Diagnosing a Broken CPU?

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Freemorpheme

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Feb 10, 2014
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Hi there,

My PC died a few months ago, and getting it back together has been a long and heart-rending process. After it went down, it did nothing, wouldn't POST, wouldnt move the fans, so I RMA'd the motherboard. Ebuyer (I am in the UK) replaced the motherboard, but when I put it together it would only take power for a second, enough to spin the fans a bit before it died. I RMA'd the motherboard again, but Ebuyer said they tested it and it is OK.

Last night I breadboarded the motherboard - just the board, one stick of RAM, the PSU and the CPU with a stock cooler. Again, just a flicker of fan action. I tried different RAM, and another PSU. So it seems to point straight at the CPU as the only component left.

So I have one or two questions:

Could a motherboard take the CPU with it when it died?
There was the tiniest tiniest imperfection on one of the gold connectors on the underside, I couldnt make out what it was, could this affect running? All the pins on the board are perfect.
Is there anything I have forgotten, another possible culprit?
If I took it to PC World round the corner, do you think they would pop another CPU with the same chipset in for me and see if it goes? I have no experience with their tech guys.

the specs are here, but the CPU in question is a 4770K:
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/b/Ndg

Thanks
 
Solution
mouse24
To be honest that sounds alot more like a PSU problem than a CPU problem. The fans should stay on if its just a bad cpu (assuming that the fans are connected to the PSU). Though CPUs don't generally get taken out with a mobo, you'd have to blow through quite a few caps/vrms to do that.

My suggestion would be to try out another PSU and/or try it without the GPU in there.

Edit: missed the part where you tried another PSU, was it a known working PSU?

Hmmm, Do you hear any noises from the PC/beep codes?

At any rate, buying a new cpu, while expensive would be your best bet, I'd recommend grabbing one from a big box store since it makes for an easy return.
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mouse24

mouse24

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Nov 30, 2010
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To be honest that sounds alot more like a PSU problem than a CPU problem. The fans should stay on if its just a bad cpu (assuming that the fans are connected to the PSU). Though CPUs don't generally get taken out with a mobo, you'd have to blow through quite a few caps/vrms to do that.

My suggestion would be to try out another PSU and/or try it without the GPU in there.

Edit: missed the part where you tried another PSU, was it a known working PSU?

Hmmm, Do you hear any noises from the PC/beep codes?

At any rate, buying a new cpu, while expensive would be your best bet, I'd recommend grabbing one from a big box store since it makes for an easy return.
 
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Solution
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Freemorpheme

Honorable
Feb 10, 2014
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10,530


Thanks, but I did try another PSU and there was no GPU in it
 
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Freemorpheme

Honorable
Feb 10, 2014
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10,530


I can't without taking it to bits again - I am going to try the helpdesk at PC World today and see what they think. Then report back
 
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Freemorpheme

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Feb 10, 2014
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After much pain and expense the problem was revealed to be a short from the cooler (hypercooler 212) on to the board which killed both the board and the chip.
 
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