Pc turned off mid game and won't turn back on

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youngbloods2010

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Sep 19, 2017
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Hi wizards. I'm new to this whole Pc dyi thing, as the title says I was enjoying a game of Dota2 and we were about to smash the enemy ancient for victory and *blank*
PC just died and it's not resurrecting... The thing is early that day I transferred the hardware into a new case.. a nice corsair 240 the cube kind, and upgraded my cpu cooler. The operation was pretty successful I thought because hey... I had been gaming on it for about 8hrs before it blanked out. I also got a new graphics card about 1 week ago and it did crash in the old case with stock cpu cooler but it booted up right away.
I'm worried could I have ruined my first (kind of) build? I did notice the graphics card was really hot to touch but it's been 1 hour now and it's cooled down and still not turning on. If I unplug the power cable and plug it in and push the power button the HDD led flashes once...

Any help plz?

If this helps the PC is AMD A10 7850k, gigabyte rx580, msi a78e45 v2, casecom 550w PSU, win10 64
 
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No-one is an expert when they begin; we all started somewhere.

Clean the pins of thermal paste as thoroughly as you can. Isopropyl alcohol is typically used to clean thermal paste off the CPU. Thermal paste can conduct, and you don't want to start the PC with thermal paste on the CPU pins. Be careful not to bend the pins either.

As for the motherboard aspect... tricky depending how you think. (It's tricky the way I think anyway.) Did you build this PC? (You mention transferring the parts to a new case.) I ask because whether or not you should get the same model motherboard will depend on what sort of Windows licence you have.

If the PC is a prebuilt, then the Windows licence is locked to the motherboard. Theoretically an identical...
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youngbloods2010

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Sep 19, 2017
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I did the deadly paperclip test on the psu and the fan didnt spin (but not sure if fan only spins when psu is under more load?). Ive done a bit of googling and i suspect its either psu or mobo.
I think ill take the psu to the pc shop and they can test it. Im also worried if it's mobo other parts could be damaged eg Cpu or Ram
 
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Obakasama

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Hopefully the other components are undamaged. A good PSU would prevent damaging other components when it goes.

As an anecdote, I had a PSU pop on me (a bang, sparks flying out of the back, burning smell). Luckily the rest of the PC still worked after getting a new one.
 
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youngbloods2010

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Sep 19, 2017
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Ok i know whats happened, psu is working fine i plugged it into another old mobo i had to test it. My mobo is dead and probably my apu too, some thermal paste dripped into the socket (im an idiot). This is an expensive learning curve for me.

The mobo is definitely dead but i think maybe the apu is ok it looks physically normal just some thermal paste on afew pins. I could clean it off.

Im a bit lost as to where to go from here now, new mobo obviously. But im thinking should i get identical mobo and try put old apu in it so my HDD and OS recognises the hardware and should boot properly without exact upto date drivers? Or get new mobo and apu/cpu, and try use old HDD and figure out a way to get the OS to work with new hardware as i have alot of awesome family photos and videos and games on that HDD and i dont know how im guna recover them if i do a whole new system of mobo, apu and OS.
I have another HDD i havent used yet i could put in it and run a whole new machine but than the old HDD with my stuff on it how do i get it off it and into the new system? WWJD....

Just to reinstate im an idiot and this my first build
 
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Obakasama

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No-one is an expert when they begin; we all started somewhere.

Clean the pins of thermal paste as thoroughly as you can. Isopropyl alcohol is typically used to clean thermal paste off the CPU. Thermal paste can conduct, and you don't want to start the PC with thermal paste on the CPU pins. Be careful not to bend the pins either.

As for the motherboard aspect... tricky depending how you think. (It's tricky the way I think anyway.) Did you build this PC? (You mention transferring the parts to a new case.) I ask because whether or not you should get the same model motherboard will depend on what sort of Windows licence you have.

If the PC is a prebuilt, then the Windows licence is locked to the motherboard. Theoretically an identical model shouldn't make a difference to the licence, and it will avoid the inconvenience you've noted about drivers.

If you purchase a copy of Windows it will depend on which version. An OEM version would also be locked to the motherboard. A full retail version allows you to transfer the licence to a new PC (or motherboard in this case); which would allow you the flexibility of getting a different but compatible motherboard.

As for data recovery. Depends how you want to approach it. The way I would approach it is rebuild the PC with a new motherboard and use the unused HDD as the new boot drive (where you install Windows); BIOS may need to be adjusted to boot from a specific drive. Check everything works. Then install the old HDD with the appropriate cables, boot up as normal, then just copy the data you want to the new boot drive.

Some bits of that might make no sense... Just ask if it doesn't.

Hopefully it is just the motherboard as you say. If it's the APU as well... you may want to look at your available budget and think about a bigger change.
 
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youngbloods2010

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Sep 19, 2017
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I bought the pc pre built but with no OS installed and got a friend to install windows10, from memory its 64bit and home edition and i have the key/license code but no boot cd, my friend said he installed it from a usb so i can try get that from him and ask in more detail what version of windows it is.

I have only added afew small changes to the pc like a cpu cooler (hence thermal paste disaster) and transferred everything in it to a new case, which i thought was fun and a good way to figure out how to build a pc.

As for my budget im quite flexible and well off and dont mind spending afew hundred dollars for good parts, the main issue is i live rurally and stuff gets posted to me and ill have to do it all myself

Thank you very much youre really awesome and knowledgeable too!
 
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Obakasama

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If it's a home edition (which hopefully means a retail edition) then you should be free to transfer the licence to a new PC without problems. If you can't use the original USB stick to install then try the media creator (you'll need to download it).

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

The main sticking point is whether the APU was damaged in the process. If there was a way to confirm its viability before having to buy a new motherboard, then you could make a different upgrade choice (especially if you can afford to do so).
 
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youngbloods2010

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Sep 19, 2017
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I checked and it says its Pro for OEM. Not sure if thats important?

I have read and watched alot of youtube videos and by the looks of it, if the hardware is similar the bios will pick up new cpu and i can enter some settings, amd windows10 should be able to boot and update drivers automatically before i login, its a 50/50 chance. Im going to take the easy route and ive ordered the exact same motherboard and another apu, instead of the A10 7850k im getting a 7890k. I was quite happy with how the 7850k played good with the rx580 8gb gpu and want that same gaming experience... so hope this isnt going to turn into a headache and will keep you posted :)
 
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Obakasama

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An OEM version of Windows is locked to the motherboard it was installed to (it's the version prebuilt PCs tend to have). As you've chosen to go for an identical motherboard it should mean licensing issues are avoided (and also booting issues).

Good luck putting the system together.
 
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youngbloods2010

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Sep 19, 2017
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Sorry late reply. So my system is back to life. Ordering the same mobo and pairing it with a different Apu was great it didnt give me any dramas it updated devices automatically, new power supply is going good too. Thanks for support and advice. Now im already planning to build another PC with my newfound confidence
 
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