[SOLVED] Dead mobo?

[xpiose]

I have an old PC I want to use for a plex and minecraft server, specs here:
FX8350
Asus 760GM
Crucial 8gb DDR3 Ram
R7 250 2gb
300w PSU
240gb SSD (wanting to be) boot drive.

I installed windows using a USB drive, and once its done installing, it resets to reboot. I take the flashdrive out in the meantime. System displays “2.2TB Infinity” And press any key to enter boot menue. Both of these display no drive. Ive used all the drives, sata cables, and sata connections i have on my MB. Cant get a read out here, but it lets me install windows when it give me the option.
I also cannot enter the bios. No matter what or when I press any F key or Esc. It only displays 2.2tb infinity. Whats going on here? Ive cleared and replaced CMOS multiple times.

 

[Darkbreeze]

I'd either test or replace the CMOS battery, however, there is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY that you can adequately run that 8 core FX 8350 on ANY 760 chipset motherboard and not have major/serious problems. It will never happen. You need at the LEAST a 970 chipset board, and a good one, and preferably some flavor of 990/990fx chipset, to have much chance of running that CPU without problems. I've never seen anybody that was able to run an 8 core FX CPU on any 760 chipset board and not experience serious VRM thermal throttling. Ever.

Also, it's pretty doubtful that any 300w power supply out there is going to be enough to adequately power that system. Especially if it's going to see any kind of decent load at all. That CPU can hit 239w usage on it's own at full TDP/100% load, and then you have potentially up to 75w (Likely 65w for that GX card), plus memory, motherboard overhead, fans, drives and loss from likely being a fairly inefficient unit unless you are the rare individual with an exemplary Delta or Seasonic 300w unit. Most of the 300w range type units are generally OEM type power supplies and are not terrific quality usually. There are exceptions, but I wouldn't count on it.

These things probably all add up to WHY that system got retired to "old PC" status in the first place. It certainly doesn't make for a solid server platform of any kind.

So, now you are aware of those things, if you feel like you are STILL going to attempt to make it work, I'd test the CMOS batter to ensure there is 3v or higher in it still, which there probably isn't given the age of the platform. If there is, great, if not, replace it. If you replace it with a known good CMOS battery OR it tests good, and you still have the same problem, then the chances are pretty good that you either have a board that was burned out because it was never up to the task of handling that CPU in the first place, or a too weak or faulty power supply. You'd probably need to make certain you have dealt with those issues before attempts to go any further or determine if there is some other problem would bear any fruit at all.

The fact that you can't even get into the BIOS tells me that either you are replacing it (IF in fact you HAVE replaced it) with similarly old batteries that are no better than the original, OR the board is simply faulty. Obviously there are always exceptions so try disconnecting ALL drives, WITH a known good 3v or higher CR2032 CMOS battery, AND only a single DIMM installed (Try each slot if necessary, one at a time, being sure to turn the power off between slot changes), and if you still can't even access the BIOS then you're probably out of luck and have a dead motherboard.

IMO that is probably the case anyhow from it being run with a CPU that it never should have been run with in the first place.

How To - Motherboard bench testing

Finding the problem through bench testing If you are here then it’s likely you have encountered a serious hardware issue and have been unable to resolve it using the standard no-POST troubleshooting procedures. If you have not yet attempted to resolve your issues using the no-POST...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[xpiose]

I have an old PC I want to use for a plex and minecraft server, specs here:
FX8350
Asus 760GM
Crucial 8gb DDR3 Ram
R7 250 2gb
300w PSU
240gb SSD (wanting to be) boot drive.

I installed windows using a USB drive, and once its done installing, it resets to reboot. I take the flashdrive out in the meantime. System displays “2.2TB Infinity” And press any key to enter boot menue. Both of these display no drive. Ive used all the drives, sata cables, and sata connections i have on my MB. Cant get a read out here, but it lets me install windows when it give me the option.
I also cannot enter the bios. No matter what or when I press any F key or Esc. It only displays 2.2tb infinity. Whats going on here? Ive cleared and replaced CMOS multiple times.

I can get

I'd either test or replace the CMOS battery, however, there is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY that you can adequately run that 8 core FX 8350 on ANY 760 chipset motherboard and not have major/serious problems. It will never happen. You need at the LEAST a 970 chipset board, and a good one, and preferably some flavor of 990/990fx chipset, to have much chance of running that CPU without problems. I've never seen anybody that was able to run an 8 core FX CPU on any 760 chipset board and not experience serious VRM thermal throttling. Ever.

Also, it's pretty doubtful that any 300w power supply out there is going to be enough to adequately power that system. Especially if it's going to see any kind of decent load at all. That CPU can hit 239w usage on it's own at full TDP/100% load, and then you have potentially up to 75w (Likely 65w for that GX card), plus memory, motherboard overhead, fans, drives and loss from likely being a fairly inefficient unit unless you are the rare individual with an exemplary Delta or Seasonic 300w unit. Most of the 300w range type units are generally OEM type power supplies and are not terrific quality usually. There are exceptions, but I wouldn't count on it.

These things probably all add up to WHY that system got retired to "old PC" status in the first place. It certainly doesn't make for a solid server platform of any kind.

So, now you are aware of those things, if you feel like you are STILL going to attempt to make it work, I'd test the CMOS batter to ensure there is 3v or higher in it still, which there probably isn't given the age of the platform. If there is, great, if not, replace it. If you replace it with a known good CMOS battery OR it tests good, and you still have the same problem, then the chances are pretty good that you either have a board that was burned out because it was never up to the task of handling that CPU in the first place, or a too weak or faulty power supply. You'd probably need to make certain you have dealt with those issues before attempts to go any further or determine if there is some other problem would bear any fruit at all.

The fact that you can't even get into the BIOS tells me that either you are replacing it (IF in fact you HAVE replaced it) with similarly old batteries that are no better than the original, OR the board is simply faulty. Obviously there are always exceptions so try disconnecting ALL drives, WITH a known good 3v or higher CR2032 CMOS battery, AND only a single DIMM installed (Try each slot if necessary, one at a time, being sure to turn the power off between slot changes), and if you still can't even access the BIOS then you're probably out of luck and have a dead motherboard.

IMO that is probably the case anyhow from it being run with a CPU that it never should have been run with in the first place.

How To - Motherboard bench testing

Finding the problem through bench testing If you are here then it’s likely you have encountered a serious hardware issue and have been unable to resolve it using the standard no-POST troubleshooting procedures. If you have not yet attempted to resolve your issues using the no-POST...

forums.tomshardware.com

Okay wow thanks for the info. I currently just got into PC building this year, and have a Ryzen system now. This PC my grandpa gave to me as-is. Saw a “decent” CPU with 8 cores and thought it’d work okay, so I didnt touch it. Ill most likely just go out and spend money on a platform I do know, but I still want to know why this happened. Ill try all of your advice and let you know if anything works, thank you! I got a 650w 80+G PSU already and trying to see if CMOS battery is at 3v or not right now. I have a FX 6300 if thats more appropriate for this motherboard? Thanks again

 

[Darkbreeze]

An FX-6300 would probably be a better "fit" for that motherboard, but if we're being honest with each other I'll tell you that the FX series is pretty much the laughing stock when it comes to CPU releases of the last ten years or so.

Yeah, "8 cores", but, not really. In reality the performance was actually not even as good as an equivalent era release data Intel CPU with four cores and hyperthreading. The FX 8 core processors (And ALL FX CPUs, simply with fewer "cores", for that matter) were actually made up of four floating point units, each of which had two integer processing units, which together made up a "module". While this type of configuration was "supposedly" superior to models using hyperthreading, there were never any 8 core FX processors, not even the extremely terrible FX 9000 series models, that could perform nearly as well as four core Intel processors with hyperthreading, or even the basic 4 core i5 models in many scenarios, even from previous generations.

Basically the FX processors were turds, even when brand new. The only thing they EVER had going for them was that they were a lot more budget friendly at the time. Now, I would definitely not waste money on them. If you have to pay more than fifty bucks for ANY FX processor, it's simply not worth it. The performance is extremely lacking. Even overclocked, which would require a very good board, the performance was mediocre at best.

Any money spent would be a LOT better spent being put towards something newer and better.

For what it would likely cost you to invest in a motherboard capable enough to handle that high leakage FX-8350, you would be a lot better off putting your money towards something like this even though it would likely cost twice as much. At least it would be money well spent and the end result would be something that would probably last you as a home theater PC or home server for a good long time. 5-8 years would not be unreasonable, as where the FX system is ALREADY not capable enough.

I just would not recommend investing any money into a platform that has already been dead for nearly five years.

This has four core PLUS four hyperthreads, making it basically the exact same as any 6th or 7th Gen i7 processor, at about three hundred dollars less than those processors sold for even three or four years ago. Probably more than you want to spend anyhow, but it gives you an idea of what to look at. Right now Ryzen is impossible because everything is sold out and prices are ridiculously high, even for a lot of Intel parts. Everything is hard to get and overpriced right now. This is about the only "budget" type build even worth buying into at the moment and this is quite capable for the price.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i3-10100 3.6 GHz Quad-Core Processor ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock B460 Pro4 ATX LGA1200 Motherboard ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-2666 CL19 Memory ($63.99 @ Newegg)
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