[SOLVED] How did my PC die?

[SanderThePanda]

Here are the PC parts in question (at the time of the problem occurred):
AMD Ryzen 5 5600x
16GB of DDR4 Ram Corsair Vengeance
Nvidia RTX 2070 8GB
Corsair TSX750M
Asus TUF Gaming B450M-PLUS II

Here is the small (hopefully summarization):
4-3 days ago, my PC would randomly go into this very strange mode where it went to "sleep" but moving the mouse, pressing the keys on the mouse/keyboard wouldn't wake it up, and after restarting the PC, it would restart on it's own after 5-10 minutes being able to use the PC normally, then it was "resolved" for about a day, then around 7-8 PM 2 days ago the PC would restart on it's own again, then 5-10 minutes thereafter it would go into this mode, resulting never posting again / booting.

Here is what I have done:
Swap out my GPU from RTX 2070 to Nvidia GeForce 970, still nothing.
Swapped out my TX750M to some "cheaper" PSU that I had in streaming PC, still nothing.
I have tried to downgrade the bios to the date when they first started supporting 5000 series CPU's, I have also tried to clear CMOS, take out the battery, and etc.

Another thing I have done is do really soft crypto mining, I did stress out the CPU/GPU, but it was still usable, and the crypto mining tool that I used was "NiceHash" - I also did soft overclock on Wraith cooler, nothing serious. But then I returned to default settings because I saw no reason to overclock when I have no experience with it, and I don't want to risk my PC breaking (which ended up happening anyways).

 

[mamasan2000]

Couple things to try. Check that the CPU doesn't have bent pins. Try with 1 RAM stick at a time. Alternate RAM sticks you are testing, maybe even RAM slots.
Stand-offs usually come pre-installed in cases. The stand-offs you screw the motherboard to. If those are not used, you can easily short out the system and that is a bad day.

Did Nvidia push the 'no-mining-on-our-gpus' update to 2000-series too? I'm not sure how exactly that works. Does the card get locked somehow?

 

[SanderThePanda]

Couple things to try. Check that the CPU doesn't have bent pins. Try with 1 RAM stick at a time. Alternate RAM sticks you are testing, maybe even RAM slots.
Stand-offs usually come pre-installed in cases. The stand-offs you screw the motherboard to. If those are not used, you can easily short out the system and that is a bad day.

Did Nvidia push the 'no-mining-on-our-gpus' update to 2000-series too? I'm not sure how exactly that works. Does the card get locked somehow?

The CPU does not have bent pins, I have checked several times, but maybe I am blind, tried to check with the light, still have not noticed bend pins. I have tried singular Ram stick, still same issue appears, I have alternated ram sticks, same with ram slots. The most interesting aspect of all this is that, the PC worked brilliantly 1-2 weeks before the crash, and I am unaware whether or not Nvidia pushed the "no mining on our gpus" update on 2000 series, the card doesn't get locked.

 

[mamasan2000]

How old is that motherboard? The battery on it should last 3-5 years. At least it does for me but I don't turn my PC off for many hours. But that would usually be noticable. Clock is wrong, BIOS settings are reset or forgotten etc. Should be a normal CR2032 battery. BIOS versions look new, september 2020 for the first version. Doubt it can be battery.
Does your motherboard have any light on it during boot or POST codes? Most have something. Like 3 lights, 1 for CPU, 1 for RAM and 1 for something else, maybe GPU. Upper right corner of motherboard usually.
I can't think of it being anything other than mobo, PSU or electric wiring where you live.
If it was me and I wanted to know what was wrong, I would take it to a computer shop where they can test every component separately.
Where did you get Nicehash from? I hope it was from the source. Roughly 20 years ago, there were viruses that could kill your BIOS and brick your motherboard. I'm not sure those are still around. But with the malware and ransomware going around, who knows. https://sputniknews.com/in_depth/201604261038619462-chernobyl-virus-motherboards/

 

[carocuore]

Roughly 20 years ago, there were viruses that could kill your BIOS and brick your motherboard. I'm not sure those are still around. But with the malware and ransomware going around, who knows. https://sputniknews.com/in_depth/201604261038619462-chernobyl-virus-motherboards/

The “Chernobyl” payload was disguised as an email attachment with nude pictures of Jennifer Lopez

HAHAHAH I can't believe that actually happened

I suspect a bricked mobo, not because of an ancient virus making a comeback (it wouldn't affect UEFI though) but because of the overclock, a bad PSU or both. No way to tell without using a different set of CPU and graphics card or a CPU that has integrated graphics on it.

 

[mamasan2000]

HAHAHAH I can't believe that actually happened

I suspect a bricked mobo, not because of an ancient virus making a comeback (it wouldn't affect UEFI though) but because of the overclock, a bad PSU or both. No way to tell without using a different set of CPU and graphics card or a CPU that has integrated graphics on it.

Crazy times, crazy times, back then. You kids have it so easy
Is the PSU really from 2011? Wouldn't surprise me if it can't keep up with todays CPUs and GPUs.

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/corsair-tx750m-psu,5062.html
"Corsair has a rich portfolio of PSU products, and it recently got a little bigger with the addition of fresh TX-M models featuring a more efficient Great Wall platform. "
Great Wall...I don't trust them. Is that the same as yours?

[EOL] PSU Tier List rev. 14.8

PSU Tier List 4.0 rev. 14.8 (END OF LIFE) Last Update: 27-07-2021 Legend : Gray - EoL/obsolete and/or otherwise not recommended for purchase. Green - small form-factor (gold and blue colors are disregarded due to scarcity of SFX PSUs) Gold - best units in the tier (includes requirements for blue ...

linustechtips.com

I would look at 700-800W PSU. If that is what broke.
CPU draws what? 150W at peak? GPU maybe 300W? Around 500 Watts with everything else, fans, disks? PSUs like to be in the 20-80% utilization range.

 

[SanderThePanda]

How old is that motherboard? The battery on it should last 3-5 years. At least it does for me but I don't turn my PC off for many hours. But that would usually be noticable. Clock is wrong, BIOS settings are reset or forgotten etc. Should be a normal CR2032 battery. BIOS versions look new, september 2020 for the first version. Doubt it can be battery.
Does your motherboard have any light on it during boot or POST codes? Most have something. Like 3 lights, 1 for CPU, 1 for RAM and 1 for something else, maybe GPU. Upper right corner of motherboard usually.
I can't think of it being anything other than mobo, PSU or electric wiring where you live.
If it was me and I wanted to know what was wrong, I would take it to a computer shop where they can test every component separately.
Where did you get Nicehash from? I hope it was from the source. Roughly 20 years ago, there were viruses that could kill your BIOS and brick your motherboard. I'm not sure those are still around. But with the malware and ransomware going around, who knows. https://sputniknews.com/in_depth/201604261038619462-chernobyl-virus-motherboards/

Since I have no idea how to check about "How old is my motherboard" - I also don't turn off my PC's, and I had two at the time of the two weeks (currently on one, because the gaming PC is broken), TUF Gaming B450M-PLUS II does not have motherboard lights (outside RGB bottom right), so I cannot tell. Sadly, due to covid-19 the computer shops are all closed and unavailable,

With a lot of trial and error, and decades of using Internet, the safest place to download anything related to the programs for anything without getting infected or getting viruses is getting them from an official source, which would be Nicehash's website (https://www.nicehash.com/)

Edit: My TX750M has done a fantastic job keeping up with my i7-3770 (and, was able to keep up with 5600x at the time when it was used with the PC), currently I am using a cheap PSU that is hooked to the B450M-Plus II for troubleshooting, I am planning to buy a new motherboard with payment plan, and also include 1x8GB sticks of DDR4 Ram / a AMD Ryzen 5 3600 CPU to hopefully make the troubleshooting easier, probably will get a motherboard that isn't manufactured by Asus