Hello Tom's Hardware, occasional lurker, first time poster here. I’m currently going through the process of helping a friend build his first gaming PC. I have given him my old GPU and power supply to lower his costs, both of which I’ve verified are functional.
We’ve now built his rig twice as carefully and as closely to any guide we can find (on top of my own experience building and upgrading my own PC). In both instances of the build, we got to the very end (minus the GPU installation for the sake of making sure the rest works) and both times...nothing. We ensure the power supply is connected to the wall, the I/O switch is on, the 24 pins are secure, the 8 pin CPU plug is properly in place, the RAM sticks are secure, the motherboard isn’t in contact with any metal and is screwed in to the raisers securely to avoid a short circuit. We hit the power button at the front of the tower, and nothing happens. (We also attempted to jump the pins for the power switch and got nothing, so I’m pretty sure it’s not a power switch issue.) Not so much as the PSU fan nudging, or a beep or a light from the mobo.
Through troubleshooting, we narrowed down the possible issues to the motherboard the other day, and replaced it with an identical board. The new board has the same issue (which is why we’ve now built it twice). So at this point, I’m at a loss for words and can’t think of what it could be if not TWO faulty motherboards.
We’ve troubleshot in too many more ways to list. Finally, we check the specs on the board. He has an AMD Ryzen 3600 and the board (the Asus Prime B450M-A/CSM) only supports up to 2nd gen according to Amazon. He was under the impression that the board supports that CPU because it says as much on AMD’s own website, but it requires a BIOS update to support 3rd generation AMD Matisse CPU’s. The Amazon version does not have that update. So okay, fine, we’ll return both identical boards we now have (lol) and get a new one that supports 3rd gen CPU’s right out of the box. At this point the cost difference is nominal compared to how anxious he is to solve the problem.
Sorry that was a lot of reading to basically ask the question in the title; but is it even possible that replacing a MB that supports the CPU is the solution? I was under the impression that at the very least we should get a PSU fan to spin just based off the 24 pins being installed, but I’ve been wrong before.
I’m aware of how niche of a question this may be because even his tech wizard uncle was dumbfounded by the issue, but an answer from a few of you guys would be helpful. Thanks for reading and for any forthcoming responses. <3
We’ve now built his rig twice as carefully and as closely to any guide we can find (on top of my own experience building and upgrading my own PC). In both instances of the build, we got to the very end (minus the GPU installation for the sake of making sure the rest works) and both times...nothing. We ensure the power supply is connected to the wall, the I/O switch is on, the 24 pins are secure, the 8 pin CPU plug is properly in place, the RAM sticks are secure, the motherboard isn’t in contact with any metal and is screwed in to the raisers securely to avoid a short circuit. We hit the power button at the front of the tower, and nothing happens. (We also attempted to jump the pins for the power switch and got nothing, so I’m pretty sure it’s not a power switch issue.) Not so much as the PSU fan nudging, or a beep or a light from the mobo.
Through troubleshooting, we narrowed down the possible issues to the motherboard the other day, and replaced it with an identical board. The new board has the same issue (which is why we’ve now built it twice). So at this point, I’m at a loss for words and can’t think of what it could be if not TWO faulty motherboards.
We’ve troubleshot in too many more ways to list. Finally, we check the specs on the board. He has an AMD Ryzen 3600 and the board (the Asus Prime B450M-A/CSM) only supports up to 2nd gen according to Amazon. He was under the impression that the board supports that CPU because it says as much on AMD’s own website, but it requires a BIOS update to support 3rd generation AMD Matisse CPU’s. The Amazon version does not have that update. So okay, fine, we’ll return both identical boards we now have (lol) and get a new one that supports 3rd gen CPU’s right out of the box. At this point the cost difference is nominal compared to how anxious he is to solve the problem.
Sorry that was a lot of reading to basically ask the question in the title; but is it even possible that replacing a MB that supports the CPU is the solution? I was under the impression that at the very least we should get a PSU fan to spin just based off the 24 pins being installed, but I’ve been wrong before.
I’m aware of how niche of a question this may be because even his tech wizard uncle was dumbfounded by the issue, but an answer from a few of you guys would be helpful. Thanks for reading and for any forthcoming responses. <3
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