PC Died

[beedoo]

In the 35 years or so I've been building PC's, I don't think I've ever had one that actually died on me, as I had a fairly short upgrade cycle - maybe every 2 years.

This Threadripper 2950X build on an Asus ROG Zenith Extreme motherboard had been running since 2018, but yesterday just seemingly gave up the ghost for first power-up in the morning, and I wondered if there was anything else worth checking before I consign it to the bin. It's unlikely I can get another CPU or motherboard to test with.

So, the RGB on the motherboard was still strobing, but the case power-on button does nothing, neither does the start button on the motherboard. No fans, no clicks, nothing, no display codes, and no beeps from the tiny speaker module.

It was a fully hard-tubing, water-cooled setup, so was a bit of a mission to eventually dismantle, so first I switched out the PSU for an 1KW Asus Thor with only Asus power cables connected. Made no difference. Removed all but one stick of RAM, nothing. Then I removed the CPU and noted on the back, a small circle of what looks like dust (maybe 3mm across) in the middle of the capacitors on the rear of the CPU, which I cleaned off with isopropyl alcohol. Remounted CPU and still nothing.

The BIOS re-flash via USB seemed to take, but still nothing... I've stopped there.

Edit: I have replaced the CMOS battery - forgot to mention that one.

Edit: I should note (for locality suggestions), I'm Australia based.

 

[eidairaman1]

Not sure if microcenter keep mobos around to test HEDT hardware

 

[freeagent]

That has happened to me a couple of times in the past..

Main reason why I never shut my rig off except for maintenance, old habit..

 

[wNotyarD]

Is the motherboard battery still alive? Had some rigs going through issues due to a dead CR2032.

 

[dgianstefani]

Disconnect all the drives and replace CMOS battery.

Short the pins to reset BIOS if you need to, also good way to start the system.

Is it humid where you are?

 

[beedoo]

Thanks wNotyarD and dgianstefani, yep - I did replace the CMOS battery, forgot to mention that.

 

[eidairaman1]

Thanks wNotyarD and dgianstefani, yep - I did replace the CMOS battery, forgot to mention that.

Your only other option would to have northridgefix do some motherboard and cpu testing to see if a part on the mobo failed or if cpu did

 

[_roman_]

This Threadripper 2950X build on an Asus ROG Zenith Extreme motherboard had been running since 2018

6 years of usage is not that bad - for an asus mainboard.

I saw several dead mainboards in the past. Nothing unusual.

RGB means nothing. There are microcontrollers on a mainboard. Just named differently. These just do the RGB junk. It just indicates that some parts of the mainboard "have" power. Not more - not less

-- I really wonder - why someone would reflash a "semi" broken mainboard. I do not get that idea. reseting cmos, new cmos battery, jump start with screwdriver with new out of the box power supply - these are the usual things to do.

My hardware lasted longer with always power off & disconnecting from the wall socket the hole box. I do not get the argumetn - not turning off the computer. Some mainboards brands, or just some mainbards are just garbage.

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

the case power-on button does nothing No fans, no clicks, nothing, no display codes, and no beeps from the tiny speaker module.

Sounds like it may be the same type of fault that MSI B450 Tomahawk has, coincidentally. But, is it really a bad connector that can be bridged over, like with B450 Tomahawk? (There is a video about the B450 Tomahawk fault on YouTube)

(Fault where it simply does not turn on) (Except mine developed that fault in just 2 years!) (I never heard of that on Asus, however)

I think it's actually unacceptable on a Threadripper-tier motherboard!

Is it really a bad resistor that's possibly a zero-Ohm resistor? lol

 

[eidairaman1]

6 years is pathetic considering it is WS/hedt, if anything The board and cpu should be checked by northridgefix and repaired accordingly.

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

That has happened to me a couple of times in the past..

Main reason why I never shut my rig off except for maintenance, old habit..

My B450 Tomahawk was unexpectedly found off one day in August, 2022. Looked like keeping it on, didn't make a difference.
I just put Jammy on it, too!

 

[Solaris17]

really wonder - why someone would reflash a "semi" broken mainboard.

I have on a taichi that wouldn’t even post after a cross country move. Even after a rebuild. Like; it didn’t get a splash screen kind of no one was home.

flashed it came right back to life, machine is kicking to this day. Emi?, shock?, bit flip? No idea but sure as shit fixed it.

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

I have on a taichi that wouldn’t even post after a cross country move. Even after a rebuild. Like; it didn’t get a splash screen kind of no one was home.

flashed it came right back to life, machine is kicking to this day. Emi?, shock?, bit flip? No idea but sure as shit fixed it.

That's bizarre to have BIOS corruption like that, even when moving. IIRC, that's extremely rare.

Usually, when it powers up, but I see nothing on the screen, it 99 percent means reseat the video card and/or RAM.

With my luck, I often have to reseat the video card and RAM when I moved a PC in the past. Even more likely on '00s systems, with my luck. Especially early-to-mid-'00s systems.

Even when it was mostly just the video card on early-to-mid-'00s motherboards. Motherboards of that era, are a pain! Often got bleeps-of-doom meaning video init failure from the BIOS.

 

[eidairaman1]

I have on a taichi that wouldn’t even post after a cross country move. Even after a rebuild. Like; it didn’t get a splash screen kind of no one was home.

flashed it came right back to life, machine is kicking to this day. Emi?, shock?, bit flip? No idea but sure as shit fixed it.

Ive heard of asus being big on bios corruption and it stemmed from a battery.

Maybe a fresh eeprom should be purchased and swapped on the ops board

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

6 years of usage is not that bad

Sounds more like a remark of mediocre caps on a bad caps-era motherboard, lol. My Soyo SY-K7VTA-B lasted for 6 years before I saw one cap bulged a tiny bit by the ATX power connector.
Apparently, if you didn't have the best caps back then, you would be lucky to get 6 years, especially being tortured by irregular AC voltages and no UPS, and a Deer DR-250 ATX PSU for much of its life.

Ive heard of asus being big on bios corruption

IIRC, I heard that happened the most on nForce 2 motherboards. Especially the Asus A7N8X family. IIRC, it was said to be caused by OC'ing RAM or FSB too much.

But, I never had that happen. The only problem, were caps that went bad in the mid-2010s. The motherboard is from 2004, a terrible year for Chemi-con KZG caps. A lot of bad batches in 2004 and 2005, it looks like.

The Soyo SY-K7VTA-B is a Via KT133 socket 462 motherboard from the very-early-2000s. I saw a bulged cap in 2008, IIRC. I subtracted out 2003, because I mostly wasn't using it in 2003.
It was made in 2000 and I got it in June, 2001.

The years I used it, were mostly 2001, 2002, 2004 and 2005. Even when I likely used it some in 2006 and 2007. In 2003, it was mostly parked, because of an upgrade, where I went to my first Thoroughbred system with DDR.

 

[Hardcore Games]

I found Asus boards to be unreliable while MSI has been more stable.

I tend to idle machines as this way steam can update games overnight etc

 

[Dr. Dro]

I found Asus boards to be unreliable while MSI has been more stable.

I tend to idle machines as this way steam can update games overnight etc

I've had a great experience with both, to be honest. Reliability champ in my book is still Gigabyte. Longest running HW I've got.

 

[freeagent]

I found Asus boards to be unreliable while MSI has been more stable.

I don't think it matters who makes them, it just happens sometimes.

But FWIW I only buy upper end Asus boards because they stand the test of time

I have old Asus and Gigabyte hardware in use by friends that still live, even after months of shit kicking.

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

I've had a great experience with both, to be honest. Reliability champ in my book is still Gigabyte. Longest running HW I've got.

2010s' Gigabyte motherboards, sure look solid!

I don't think it matters who makes them, it just happens sometimes.

But FWIW I only buy upper end Asus boards because they stand the test of time

I have old Asus and Gigabyte hardware in use by friends that still live, even after months of shit kicking.

I just hope that my MSI MAG Z490 Tomahawk doesn't let me down!

 

[beedoo]

I found Asus boards to be unreliable while MSI has been more stable.

I tend to idle machines as this way steam can update games overnight etc

Most of the motherboards I've had have been Asus - many of the Intel / AMD ROG series, in fact I've still got a running Intel 5930K on a ROG Rampage Extreme board.

-- I really wonder - why someone would reflash a "semi" broken mainboard. I do not get that idea. reseting cmos, new cmos battery, jump start with screwdriver with new out of the box power supply - these are the usual things to do.

...and for the most part, I did those things. I didn't jumpstart with a screwdriver as the board has a "Start" button on it for exactly this purpose. I may try the jumpstart later anyway (just in case). I tried a ROG Thor 1KW PSU which has seen maybe 1 hours use.

This Zenith Extreme has required a BIOS re-flash a couple of times. I struggled with 8 RAM sticks for a time, which I could get to run at 2800/2933 Mhz, but eventually switched to four sticks at 3200Mhz.

 

[freeagent]

I just hope that my MSI MAG Z490 Tomahawk doesn't let me down!

Nah it should be ok. If this was a real problem, like with solid numbers than there would be an outcry from users.

The last time this happened to me was like 15 years ago and even though it sucked, I knew it was just the numbers game..

The strong ones live while the weak and sick die

 

[JrRacinFan]

I have on a taichi that wouldn’t even post after a cross country move. Even after a rebuild. Like; it didn’t get a splash screen kind of no one was home.

flashed it came right back to life, machine is kicking to this day. Emi?, shock?, bit flip? No idea but sure as shit fixed it.

Static causing some sort of bios corruption ya? Thats all I can think of.

 

[_roman_]

I do expect people using ESD hardware: I use an ESD plug and a wrist band. I replaced teh sprial cable several times already. I measured the 1-2 MegaOhm Resistance also regularly.

I do not want to have issues later.

I saw a guy on youtube who repair notebooks flashing with an external programmer bios chips on notebooks (=mainboards). You are right - it may makes sense to flash the bios again.

Just for information:

 

[eidairaman1]

I do expect people using ESD hardware: I use an ESD plug and a wrist band. I replaced teh sprial cable several times already. I measured the 1-2 MegaOhm Resistance also regularly.

I do not want to have issues later.

I saw a guy on youtube who repair notebooks flashing with an external programmer bios chips on notebooks (=mainboards). You are right - it may makes sense to flash the bios again.

Just for information:

I use a megger at work for insulation restistance testing, they are used for static wicks on aircraft as well.

That module appears to be equipped with button snaps or battery snap terminals.

I've never killed a mobo or other large pcb with ESD, but I might have with a stick of Crucial Ballistix Tracer ddr in the Mid 2000s. I know i definitely killed 2 usb flash drives just by reaching for them while installed in the usb port on back of the chassis, lucky I didnt kill the usb ports or mobo, that made me start touching bare metal before ever reaching for them again on the back as I would always grab bare metal every so often when I was building rigs.

If it were me on this expensive platform, I would go the route of a bios chip replace and pcb and cpu troubleshooting. I do know that in the past if a cpu wasn't installed correctly the system would never post, since that is not the case here and it just went poof its a 50/50 shot of cpu/mobo being bad, now troubleshooting it doen to the failed component on the pcb or cpu itself is another story. That is where Northridgefix comes into play, now there is northwest repair but his wining made me disregard his videos due to being unprofessional.

Since fry's electronics isn't around, im unaware if geeksquad even have tools for troubleshooting computers, all that leaves is microcenter in the U.S. and support abroad is basically non existent outside of purchasing another mobo or cpu.