Question Motherboard or CPU dead?

[Conzyxwb]

Hi I’m desperate for some advice on this. Today I took my custom built PC apart to clean out all the fans as I was hitting high temps and it needed cleaning. Anyway I took the GPU out, used a dry paintbrush to gently remove surface dust, I also removed the water cooler for the CPU and did the same process.

I put it back together again and noticed when I tried to boot, it wouldn’t. The motherboard has an amber power standby light on all the time, but I have no VRAM or CPU led being lit up. When I try to power on everything lights up for a millisecond and then the motherboard goes back to displaying the amber standby power light.

In the process of reseating the CPU to see if it was that, I accidentally bent 1 pin on my mobo but I’ve been able to successfully bend it back to where it should be and looks flush like the rest of them again.

So far I’ve tried

- a second working PSU
- Removing and reseating each RAM stick
- Retesting with current PSU
- Checked all cables
- Cleared CMOS and replaced the battery
- Checked for signs of physical damage
- Tried booting with and without the CPU just so see if it made any change but it didn’t.

I’m not too sure what else I can do apart from buy new parts. I have new 16GB DDR4 RAM coming tomorrow but I honestly don’t think that’s the issue.

My Specs

Asus Strix Z270H Gaming Motherboard
Intel i7-7700k OC stable at 4.8Ghz
Nvidia GTX 1080ti
Samsung 1TB SSD
Crucial 1TB SSD
Corsair CX750F RGB PSU
G.SKILL Ripjaw DDR4 RAM x 16GB

If anyone can help me or tell me what parts have likely failed here or if I’ve missed anything I’d be very grateful. I have a few mental health issues and my computer is my only healthy coping mechanism so to have it break is pretty rough.

Thanks

 

[thestryker]

Seems like you've done a pretty thorough job of troubleshooting.

Just to make sure what you're seeing is what I read in the manual the only light on is the lower right corner of the board?

When you try to power it on do any of the debug LEDs in the upper right do anything at all before it powers back down immediately?

I'd suggest trying disconnecting everything from the motherboard other than EPS 12v, ATX 24 pin and the fan/pump plugs for the CPU cooler (unsure which plugs you have here). Then short the power switch pins to see if it turns on that way.

 

[Conzyxwb]

Seems like you've done a pretty thorough job of troubleshooting.

Just to make sure what you're seeing is what I read in the manual the only light on is the lower right corner of the board?

When you try to power it on do any of the debug LEDs in the upper right do anything at all before it powers back down immediately?

I'd suggest trying disconnecting everything from the motherboard other than EPS 12v, ATX 24 pin and the fan/pump plugs for the CPU cooler (unsure which plugs you have here). Then short the power switch pins to see if it turns on that way.

Yeah that’s correct, it’s actually changed somewhat, it now shows a weak looking amber flashing light in the bottom right hand corner, the red light strip that goes down the left side on the mobo is also very weak and flashing.

I forgot to mention in my first post I have disconnected and tried booting with the bare minimum just to see what parts I can rule out but I read a post on Reddit just now, someone describes their situation which is identical to what my PC and same mobo is doing and his turned out to be faulty.

Only problem is i can’t seem to find any website selling new LGA 1151 socket mobos that are similar and I certainly can’t afford a new cpu and motherboard. I can only assume using the paintbrush has caused static shock of some kind.

I also just tried shorting it with a screwdriver and no change. The power standby LED still flashes amber.

 

[Conzyxwb]

Also is it at all possible that my CPU could have also been damaged if there’s been any short or static shock?

 

[thestryker]

Yeah that’s correct, it’s actually changed somewhat, it now shows a weak looking amber flashing light in the bottom right hand corner, the red light strip that goes down the left side on the mobo is also very weak and flashing.

I forgot to mention in my first post I have disconnected and tried booting with the bare minimum just to see what parts I can rule out but I read a post on Reddit just now, someone describes their situation which is identical to what my PC and same mobo is doing and his turned out to be faulty.

Only problem is i can’t seem to find any website selling new LGA 1151 socket mobos that are similar and I certainly can’t afford a new cpu and motherboard. I can only assume using the paintbrush has caused static shock of some kind.

I also just tried shorting it with a screwdriver and no change. The power standby LED still flashes amber.

I was in this boat with setting up a new X99 board so I ended up going used instead of buying new from no name Chinese motherboard makers. The thing is I think any board that's as good as what you have will likely set you back as much or more money than just buying a new CPU/mobo which would be better than what you have. If your cooler is compatible with AM4 you could get a 5600 and motherboard for $200-250 depending on type of mobo you're looking at. If there's a bracket available for LGA 1700 you could go 12100F for even less (or 12100 if you want the IGP).

Also is it at all possible that my CPU could have also been damaged if there’s been any short or static shock?

It's definitely not impossible, but I wouldn't say it's likely either.

 

[Conzyxwb]

Just thought I’d update this incase it helps anyone else.

I managed to source a used Asus Strix Z270F to test with as I was sure it was motherboard that had died due to static shock.

Anyway new motherboard in and the PC boots up and loads windows first time without issue. I was one of those that didn’t want to admit it was a hardware issue but it was definitely the motherboard.

Gonna reinstall windows and go from there.

Thanks for the advice 😊