[SOLVED] Building New PC, Small Fire, Questions [SOLVED]

[b_coli]

Built a New Computer, Small Fire, Need Advice

[Final Update]
Got a new motherboard, installed everything again (new cooler since the last two melted), and every thing works perfectly. Ran memtest overnight and didn't find any issues, CPU only gets to around 55c while gaming (Metro, Monster Hunter World, ESO, Etc).

Thanks for the help everyone!


[Update]
I have gotten a replacement for the cooler and the CPU and it still turns off as soon as windows installation gets to an options screen. I tried flashing the motherboard bios to the newest version and while that completed successfully, it made no difference in the end. At this point I have no idea what could be wrong or why this is happening. I might try to RMA the motherboard, and then the CPU if that doesn't work? Not sure.




[Old]
I have built my own rigs before, but I have never used watercooling or tried it in a small form factor. I bought the below parts and put it all together.
[At first]
At first it would keep restarting without getting to BIOS and I realized I had not plugged the additional 8-pin connector from the PSU into the Motherboard. I did that and it booted into BIOS. I reset the BIOS to "best default settings". I then tried to install Windows 10 from the USB I purchased and as soon as it got to any options (I believe the first screen is region or something) the computer restarted and I could never get past that.I tried an Ubuntu usb as well and as soon as I got to a screen with options the pc rebooted.
I thought maybe it was the ram so I took one card out, that didn't work. Swapped the card that was still in into the other slot and that didn't work. Tried both slots with the other stick of ram and nothing worked. I then removed the NVME drive (BIOS saw it fine, but maybe something funky was going on) and plugged in an old sata HDD from my previous computer. Again, as soon as it got to options the computer restarted.
[Power problem?]
I began thinking it was a problem with the power supply. I took my old 750W power supply from my old computer. It didn't fit into the case so I set it beside the case and plugged in the 8 pin and 24 pin connectors to the motherboard. I restarted and it actually got to the installation menu without problems, so that's good! Maybe power supply related? That's when I noticed the CPU cooler was off. I had forgotten to plug the sata power into the old PSU. I turned everything off (hoping I didn't damage my CPU, though it was only on for a few seconds) and plugged the liquid cooler sata power cable into the sata cable coming form my PSU.
[Small fire]
As soon as I turned the system on it began smoking. I flipped the switch to off and unplugged from the wall and the smoking stopped. I waited a few seconds to ensure nothing crazy was going to happen and then looked inside. The cable going from the liquid cooler to the sata connection on the PSU was mostly melted, as was the cable going from the cooler to the fan control pin on the motherboard!
I removed the liquid cooler and set it aside. I then inspected the motherboard and the CPU. I don't see any signs of fire, damage, anything. I'm not sure what caused the problem, whether the liquid cooler was bad and that's what was causing my power issues, and then it took too much current and melted? Or maybe the connection between the psu and the cooler wasn't seated properly and caused a spark? No idea.
[Questions, advice needed]
I'm thinking of returning the PSU, as replacing it definitely seemed to allow the system to get farther. But the cooler was unplugged at that time, so it may have just been an issue with the cooler? What should I do? Can I even return the cooler as faulty or are they going to say it was entirely user error?
Do you think the motherboard and CPU are fine, or is the entire thing ruined due to power surge or something? I haven't tried turning it on since the incident as I don't have a CPU cooler to try it with.
Should I take the entire thing into a shop? Can they run tests on the parts and determine what's still good and what isn't? This is the first time a build has entirely backfired on me and I'm just trying to wrap my head around it and get some options.
Thanks for any advice/help.
Parts: PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
�

Type	Item	Price
CPU	Intel - Core i9-9900K 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor	$524.99 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler	Corsair - H75 54 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler	-
Motherboard	Gigabyte - Z390 I AORUS PRO WIFI Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard	$157.35 @ Amazon
Memory	Corsair - Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory	$227.99 @ Amazon
Storage	Crucial - P1 1 TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive	$124.99 @ Adorama
Case	Fractal Design - Core 500 Mini ITX Desktop Case	$69.96 @ Newegg
Power Supply	SeaSonic - FOCUS Plus Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply	$89.99 @ SuperBiiz
Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
Total	$1195.27
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-04-01 13:04 EDT-0400

 

[white.a.drew]

Rmathe cooler, the cooler sounds like a wiring problem on the cooler. Psu sounds like you may have just missed the sata plug both times on the cooler untill the second psu and you noticed it. Seeing as how when you plugged the gpu in with the new one it started working again. Pc will restart if they detect no cooler protection for the cpu. They may read the pumped plugged into the mobo but if it still registers no power to it, it will power cycle trying to inform you there's a problem,

As for your components beimg dead only way to know plug the psu in and post into the bio's "DO NOT GO PAST THE BIOS". Bios rendering dosn't put enough stess on the cpu to fry it but trying to run your pc will

 

[b_coli]

Rmathe cooler, the cooler sounds like a wiring problem on the cooler. Psu sounds like you may have just missed the sata plug both times on the cooler untill the second psu and you noticed it. Seeing as how when you plugged the gpu in with the new one it started working again. Pc will restart if they detect no cooler protection for the cpu. They may read the pumped plugged into the mobo but if it still registers no power to it, it will power cycle trying to inform you there's a problem,

As for your components beimg dead only way to know plug the psu in and post into the bio's "DO NOT GO PAST THE BIOS". Bios rendering dosn't put enough stess on the cpu to fry it but trying to run your pc will

Thank you, I will try to go to the BIOS. If it posts is that good enough to say the motherboard is fine? Is there a change a part of it, say the 4 pin fan plug, was damaged but the motherboard will still post?

I'll RMA the cooler. It's possible I missed the sata plug the first few times I suppose. Or maybe the sata plug is also not working on the new PSU. I'll test the PSU on my old computer and see what I can see.

Thanks for the advice. Someone else had said that, even if I have no plans to overclock the i9 9900k that the H75 cooler wasn't powerful enough to keep it cool anyway. Do you have any thoughts on that? It seemed powerful enough to me, but I'm not super familiar with water cooling or small form factor PCs so it's hard for me to tell.

 

[THpapi]

Hey OP, I have an H100i cooler, maybe its a little different than yours but I would guess they are similar... Shouldn't you be plugging the cooler into your motherboard? I think its supposed to be powered by a USB and PWM fan header on the motherboard and not be plugged directly into your power supply.

 

[THpapi]

Hey OP, I have an H100i cooler, maybe its a little different than yours but I would guess they are similar... Shouldn't you be plugging the cooler into your motherboard? I think its supposed to be powered by a USB and PWM fan header on the motherboard and not be plugged directly into your power supply.

Also, this just occurred to me: most Motherboards will not get very far (most of the time not even post) unless you have something plugged into the "cpu fan" header.

 

[b_coli]

Hey OP, I have an H100i cooler, maybe its a little different than yours but I would guess they are similar... Shouldn't you be plugging the cooler into your motherboard? I think its supposed to be powered by a USB and PWM fan header on the motherboard and not be plugged directly into your power supply.

Not sure about the H100i cooler, but the H75 has two plugs coming from it (both directly from the cooler, not from the fans). 1 is a 4 pin fan plug, the other is a sata power cable. The only way I know to plug that in is on the PSU, as I don't know of a motherboard that contains a sata power connector (could be wrong though).

 

[THpapi]

Not sure about the H100i cooler, but the H75 has two plugs coming from it (both directly from the cooler, not from the fans). 1 is a 4 pin fan plug, the other is a sata power cable. The only way I know to plug that in is on the PSU, as I don't know of a motherboard that contains a sata power connector (could be wrong though).

Yeah you must be right, if it has a sata power connector It must go right into the PSU... OP must have got a lemon, I'd blame it on either CPU cooler or PSU, would be unlikely both are faulty, but not impossible. It does seem like a thermal limit shutdown you are experiencing. I've seen i3's easily hit 50c in bios with a cooler, Not surprising an i9 would hit 100c in a tiny case with a dead cooler..... Depending on who you bought from I'd try to return as much hardware as possible and get replacement units, At least the PSU and Cooler, maybe motherboard if you can. If you try to replace one piece at a time you might expire any 30 day return policy and be stuck with dead hardware, and if it was the PSU that was faulty, who knows what else could be affected, it could have fried just about anything.

 

[white.a.drew]

I mean it might it might not only way to know is try

 

[b_coli]

Well, bad news for me. I got a replacement cooler but it didn't fix the problem. I then installed the PSU into my old computer and it would not start up, leading me to believe there is a problem with the PSU. I then installed the PSU from my old PC into the new one, and it again melted the sata power cable from the new cooler. So...that sucks really bad.

Thank you all for the assistance and help, sadly it appears this is just getting worse.

 

[THpapi]

Well, bad news for me. I got a replacement cooler but it didn't fix the problem. I then installed the PSU into my old computer and it would not start up, leading me to believe there is a problem with the PSU. I then installed the PSU from my old PC into the new one, and it again melted the sata power cable from the new cooler. So...that sucks really bad.

Thank you all for the assistance and help, sadly it appears this is just getting worse.

Does the old PSU still work for your old PC?

 

[b_coli]

Does the old PSU still work for your old PC?

It does. I plugged it back in, even using the same dang sata power cable for a sata drive, and everything seems fine. No idea why it keeps melting the cooler sata power wires.

 

[THpapi]

Dang you used the same Sata Power Cable!?! +1 for guts man haha Well I don't know what is going on but I can tell you the standard trouble shooting tips. Ask Corsair if they know why that could happen. Also, maybe check with the retailer you bought from and see if you can exchange for an h60, h80, maybe an nzxt model? It could just be a compatibility issue...

 

[b_coli]

Than

Dang you used the same Sata Power Cable!?! +1 for guts man haha Well I don't know what is going on but I can tell you the standard trouble shooting tips. Ask Corsair if they know why that could happen. Also, maybe check with the retailer you bought from and see if you can exchange for an h60, h80, maybe an nzxt model? It could just be a compatibility issue...

Thanks, will do! I've been at the end of my rope for the last day trying to figure out the way forward with this mess. I appreciate the guidance. I'll reach out to Corsair and see if I can get anything resolved.

I'm the meantime I'll see if I can get a different level of cooler or nzxt or something. I'd just grab a standard air cooler at this point but with the tiny case and an i9 I don't think it would be enough.

 

[THpapi]

Yeah I was about to say might as well pick up a 212evo for $15 lol but that's not gonna fit without a case mod XD just cut a big rectangular hole in your case for the cooling tower to stick out of haha just trying to cheer you up in your difficult situation... You're going to get through this! You'll eventually end up with a build that works and have learned a lot. Hey I'm sure you already went into this with the mindset that a 9900k on an ITX isn't going to be the most trouble free build lol

 

[THpapi]

Is the h75 model you have the 2018 re-release with the LEDs or is it the "original" model?

 

[b_coli]

Is the h75 model you have the 2018 re-release with the LEDs or is it the "original" model?

It must be the re-release as the cooler block has led that lights up the corsair logo. No other LEDs on it though.

 

[b_coli]

Got a new power supply and cooler and it still restarts as soon as it gets to the windows installation options. Not sure what to do from here other than keep RMAing parts and hoping something works?

 

[Unolocogringo]

When you changed power supplies, did you also change all power supply cables?
power supply cables are not universal, using old cables with a new power supply will cause this.

 

[b_coli]

I used the new cables and everything that came with the new power supply.

The rebooting problem was solved when I swapped out the motherboard. Maybe the PSU problem also damaged the motherboard, I'm not sure.

Everything works now, and I have a second one built for my wife so coop gaming.