[SOLVED] AM4 Socket Motherboards Not Posting, No Status LEDs

[Thor7791]

For reasons not worth getting into, I have both the MSI B450 Tomahawk Max and ASUS TUF x570 (no wifi) motherboards as well as an R7 2700x and an R7 3700x. All of these components are new. I also have 16gb of DDR4 G.SKILL Ripjaws ram. I've tried all 4 combinations of CPU/Motherboard yet none of them work. I am sure the PSU and GPU I am testing with are working properly. I have no way to test whether the ram or CPUs independently work (you'd think 2 motherboards would be enough).

I have checked the power connectors multiple times and even had someone else do them for me. I can tell that power is getting to the ASUS board as the onboard RGBs start to change colors the moment the PSU is turned on. The MSI board has no way for me to check this. On both boards, I notice that the onboard status LEDs for debugging never light up, no fans spin and there is no post sound. I have even tried removing certain components when testing to see if I could force the CPU or DRAM lights to come on. Does anybody have any other ideas of where I could look?

Update: It just started working and I don't know what changed. This thread does have a good amount of troubleshooting methods for anyone curious.

 

[Math Geek]

try testing it outside the case. sometimes the board can short against the case and cause it to not run. sitting it on the box it came in or other non-metal surface will rule this out.

that's the first thing i would try. kind of odd for 2 different boards to short but if the standoffs are not right, it could persists over multiple boards.

 

[Thor7791]

try testing it outside the case. sometimes the board can short against the case and cause it to not run. sitting it on the box it came in or other non-metal surface will rule this out.

that's the first thing i would try. kind of odd for 2 different boards to short but if the standoffs are not right, it could persists over multiple boards.

Sorry I didn't make it clear. I've been testing on top of the boxes they came in. The person I was working with was convinced the screwdriver method wouldn't work so I pulled the case power button cable out a little bit so I could try that, too.

 

[Math Geek]

no problem. would be my first test as well.

with it persisting over many variations, points me at the power supply mostly. pretty much ruled out the mobo, ram and cpu. try it without the gpu installed and see if it posts. it won't show anything but if it at least starts up, this can help narrow things down.

don't know what psu you have but this is where i would be looking if removing the gpu does not work either.

 

[Thor7791]

Removing the GPU doesn't change anything. Neither does moving it to different slots. My PSU seems to be working properly. It boots another system I have laying around. The TDPs of the new CPUs/motherboards are lower than the other one I can get to boot so I shouldn't be overdrawing power. It's a CX650m.

Edit: The PSU doesn't have the extra 4-pin connector to provide additional power to the CPU on the ASUS board. However, that shouldn't matter here since I'm not overclocking and also isn't a problem on the Tomahawk.

 

[Math Geek]

well, i can see why your stumped. you clearly have some experience and have tried the obvious tests.

right now i'm not sure what is going on. the psu is fine and if it works on another system, that rules it out. the ram is about the only thing left to look at. have you tried 1 stick? and moving it to other slots? sometimes ryzen can be picky about ram. it's a long shot but really the only thing i can think of that's left.

 

[Thor7791]

Ok I feel like I'm getting pranked. I went to move the ram around but decided to test it one more time. The 3700x and Asus board booted no problem. I didn't change anything from the last times I had tested it but now it's working. Thanks for talking it out with me. I'll keep a close eye on it just in case.

 

[Math Geek]

lol. we've al been there. the shorting issue always comes to my mind first as i once spent 2 days fighting with a system only to discover it was a simple short. new standoff and it was good to go.

glad it working for you now. hopefully it is done messing with you and just works from here on out

hopefully i at least helped you stay sane since i was suggesting the same stuff you already knew to try. always nice to know you were not missing anything obvious