Question Is this my first CPU that died on me for no reason?

[matleno]

Hello, I'm nearly going mad trying to understand what's happening.

My main PC is a Ryzen 7 5800X. A friend gave me an i5 12600K for free. Don't mind the performance; I thought of giving a new platform a try after years of using Ryzen (since the R5 2600 and all the upgrades).

His motherboard was a TUF Z690 DDR4, perfectly working, and I've tested the PC—everything was fine.

I decided to buy an mATX motherboard for DDR5 and opted for an Aorus (after years of Asus) along with G.Skill Trident Z 6400 CL32 RAM.

I swapped the motherboard and RAM and booted the PC with my friend's PSU and cooler (even the nvme). Everything worked fine for the first boot, including the XMP profile with a quick cinebench.

Then I decided to install a Thermalright plate for the LGA 1700 (didn't test the boot) and swapped everything into my mATX "case" (Hydra Micro, open bench) with my perfectly working EVGA 1000W G2 PSU.

The fan didn't even turn on, only the LED did!

I went back to the motherboard box with ANOTHER PSU (CoolerMaster SFX 750W), but the behavior was the same. I swapped the original Intel mount instead of the Thermaltake, and I even tried booting without the cooler because the CPU was completely cold and there were no LEDs except for the RGB.

I thought I was unlucky and that the Aorus mATX was fried, so I bought an Asus mATX Strix-G. Now the fan turns on, but the behavior is the same: RGB on, fan spinning not at maximum, CPU completely cold, no POST (everything on the motherboard box with the CoolerMaster SFX). no debug led of any sort.

Wow, let's try the old Z690 with DDR4 RAM again. That system was perfect. The fan is on, RGB is on, but no POST (inside the old case).

So, with 3 PSUs, 2 cases, and 1 motherboard box, with or without a cooler, there's still no POST. Did my CPU die? am I missing something so obvious but doing the same mistake? psu cable are all plugged in.. I've only tried mounting the Thermalright plate once. I've been building PCs for 20 years, with hard tubing and mods. it can't be that all 3 motherboards have bent pins.

 

[drivinfast247]

Did you make sure to swap ALL PSU cables and not try using cables from a different brand?

 

[matleno]

every psu has it's own cable... evga g2, coolermaster v850 and coolermaster sfx 750. (and they're all pretty new. evga is the oldest with 2 years of service)
the evga is currently running my pc. the v850 was in my friend pc and worked totally fine with a 3070ti and the 12600k, the sfx was in an old (1 year ago) build and worked fine for 3 months then was just in the box resting until yesterday.
I didn't try the new strix mobo on the evga but i think is a bit pointless given that i have 2 other working psu.

P.s. i've just tried the v850 outside the case with the motherboard on the box, with and without cpu, wit 1 stick of ram, without completely the ram. same behaviour. I even put a motherboard speaker on the header to check for beeps, no beeps at all 🙁

 

[g-unit1111]

Usually it's really difficult to do some real damage to a CPU. AMD CPUs can be easily damaged if you bend the pins (AM4 and lower, not AM5), and it does require force to do so. But on Intel, the only way something like that could happen is if the pins on the motherboard get bent. The best things to do would to first try the CPU in another motherboard to make sure it's indeed the CPU. The other thing would be to check the CPU socket and make sure there's no damage there.

 

[matleno]

Usually it's really difficult to do some real damage to a CPU. AMD CPUs can be easily damaged if you bend the pins (AM4 and lower, not AM5), and it does require force to do so. But on Intel, the only way something like that could happen is if the pins on the motherboard get bent. The best things to do would to first try the CPU in another motherboard to make sure it's indeed the CPU. The other thing would be to check the CPU socket and make sure there's no damage there.

as I said, cpu was on a tuf z690 ddr4 working perfectly fine, swapped mobo for an aourus b760m ddr5, booted first time fine, swapped intel plate for thermalright one, swapped case and never booted anymore. tried back the intel stock plate, bought an asus strix-g b760m new and didn't boot as well... tried back the z690 ddr4 and didn't boot.
I even tried to update bios on the strix, no luck at all.

maybe faulty ram that booted only once? don't even know if it's possibile with the behaviour (btw tried also single stick in different slot of course)

 

[thestryker]

What do the Q-LEDs on the motherboard show? They should be above the 24 pin towards the upper right of the board for both Asus ones.

Check the pads on the bottom of the CPU for any discoloration/scratches/other damage.

 

[matleno]

went back on the tuf z690 ddr4 on a cardbox, same as before.

The only difference this time is that the CPU was getting slightly warmer, but still very far from what it should reach without a cooler. (I've always used a cooler, but after about 10 different attempts, I started leaving the cooler off to check if it was getting hot, and the CPU was always completely cold.)

By the way, I also tried cleaning the contacts with cotton and isopropyl alcohol. The CPU looks fine.

The debug LEDs are always off. Nothing is displayed except for the RGB LEDs on the RAM, motherboard, and NVMe. fans are spinning.

 

[g-unit1111]

as I said, cpu was on a tuf z690 ddr4 working perfectly fine, swapped mobo for an aourus b760m ddr5, booted first time fine, swapped intel plate for thermalright one, swapped case and never booted anymore. tried back the intel stock plate, bought an asus strix-g b760m new and didn't boot as well... tried back the z690 ddr4 and didn't boot.
I even tried to update bios on the strix, no luck at all.

maybe faulty ram that booted only once? don't even know if it's possibile with the behaviour (btw tried also single stick in different slot of course)

If you try the RAM in another motherboard and it works then I would put money on something being bent / broken in the CPU socket itself. Definitely check for bent pins.

 

[matleno]

ram is working, i've tried another set of ddr5 with no luck... so test was done on a total of 2 set of ddr5 (16x2 corsair and 16x2 trident) on b760m and 1 set of ddr4 on z690 tuf.

regarding the bent pins, we're talking about 3 motherboards in total with the same behaviour... in the previous answer you can see the socket of the z690 ddr4 (where the cpu come from and worked flawlessy for months before this switch) there are no bent pins. And also the cpu looks fine.

i've never tried so many psu/mobo/ram combo in my life to fix a boot issue. how it's possible that the cpu went bad like that? the only thing i did was installing the thermalright plate for lga 1700 (in the aorus board, not in the strix that i'm trying right now)... and everything looked fine, it's a simple mod 🙄

 

[g-unit1111]

ram is working, i've tried another set of ddr5 with no luck... so test was done on a total of 2 set of ddr5 (16x2 corsair and 16x2 trident) on b760m and 1 set of ddr4 on z690 tuf.

regarding the bent pins, we're talking about 3 motherboards in total with the same behaviour... in the previous answer you can see the socket of the z690 ddr4 (where the cpu come from and worked flawlessy for months before this switch) there are no bent pins. And also the cpu looks fine.

i've never tried so many psu/mobo/ram combo in my life to fix a boot issue. how it's possible that the cpu went bad like that? the only thing i did was installing the thermalright plate for lga 1700 (in the aorus board, not in the strix that i'm trying right now)... and everything looked fine, it's a simple mod 🙄

OK at that point I'd start contacting Intel about an RMA replacement. Intel isn't the easiest company to get an RMA from but it can be done.