Question Asus Motherboard CPU and DRAM Lights Looping, Won’t Output To Monitor

Mockingbirch

Distinguished
Sep 8, 2014
15
1
18,510
This issue happened spontaneously after the computer ran fine for 2 years, walked away from a functional computer and came back a few minutes later to find it dead. All components seem to be getting power, but the motherboard is looping between an amber DRAM LED for ~5 seconds and red CPU LED for ~1 second. Can’t get any monitor output with GPU or integrated graphics. The vast majority of these cases I could find online seem to come from machines that have just been built, but I’ve still tried every solution I’ve come across, including:

-Reseated every cable I could find
-Replaced thermal paste and checked CPU for damaged pins. This was very unlikely since it was a spontaneous issue with no movement of the computer involved.
-Rotated between 1 and 2 sticks of RAM in different slots
-Reset CMOS multiple times, both with the reset pins and removing the battery
-Reseated GPU

At this point I’m pretty much at my wits end and suspect it may be a dead motherboard or PSU (which I can’t test for), but if anyone has any ideas I haven’t covered before I end up having to bring it in for professional inspection, it’d be much appreciated, I can’t work until this thing does. Parts list if useful:

Intel i9-9900K
ASUS Prime Z390-A
2x Corsair Vengeance 16GB
GeForce RTX 2070
Corsair iCUE H150i
Thermaltake 850W
 
This issue happened spontaneously after the computer ran fine for 2 years, walked away from a functional computer and came back a few minutes later to find it dead. All components seem to be getting power, but the motherboard is looping between an amber DRAM LED for ~5 seconds and red CPU LED for ~1 second. Can’t get any monitor output with GPU or integrated graphics. The vast majority of these cases I could find online seem to come from machines that have just been built, but I’ve still tried every solution I’ve come across, including:

-Reseated every cable I could find
-Replaced thermal paste and checked CPU for damaged pins. This was very unlikely since it was a spontaneous issue with no movement of the computer involved.
-Rotated between 1 and 2 sticks of RAM in different slots
-Reset CMOS multiple times, both with the reset pins and removing the battery
-Reseated GPU

At this point I’m pretty much at my wits end and suspect it may be a dead motherboard or PSU (which I can’t test for), but if anyone has any ideas I haven’t covered before I end up having to bring it in for professional inspection, it’d be much appreciated, I can’t work until this thing does. Parts list if useful:

Intel i9-9900K
ASUS Prime Z390-A
2x Corsair Vengeance 16GB
GeForce RTX 2070
Corsair iCUE H150i
Thermaltake 850W
What bios do you have, unless it's 1005 or newer your CPU isn't technically supported by your mobo, and some cases it will post no issue not act like nothing is wrong for days weeks months and sometimes years before problems Aries but not a likely thing to happen. However if this is the case sometimes dropping to a supported CPU and updating the bios will work. When you pulled the bios battery did you have the psu unplugged and hold the tower power button for 30s x2s to drain all the capacitors if not then you didn't clear the bios and reset it you just gave it more of a hiccup to fight through till such is done.
 

Mockingbirch

Distinguished
Sep 8, 2014
15
1
18,510
What bios do you have, unless it's 1005 or newer your CPU isn't technically supported by your mobo, and some cases it will post no issue not act like nothing is wrong for days weeks months and sometimes years before problems Aries but not a likely thing to happen. However if this is the case sometimes dropping to a supported CPU and updating the bios will work. When you pulled the bios battery did you have the psu unplugged and hold the tower power button for 30s x2s to drain all the capacitors if not then you didn't clear the bios and reset it you just gave it more of a hiccup to fight through till such is done.

Appreciate the input but the computer's been to the shop and the answer was a bunch of bent pins on the motherboard. Really weird considering this was a spontaneous event (as opposed to happening after the computer was moved or tinkered with), things must have just barely been held together. Replaced motherboard and it's running again.
 
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