Asus M5A97 Will Not Complete POST. CPU or MOBO?

[DrDoSoMuch]

I need some advice. For years my computer has worked fine. Last week, my CPU was getting too hot (65 C), so I took it apart and looked at how the cooling fan was mounted. The thermal paste, was like a gummy solid, and it looked cruddy. So, I scraped it off. I didn't have any more thermal paste at the time, so I mounted the fan without it. I checked the temperatures, and the CPU temperature was better, running around 55 C (as opposed to 65 C). The computer ran fine all day, and I left it on overnight, because I fell asleep. In the morning I turned it off. Three hours later, I turned it back on, and it didn't boot up, instead it was stuck on boot screen, which says to press DEL to enter BIOS. Pressing DEL did not do anything - it was frozen.

Now, I troubleshooted the problem, and eventually removed everything, except CPU, RAM, graphics card, keyboard and mouse. Still, no luck. So, I cleared the CMOS with the jumper. No luck. I cleared the CMOS with jumper and removed the battery. No luck. It still froze on the boot up splash screen.

I had 16 GB of RAM: 4 sticks of 4GB. I tried various configurations of the sticks. If I only had one stick (didn't matter which one) in the first slot, the computer would get past the boot screen, to the Amitrends screen, which said I had a mouse, a keyboard, and no drives. If I had two or more sticks of memory in, the computer would freeze on either a blank screen or the boot screen.

With a single stick in, I hooked up my SSD to see if it would boot. No luck. It was simply stuck on the Amitrends screen. I also could not get into BIOS.

So, I need some advice. From what I have described, is the problem more likely my MOBO, my CPU, or both?

MOBO: Asus M5A97 rev 1.02
CPU: AMD HDT90ZFBGRBOX Phenom II 1090T Black Edition Six Core Processor - 3.20GHz
Graphics Board: NVidia GeForce GTX 670

Thanks!

 

[Tradesman1]

Have you since tried putting some thermal compound on and trying it....Think you may have cooked the CPU

 

[DrDoSoMuch]

Have you since tried putting some thermal compound on and trying it....Think you may have cooked the CPU

Yes, you may indeed be right. I don't see how putting thermal compound on it now will help. The temperatures it was running the earlier day were in the higher 50's without the compound.

I'm not sure how much the motherboard chipset does on its own. Can the motherboard even display the boot screen with a cooked CPU though? Also, why would I get different freezing behaviors depending on how many sticks of ram I have installed. This, to me points to the motherboards chipset as having the problem.

I am hoping that someone who knows more about the workings of a POST could give some enlightenment. I am 99% sure that I have faulty hardware, but I'd like to know what is the most inexpensive means of fixing it.

 

[Tradesman1]

If you know anyone with an AMD rig could try swapping CPUs

 

[DrDoSoMuch]

If you know anyone with an AMD rig could try swapping CPUs

OK, a little adventure. I looked around and found out that my HTPC rig is using an AMD Athlon II X2 processor. So... I removed it (a little hassle with the chip being stuck to the heatsink) and installed it in the M5A97 mobo. It does the same thing. With the memory stick in the first slot, it hangs on the American Megatrends AMIBIOS screen, which identifies the CPU, total memory, USB devices, and ATA/ATAPI Devies... all of that is fine. It says to setup BIOS by using F1. Does not work. If I reset, and press DEL at the splash screen, the screen goes blank and hangs.

Interesting enough.. if I put the memory stick in the second slot, it will hang on the boot screen. However, if I press the MemOK button on the motherboard, the memory led flashes 4 times, and shortly after, the POST proceeds to the American Megatrends AMIBIOS screen and displays the usual info, and also "Memory OK! succeeds in system booting! Enter BIOS setup menu and save the memory settings." Unfortunately, whatever I do I cannot enter BIOS setup. Any ideas, besides replacing the motherboard? I can't RMA it because its 4 years old, and the warranty is for 3 years.

 

[Tradesman1]

Try resetting the CMOS and then try and boot

 

[DrDoSoMuch]

Try resetting the CMOS and then try and boot

I tried resetting the CMOS, and no go. I then thought of trying the graphics board from an old build (no on-board video). So, I replaced my GTX 670 with a GT 215 🙁

Well, it worked! I put all 16GB of ram in, and it still worked! I put my Phenom II in, and it worked! So, the problem is my graphics board. Or, it could be the power lines from the power supply that go to the graphics card. I imagine that if the power wasn't reaching the graphics board, it might put a drain on the rest of the motherboard sufficiently. Any ideas of how to troubleshoot my graphics card.. obviously it is partially working if it could display the boot screen?

 

[Tradesman1]

What PSU?

 

[DrDoSoMuch]

What PSU?

Its a Xion 600W, it has two +12V rails, each 22A, so that would be 44A together. But if one of them failed... Any ideas on how to test the power cables for graphics cards?

 

[Tradesman1]

It's prob feeding the GPU from a single rail and may not be enough AMPs, if it's got other PCI-E power connectors might try them, sorry not all that familiar with their PSUs, I don't use them

 

[DrDoSoMuch]

It's prob feeding the GPU from a single rail and may not be enough AMPs, if it's got other PCI-E power connectors might try them, sorry not all that familiar with their PSUs, I don't use them

Yeah, it could be that. Unfortunately, I cannot find my molex to pcie adapters that came with the gfx board. I'll check with some friends nearby. Any recommendations on a good thermal paste?

 

[DrDoSoMuch]

It's prob feeding the GPU from a single rail and may not be enough AMPs, if it's got other PCI-E power connectors might try them, sorry not all that familiar with their PSUs, I don't use them

I tried it without plugging in the PCI-E power connectors at all, and a message came up telling me to turn off the computer and plug in the PCI-E connectors. So, I do not think it is a power issue.

I put my graphics card in the second PCI-E slot (which is only x4 compared to x16) and the system booted up just fine! Any idea why putting my NVidia GTX 670 in the x16 slot causes problems but not in the x4 slot (with x16 slot empty)?

 

[Tradesman1]

Possible bad slot, could be CPU

 

[DrDoSoMuch]

Possible bad slot, could be CPU

How do you think it could be the CPU, when it runs fine in the x4 slot?