[Solved] Very strange hardware problem? Replacing nearly entire PC didn't fix it?

[Black Panther]

[Apologies for the vague title but neither me nor other tech experts know, yet, what this problem might be.]

Long story short, I purchased the system in my specs barely 5 months ago. It was the first time in over 15 years that I chose the parts and let the computer shop guy assemble it instead of building it myself. (It was included in the price, I was feeling lazy, I suffer from sweaty hands, and it was my first time with a WC CPU and I thought better like this to have no warranty excuses if something went wrong)

I went on a short holiday, today when I returned, I plugged the socket in the wall (I had removed it), switched on wall switch, switched on PSU (I had it switched off too), pressed power button and... nothing. The only stuff which 'powered up' were the led's of my RAM sticks. No fans, no beeps, no boot into bios. I tried several times, the only other thing was a faint 'click-click' which I don't know whether it came from PSU or from the storage HDD.

Since it's technically a 'pre-built' and I have 24 months warranty on all parts and 60 months on PSU, I decided not to mess around at all but take it back to the builder.
Before I did so, I made sure by changing cable from PSU to wall socket, and even trying another wall socket.

Now here's where things go strange.

He replaced RAM sticks.
Replaced PSU.
Got a new motherboard straight out of new box.. installed all the rest of the pc parts on it (apart from GPU, HDD and presumably also SSD though I'm not sure).
I'm not sure whether he also changed CPU or not, I was watching him behind perspex (due to covid and all) but I saw him attaching a CPU to motherboard then installing the cooler again on CPU.

AND everything remained the same. Only the RAM leds light up. No boot into bios.

He spent nearly 2 hours, when he came back from behind the perspex he told me that he was definitely sure that my motherboard had ''somehow got fried'', but he couldn't figure out why exactly the same problem persisted after all the fixes he tried.

What do you make out of this please? He basically re-built a new pc so could it be something in the actual case chassis? Or the guy is not that competent and shorted parts while working on them perhaps?

[Anticipating possible questions, system was functioning 100% fine all the time since purchase. Temperatures were always great even while gaming. Never got a blue screen or any error not even when I ran benchmarks. It's not wired by ethernet cable so no surge from fibre cable could have damaged it. Already said wall socket was out during my short vacation, so no possible electrical surge or something could have damaged it. It's full summer here, there were no thunderstorms. I never overclocked it.]

The only software I have installed is a legit Windows 10, Steam, Nvidia GeForce Experience, CCleaner and Fallout76 game...

 

[mbeeston]

did he replace the cords for the drives as well or did he use the same ones?
if one of them deteriorated while you were out, using the same one would have the same problem.

 

[Black Panther]

did he replace the cords for the drives as well or did he use the same ones?
if one of them deteriorated while you were out, using the same one would have the same problem.

I'm not sure about that since I was behind perspex due to covid and it didn't enter my mind to ask him before leaving. But basically I have only 1 drive, an SSD M.2 which clips directly to motherboard without cables. I don't think he left the secondary storage HDD there while testing.. and moreso, I don't think faulty drives would prevent a pc from booting into bios at least?

 

[mbeeston]

I'm not sure about that since I was behind perspex due to covid and it didn't enter my mind to ask him before leaving. But basically I have only 1 drive, an SSD M.2 which clips directly to motherboard without cables. I don't think he left the secondary storage HDD there while testing.. and moreso, I don't think faulty drives would prevent a pc from booting into bios at least?

i have had both hdd's and even empty dvd drives prevent a system from booting. but you would have to ask him if he did. i don't know about an m.2 drive doing it though, never used one. but you could always just take it out and see.. or have him do it if you want to be carefull about it.

 

[Black Panther]

i have had both hdd's and even empty dvd drives prevent a system from booting. but you would have to ask him if he did.

I wouldn't expect a tech who works with a company to oversee that. I mean first thing I always do when my, my friends' or family's pcs go wrong is to unplug all drives. So if he really missed doing that that... ugghhh..

I'm actually uncertain right now whether I did the right choice to let them build it for warranty assurance, or whether I should have done it myself and possibly avoided all of this.

 

[xtreemchaos]

this might be a long shot but could he left a motherboard stand off in the wrong place and its causing a short ? ive see it done before and it has the same MO.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

is the PSU's Hybrid mode switch on? not that it should matter.

Just replacing parts could mean the new parts are FUBAR now too. He should have taken better troubleshooting steps, after the new PSU failed, he should have started with taking the Mobo out and start with basic components, board, psu, cpu and memory and see it that boots up.

 

[Black Panther]

this might be a long shot but could he left a motherboard stand off in the wrong place and its causing a short ? ive see it done before and it has the same MO.

Quite likely, I was thinking it might be the same problem and that he repeated it with the new motherboard. But imagine me, a girl old enough to be his mum, telling him to check mobo standoffs.
Definitely this is the first and last time I let someone build.

No I always left hybrid mode off.

[Btw I'm not that old, the guy's in his early 20's]

 

[xtreemchaos]

yes im retired now but when i had ChaosCustoms i had a few prebuilt PCs what customers brought in with the same good thing was once id removed the offending standoff thay booted up as normal.

 

[Black Panther]

Problem solved. The motherboard got fried, and fried the CPU in the process as well.
That's why it took so long, he didn't suspect the CPU and that was the last thing he tried.

 

[xtreemchaos]

i feel for you bro, hard luck mate .

 

[Black Panther]

i feel for you bro, hard luck mate .

Yeah, thankfully everything was still under warranty so no charge...

 

[Caring1]

I'm actually uncertain right now whether I did the right choice to let them build it for warranty assurance, or whether I should have done it myself and possibly avoided all of this.

Looks like you made the right choice.

 

[xtreemchaos]

yes the warranty saved the day, good move buddy its not half as bad .

 

[Black Panther]

But I'm definitely NEVER EVER allow anyone else to build a pc instead of doing it myself.

Computer came back working fine. Then I realized my 2TB HDD was... missing. I mean where it is it's not visible anyway so I didn't notice immediately. I took off the other (non-windowed) side and saw it was there and all cables plugged in.

I removed the GPU, to find the sata cable was not plugged. BUT not only that! The sata cable and clip was tightly trapped between the motherboard and the case!!!

With careful prying, I managed to wiggle it out and plug it into the motherboard.

But I mean, this is really really gross negligence!

 

[xtreemchaos]

agreed thats sloppy workmanship , i wouldnt use the guy again but all well what ends well or so im told .

 

[kiriakost]

But I'm definitely NEVER EVER allow anyone else to build a pc instead of doing it myself.

Computer came back working fine. Then I realized my 2TB HDD was... missing. I mean where it is it's not visible anyway so I didn't notice immediately. I took off the other (non-windowed) side and saw it was there and all cables plugged in.

I removed the GPU, to find the sata cable was not plugged. BUT not only that! The sata cable and clip was tightly trapped between the motherboard and the case!!!

With careful prying, I managed to wiggle it out and plug it into the motherboard.

But I mean, this is really really gross negligence!

As First ... 3% of new computer hardware this might fail in the first week.
As second, the person assembling 20 computer systems per day he has more chances to do the job risk free.
One connector forgotten under the motherboard this is not the end of the world.
The speedy replacement of any hardware that got bad, this is exceptional behavior coming from a seller.
If there is any assembly issue, the good level of communication with the shop this will resolve the problem.
If we get the guns at the smallest issue, no one around us will stay alive.
If you can make as a friend the person which assembled this PC, this would be a Bonus in long term.

 

[xtreemchaos]

lol.

 

[rtwjunkie]

Problem solved. The motherboard got fried, and fried the CPU in the process as well.
That's why it took so long, he didn't suspect the CPU and that was the last thing he tried.

Bad luck that it was the final component, but I’m glad it finally got solved.