Question CPU Testing

[bcaballero]

I built a PC in late 2016 with the specs below, it ran flawlessly up until around mid 2018. For the most part it was almost completely silent. Then all of a sudden the fans one the cooler would run at full blast even when idle with the CPU getting super hot.

I contacted Corsair thinking the pump was bad and eventually reseated the heatsink at their suggestion. This seemed to work but only for around 4 hours. Everytime I turned on the PC it would reach crazy temps for the CPU only again with the fans running full blast. If I turned on the machine and just left it at the windows login screen after about 10 minutes the same thing would happen.

After a few days I went to turn back on the machine, and nothing would happen. No post nothing. They keyboard lights were on so I assumed it might be the power button. After I couldn't get any response at all, I took apart the entire thing.

Currently I have the power supply, motherboard, cpu, one stick of memory, keyboard and the corsair pump connected. Turning on the power supply lights up the keyboard, and the led on the motherboard that shows it has power. What would be the next step to test faulty parts? I'm assuming it's not the motherboard because of the led, but how would I tell if it's the CPU?

I was thinking of purchasing the cheapest one that would work with my mb first.

Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor

STRAFE RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard — Cherry MX Silent

EVGA GTX970 SC 4GB ACX2 PCIE

RAZER DEATHADDER CHROMA MOUSE SAMSUNG 850 EVO 2.5" 500GB SATA III 3-D Vertical Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-75E500B/AM Corsair Obsidian Series 450D Mid‑Tower PC Case Corsair RM850 Power Supply ‑ 80 PLUS Gold ‑ 850W Corsair MM200 Extended Edition ASUS 27" IPS MX279H MONITOR ASUS 27" IPS MX279H MONITOR WD Black 3TB Performance Desktop Hard Disk Drive - 7200 RPM SATA 6 Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5 Inch - WD3003FZEX ASUS Z170-A LGA 1151 Intel Z170 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard LG WH16NS40 Super Multi Blue Internal SATA 16x Blu-ray Disc Rewriter CORSAIR H110i GTX Water Cooler Corsair Dominator Platinum 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory

 

[tshinhar]

Well, I would rule out all other possibilities before suspecting a bad cpu.

First go to the bios and restore everything to default and see if it's ok at stock settings .

Then use a monitoring software like hwinfo or corsair's icue to see if you get a rpm reading from the pump, if not the pump is probably bad

Lastly try to reinstall the cpu cooler with a new thermal compound

If nothing help then you shloud think about testing the cpu in a different motherboard or test a different cpu in your motherboard

Hope it helps

 

[bcaballero]

Thanks for the response! That's what I did initially after talking to Corsair. Installed icue, and reset the heatsink. I thought that fixed it because I was seeing decent numbers on the pump and fans. But then it was back again, fans on full blast with an ever increasing temp on the cpu. After I turned it off to come back to it later, it just wouldn't turn on. After that happened, I took the entire thing apart and only connected the parts I needed. Same thing, won't post. The keyboard lights up, and then I get the one led on the mb that shows it has power.

Well, I would rule out all other possibilities before suspecting a bad cpu.

First go to the bios and restore everything to default and see if it's ok at stock settings .

Then use a monitoring software like hwinfo or corsair's icue to see if you get a rpm reading from the pump, if not the pump is probably bad

Lastly try to reinstall the cpu cooler with a new thermal compound

If nothing help then you shloud think about testing the cpu in a different motherboard or test a different cpu in your motherboard

Hope it helps

 

[RodroX]

1. Do you have an old and wonderfull normal cpu cooler you can test your system with, instead of the corsair AIO?

2. Did you restore your BIOS settings to default like tshinhar wrote?

3. Have you tried to clear cmos by removing the battery for at least 2 mins with the PC powered off and the power cable removed from the wall (you could also hit the power button a few times while the PC is unplugged from the wall to drain any reamining current)?

4. Have you test the keyboard on a diferent USB port?

5. Before all this happend, were you able to hear the pump working?

Corsair tech service told you how to deal with high temps, but reseating the heatsink, and applying new thermal paste wont fix a broken pump. Thats why I wonder if using a normal cpu cooler makes any diference.

But i will start by loading the defult values in BIOS, saving and reseting the PC. if you can't do that, just turn it off, unplug the power cable from the wall, after that hit the power button a few times, and then remove the cmos battery and keep it out for atleast 2 mins.

Cheers!

 

[bcaballero]

1. No, I'm going to order a cheap one to test.
2. Never had the chance, it stopped turning on before I had a chance to do that.
3. Tested that earlier but still couldn't get anything to turn on. I have the case power pin plugged in and even attempting to turn it on gets no sound from anything. I would think since the keyboard gets power, and the mb power led lights up I'd see a little movement from a case fan but nothing.
4. I tried with and without it plugged into multiple ports.
5. It's kind of hard to tell, the pc was basically silent unless the fans started spinning at full blast. The icue did say there were pumping though.

One last question though, at this point, are there any parts that I can rule out being bad. Say the motherboard because of the power passing through? Ordering a heat sink tonight.

1. Do you have an old and wonderfull normal cpu cooler you can test your system with, instead of the corsair AIO?

2. Did you restore your BIOS settings to default like tshinhar wrote?

3. Have you tried to clear cmos by removing the battery for at least 2 mins with the PC powered off and the power cable removed from the wall (you could also hit the power button a few times while the PC is unplugged from the wall to drain any reamining current)?

4. Have you test the keyboard on a diferent USB port?

5. Before all this happend, were you able to hear the pump working?

Corsair tech service told you how to deal with high temps, but reseating the heatsink, and applying new thermal paste wont fix a broken pump. Thats why I wonder if using a normal cpu cooler makes any diference.

But i will start by loading the defult values in BIOS, saving and reseting the PC. if you can't do that, just turn it off, unplug the power cable from the wall, after that hit the power buttong a few times, and then remove the cmos battery and keep it out fro atleast 2 mins.

Cheers!

 

[mdd1963]

a 3 year old AIO...

Running hot and loud.


Not uncommon, probably has fouled pump/lines, algae/gunk buildup, etc...

You can see if the pump can come apart to attempt to clean it's innards, but, a Mugen5 at $45 would more than suffice, and more than adequate.

 

[bcaballero]

Thanks for the advice, the test heatsink I purchased was around $40, get's here Wednesday. Fingers crossed!

a 3 year old AIO...

Running hot and loud.


Not uncommon, probably has fouled pump/lines, algae/gunk buildup, etc...

You can see if the pump can come apart to attempt to clean it's innards, but, a Mugen5 at $45 would more than suffice, and more than adequate.

 

[bcaballero]

Okay, so I purchased the simplest heat sink I could find

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06Y4146PJ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Installed with ease, but I'm still getting the same issue. No booting, noises, fans etc.

I've tried the following.

1. Plugging in the power switch from the case to try and turn it on.
2. Shorting the jumper with a screw driver.

I'm guessing now because the keyboard comes on and the motherboard led lights up that it's something to do with the CPU being bad. But outside of purchasing another one, and or new mb as well is there anything else I can do to test, would plugging in speakers give off any diagnostic beeps?

 

[RodroX]

It may help to know the beep sound.

 

[dorsai]

If I had to guess I'd say the AIO failed and killed your CPU...you should have taken action to replace the AIO as soon as the fans started blasting...which was the CPU telling you it's way too hot.

 

[Karadjgne]

Doubtful. If the pump went bad, temps would rise over the next minute or so, until the cpu throttled and eventually shut down. Even if the cpu got hot enough to turn the coolant to steam, the pressure would cycle the coolant.

Seriously doubt it's the pump, especially after trying the same with an ordinary aircooler and same results.

Doubt it's the psu, gpu, ram. Most likely it's the motherboard or bios. But my money is on the motherboard. It's too bad you couldn't get into bios, I'd like to know what it was reading for cpu voltages.

If the motherboard/bios is dumping bad/high voltages on the cpu, it's possible that the cpu is now toast as well.

 

[bcaballero]

Well, after nothing worked I went out and bought new parts

• ASUS Prime Z390-A Motherboard LGA1151 (Intel 8th and 9th Gen) ATX DDR4 DP HDMI M.2 USB 3.1 Gen2 Gigabit LAN
• Intel Core i7-9700K Desktop Processor 8 Cores up to 4.9 GHz Turbo unlocked LGA1151 300 Series 95W
• Corsair H100i RGB PLATINUM AIO Liquid CPU Cooler,240mm,Dual ML120 PRO RGB PWM Fans,Intel 115x/2066,AMD AM4/TR4

I then assembled JUST the new parts needed and everything posted the first time. After that worked, I reassembled the entire PC turned it on one more time just to be sure before installing the OS. While it was on the bios screen, I started looking for my thumb drive with the OS, I heard the same sound coming from the PC, the sound of a fan kicking on full blast. Turns out the back of the graphics card was shooting out air like crazy. It's normally silent. Also, the monitor I was using at the time was actually plugged into the onboard video.

So now I'm thinking that the graphics card was what was overheating the entire time and eventually burned out the old parts. Should a graphics card plugged in but not in use be making this sound. Should I go ahead and load windows with it in or remove it load windows then install it? My biggest concern that if there is something wrong with the graphics card, I'll end up ruining another motherboard/cpu.

Oh, and the graphics card in question is a EVGA GTX970 SC 4GB ACX2 PCIE.

 

[Karadjgne]

That's not abnormal, sort-of. When in bios, you are looking at 2 things, high loads and lack of controlling software. Many times fans will spin like crazy because there's nothing telling them to slow down.

I'd pull the gpu, totally, use the igpu to load windows and all its accompanied software, like the motherboard drivers etc, then load up Precision-X, install the gpu, install the nvidia drivers and see what happens with the fans then, now that drivers for the gpu will get recognised and loaded in bios.

 

[bcaballero]

That's not abnormal, sort-of. When in bios, you are looking at 2 things, high loads and lack of controlling software. Many times fans will spin like crazy because there's nothing telling them to slow down.

I'd pull the gpu, totally, use the igpu to load windows and all its accompanied software, like the motherboard drivers etc, then load up Precision-X, install the gpu, install the nvidia drivers and see what happens with the fans then, now that drivers for the gpu will get recognised and loaded in bios.

Thanks so much for the detailed response, I'm going to try this first thing in the morning.

 

[bcaballero]

It worked! GPU is fine now and I haven't heard the fans spin up like crazy in a while. Still tempted to try and see which of the other parts actually went bad but for now they'll just sit in the closet. Thanks again!

 

[Karadjgne]

Very cool, lol. Nice parts btw. Happy gaming!