Hello,
Yesterday my computer stopped working, after working great the night before, I believe the problem is with the motherboard, but I am not 100% sure. My plan for this post is to go over the events that lead here, because I believe for fixing the computer, the only option is to replace the motherboard, but I am more interested in determining what could have caused the problem, so that once I rebuild the system, I can ensure it does not happen again. I will post the PC Part picker link below, to show what parts I am using.
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/WfTCYg
I first got this computer working roughly a month ago, but found out I had been given a defective drive from Crucial (the 2000GB was the defective one.) I installed windows on the 500GB drive, and after getting everything set up, I contacted Crucial. Crucial support was incredibly unhelpful, and made me try random solutions that clearly weren't going to work for over a week. During this time, I had to take the defective drive in an out several times. In order to access the second M.2. slot, I had to remove the GPU. During one of the times I removed the GPU, the retention clip on the PCIE slot broke off, however from my understanding, as long as the card is screwed in well, this shouldn't be an issue with general use, so I decided to continue on with the broken off clip. Eventually they took the drive back. I did not use the computer any more until the replacement drive arrived. The second drive worked perfectly fine.
The night I got it working, I played some games on the computer for a few hours, then went to bed. When I got up in the morning, I found that while the computer would power on, the monitor wouldn't display anything. The monitor would show in the top right that it was receiving some kind of signal from the display port, but then was not displaying any picture. Upon inspecting the inside of the PC, I found that while the RGB LEDs on the DRAM were lighting up, they were not lighting up on the motherboard, or the GPU. The GPU I have has a small LCD screen on it, and that part was functioning, but the other RGB LEDs on the card were not. The GPU I have also has a white LED light above each of the power connectors, and my understanding is that solid is good, and flashing means something is wrong, both lights were solid. The case fans, the GPU fans, and the fans on the Arctic AIO were all spinning. I first attempted to press the power button to turn off the system, then nothing happened. So I thought I would have to hold it down to force it off, then nothing happened still (although the LED on the power button did start flashing, which I assume meant it was trying to shut off the system.) So the only way I could figure out to turn it off, was to flip the switch on the PSU. I tried taking the GPU out, and re-inserting it, but that did not change anything.
To me this all seems to suggest that the motherboard has broken, and the GPU RGB is not lighting up properly because it is likely not receiving something, or potentially anything at all through the PCIE slot. When I was playing the night before, I did monitor the heat of both the CPU, and the GPU. The GPU held relatively solid at 70C, while the CPU didn't seem to break 65C, so I don't believe anything overheated. One other thing I would add is that for the Arctic liquid freezer II, I am using the Rev 4 mounting hardware. The bracket that the cooler mounts onto seems to make contact with the capacitors on the VRM. I am not sure if this would be a problem or not, but I thought it was something I should mention.
I would appreciate any information, or insight anyone could provide that could lead to me either diagnosing the issue, or figuring out what went wrong so that it does not happen in the future. Please feel free to ask me any questions, or for clarification. I was not sure what could potentially be important, so I am sure there may be some valuable information that I left out. Thanks in advance!
Yesterday my computer stopped working, after working great the night before, I believe the problem is with the motherboard, but I am not 100% sure. My plan for this post is to go over the events that lead here, because I believe for fixing the computer, the only option is to replace the motherboard, but I am more interested in determining what could have caused the problem, so that once I rebuild the system, I can ensure it does not happen again. I will post the PC Part picker link below, to show what parts I am using.
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/WfTCYg
I first got this computer working roughly a month ago, but found out I had been given a defective drive from Crucial (the 2000GB was the defective one.) I installed windows on the 500GB drive, and after getting everything set up, I contacted Crucial. Crucial support was incredibly unhelpful, and made me try random solutions that clearly weren't going to work for over a week. During this time, I had to take the defective drive in an out several times. In order to access the second M.2. slot, I had to remove the GPU. During one of the times I removed the GPU, the retention clip on the PCIE slot broke off, however from my understanding, as long as the card is screwed in well, this shouldn't be an issue with general use, so I decided to continue on with the broken off clip. Eventually they took the drive back. I did not use the computer any more until the replacement drive arrived. The second drive worked perfectly fine.
The night I got it working, I played some games on the computer for a few hours, then went to bed. When I got up in the morning, I found that while the computer would power on, the monitor wouldn't display anything. The monitor would show in the top right that it was receiving some kind of signal from the display port, but then was not displaying any picture. Upon inspecting the inside of the PC, I found that while the RGB LEDs on the DRAM were lighting up, they were not lighting up on the motherboard, or the GPU. The GPU I have has a small LCD screen on it, and that part was functioning, but the other RGB LEDs on the card were not. The GPU I have also has a white LED light above each of the power connectors, and my understanding is that solid is good, and flashing means something is wrong, both lights were solid. The case fans, the GPU fans, and the fans on the Arctic AIO were all spinning. I first attempted to press the power button to turn off the system, then nothing happened. So I thought I would have to hold it down to force it off, then nothing happened still (although the LED on the power button did start flashing, which I assume meant it was trying to shut off the system.) So the only way I could figure out to turn it off, was to flip the switch on the PSU. I tried taking the GPU out, and re-inserting it, but that did not change anything.
To me this all seems to suggest that the motherboard has broken, and the GPU RGB is not lighting up properly because it is likely not receiving something, or potentially anything at all through the PCIE slot. When I was playing the night before, I did monitor the heat of both the CPU, and the GPU. The GPU held relatively solid at 70C, while the CPU didn't seem to break 65C, so I don't believe anything overheated. One other thing I would add is that for the Arctic liquid freezer II, I am using the Rev 4 mounting hardware. The bracket that the cooler mounts onto seems to make contact with the capacitors on the VRM. I am not sure if this would be a problem or not, but I thought it was something I should mention.
I would appreciate any information, or insight anyone could provide that could lead to me either diagnosing the issue, or figuring out what went wrong so that it does not happen in the future. Please feel free to ask me any questions, or for clarification. I was not sure what could potentially be important, so I am sure there may be some valuable information that I left out. Thanks in advance!
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