a budget, I'd just go 9070xt. Finding the software easy too. download adrenaline, and you can undervolt, overclock it all within the software. think I've ended up messing around with setting and 3dMark more than playing some games
I'd stick to 4k gaming as dropping to 1440p will seriously causde serious cpu bottlenecking with the 3700x, esp if you upscale. you might just get away with it at 4k, esp as ddr4 prices have rissen also (32gb 3200c16 was £60, now it £210, so memory price explosion not just limited to ddr5. Should be easier getting 2nd hand ddr4 kits though I'm guessing). price of am4 cpu's have gone up also unfortunately as people have reverted to it to try and keep prices down (why I'm suggesting just trying the gpu 1st and seeing how much bottlenecking you get before spending more)
 
Stubbsy said:
Perhaps the driver issues are isolated to that card/set.
Click to expand...
When your cards came out, driver instability and green/grey/black screens were talked about widely and the only fix was often a replacement. I expect at least some of those problems were caused by PSUs, but I don't think it was ever known/confirmed what caused them. There are still plenty of 5000 cards soldiering on, so looks like you either had the issue or..., not.

Never heard about widespread issues with AMD's RX 6000/7000 cards (haven't had any with mine either), though reports of black screens and driver crashes still pop up now and again. The higher-end cards are more prone to black screens due to power spikes, but that's not technically a fault.

Nvidia's launch 50 series drivers were not great either, so not like is only an AMD thing.
 
First thing I’d do is buy a new kettle lead and fit a 3 amp fuse. If it pops the fuse again then move to the PSU. The burning socket points to a wiring issue in the socket though.
 
jigger said:
First thing I’d do is buy a new kettle lead and fit a 3 amp fuse. If it pops the fuse again then move to the PSU. The burning socket points to a wiring issue in the socket though.
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This is what i would do.

You have to start fault finding somewhere, as long as there is no sign/smell of burning inside the PC case and on any components.

Are you using a surge protector?
 
These are good suggestions, thanks.
I'll try a different lead with a smaller fuse.
I took the side off and had a look last night. Really spotless inside. I'm very surprised at how well the dust filters have been working.
And no obvious damage or warm smells.
Checked for a short between the pins on the kettle plug (in case of something catastrophic) but they all seem fine.

So best step I guess is replace the damaged socket and check the wiring there. Then plug the pc into another socket and see what happens.
 
Stubbsy said:
These are good suggestions, thanks.
I'll try a different lead with a smaller fuse.
I took the side off and had a look last night. Really spotless inside. I'm very surprised at how well the dust filters have been working.
And no obvious damage or warm smells.
Checked for a short between the pins on the kettle plug (in case of something catastrophic) but they all seem fine.

So best step I guess is replace the damaged socket and check the wiring there. Then plug the pc into another socket and see what happens.
Click to expand...

I'd just plug the psu in, and short the pins to power on the PSU without being attached to the motherboard.
 
Hey, I thought I'd give an update on this. Took me a long time to find time to sort it out.

Sure protector was dead. Socket had to be replaced.

I disconnected all the cables from the PSU so it was just the supply with no load. Plugged it in and it instantly tripped the power. Didn't even need to trick it into staring up. Unit was only bought 10 months ago. Got a refund.

Just put an RM850e into the machine. All seems to be working fine.

Fingers crossed just a dodgy PSU all along.
 
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