System wont POST. Help appreciated.

[itsakjt]

Today I cleaned my entire rig for the 3rd time. I replaced thermal compound on my GPU, Southbridge, Northbridge and CPU and cleaned all dust. I put back everything and turned on POST ok and Windows loaded. All temps were excellent. After sometime, the system hanged. I rebooted it and POST always fails - no display. I removed gfx card(to boot from onboard VGA), usb 3 card and cleared CMOS. I removed both RAMs, no beeps from motherboard speaker, tried both sticks one at a time on all 4 slots. Nothing. Tried a different PSU- No luck. I am on the conclusion that the motherboard or CPU is dead. But the latter being uncommon, I suspect the mobo. Anyone who can shed some light on this? This is the very first time my computer is causing trouble.

 

[erocker]

Recheck your northbridge and southbridge and make sure the heatsinks are making proper contact.

 

[itsakjt]

Recheck your northbridge and southbridge and make sure the heatsinks are making proper contact.

Yeah checked. Even opened and reseated them. Took the CPU from the socket as well and reinstalled. No post and no beeps as well. Pity I dont have a post code card.
The best thing I can say is the board is behaving as if no CPU is there in the socket. If I take the CPU out of the socket and start, the results are exactly same. Also the memOK LED is not glowing as well. Meaning the RAM is not initialized at all.

 

[erocker]

Are you sure the CPU 8/4 pin is connected along with all of the other connectors? If you're positive, I guess it's time to search for a cheap used motherboard to test.

 

[McSteel]

Try removing the mobo from the case (it's possible it's shorted somewhere somehow), and check to see if any of the USB ports are damaged (so that one of them is shorted). Check to see if any of the PHY/ICs (audio, LAN, etc) are hotter than they should be - maybe one of those gave out.

 

[drdeathx]

There is no need to replace Tim. Just get a can of compressed air. Retrace everything you did I guess.

 

[itsakjt]

@erocker- Yes all checked. 24 pin power and 4 pin power connected. I think I am gonna take the motherboard to the Asus service center and get it checked by them and if possible, the CPU too.

@McSteel- Yeah did that too. USB ports are not damaged and all chips are cool except the south bridge heatsink which is feeling like 40-45 degree C when touched. LAN chip is working because it is detecting the wire. And no physical damage on motherboard. Looks absolutely good as new. Nothing burnt or as such. I still have 1 year and 1 month warranty left for all the components. Should I worry?

@drdeathx- All done. But in vain. I have nothing else to diagnose. Either the CPU motherboard is gone I am cent percent sure. But I wonder how did it go? I did nothing wrong! I did these things previously and nothing ever happened.

 

[drdeathx]

Hopefully Asus will take it back. Don't let them know you reapplied Tim

 

[itsakjt]

Hopefully Asus will take it back. Don't let them know you reapplied Tim

Yes I hope. Thanks. I will post whatever happens. I don't think I will be able to do.anything today Sunday because probably the service center is closed.

 

[itsakjt]

UPDATE: I was just fiddling with the board. I measured the voltages of the NB, SB, DRAM and CPU with a multimeter.
The NB reads- 1.19V( 1.1 V stock for AMD 880G)
The SB reads 1.8V(don't know stock value)
The DRAM reads 1.56V(1.5V standard)
And the CPU reads 1.05V for the core and 1.11V for the IMC.
That's where I suspect something wrong-The CPU core voltage. My 955 has 1.4V stock voltage. It is getting only 1.05V. Is it the reason why POST fails? Another thing, the EPU chip which is the VRM controller for Asus boards is getting relatively hotter.

 

[de.das.dude]

how did you clean? did you wash it? or alcohol?

asus doesnt check for TIM or etc here. so you are in luck. but once you RMA it, the quality of board you will get back in return will be way lower than the one you bought.
so try to fix it yourself.

is the VRM sending 1V even when you are giving a higher voltage in the BIOS? it just might be the Cool and quiet.


was this the first time you were replacing TIM on the bridges? the stock compound is very hard nowadays and its easy to damage the chip while trying to get the heatsink off.

but they dont change stuff because of VRM problems. also they will check with a sempron, so most VRM problems dont show up. take your CPU with you if you go there.

check which VRM mosfets are getting hot. all of them are supposed to get hot equally. but on mine only the top two mosfets get hot. rest stay cold.

i think your VRM just failed. just a coincidence. asus VRMs for budget boards are pretty crap.
my old board gives anywhere from 1.2V to 1.4V when cnq is disabled and so is llc and vcore is set at 1.2.

it was giving be BSODs as well.

 

[itsakjt]

how did you clean? did you wash it? or alcohol?

asus doesnt check for TIM or etc here. so you are in luck. but once you RMA it, the quality of board you will get back in return will be way lower than the one you bought.
so try to fix it yourself.

is the VRM sending 1V even when you are giving a higher voltage in the BIOS? it just might be the Cool and quiet.


was this the first time you were replacing TIM on the bridges? the stock compound is very hard nowadays and its easy to damage the chip while trying to get the heatsink off.

but they dont change stuff because of VRM problems. also they will check with a sempron, so most VRM problems dont show up. take your CPU with you if you go there.

check which VRM mosfets are getting hot. all of them are supposed to get hot equally. but on mine only the top two mosfets get hot. rest stay cold.

i think your VRM just failed. just a coincidence. asus VRMs for budget boards are pretty crap.
my old board gives anywhere from 1.2V to 1.4V when cnq is disabled and so is llc and vcore is set at 1.2.

it was giving be BSODs as well.

Thanks a lot for the details.
I cleaned and brushed with alcohol only.
I can't confirm the voltage in BIOS because it does not even POST. Just the fans spin. No beeps, nothing. But with multimeter, I am getting only 1.05V. I doubt its c and q because at startup during POST, CPU should run at its max speed.
For the TIMs, this is my second application. At the first time I did it, the chips were good as new-not even a scratch. After my LAN got fried, I gave them and they returned it, I didn't check TIMs after. However, when I opened the NB heatsink yesterday, I was shocked to see that the thermal compound application was modified by them. I used CM Thermal Fusion 400 which is grey in color. On the NB it was white and the application was horrible. Now the real shock came when I removed the TIM. The NB chip has been bruised badly and even on the top right corner it was very slightly broken. I felt bad but didn't bother as it was working that way for over a year. So Asus service damaged my board.

Yes I will take my CPU.
As for the VRM MOSFETs, all are getting hot. I am sure the MOSFETs are ok. It is the MOSFET driver which might be failing. And the EPU chip is getting hot.
I don't know how just cleaning the board killed it. I didn't do anything wrong. I touched my computer case to be ESD safe and kept the motherboard above the antistatic bag given by Asus when packed.

 

[de.das.dude]

i told you asus service is crap. now see for yourself.

the only explanation is static. just touching the case doesnt necessarily get rid of static. your case needs to be connected to the power supply and that to the wall-socket. your wall socket needs to have earthing as well.

 

[itsakjt]

i told you asus service is crap. now see for yourself.

the only explanation is static. just touching the case doesnt necessarily get rid of static. your case needs to be connected to the power supply and that to the wall-socket. your wall socket needs to have earthing as well.

Yeah true.
And yeah, my case was earthed. The power cable was connected. And earthing is ok.
Now I am on my laptop. Anyways, I would be glad if I get a new board or they replace the NB maybe if it is dead. Because I don't like the way the NB looks. Seriously their service is pathetic. How can a damaged LAN chips need reapplication of TIM on the NB! I think I will talk with them, give them a few bucks and get a M5A97 Evo. It costs almost the same as my board.

 

[de.das.dude]

they didnt replace the lan chip. they gave you a different board. simple. they dont do repairs on spot.

 

[Frick]

i told you asus service is crap. now see for yourself.

Because that has never happened with anyone else? Seriously, that is not an indication for anything except that the op didn't tell them at the time, which he could have done but didn't. It's a bit late to whine about that now isn't it? If the board worked for a year while "damaged", it's something else.

they didnt replace the lan chip. they gave you a different board. simple. they dont do repairs on spot.

Quite possible, but it still worked fine for quite some time. And the op didn't say anything, that is important.

 

[itsakjt]

they didnt replace the lan chip. they gave you a different board. simple. they dont do repairs on spot.

Impossible. I am damn sure it was my board. Because it was only me who removed all the excess flux and residue right after I bought it, the serial number was same and even my overclock settings stored as Asus OC profile was there(though it is the BIOS). But I am damn sure it is the original board I bought. And I saw indication that the LAN chip was replaced. There was flux around it.

Because that has never happened with anyone else? Seriously, that is not an indication for anything except that the op didn't tell them at the time, which he could have done but didn't. It's a bit late to whine about that now isn't it? If the board worked for a year while "damaged", it's something else.

Exactly. I don't think that slight damage can kill the NB. I know many people here on TPU who even have dents in their GPU die and it still works perfect. I am pretty much sure it is the VRM driver(EPU chip). I wonder how it died though. And moreover, the board was alive when I first booted it after servicing. It was just that after hanging, it never POSTed. One thing haunts me. Can the high static voltage generated by the filament flash of a point and shoot camera damage electronics? I took some close up pics yesterday.

 

[de.das.dude]

Because that has never happened with anyone else? Seriously, that is not an indication for anything except that the op didn't tell them at the time, which he could have done but didn't. It's a bit late to whine about that now isn't it? If the board worked for a year while "damaged", it's something else.



Quite possible, but it still worked fine for quite some time. And the op didn't say anything, that is important.

i did tell him at that time
and this has been happening with asus products all over india. their service centres always have a huge line at the drop off counter.
the problem is ASUS has leased their indian/asian distributer to handle RMA. this has led to a lot of malpractices and numerous complains to ASUS global.
Finally though, asus has agreed to setup a different RMA handler.


the m5a97 evo i used in my last client build has also gone kaput. its vrm is gone.

 

[itsakjt]

Some luck factor is there with electronics. I have two friends who uses perhaps the cheapest Asus motherboards. None of them had any problem in the 3 years. Asus makes good quality product. Its just that their service is not good. Same is the case with Gigabyte. It seems de.das.dude- you were right. My luck with electronics seems to have run out.

 

[itsakjt]

UPDATE: Today I gave the motherboard at the service center. They didn't check it there. They said that service engineer later will check it. And said that it will take 3-4 days for repair and in the worst case, a maximum of 7 days. They also added that motherboards rarely needs to be replaced. Almost all boards are repaired and you get the original product only. If the repair can't be done, they will give a same model board as replacement. So this is the story. Another information. Previously in Kolkata Rashi peripherals did the motherboard servicing. Now it is no longer done by them but done by Digicare and Digicomp. Rashi peripherals only services Asus network products, ODDs and such stuff. So all fellow users who live in my location will be able to get some help.

 

[de.das.dude]

i already posted that rashi doesnt do it anymore
did you go to the lic building one?

 

[itsakjt]

i already posted that rashi doesnt do it anymore
did you go to the lic building one?

Yes. That alley beside the income tax building - at the end of it. As far as I know, they handle Intel motherboard, MSI and Kingston as well.
Another question though: Since they didn't check anything there, is there a chance my processor is faulty?

 

[de.das.dude]

was it overclocked when the system was crashing?

AMD processors last a lifetime, unless you go over the top on the voltage

 

[Ketxxx]

I would also think mobo or CPU. Almost exactly same thing happen to me not long ago, to my surprise it was the CPU that had developed a fault (not fully dead, IMC issue causing lockups). Its probably worth picking up the cheapest mobo you can find to test the CPU. I assume you have also performed a full CMOS reset? (unplug power cord, remove CMOS battery, set jumper to "clear", press power button 3-4 times)

 

[itsakjt]

Yes it was overclocked. 3.78 GHz to be precise and NB at 2.8x GHz. RAM at 1728 MHz. And it was stable when I started it just like before. I even ran simple benchmarks with AIDA and everything was perfect. The system suddenly froze after 30 mins or so and then all these. After the freeze, it never even started once. And no beeps. No beeps without RAM also. I reset CMOS both by removing battery and jumper, removed GPU and USB 3 card, attempted to initiate BIOS recovery, start by pressing and holding the MemOK switch, tried each RAM on all the 4 slots. Nothing. When I started by pressing and holding the MemOk switch, the LED blinked continuously. And as I said, CPU was getting 1.05 V when turned on. The CPU heatsink and NB heatsink were all cold or very slightly warm. SB felt like 40-45 degree C. All other chips were cool. But EPU chip was heating up.