Dead motherboard

Gredawarha · 30 Jul 2021 at 13:37

Afternoon all.

Just went to switch my PC on and nothing happens, not a sausage.

I took the GPU out and tried it again, nothing.

Changed the CMOS battery, tried it again nothing.

I removed the power switch cable and tried shorting the power button, nothing.

I have unplugged the 24 pin cable, and shorted pins 15 (ground) and 16 (PS_ON), the PSU switches on and I get a light on my PCI hard drive switch but no lights on the motherboard, none of my fans switch on and no beeps, just the PSU and the hard drive switch.

Does this sound like a dead motherboard, can I be reasonably confident that the PSU is okay on the basis that it is power up and there is power going to the hard drive switch but seemingly not to the motherboard.

Any suggestions or comments before I start looking at a new motherboard?

Spec as follows

Gigabyte B350 Gaming 3 motherboard
Ryzen 5 1600
16GB RAM
3070 GPU
SSD boot drive
SSD 2.5” game drive
Mechanical 2.5” photo drive
PSU Seasonic Focus Plus 550W 80 Plus Gold Modular Power Supply

Many thanks

Darren

EDIT: for clarity this is not a new build, the PC was working this morning.

EsaT · 30 Jul 2021 at 14:22

What's the PSU model?
And have you tried just getting to BIOS with minimal parts?

Gredawarha · 30 Jul 2021 at 14:26

EsaT said:
What's the PSU model?
And have you tried just getting to BIOS with minimal parts?

Sorry, yes I should have included the PSU. It is a Seasonic Focus Plus 550W 80 Plus Gold Modular Power Supply.

I have yet to try removing the RAM stick by stick or removing the two SSDs.

Mr Mcgoo · 30 Jul 2021 at 18:09

That psu is pushing it for your current setup. nvidia recommend a minimum of 650 watt psu for that gpu. have you overclocked cpu or gpu at all?

Gredawarha · 30 Jul 2021 at 18:20

Mr Mcgoo said:
That psu is pushing it for your current setup. nvidia recommend a minimum of 650 watt psu for that gpu. have you overclocked cpu or gpu at all?

Yes, I was aware that I am pushing the limits of the PSU. The CPU is overclocked but not the GPU.

I have now swapped the two sticks of RAM, still no power on, I then tried it with only one stick of RAM in each slot, still no power on. Removed both 2.5” drives still no power on. All that is left plugged in are the CPU, M.2 boot drive and five fans.

Mr Mcgoo · 30 Jul 2021 at 18:43

what is your cpu overclock to and what voltage have you set. also try one stick of ram and remove all drives and leaving just one memory stick ,cpu (of course) and gpu with no power cables to the gpu just pci-e power only and see if you boot to bios. if not you may well have a dead mobo casued possibly from psu. lets hope not

Gredawarha · 30 Jul 2021 at 18:47

Mr Mcgoo said:
what is your cpu overclock to and what voltage have you set. also try one stick of ram and remove all drives and leaving just one memory stick ,cpu (of course) and gpu with no power cables to the gpu just pci-e power only and see if you boot to bios. if not you may well have a dead mobo that may have been caused by psu shorting from being over rated 540 watt max pull from that psu on the 12v rail

Thanks, have already tried with one stick of RAM but will try without the M.2.

I think I may have to suck it up and buy a new motherboard and PSU.

CPU overclocked to 3.9Ghz, not sure what the voltage is without being able to get into the BIOS.

Mr Mcgoo · 30 Jul 2021 at 19:21

afraid this maybe the case. it sucks when this happens especially to older tech as it's hard to get. luckily ryzen is all am4 so you could in fact get a b450 even b550 as a replacement if a b350 board is hard to find

Gredawarha · 30 Jul 2021 at 19:28

Mr Mcgoo said:
afraid this maybe the case. it sucks when this happens especially to older tech as it's hard to get. luckily ryzen is all am4 so you could in fact get a b450 even b550 as a replacement if a b350 board is hard to find

Yes I am thinking B450 motherboard and a new PSU. If I go B550 I am also going to have to get a newer CPU as I don’t think B550 supports Ryzen 1600 so that will bump the cost even further. Obviously the 1600 is first gen Ryzen but I don’t find it bottlenecks the GPU in gaming and it still works fine in photo editing. My son does video editing and he has not complained. I would obviously love a shiny new B550 and latest Ryzen but I think B450 and PSU is the sensible option.

Mr Mcgoo · 30 Jul 2021 at 19:37

one thing i forgot to mention is as you have to take it apart to replace, have you tried taking the mobo out of the case and put it on some cardboard or something non conductive in case your mobo is shorting at the stand offs. only ram, gpu and cpu needed at this point. i had this happen randomly on my old 2600k setup after 2 years of running fine lol. if that still dont work a b450 mobo and 650+ watt psu would be a good replacement setup

Gredawarha · 30 Jul 2021 at 19:54

Mr Mcgoo said:
one thing i forgot to mention is as you have to take it apart to replace, have you tried taking the mobo out of the case and put it on some cardboard or something non conductive in case your mobo is shorting at the stand offs. only ram, gpu and cpu needed at this point. i had this happen randomly on my old 2600k setup after 2 years of running fine lol. if that still dont work a b450 mobo and 650+ watt psu would be a good replacement setup

Not yet I am going to take it apart this evening or tomorrow.

Gredawarha · 30 Jul 2021 at 20:34

Mr Mcgoo said:
one thing i forgot to mention is as you have to take it apart to replace, have you tried taking the mobo out of the case and put it on some cardboard or something non conductive in case your mobo is shorting at the stand offs. only ram, gpu and cpu needed at this point. i had this happen randomly on my old 2600k setup after 2 years of running fine lol. if that still dont work a b450 mobo and 650+ watt psu would be a good replacement setup

Managed to do this over the last hour but nothing, no sign of life. New motherboard and PSU it is then

Thank you everyone.

Mr Mcgoo · 31 Jul 2021 at 17:24

That's a shame you have to buy new parts. keep us informed of your purchase and then build pics

Gredawarha · 6 Aug 2021 at 16:15

Been busy at work so not had time to post but received the new motherboard and PSU last weekend and it was the motherboard. I ended up with an MSI tomahawk B450 Max II which was a good price and a Seasonic Focus GX750. All put back in the case and up and running pretty quickly.

Thanks for all your help. Here is a picture, not a lot to see as whilst I do appreciate a good locking build I tend to prefer air cooling and putting my money into performance rather than aesthetics. Ghetto Lego GPU bracket to reduce sag.

Mr Mcgoo · 8 Aug 2021 at 00:55

Glad it's all up and running again. Looks clean to me. Never been a fan (pun intended) of the colour of them noctua fans. +1 on the ghetto lego anti sag

[HB]Rugrat · 8 Aug 2021 at 08:29

Hah love the DIY anti-sag bracket :cry:

Gredawarha · 8 Aug 2021 at 11:57

Agreed, the colour is not for everyone but once the side panel is on you can't see them. If I had the time, money and inclination to a pretty water cooled build I wouldn't use them.

We have Lego coming out of our ears in our house so was a no brainer to use it as a bracket.