Question Is my CPU still functioning as intended or is it partially-damaged?

[Artisxn]

Hello,

I've recently had some trouble with is what I assumed to be an upgrade to my PC system, I recently obtained a used i7 9700k from a friend of mine and had it replace my previous CPU (i5 8600k) on the motherboard which is a Gigabyte B360M H.

On intial boot after installing the new CPU (9700k), the PC was running fine and all, however, my annoyance was with how loud the CPU cooler fans were running, so I decided to adjust the fans' position, but there was an issue when it came to removing the heatsink and screwing everything back again, I received 5 long beeps when booting the PC and the PC would momentarily boot and then shut itself down, boot then shut itself down, until I had to turn off the power switch.

The alarming part is that I smelt something burning like a chemical oder for the few seconds it was turned on for, so I took it immediately to a computer shop, who then told me that the motherboard was damaged and needed the IC to be replaced, and that also my PSU was the reason for the motherboard failing because it died and possibly caused a power surge before it completely died.

After replacing the PSU but not the motherboard, the PC seems to be running worse on my 9700k than it did on my 8600k, with higher CPU usage on games like Valorant and BattleBit Remastered while not having stable FPS at all, clocks are also only able to hit 4.6GHz and not any higher.

Some of the damage that was reported by the computer shop was the HDD being dead, one of the RAM slots becoming non-functional, the IC that was replaced, the damaged PSU and a dead USB port.

I ran Cinebench R23 with Multicore and received a score of (6993) pts when the average 9700k results show somewhere between (9k-10k) pts, Intel Processor Diagnostic Tool also passed all tests, with Prime95 I was able to run the test for over 10mins with a stable 80C temp so I figured it's not an overheating problem.

My question is, would possible damage to the motherboard cause instability with the CPU's performance or could this indicate an issue caused by the power surge to the 9700k? I've tried updating the BIOS, checking if Intel Turbo was enabled, nothing seems to be out of order other than the CPU's general poor performance compared to other benchmarks.

I'm willing to replace the motherboard with a new one, the new PSU seems to be working fine but I'm wondering if the problem will carry on even if the Mobo has been replaced? in which case I'll probably just put back my old 8600k again.

Motherboard: GIGABYTE B360M H
RAM: 8GB @ 2666 (in Single Channel)
CPU: Intel Core i7-9700K
GPU: EVGA GTX 1060 SC GAMING ACX 2.0

https://imgur.com/a/l3LT426

View: https://imgur.com/a/l3LT426



I would appreciate any sort of insight or help to narrow down the cause of this issue with my CPU, thank you.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Some of the damage that was reported by the computer shop was the HDD being dead, one of the RAM slots becoming non-functional, the IC that was replaced, the damaged PSU and a dead USB port.

What is this IC, you're speaking of?
Integrated circuit? How exactly do you replace that?
Sounds like nonsense.

My question is, would possible damage to the motherboard cause instability with the CPU's performance or could this indicate an issue caused by the power surge to the 9700k?

One of your ram slots is not working. Ram is running in single channel mode. You probably had 16GB before, now only 8GB.
This will reduce performance.

 

[Viking2121]

CPU's generally work or they don't, no inbetween, I guess the only inbetween is if its overheating as your playing and its downclocking to save itself, I would suggest you look into possibly reinstalling the video drivers, chipset drivers, and make sure if you are using an Antivirus, make sure its off during game to see if that helps.

Make sure your ram is installed into the right slots, and is at the right speed of the stick, but single channel can hurt performance in quite a few games as mentioned above.

Also what PSU do you have now?

Good Luck!

 

[Artisxn]

What is this IC, you're speaking of?
Integrated circuit? How exactly do you replace that?
Sounds like nonsense.

I’m sorry, I live in Egypt and that’s the term the technician in the computer shop used, when I asked what exactly is an IC he said it’s a controller module for the processor, I don’t know if he was just throwing in random words but I also was confused on how he could replace something like that on the motherboard.

CPU's generally work or they don't, no inbetween, I guess the only inbetween is if its overheating as your playing and its downclocking to save itself, I would suggest you look into possibly reinstalling the video drivers, chipset drivers, and make sure if you are using an Antivirus, make sure its off during game to see if that helps.

Make sure your ram is installed into the right slots, and is at the right speed of the stick, but single channel can hurt performance in quite a few games as mentioned above.

Also what PSU do you have now?

PSU is a used AsRock 450w or 400w I believe that the store had as a spare and used on the PC to replace the old one, it works fine as far as I’ve done all of these stress tests on the CPU so I don’t think it would pose a problem at the moment.

as for the drivers, I used DDU to reinstall all the gpu drivers and updated to the latest BIOS available for the Gigabyte B360m h (F15)

 

[Viking2121]

You sure its AsRock, I can't find any info of an AsRock PSU, Don't think they make a PSU.

CPU stressing by its self is going to consume less power than running a game thats going to use the CPU and GPU at the same time, typically a 450 should be fine with that hardware, but it depends on the quality of the unit, shady/janky PSU's they often say 450watt but thats combining all the 3v 5v and 12v rails which wouldn't do well if it consumes anywhere near that, it'll be more like a 300 watt PSU if not lower, Could result in lower/inconsistent performance, system shutting down, and even crashing if the PSU can't handle it, why I asked.

 

[Artisxn]

You sure its AsRock, I can't find any info of an AsRock PSU, Don't think they make a PSU.

CPU stressing by its self is going to consume less power than running a game thats going to use the CPU and GPU at the same time, typically a 450 should be fine with that hardware, but it depends on the quality of the unit, shady/janky PSU's they often say 450watt but thats combining all the 3v 5v and 12v rails which wouldn't do well if it consumes anywhere near that, it'll be more like a 300 watt PSU if not lower, Could result in lower/inconsistent performance, system shutting down, and even crashing if the PSU can't handle it, why I asked.

I’d have to check when I’m home the exact model and make if the PSU, as to the performance, it’s similar to a thread i found here of a person with a 9700k showing similar problems like locked 3.9GHz during games and low FPS generally:

Question - Is my i7-9700k underperforming, or something else the bottleneck?

Hi everyone, I recently upgraded from gtx 1070 to rtx 3070 in the hopes of running my games even smoother. After doing some investigation into my specs and upgrading all my drivers, bios etc, I feel as if I should be able to get a higher fps and a bit smoother gameplay. Fortnite: When playing...

forums.tomshardware.com

identical issues and very similar mobo with same readings from the CPU in terms of usage/temp/clock in games.

 

[DSzymborski]

I'd be highly suspicious of the shop. Repairing a motherboard is basically a DIY job or nothing because any professional who is competent is going to end up charging far more than the cost of replacing the motherboard.

The PSU questions are pretty crucial. Knowing exactly what you had in there before and exactly what you have in there now will have a significant effect both on making an educated guess about what happened and giving you responsible advice moving forward.

I wouldn't read too much into the linked thread. Performance problems are a huge class of symptom, with a vast array of causes. It's a bit like coughing; you can't diagnose a cough simply by seeing what someone else with a cough had because there are literally dozens of reasons that person may be coughing.

 

[geofelt]

The shop may not be competent.

A 400w psu is not sufficient to run a 2060 gpu:

PSU REQUIREMENTS - RealHardTechX

PSU REQUIREMENTS - RealHardTechX

www.realhardtechx.com

Particularly if it is a cheap unit.

It is very rare for an intel processor to fail or be damaged.

Has the processor ever been removed from the socket?
If so, it is easy to damage socket pins which can cause all sorts of issues, usually ram related.

Your performance issues may be in part due to running ram in single channel mode.

Best to try to find a local experienced advisor.