Can graphics control software kill a motherboard?

[TigerNightmare]

Hello, happy Labor Day, everyone. So, I was on my way to getting my computer up and running after a hard drive died. I was almost there. I had spent the past two days reinstalling Windows and my most crucial software. I was so close.

I have an old CRT monitor and a TV hooked into my graphics card. Use the CRT for general computing and the TV for games, movies, etc. During the last effective boot, for some reason my TV became monitor 1 and the CRT monitor 2. I hate this. Catalyst Control Center has a function that lets you swap them, but for some reason the option was greyed out. After mucking around with CCC and Windows Display settings, both screens suddenly went blank. The busy light was flickering and the final test of the num lock key not turning the light on the keyboard on and off was all I needed to do a hard reset. But then the computer refused to POST.

The screens were still blank, busy light still flickering, no lights on the keyboard. From this point forward, the hard reset button doesn't really respond and the power button needs to be held down for 5 seconds to work. I just switched to using the PSU switch.

I popped the battery out to reset the CMOS and I think I got a beeeeep beep beep, but that was the only time that happened. I tried using a different graphics card in different slots, I even tried to plug in an old PCI graphics card. Nothing. Same with no graphics card attached.

I took the memory sticks out and I got the beeeeep beep beep again, only it was repeating endlessly. I tried different combinations, using only one stick. They were usually in A2 and B2, but one of the sticks didn't like being alone in A1 (same beep code as if it was empty) but the other one was fine. Most combinations had no reaction.

And this is where I am now. I'm gonna take everything out and do the steps, but it's not looking good. Not gonna bother with reseating the proc because A unlikely cause and B it's a pain in the ass getting that HSF clamped down. What do you guys think? Is there anything I can do? What exactly happened here? This kinda thing ever happen to you?

 

[TigerNightmare]

I would swap in a known working PSU... Yours may have faulted and destroyed your drive before failing completely.

It's a Corsair 1000 watt PSU. Fans and lights still go on and I haven't had any power-related issues. The drive died because it was old, I think. Came off the assembly line 5 years ago. My concern isn't really the drive, it's the motherboard. I really hope I can get it working again.

 

[TigerNightmare]

WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING. Okay, so, I pulled all the expansions out, unplugged all the SATA cables as well as all of the accompanying power cable rails so only the mobo and the fans plugged into it would be getting power. Tried moving one stick of RAM in each bank, and attempting to POST. Nothing. Then I tried the other and suddenly, I got a different beep code. It was the same beeeep beep beep, but it was only once, followed by some other beep code. It was plugged into A2, where one usually was. It's dual channel memory, but each stick has worked independently before and I think it'll work fine that way. So, I flip the switch off, plug in my GPU and its power cable and connect my monitor and then I turn it on. It works. I'm able to reboot consistently and change BIOS settings.

So, when I try to give the other stick another shot, I go back to signalless black screens again. I tried the other stick in every other slot, nothing. So, I put that stick aside and think it's just that one that's broken. But the one that was working doesn't work anymore now. I moved it from bank to bank, nothing. What the hell is this? How does it POST and then not POST like that? I reset the CMOS, took the graphics card out again. Is this the memory or the motherboard or both? There's got to be someone here who's had this kind of experience before. I'm gonna try putting the proc and memory on a different compatible board and see if I can rule out the memory later on. So annoying.

 

[TigerNightmare]

Well, I tested with another motherboard and I'm getting a beep code without the memory and blank screens with. Unless someone tells me otherwise, I'm going to have to conclude that both memory sticks are damaged and were fried in the process of swapping data from monitor 1 to monitor 2 and vice versa. There was usually a delay when changing monitor 2 to primary for games, moreso if my memory was already heavily utilized by apps. I theorize that when a GPU has to completely re-render two screens, Windows has to tap into the RAM before it can offload the task back to the GPU and this is either a wear and tear situation from hundreds of hard re-renderings or a rare fluke failure. UltraMon users beware.