Question how screwed is my cpu?

[Kdolghier]

So I moved across the country and my PC that was working perfectly now has issues. It wouldn't even post when I moved to my new house. The red LED for the CPU was on (on my mobo) so I took my CPU apart and cleaned it. I then put it back and my computer posted, but now my screen would freeze a certain period of time (needed to force a shutoff with the power button). Eventually it stopped booting and freezing and wouldn't even boot. I took it out and replaced it with my older Ryzen 5 1600 CPU and now there hasn't been a single crash.

I know its not an issue with my bios because I updated it previously and it worked perfect with the 5900x. I really think its an issue with the 5900x because that's the only thing I changed and now it works well. There is some discoloring on the bottom but that's only seen at a distance? I didn't notice a lot of thermal paste oozing over the CPU. It just stopped working after the move... Never had an issue with overheating as well. See photo below.


Specs
Ryzen 9 5900x
noctua cooler
Aorus rtx 3080
Gigabyte AX370 gaming K5 motherboard
4 6tb HDD
2 1 tb SSD
CorsairTX 850 PSU

https://imgur.com/a/WY9NQUe

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

If you have a local computer shop, you could call them and ask if they have a motherboard to test your cpu.

 

[Jabber92]

My Ryzen 3800X did a similar thing, and it was because the memory control module on the CPU failed, which means the CPU failed. It would not surprise me if a similar thing happened here. I tried it in another motherboard and had the same result. I had a similar problem as well with crashing and then eventually no boot at all. Thermal paste normally won't cause a problem unless it gets on the pins and interferes with the contacts between the pins and socket, but that shouldn't prevent it from booting at all.

If it does the same thing in another motherboard, I would say the CPU has died.