- Jun 29, 2023
- 4
- 1
- 15
My computer seems to be destroying brand new components, and I have no idea why.
Background:
I bought this computer in July of 2021: https://www.newegg.com/abs-ali506/p/N82E16883360106?Item=N82E16883360106
Normally I'd build my own from parts, but this was during the time when graphics cards were impossible to find, so I decided to buy it.
I plugged in my two data hard drives (normal SATA HDD, 0.5 GB and 1TB,) that I'd been using for many years as I upgraded from one computer to another.
The setup ran fine for almost two years. The only aberration was two BSOD incidents that seemed to me to be RAM related (I thought I'd need new RAM soon, but wasn't too concerned.)
Two weeks ago:
I powered down my computer as usual when I went to bed. When I got up in the morning, it would not power on. All I got was a loud clicking from the power supply (obviously a relay popping in and out) and the cooler and LEDs flashing in time with the relay.
Great. I keep a power supply on hand for just such occasions. I had a brand new, never-opened one on the shelf. (ARESGAME 850W Power Supply Fully Modular 80+ Gold PSU (AGK850) -- Apparently the Newegg link no longer exists.)
I tried plugging this in and got even less result. The cooler and LEDs would flash once, then just failed to respond at all.
This left me suspecting a motherboard issue, especially because I could unplug everything except the motherboard and still not get any kind of response. I ordered both a new motherboard and a new power supply as well as a couple of new RAM modules just in case.
When they arrived, I disassembled everything and put it back together. This is the point at which things get a bit fuzzy. I know I never put the original PSU back into the computer. This is it:
After the computer quit working, I checked the reviews, which say it has a penchant for bricking other hardware, so I stopped ever trying it.
I tried the ARESGAME PSU first with the new MOBO and it didn't work, so I switched to the brand new one.
After some jiggling of cords and other such convincing, the motherboard booted properly and went to Windows. (My C drive is on the SSD that came with the PC, and I didn't try plugging in my other hard drives to start out.)
I kept my computer case open and was watching the LED display on the motherboard during bootup at this time to see if it was displaying properly--It was.
Despite some glitchiness associated with the bootup, I was able to begin installing the new MOBO's drivers. This resulted in repeated BSODs (DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE)_. ...I thought it might simply be a windows problem, and the drivers were slowly, one-by-one, installing successfully, so I persisted. (I noted during this time that the displayed time in the Windows taskbar was twelve hours off, and when I tried to fix it, it jumped an hour and a half. I gave up.)
Then I made my big mistake:
I thought, well, if I now *KNOW* that I have two bad power supplies, maybe the old motherboard was OK after all. I wish I'd tried it with the new PSU before I switched all this over.
I'm really hurting for money right now, but my computer is my work machine, so I don't have a lot of choice. Still, if I can save a hundred bucks by returning the new MOBO, I should at least try it.
...So I reassembled the old MOBO and plugged everything back in.
It was still just as dead with the new PSU. No response other than the background LED that shows the PSU is powered on.
I reassembled the computer on the new motherboard.
Now it's just as dead.
No boot. Nothing from the LED indicators on the MOBO. All I get when I plug it in is the power indicator on the power button. Even if I uninstall the GPU and the SSD, the brand new MOBO won't boot.
I'm happy to provide any additional info I can find. The two common pieces between the two builds are the CPU and the GPU (and the hard drive).
Do I have the mother of all viruses or something?
I'm afraid to swap these parts into other machines to see if they're any good, because I don't know what's destroying what.
Background:
I bought this computer in July of 2021: https://www.newegg.com/abs-ali506/p/N82E16883360106?Item=N82E16883360106
Normally I'd build my own from parts, but this was during the time when graphics cards were impossible to find, so I decided to buy it.
I plugged in my two data hard drives (normal SATA HDD, 0.5 GB and 1TB,) that I'd been using for many years as I upgraded from one computer to another.
The setup ran fine for almost two years. The only aberration was two BSOD incidents that seemed to me to be RAM related (I thought I'd need new RAM soon, but wasn't too concerned.)
Two weeks ago:
I powered down my computer as usual when I went to bed. When I got up in the morning, it would not power on. All I got was a loud clicking from the power supply (obviously a relay popping in and out) and the cooler and LEDs flashing in time with the relay.
Great. I keep a power supply on hand for just such occasions. I had a brand new, never-opened one on the shelf. (ARESGAME 850W Power Supply Fully Modular 80+ Gold PSU (AGK850) -- Apparently the Newegg link no longer exists.)
I tried plugging this in and got even less result. The cooler and LEDs would flash once, then just failed to respond at all.
This left me suspecting a motherboard issue, especially because I could unplug everything except the motherboard and still not get any kind of response. I ordered both a new motherboard and a new power supply as well as a couple of new RAM modules just in case.
When they arrived, I disassembled everything and put it back together. This is the point at which things get a bit fuzzy. I know I never put the original PSU back into the computer. This is it:
After the computer quit working, I checked the reviews, which say it has a penchant for bricking other hardware, so I stopped ever trying it.
I tried the ARESGAME PSU first with the new MOBO and it didn't work, so I switched to the brand new one.
After some jiggling of cords and other such convincing, the motherboard booted properly and went to Windows. (My C drive is on the SSD that came with the PC, and I didn't try plugging in my other hard drives to start out.)
I kept my computer case open and was watching the LED display on the motherboard during bootup at this time to see if it was displaying properly--It was.
Despite some glitchiness associated with the bootup, I was able to begin installing the new MOBO's drivers. This resulted in repeated BSODs (DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE)_. ...I thought it might simply be a windows problem, and the drivers were slowly, one-by-one, installing successfully, so I persisted. (I noted during this time that the displayed time in the Windows taskbar was twelve hours off, and when I tried to fix it, it jumped an hour and a half. I gave up.)
Then I made my big mistake:
I thought, well, if I now *KNOW* that I have two bad power supplies, maybe the old motherboard was OK after all. I wish I'd tried it with the new PSU before I switched all this over.
I'm really hurting for money right now, but my computer is my work machine, so I don't have a lot of choice. Still, if I can save a hundred bucks by returning the new MOBO, I should at least try it.
...So I reassembled the old MOBO and plugged everything back in.
It was still just as dead with the new PSU. No response other than the background LED that shows the PSU is powered on.
I reassembled the computer on the new motherboard.
Now it's just as dead.
No boot. Nothing from the LED indicators on the MOBO. All I get when I plug it in is the power indicator on the power button. Even if I uninstall the GPU and the SSD, the brand new MOBO won't boot.
I'm happy to provide any additional info I can find. The two common pieces between the two builds are the CPU and the GPU (and the hard drive).
Do I have the mother of all viruses or something?
I'm afraid to swap these parts into other machines to see if they're any good, because I don't know what's destroying what.
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