[SOLVED] Motherboard or CPU dead. Not sure which one

[nogeek86]

Hi there,

I have the following config.

MB: Gigabyte Z170X-Gaming 7
CPU: Intel i7 6700K
RAM: 2x8GB Corsair Vengeance
GPU: Nvidia 970 GTX
PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G2 Modular

Two weeks ago my machine stopped working all the sudden and as soon as I turn it on, it turns off immediately. Sometimes, on a cold boot it turns on and works fine with 0 issues for half an hour or an hour and then it shuts down again.

This is what I have done so far with no luck at all.

1. Use a different PSU. Same symptoms, it does not turn on at all.
2. Removed the GPU and use one of the memories at the time. Same symptoms.
3. Move the motherboard along with the CPU to a cardboard. Same symptoms.

I also removed the CPU and the pins seem to be fine, I do not smell anything weird out of the components... When I turn on the machine three different things usually happen

1. It starts the fans and right after turns off.
2. It starts the fans, the LED display on the motherboard starts to display random numbers very quickly and it turns off. The codes that are displayed usually before it turns off are one of below codes.
22
32
35
3. It starts and it works and after a while it turns off.

Worth to mention to that I tried to do a CMOS, removed the battery of the MOBO and even tried to turn on the MOBO without the CPU which basically turns off the machine as soon as I hit the on button.

So... what do you think the issue could possibly be? Motherboard or CPU? I do not have any spare component to try this out and honestly I would like to avoid to buy both things as they are pretty expensive 🙁

Thanks a lot for your help!

 

[alexoiu]

Hi, If disconnecting the CPU power cable and starting the board, do case fans spin?

 

[nogeek86]

Hi, If disconnecting the CPU power cable and starting the board, do case fans spin?

I have not tried that out because the motherboard was already out of the case when I removed the CPU. What I noticed for sure is that the case fans were spinning when the motherboard was installed in the case. The two fans started right at the same time than the CPU fan. Do you think it is work to try that out? Will that give me some insights?

 

[alexoiu]

Check if turning off immediately or spinning without stopping. If same behavior, I would blame the board. If fans not turning off, I would blame the CPU.

 

[nogeek86]

Check if turning off immediately or spinning without stopping. If same behavior, I would blame the board. If fans not turning off, I would blame the CPU.

I de-attached the fan from the case and plugged it in the Motherboard. The CPU fan and the case fan both behave equally. When I turn on the computer, they both start spinning, as soon as the Motherboard code 32 appears, the machine turns off and both fans slowly stop spinning (since no power goes through anymore I guess)

 

[alexoiu]

Try with CPU power cable disconnected. See what happens.

 

[nogeek86]

Try with CPU power cable disconnected. See what happens.

Tried without the CPU cable and the LED display on the motherboard does not show up anything (it seems to be turned off) and the "computer" turns off after a couple of seconds. I left the CPU fan plugged in and it spins as before. No changes in that sense.

 

[alexoiu]

It could be the board, then, since you tested different PSU.

 

[nogeek86]

It could be the board, then, since you tested different PSU.

I will wait for someone else to chime in. Maybe someone had similar issue with similar setup but I will think so too. I guess I could go to a repair store to try with other hardware and diagnose this problem better?

 

[alexoiu]

If not costing like a new board, then yes, it would be better to diagnose it there.