Question HELP! Can't figure out if it is the CPU or Mobo that is Bad.

[Ton_Xan]

Hi everyone,

So I just recently purchased a 2nd hand motherboard, cpu + ram bundle. However, as I try to use it I encounter problems.

Part Details:

Mobo: MSI H61M-P31W8
CPU: i3 3220
Ram: 8 GB Hyperx ddr3 2x4gb 1333

Problems:

1. When I first fire the computer up, it would powercycle then turn off. then would turn on the second try.
2. When it turns on and does post, the board always resets saying that the previous overclocking failed even though I did not overclock.
3. I press f1 to run setup and go to bios, reset to default, save changes and reboot. When it does reboot it resets again same message as 2.
4. Sometimes the bios hangs up.
5. When I get to windows and try to restart, 1-3 happens again.
6. Windows usually hangs.

At first I thought it was the board so I cleaned it and changed thermal paste to no avail. luckily I have a spare cpu Celeron G1620 which is collecting dust but is working. When I used this CPU, there are no issues.
The board bios is updated to its latest version.

Is the i3 cpu going bad?

Thanks for any help.
If you have further questions, I'll answer them if I can.

 

[jojesa]

Is the BIOS up to date?
Update the BIOS while the Celeron CPU is installed then reboot a couple of times.
Reset the motherboard to default settings then Install the i3 CPU.

 

[Ton_Xan]

Hi,

Yes the bios is update. Version 3.6. At first I downgraded it to 3.5 version but that did not change anything so I updated it once again to 3.6 which is latest.