PC not booting (but mobo lights up)

Rainmaker

Rainmaker

Rainmaker

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Typically, with the worst timing in the world, my desktop PC woke up dead as a doornail. I went to bed with it switched on and working, and woke up today with it off, and for all intents and purposes it looks asleep or powered off (monitor off, graphics card not lit, no fans, but the ghastly motherboard RGBs are flashing away as usual, and the onboard LED display still shows 'Republic of Gamers'.

Tried to wake it to no avail. Pressed the power button on the case, and again nothing at all. Tried a hard power cycle, and the mobo RGB lights go off and back on, and that's it. No fan kick or spin, no noise, nothing. The diagnostic lights on the mobo are off (CPU/MEM/GPU etc) and there's not even an attempt at powering up or POSTing. Basically it looks like the system is just powered off, and the power buttons (front case and onboard the mobo) do nothing at all, not even a fan kick or PSU fan noise. Nothing.

Some salient facts:

A few times lately, the mobo LED display has been VERY occasionally saying 'Check CPU' as Windows freezes, which needs a hard reboot then everything's OK for a while (until now). Likewise under Linux I've had the same hard freezes or random reboots with the logs saying 'graphics power crash'.

I have a lot of health stuff going on atm so it's been a case of 'getting around to it tomorrow', as the system rebooted and powered on fine each time it happened, and it wouldn't happen again for weeks on end. I figured a loose component or something.

Now it's refusing to fire up at all. I have checked the RAM, graphics card, and power connectors etc are all snugly seated (and re-seated them to be sure). No change. I have disconnected the gfx power connectors and tried to boot, no change (I figured at least an error would pop up, but no). I have reset the CMOS using the jumpers, no change. I have tried a different kettle lead, no change. I have also unplugged the front panel header block and tried to power on the mobo using its own power button (in case the front panel wires were shorting somewhere, preventing boot), but alas no change.

I have even moved the tower, gotten a new kettle lead and plugged it directly into the wall on another ring in the house. Nope. Nothing. With power switched on, the only thing that happens is the Asus Aura RGBs light up as usual, and the LED display on the board shows RoG and then an animation as usual when powered up. Pressing the power button (case or mobo) does exactly nothing. No fan kick, no LED status lights, no attempt at booting at all. Nada.

I'm not in a position to strip it down and rebuild it out of the case as yet, I'm too sick. I rely on this rig too. Typical! Given the intermittent CPU and GPU warnings and random reboots, I'm thinking maybe the PSU is faulty? That's best case for me here, as the PSU has a 10 year warranty - my £2.5k CPU and mobo ran out of warranty months ago! (Edit: Thankfully false, I just saw it's 3 years warranty not 2!).

If it was CPU I'd expect it to POST but with errors, not act like there was no power plugged in (stupid RGB aside). If the mobo itself was dead I'd expect the RGBs to not work? Although dead mobo is the second best case scenario. I never liked it anyway, it was a free upgrade from OcUK (where I bought all the components btw), when the board I paid for never came into stock. Supply of TRX40 mobos was never great, and initially it was blood from a stone, so OcUK just upgraded me to the next price board up for which they did have stock. This 'gaming' Strix board. HEDT boards shouldn't have stupid RGB - leave the PCB green and spend the RGB component cost money on 10G NICs or large passive heatsinks. Fight me. :D

Anyway, if it was CPU I'd expect there to be an error on the board (CPU fail light, beeps) and it would at least *try* to boot and POST. Ditto the RAM. I'm hoping so anyway! I don't have a PSU tester and don't have a spare PSU, especially not for a Threadripper + Vega system (they don't exactly run on random 200W power supplies!). Talking of which, the Vega graphics card doesn't light up - at all. Normally the Sapphire logo glows red but tbh I really can't remember if it does that when powered off or in standby, or if only the mobo RGB glows. I rarely have it off, so I can't remember - but I've added the info in case someone knows and it's pertinent.

The full specs are:

AMD Threadripper 3960X
Asus RoG Strix E-Gaming TRX40 motherboard
32GB 8Pack DDR4 3600c16
Samsung Evo Plus 960 NVMe boot drive
Sapphire Vega 56 Pulse graphics
2TB random Toshiba storage drive
Seasonic Prime Ultra Platinum 1000W modular PSU

The PSU was recommended by @Gibbo and does at least have a 10 year warranty. In absence of being able to strip it down and test individual parts (yet), what do you think guys? I'm pulling my hair out, everything 'seems' OK and it was working when I went to bed. Nobody's touched it since. Place your bets... :(
 
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I have had a few Asus mobos die in this exact way. The mobo bling comes on but no actual life and no error codes or LED errors either. I highly doubt it is a PSU problem.

I had Asus Prime X570 do this just before xmas , I put the 5900x into a new MSi mobo and it didnt work so I sent that back but the 5900x was not faulty ( I have no idea why it didnt work in that X570 mobo). I got a 5800x and that also did not work in the Prime but did work in a B550 so sure the Prime mobo is dead. Is so handy to have multiple pcs on similar platforms to help with testing.

Things to at least try. Is this a dual bios mobo ? If so switch to the other bios. If not then download a stable bios onto a usb stick and try to do bios recovery. Take out battery and leave it out and unplugged for couple of hours then put in new battery. Before you start ordering new parts you should strip some things down and at least try a different gpu if you can.

I wish you the best of luck getting that expensive kit working again
 
Haz123 said:
I have had a few Asus mobos die in this exact way. The mobo bling comes on but no actual life and no error codes or LED errors either. I highly doubt it is a PSU problem.

I had Asus Prime X570 do this just before xmas , I put the 5900x into a new MSi mobo and it didnt work so I sent that back but the 5900x was not faulty ( I have no idea why it didnt work in that X570 mobo). I got a 5800x and that also did not work in the Prime but did work in a B550 so sure the Prime mobo is dead. Is so handy to have multiple pcs on similar platforms to help with testing.

Things to at least try. Is this a dual bios mobo ? If so switch to the other bios. If not then download a stable bios onto a usb stick and try to do bios recovery. Take out battery and leave it out and unplugged for couple of hours then put in new battery. Before you start ordering new parts you should strip some things down and at least try a different gpu if you can.

I wish you the best of luck getting that expensive kit working again
Click to expand...

Ah, so you're thinking mobo? That would also make sense, with errors for various random components. Thinking on, I've had multiple issues with the board in general - randomly forgetting some UEFI settings, crashes requiring UEFI reset to defaults and changing the settings back to what they were (and then it works again), TSME being enabled causes instant BSOD on Windows, stuff like that. As I said, not a board I like. It is, however, still under warranty. I checked after making the OP and the PSU has 10 years, and the CPU and mobo both have 3 years. I'm almost tempted to RMA the whole lot and see what comes back. I have a muscle disease and I've been almost totally bedridden the last two days struggling to breathe. I finally got up today to find my rig dead when I can barely pick up a screwdriver. Like I said, worst timing ever. :rolleyes:

Thanks for the suggestions and the pointer, it was helpful (albeit annoying!) to hear that Asus mobos tend to just die like this. At least now I know where to focus. When I can I'll remove the gfx (I have an old 1050Ti and RX 380 that I can test with), and reset the CMOS/change the battery as you suggest. I'll also reseat the CPU and cooler (Threadripper can cause strange issues due to poor contact if the mount isn't 100% perfect, because of the sheer size of the package). The board isn't dual BIOS/UEFI unfortunately, but I'll definitely do a flashback to see if that helps any.

Again, thanks for all your help.
 
Since everything's still under warranty (individually, not as a complete build obviously) I've just emailed OcUK tech support. I've explained the issues and linked this thread. I've asked whether I can just drive the whole rig down to them under the circumstances with my health, so they can either RMA the board (if they agree) or test the CPU/PSU/board and see what they think so we don't end up playing the 'RMA all the parts one at a time until the warranties expire or we find a culprit' game.. Fingers crossed. :)
 
Really sorry to hear about your health issues. That is a good plan, if you are struggling that much then it may be beyond your capabilities to troubleshoot and repair yourself. Hope OCUK are good eggs and can help you out.
 
Thanks again Haz. Just a little update: I obviously haven't heard back from OcUK yet as it's bank holiday. I did manage to try BIOS flashback though, and funnily enough Asus published a new BIOS (AGESA update) this week, which the board didn't have anyway.

I took a known good 2GB USB stick (yes it's old lol), formatted as FAT32/MBR and copied across the BIOS file. I renamed the file RSTRX40E.CAP as per Asus' instructions, and stuck it in the 'BIOS' USB slot on the back of the IO shield. I pressed and held the flashback button for three seconds and... nothing. Dead as a doornail. Tried again for 5 seconds, just in case, and again no response. Seems you were right, and I'll ask OcUK to focus on the mobo first in the RMA process.

I never did like the thing, and now I don't trust it. Time to go shopping I think, but it's a shame I'll need to get an RMA/exchange and sell this bloody thing. A swap to a TaiChi would have been preferable, or better yet a refund so I could buy an Asrock Rack or Supermicro board. Still, 2 years in I'm not complaining - I'm well outside scope for a straight refund, it's just unfortunate.
 
This is the reason I don’t buy asus have a few older motherboards just decided they was dead back in the 1151 days.
 
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