Question Brand new MSI B450 Tomahawk fried my GTX 970

[hoodyhoo66]

Unfortunately I bought a MSI B450 Tomahawk Motherboard with a Ryzen 3600 and 16gb Hyperx 2666Mhz RAM, I quickly assembled it with my old parts which i used everyday in the past 4 years) so installed my Asus Geforce GTX 970 Direct CU II OC.(PSU: XFC 750 Pro Series 80+ Gold,Case: CM HAF 932 Case)

I Qflashed the bios to the latest version, but for some reason, the computer was not able to boot, i asked around and someone suggested to downgrade the bios to one version earlier, for the July 10. Finally the pc was able to boot and load up my old windows.

After the windows installed all the new drivers by it self, everything worked as expected. I quickly jumped into gaming, and then when the nightmare happened, I played Apex Legends and in 5 minutes on the second round the picture got total purple some popping sound came from the PC case and the PC got shut down .

I quickly opened the case, and some smoke and burnt smell came out...I took out the VGA GPU was obvious it got fried. I did put back, to see how bad. and I PC turned on but it had vertical lines all over, and barely could see the boot screen. I had a spare VGA GPU 750Ti, did put it in. but the PC didn't even shoot signal to the monitor, (tried both PCI-E port) and the LED-s remained white, with the fried VGA GPU it was able to go to boot (LEDs turned RED), windows just crashed during loading.

My question is how is it should be resolved. Because it also fried my precious VGA GPU which still costs more than the Mobo itself. I wrote to MSI and they replied, in Europe i have to take back to the seller, and he has to take care about it, but they didn't mention anything about my VGA GPU, my seller says, he has no responsibility for my VGA GPU ... which is ridiculous IMHO.

 

[boju]

Usually shorts like this happen if power cables weren't connected properly or cables not original to an modular psu were used.

It's difficult for anyone to know exactly what you did between removing and adding components and equally as difficult to share the same opinion about the motherboard causing the issue.

Sorry, hope it works out for you and hopefully find out what exactly happened.

 

[hoodyhoo66]

Yeah that was my initial thought that i wasnt connecting properly the cables to the VGA, so that was the first thing i checked, I have to say, that all cables were connected just fine (were clipped into their proper place, both 6pin and the 8pin) The PSU is high quality, I use only the original cables. What I did between? I only dusted off the VGA with a compressed Air can.. I am assembling PC's since 1992 and i know when i f**k up something, but in this case i did everything right.

Tomorrow I will return the Mobo and I will try to give them vga as well, find out what happened, I keep you updated. But for now I dont like the MSI's behavior, Not even saying sorry...

 

[rumple99]

Did you turn off the power (completely unplug) the monitor and the computer before attaching the HDMI cable because if you didn't that's one good way to fry your gpu

 

[hoodyhoo66]

I have an update for you: So I returned the Mobo, and took the GTX970 to a service ( I thought I got just unlucky with the gpu, and the seller didnt want to take it in). I got the Mobo back in 4 days, they said they flashed new bios (i did that too). And tested with two VGA, wroked fine with both. Called the GPU service, they said unfortunately it is not fixable. So I took my spare 750Ti and used the Mobo for four days... worked fine, only once didnt turn on for the first try (CPU error led). So I thought I was just unlucky with the GPU fry. Then I got fed up with the poor performance of the 750ti and bought a used RX 580 GPU. (I had very tight budget, didnt plan to buy gpu just yet). I installed the GPU tried to turn on the Mobo, and it just didn't boot, CPU RED error. no post. I tried to put it in to the other PCI-E. same. I got pissed of, left the computer there for like 30 minutes. came back, turned of-on, and miracle, it is worked again. Windows started load, and after some time, black screen. whaat... i say. reinstalled windows. Want to download driver black screen again... I thought the GPU is bad. took it to my friend, we tried there, tested with games, worked just fine... Thinking, and for some reason, I thought I try with HDMI cable instead of DVI. and for some reason there was signal on the HDMI but not on the DVI... but my monitor has only 1.3 hdmi port, so cant display the 1440p. I still wasn't happy.... but I started to play some games finally... Next day. I try to turn on the computer, and it doesnt boot, but this time it shows DRAM error... I take out RAM, same. put it back the first out, doesn't boot taking out the 2nd in. it boots. I put back both RAM, it boots. lol.. .I played some games... the computer worked just fine. till the next day. it started ovcer. CPU red LED.... Guys. I never have this much hassle in my life... And I started with 286 computers in '92... So I sold some collectibles. and bought an used Gigabyte AB350 Gaming 3 motherboard Today. I assmebled in half an hour, and guess what. Everything works perfectly even the DVI port of the GPU and I can play 1440p 60fps... Computer turns on when I want to... so good feeling... I just don't know how to move forward with this. MSI does not answer to my messages, seller doesn't want to take responsibility over my GPU loss. In my country lawsuits last for years. but that's what I should go for?