Mobo or CPU damage?

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Shinotsa

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Apr 16, 2012
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Today I was adding some RAM to my PC after unplugging the power and discharging static (Ram upgrade from 2x 4gb to 4x 4gb) and noticed my aftermarket cooler was slightly blocking one of the ports. I loosened the cooler slightly, fit the ram in with the usual light pushing, reconnected the power and turned on my PC. Fans activated, but there was no picture nor power to the back USBs. Upon opening up the case and turning on the power the GPU, hard drive, and case fans work, but the aftermarket cooler fan isn't working, the USB ports aren't getting power, and the status of the CPU is unknown.

Booting does not give any picture at all.


I am fairly sure I have completely borked my rig, so I'm wondering if there's a way to know if I've damaged the Mobo or the CPU so I know what I have to replace. I have no spare machine to test parts on, nor do I know anyone nearby with one.


Specs are as follows:

ASRock Z68 PRO3 GEN3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Intel Core i5-2500 Sandy Bridge Quad-Core 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W BX80623I52500 Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 2000

EVGA 04G-P4-3975-KR GeForce GTX 970 SSC ACX 2.0+ 4GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 SLI Support Graphics Card

Seagate Barracuda ST31000524AS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive

CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX750 V2 750W ATX12V v2.31/ EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC High Performance Power Supply

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL

New RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-14900CL9D-8GBXL
 
Solution
MarkW
Not easily. And that is what we are going to try next.

1) I want you to remove or disconnect everything except the CPU and the power supply. And see if it will beep when you turn the power on. Watch to see if the CPU fan comes on or not.
1a) If it beeps and the CPU fan came on, power down, plug the monitor into the back panel of your motherboard (we want to use the Intel Graphics on the CPU), and power up again. See if anything is displayed. Go to step 2
1b) If it did not beep or if the CPU fan failed to power up go to step 3.
2) If you got anything humanly readable on the display, let me know what it says, and we will go from there.
3) No beeps and no power to the CPU fan means we have a bad power supply and/or a bad motherboard. It...
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Tradesman1

Tradesman1

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Jun 5, 2013
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You are prob fine, and have sticks that just don't want to play (it's not a good idea to mix sets of DRAM, it cna be and often is problematic), pull the sticks of DRAM and reset the CMOS, then install the new sticks in slots 1-3 from CPU and give it a try. If they work, shut down, back to BIOS and raise the DRAM voltage to 1.575, save exit shutdown and add the old sticks and try
 
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f-14

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Apr 2, 2010
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" I loosened the cooler slightly, fit the ram in with the usual light pushing," DID YOU REMEMBER TO TIGHTEN IT BACK DOWN?
if not, possible fried cpu unless bios safeties blocked boot up.

do what mark said put just the old ram back in and remove the new ram see if it boots back up.

when the athlon xp processors came out, if you didn't put the cooler on properly or the cooler wasn't suitable to cooling the cpu, you fried the cpu in 3 seconds to a minute.
 
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f-14

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also your new ram timings are different values from each other DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900)
Timing 9-10-9-28

DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
Timing 9-9-9-24-2N

you should be getting beep codes if there is a problem, need to know what those are as well.
 
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Shinotsa

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Apr 16, 2012
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Sadly I am not getting any beeps. I attempted putting in the old RAM, changing the slots they were in, and then booting with no RAM. Still the same problem. It was an immediate problem upon installing the RAM, so I don't think the CPU would have a chance to fry even if it weren't tightened down securely, though it is secured now.

Thanks for all the help by the way, I hope we can get to the bottom of it
 
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Shinotsa

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Apr 16, 2012
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Also I'm concerned as to why there's no power to the USB or internal fan port, and wondering if there's just no power to the CPU and that's what's preventing boot. I never heard any beeping with any configuration of RAM in the slots, have tightened the CPU cooler, and have tried both the GPU and integrated card outputs with nothing. The PC does come on when booted up, but I can never get an image on my monitor.
 
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C

Crashmaster

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May 18, 2015
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This is a common issue when installing unbalanced RAM.
Try the next steps: Remove all DIMM's and start the PC without turning off the PSU prior to the operation.
With the PSU still on, turn off the PC and insert one DIMM of a lower frequency into the first slot.
Now turn the power on several times until it posts.
When it posts go to bios and set manual timers on your RAM. Leave the timers to standard config and save.
Turn off and with the PSU on install another DIMM, this time with a higher frequency in the next slot. Power on the PC and wait for post. Restart only once if it doesn't post.
After it posts you can install the next DIMMs together.
 
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MarkW

MarkW

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Dec 7, 2009
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Lets try something and see if we can get that system to at least try to post again.

1) unplug the computer from the wall.
2) Turn off the power supply using the rocker switch on the back. Some power supplies do not have these. Most do.
3) Press and HOLD the power button on your computer for 5 seconds, 3 to 5 times. Watch the motherboard, and the fans and LED's should quit activating, press it 2 more times after that. We are attempting to drain all stored power by doing this.
4) Use a grounding strap, and carefully remove the round, chrome battery that you see on the motherboard.
5) Wait at least 60 seconds.
6) Put the battery back in.
7) Put your old memory back in the same slots it used to be in.
8) Plug the computer back into the wall.
9) Try to boot. Listen for beeps. If there is more than one beep, I need to know how many, and if they are short or long beeps. One beep means post completed, which would be very good news.
 
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Crashmaster

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It is most likely a MB problem. The CPU so rarely fails that it's not even an issue anymore but there's still a very distinct chance.
You can safely go with a MB issue and change it.
If you want to be 100% sure you can try testing your CPU in another MB.
 
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MarkW

MarkW

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Dec 7, 2009
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Not easily. And that is what we are going to try next.

1) I want you to remove or disconnect everything except the CPU and the power supply. And see if it will beep when you turn the power on. Watch to see if the CPU fan comes on or not.
1a) If it beeps and the CPU fan came on, power down, plug the monitor into the back panel of your motherboard (we want to use the Intel Graphics on the CPU), and power up again. See if anything is displayed. Go to step 2
1b) If it did not beep or if the CPU fan failed to power up go to step 3.
2) If you got anything humanly readable on the display, let me know what it says, and we will go from there.
3) No beeps and no power to the CPU fan means we have a bad power supply and/or a bad motherboard. It is cheapest to change out the power supply, so I would recommend that step next. Install the new power supply just like the current one is installed now, and try step 1 again.
 
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