Custom-built Ryzen PC stopped working and won't POST

epicstevo555 · Sep 27, 2017

Hi guys. I built a PC in May of this year, which had been working fine until a few days ago. I left it on while I went out, and when I came back a few hours later, the PC was off. I tried booting it back up, and the fans came on and the mobo lit up, but there was no POST. The light on my backlit mouse came on for half a second and them went out. On the MSI mobo, the EZ Debug LED for CPU came on for five seconds, then went out for around ten, then came on for another five, and so on.

I figured the problem was either the PSU, mobo, or CPU. The PSU seems to be fine, as I used a multimeter to find that all the voltages were good in the connectors. I then got a replacement mobo (same model) at MicroCenter, and I'm having the exact same issue. I've tried breadboarding, clearing the CMOS, and testing with one RAM stick in each slot, with no success. Everything seems to point to the CPU being the problem, but I've read that CPU failure is extremely rare.

According to the Ryzen Master app, my temps were around 50-65 degrees Celsius while idle, but apparently it reports temps as being 20 degrees higher than they actually are, so my temps were actually less. Also, not sure if this is CPU-related, but I noticed that randomly, applications (whether it be Chrome or Skyrim or whatever) would completely freeze for like 10-20 seconds and then function as normal.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

My parts:

Motherboard: MSI X370 Gaming Pro Carbon

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 1700x

CPU cooler: Noctua NH-L9x65 SE-AM4

RAM: G.SKILL 16GB (2 x 8GB) Ripjaws V Series DDR4 PC4-19200 2400MHz

GPU: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1060 WINDFORCE OC 6G

SSD: PNY 240GB CS1111 internal 2.5 inch SATA III Value Solid State Drive

PSU: EVGA 700 B1 100-B1-0700-K1 80+ BRONZE

Case: IN WIN GT1 White SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower

moogle89 · Sep 27, 2017

You said that your computer doesn't POST. But at the end you said it froze for about 10-20" and then functions as usual.

Was the freezing problem occurring before your POST issue?

epicstevo555 · Sep 27, 2017

moogle89 :

Yes. That freezing issue happened beforehand.

moogle89 · Sep 28, 2017

You said you tried breadboarding. Have you tried removing everything except the CPU, its fan, and the RAM module?
Connect the screen to your motherboard's HDMI port and see what happens.

epicstevo555 · Sep 28, 2017

moogle89 :

Yes I did try removing everything except for the CPU, cooler, and RAM. I connected the screen to the onboard port like you said, but there was no change. I don't think Ryzen chips have integrated GPUs.

ohiou_grad_2006 · Sep 28, 2017

Ryzen CPUs don't have an integrated GPU. Sounds like about all that's not been tried is a new PSU, so I would try that too be sure you have good power. I know you said you tried a multimeter, but I know sometimes PSU testers for example may not show true results.

moogle89 · Sep 29, 2017

I am sorry, I didn't know these mobos didn't have integrated GPU. I saw in the mobo's specs that they had one HDMI port. Oh well.
I know this is a long shot, but can you maybe borrow a motherboard speaker from another PC? The sounds that it will make might help you determine the issue.

ohiou_grad_2006 · Sep 29, 2017

No problem. I think the reason they went ahead and put the ports on the boards is that they are intending to also release APUs on the same socket later on, and I guess figured that if they went ahead and put the ports there then they would be set.

moogle89 · Sep 29, 2017

ohiou_grad_2006 :

Wishful thinking huh. I understand ^^

Vic 40 · Sep 29, 2017

The APU's are already for sale.

ohiou_grad_2006 · Sep 29, 2017

If I remember, I think the ones they have now are still based on the old CPUs though. For whatever reason, I think the better ones come next year.

In response to the op though, to get back on track, you've tried a new board you said. Have you tried a different PSU by chance?

Vic 40 · Sep 29, 2017

Looking at things is it imo either a temp problem,seeing that the cooler used is just about good enough for that cpu and should according to Noctua only be used in a well ventilated case with 95watt tdp cpu's,other thing is the psu,which isn't a very high quality example.

ohiou_grad_2006 · Sep 29, 2017

This looks like the PSU he's running.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817438066

I've been running the 600 watt version for a couple of years and no issues with it really. It currently runs my overclocked 1600 these days. So PSU may not the best, but should be capable of running it.

As I'm reading it again, I'm noticing he said temps at idle were 50-65. That does not sound right. I've got the cooler master vortex plus on my 1600 which again, is overclocked, I think hwmonitor says it's pulling about 100 watts.

My cooler.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103084

I want to say though that after thermal paste breaking in, when gaming, I only get to maybe mid 50s. I see what you mean about that noctua. I just looked it up. I guess I was picturing something more like the size of say a hyper 212. But that one, especially for that money with no copper heatpipes....meh I don't know if that may not have been the problem. Thinking on that, he says things would freeze. Maybe thermal throttling?

I've only ever seen a couple of bad CPUs, but I'm wondering if that cooler didn't cook that CPU or if it maybe was not seated all the way. Given that the op has tested a new board, trying a different power supply surely couldn't hurt. But the way to know would be to either RMA the CPU or to buy a new one to try.

Op, you mentioned microcenter, you didn't perhaps buy the CPU from them and maybe get their 2 year replacement did you? If you did, I would cash that in pronto.

Searching out the ops case it appears to be this one.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811108434

I can't say I know much about it, never have used one of those.

moogle89 · Sep 29, 2017

ohiou_grad_2006 :

This looks like the PSU he's running.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817438066

I've been running the 600 watt version for a couple of years and no issues with it really. It currently runs my overclocked 1600 these days. So PSU may not the best, but should be capable of running it.

As I'm reading it again, I'm noticing he said temps at idle were 50-65. That does not sound right. I've got the cooler master vortex plus on my 1600 which again, is overclocked, I think hwmonitor says it's pulling about 100 watts.

My cooler.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103084

I want to say though that after thermal paste breaking in, when gaming, I only get to maybe mid 50s. I see what you mean about that noctua. I just looked it up. I guess I was picturing something more like the size of say a hyper 212. But that one, especially for that money with no copper heatpipes....meh I don't know if that may not have been the problem. Thinking on that, he says things would freeze. Maybe thermal throttling?

I've only ever seen a couple of bad CPUs, but I'm wondering if that cooler didn't cook that CPU or if it maybe was not seated all the way. Given that the op has tested a new board, trying a different power supply surely couldn't hurt. But the way to know would be to either RMA the CPU or to buy a new one to try.

Op, you mentioned microcenter, you didn't perhaps buy the CPU from them and maybe get their 2 year replacement did you? If you did, I would cash that in pronto.

Searching out the ops case it appears to be this one.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811108434

I can't say I know much about it, never have used one of those.

I was thinking that too, but he said the amd tool had a big offset on temps.

Vic 40 · Sep 29, 2017

ohiou_grad_2006 :

Don't get me wrong i also think it should be able run that system,but testing with another one doesn't hurt. More watts doesn't imply good quality,something sometimes is the thought behind buying this kind of psu. He could have gotten a better psu for about the same price,but he already has it so it is what it is unless that 2 year replacement service also can make him swap psu.

I mentioned the temps first as well in this because i get the feeling as well that this is the first thing to be checked,but if they have a replacement service should he indeed try to make use of that for the cpu as well as he did with the motherboard. Don't they have a service department where they can check the pc out?

ohiou_grad_2006 · Sep 29, 2017

They do. Myself, I buy the replacement plan on a lot of stuff I buy there. I didn't buy it on my cpu or ram, but I did for my board. But they do have a 15 day return as well.

I think they can check it out for a fee. But if he bought the 2 year replacement, he should just be able to walk in, tell them it does not work, and they would give him a gift card for whatever he paid for it, then he could go get another one, or another combination of parts. At least that's pretty much how the one I shop at works, and then if he wanted the 2 year replacement on the new one, he'd have to buy that plan again. But it is worth it. I've pretty much rebuilt entire systems using that.

I once built a system for a dude who thought it was a good idea to do drywall in his house in the room next to the computer. Left the computer on! Didn't shut it off, and didn't cover it or anything as he should have. Then comes to me like this computer shuts off now. No joke dude ya think!?!?!?!?!!!!! If you would have shut off your computer and and put a sheet over it! Just saying. But I digress. I rebuilt that pretty much from scratch reusing maybe his hard drive and dvd drive using their warranties I'd gotten on those parts.

But I agree he should try another PSU and not trust a multimeter. I don't think that mulitmeter can test when it's actually under a load. PSU is where I would start, if that works, the op got lucky. If not, replace the cpu which with a new board should fix it. Then....THROW AWAY THAT COOLER and add a lot of case fans! I've seen old FX 6100 CPUs fried due to the old stock coolers they used to ship with them.

I dare say the AMD wraith spire cooler would probably do almost as good if not a better job than that noctua low profile. The wratih coolers are actually quite decent. It appears you can pick them up on ebay for a few bucks plus shipping for the non rgb version.

epicstevo555 · Sep 29, 2017

Thanks for the help all, I appreciate it. The only other PSU I have laying around is a 300W one from an old HP Pavilion that only has a 4-pin CPU connector instead of 8 (don't know if that makes too much difference). Unfortunately it made no difference when I tried booting with that PSU.

So I guess the CPU and cooler are the problem. The only thing that's bothering me is that MSI debug light. Shouldn't it be solid instead of off and on?

ohiou_grad_2006 · Sep 29, 2017

Not sure if 300 watts is really enough.

You said you got the board at Microcenter, maybe return it and get a different brand just to narrow it down? Personally, I've got an ASRock AB350M Pro 4. You could even go with a B350 vs the X370 if you were intending to get a new power supply. B350 will still allow overclocking etc, you just wouldn't be able to run SLI or something on it. But if you didn't intend to, if you get a decent B350 board, you wouldn't see much difference I don't think.

Custom-built Ryzen PC stopped working and won't POST

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