Motherboard or CPU fail? (no display)

[ThatGuyWhoCamps]

Alright, so recently my PC has been acting up. For example, sometimes I'd log into my USER and there would be no wallpaper, icons, cursor, nothing. Nothing except for my auto-run programs booting up. I'd restart and the problem would be fixed.

A few days ago this happened, naturally I restarted but only to find that this time I'd get no display. I tried several things so far. I've tried:
- Reseating everything
- Resetting CMOS
- Tested PSU
- Tested GPU
- Tested RAM
- Made sure cables are connected properly
- Powering on with nothing but CPU and one RAM stick
- Unplugging and holding power button for a minute
- Putting new thermal paste
- Dusting out PC

I took it to a repair shop and they told me they thought it was the CPU, but couldn't say for certain because they didn't have a CPU of the same socket to test it out. I'm looking into buying a CPU right now but I get an odd feeling there's a strong chance it could be the motherboard as well. Everything powers on fine in the PC, the only issue is the no display. When I was reapplying thermal paste earlier I looked at the motherboard pins and I felt as though there was a pin or two that was slightly bent but it was extremely difficult to tell because of how small it is and the fact that the rest of the pins all have a slight curve facing towards the middle of the socket (at least that's what it looked like). I tried bending the pins I thought at fault ever so slightly to see if that could be it, but still no display signal. Just a few minutes ago I tried powering it on and it turned on for half a second then restarted. Only time that's happened during this entire issue, figured it's still worth mentioning. Hope I can get some help.

Specs:
Intel i7-5820k
MSI x99A Gaming 7
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming
48GB DDR4 2800MHz (used to be 64gb but one stick went bad)
256GB SSD
x2 1TB WD HDD
Corsair H100i Water Cooling

 

[Darkbreeze]

How did you "test" your power supply? What is the EXACT model number of the power supply?

As to the pins, if something looks "off" it usually is, because usually even when there ARE some pins out of alignment it might NOT look "off", so if it does, it usually is. The best way to check is by using magnification like a magnifying glass or high powered reading glasses. You can much more easily tell if something is amiss that way. You can get a cheap magnifying glass or high strength reading glasses pretty cheap at any Walmart, Walgreens or similar retail stores.

CPUs don't normally just go bad unless you are extremely careless with the overclock and voltage or are continuously overheating the CPU.

It happens, but not often. Motherboard is a lot more frequent and common. Power supply is even more so and even if it passes basic tests like paperclip or no load multimeter testing, it might still be bad. I'd swap in another known good PSU of sufficient capacity and be sure.

Click the spoiler box for more in depth procedures. Many of these you have probably already covered, but it never hurts to take a second look at something. It's pretty easy to overlook basic problems.

Spoiler

For basic troubleshooting on systems that stick or won't POST, but were working fine previously, or after adding new hardware, I recommend doing the following.

First, check everything as indicated here:

No POST checklist and troubleshooting​

If that turns up nothing then move on to the following and in cases where it may be redundant based on the steps at the previous link, I'd just check again anyhow. It's easy to miss something the first time around.

Power off the unit, switch the PSU off and unplug the PSU cord from either the wall or the power supply.

Remove the motherboard CMOS battery for five minutes. During that five minutes, press the power button for 30 seconds. After the five minutes is up, reinstall the CMOS battery making sure to insert it with the correct side up just as it came out.

Now, plug the power supply cable back in, switch the PSU back on and power up the system. It should display the POST screen and the options to enter CMOS/BIOS setup. Enter the bios setup program and reconfigure the boot settings for either the Windows boot manager or for legacy systems, the drive your OS is installed on if necessary.

Save settings and exit. If the system will POST and boot then you can move forward from there including going back into the bios and configuring any other custom settings you may need to configure such as Memory XMP profile settings, custom fan profile settings or other specific settings you may have previously had configured that were wiped out by resetting the CMOS.

If the system will not POST after resetting the CMOS, then there is a hardware problem of some kind.

At that point I would again power off, remove all memory except one module, installed in the A2 slot for most modern motherboards, or whatever slot your motherboard user manual specifies for single module population according to it's stated population rules. This matters. Boards MAY run with memory in various slots, but there ARE specific memory slots that are intended to be used with one, two, three, four or more modules installed and the manual will outline which of them should be used based on how many modules you are using.

If you have integrated graphics either on the motherboard itself, or through the motherboard using the CPU integrated graphics, then I'd connect your monitor cable to one of the motherboard video outputs and completely remove the graphics card from the system.

Now remove the CMOS battery again for another five minutes, then put it back again and once again try to POST. If you still get no love, try again using a different memory module.

If you do NOT have integrated graphics to use while troubleshooting, then you can either move along to other steps or try a different graphics card if you have one, or can borrow one.

If you still fail to get the system to POST then I'd recommend you pull the CPU cooler and remove the CPU to check for bent pins or an improperly installed CPU. For AMD systems the pins are usually on the CPU. For Intel platforms the pins are on the motherboard. You may need magnification of some kind to see whether any of the pins look bent, out of place or just "wrong" compared to the pattern of the rest of the pins. A cheap magnifying glass or high powered reading glasses should suffice if you have old eyes like me.

If the CPU and motherboard both look fine, then clean all the thermal paste off the top of the CPU and bottom of the CPU cooler heatsink using isopropyl alcohol and a lint free microfiber cleaning cloth, coffee filter or other lint free cloth. Apply fresh TIM (Thermal interface material aka thermal paste) according to your preferred method or the CPU cooler instructions and reinstall the CPU and CPU cooler.

Now it would be advisable to unplug all connected drives, reset the CMOS, again, and try again to POST or enter the BIOS. If you still cannot get the sytem to POST then you probably need to remove everything from the case and bench test the system according to the steps found here:

Click here for instructions on bench testing your motherboard​

If your system is failing to display signs of power or other random power related issues, it would be advisable to purchase or borrow a DVOM (Digital volt ohm meter) or analog multimeter and do some basic power testing of the PSU to determine if there is a power delivery issue as follows:

How to test a power supply using a volt or multimeter​

If you still haven't found any indication of what the problem is, a few last resort measures would be to make sure the PSU is plugged directly into the wall and is NOT using any kind of UPS, power strip or extension cord.

Verify that the CPU cooler IS connected to the CPU_FAN header, as some systems will not even power up if there is no RPM signal from the CPU fan.

Anything beyond these basics is going to require some further conversation and possibly the replacement of your motherboard or CPU, as if everything listed above has checked out, there isn't much left it could be aside from one of those two things.

 

[Rogue Leader]

have you been overclocking the CPU? if not then it's the motherboard. That CPU is not going to go bad without overclocking it. The bend pins can affect the CPU dramatically so if you take another look and there are at least 2 or 3 of do a RMA on the motherboard and don't try realign them because if you do not know what you are doing u can damage it even more and brake the pins. As of Powersupply Dont listen to Darkbreeze. if you even have a 600W powersupply its more than enough for that system without being overclocked. get a blow dryer and put it on cold and blow out the dust in the PSU

Gentlemen be civil. I deleted the last two posts as they add nothing to the conversation. If you don't like what someone is saying to you press the alert button do not retaliate. Personal insults WILL NOT be tolerated. However I will make one more point, If we see incorrect or downright dangerous advice it will be deleted and repeated times will result in the user being banned. Telling someone to use a blow dryer anywhere near their PC is bad and dangerous advice, you can easily damage or destroy components with the static electricity generated by a blow dryer. Do not post something like that again, if you don't have the knowledge to answer the users question correctly and safely I suggest moving along.

 

[ThatGuyWhoCamps]

How did you "test" your power supply? What is the EXACT model number of the power supply?

As to the pins, if something looks "off" it usually is, because usually even when there ARE some pins out of alignment it might NOT look "off", so if it does, it usually is. The best way to check is by using magnification like a magnifying glass or high powered reading glasses. You can much more easily tell if something is amiss that way. You can get a cheap magnifying glass or high strength reading glasses pretty cheap at any Walmart, Walgreens or similar retail stores.

CPUs don't normally just go bad unless you are extremely careless with the overclock and voltage or are continuously overheating the CPU.

It happens, but not often. Motherboard is a lot more frequent and common. Power supply is even more so and even if it passes basic tests like paperclip or no load multimeter testing, it might still be bad. I'd swap in another known good PSU of sufficient capacity and be sure.

Click the spoiler box for more in depth procedures. Many of these you have probably already covered, but it never hurts to take a second look at something. It's pretty easy to overlook basic problems.

Spoiler

For basic troubleshooting on systems that stick or won't POST, but were working fine previously, or after adding new hardware, I recommend doing the following.

First, check everything as indicated here:

No POST checklist and troubleshooting​

If that turns up nothing then move on to the following and in cases where it may be redundant based on the steps at the previous link, I'd just check again anyhow. It's easy to miss something the first time around.

Power off the unit, switch the PSU off and unplug the PSU cord from either the wall or the power supply.

Remove the motherboard CMOS battery for five minutes. During that five minutes, press the power button for 30 seconds. After the five minutes is up, reinstall the CMOS battery making sure to insert it with the correct side up just as it came out.

Now, plug the power supply cable back in, switch the PSU back on and power up the system. It should display the POST screen and the options to enter CMOS/BIOS setup. Enter the bios setup program and reconfigure the boot settings for either the Windows boot manager or for legacy systems, the drive your OS is installed on if necessary.

Save settings and exit. If the system will POST and boot then you can move forward from there including going back into the bios and configuring any other custom settings you may need to configure such as Memory XMP profile settings, custom fan profile settings or other specific settings you may have previously had configured that were wiped out by resetting the CMOS.

If the system will not POST after resetting the CMOS, then there is a hardware problem of some kind.

At that point I would again power off, remove all memory except one module, installed in the A2 slot for most modern motherboards, or whatever slot your motherboard user manual specifies for single module population according to it's stated population rules. This matters. Boards MAY run with memory in various slots, but there ARE specific memory slots that are intended to be used with one, two, three, four or more modules installed and the manual will outline which of them should be used based on how many modules you are using.

If you have integrated graphics either on the motherboard itself, or through the motherboard using the CPU integrated graphics, then I'd connect your monitor cable to one of the motherboard video outputs and completely remove the graphics card from the system.

Now remove the CMOS battery again for another five minutes, then put it back again and once again try to POST. If you still get no love, try again using a different memory module.

If you do NOT have integrated graphics to use while troubleshooting, then you can either move along to other steps or try a different graphics card if you have one, or can borrow one.

If you still fail to get the system to POST then I'd recommend you pull the CPU cooler and remove the CPU to check for bent pins or an improperly installed CPU. For AMD systems the pins are usually on the CPU. For Intel platforms the pins are on the motherboard. You may need magnification of some kind to see whether any of the pins look bent, out of place or just "wrong" compared to the pattern of the rest of the pins. A cheap magnifying glass or high powered reading glasses should suffice if you have old eyes like me.

If the CPU and motherboard both look fine, then clean all the thermal paste off the top of the CPU and bottom of the CPU cooler heatsink using isopropyl alcohol and a lint free microfiber cleaning cloth, coffee filter or other lint free cloth. Apply fresh TIM (Thermal interface material aka thermal paste) according to your preferred method or the CPU cooler instructions and reinstall the CPU and CPU cooler.

Now it would be advisable to unplug all connected drives, reset the CMOS, again, and try again to POST or enter the BIOS. If you still cannot get the sytem to POST then you probably need to remove everything from the case and bench test the system according to the steps found here:

Click here for instructions on bench testing your motherboard​

If your system is failing to display signs of power or other random power related issues, it would be advisable to purchase or borrow a DVOM (Digital volt ohm meter) or analog multimeter and do some basic power testing of the PSU to determine if there is a power delivery issue as follows:

How to test a power supply using a volt or multimeter​

If you still haven't found any indication of what the problem is, a few last resort measures would be to make sure the PSU is plugged directly into the wall and is NOT using any kind of UPS, power strip or extension cord.

Verify that the CPU cooler IS connected to the CPU_FAN header, as some systems will not even power up if there is no RPM signal from the CPU fan.

Anything beyond these basics is going to require some further conversation and possibly the replacement of your motherboard or CPU, as if everything listed above has checked out, there isn't much left it could be aside from one of those two things.

I didn't personally test the PSU, it was the technician I took it too that told me he had tested it with a PSU tester. I'm unsure if he tried the system out with another power supply. I'd have tested it myself if I had another power supply around here but this is the only one I've had in the 4 years since I built this computer. PSU model: 75-002019. It's a Corsair CX750M.

I tried the procedures in the spoiler box, most if not all had already been done. I've tried to upload three seperate images of the CPU socket to an imgur album right here: https://imgur.com/a/CAf6TkN. It's a longshot, but I've done my best to highlight the section where I believe there to be a bent pin or two. In the upper right corner of the area I marked there seems to be a pin that doesn't look uniform with the others. I think the first image works best to see the pin I'm describing.

I was pretty set on buying a new CPU but I just couldn't help but feel that the motherboard is the problem here. Maybe if you can confirm that I'm not crazy and that there is indeed a pin that isn't uniform to the others, I'll feel more comfortable and go with a motherboard replacement.

 

[Darkbreeze]

I can't say for sure either, but it certainly looks like there might have been a problem in the upper right hand corner of the area you outlined in red.

 

[ThatGuyWhoCamps]

I can't say for sure either, but it certainly looks like there might have been a problem in the upper right hand corner of the area you outlined in red.

Would you say it'd be a safe bet to order a replacement motherboard instead of the CPU? I know the technician said he was like 85% sure it was the CPU, but I've never overclocked it and I don't think I've ever had overheating issues, especially since I use liquid cooling. Plus like you said, CPUs don't fail very often.

 

[Darkbreeze]

If he did not have another CPU to test it with, there is no way he could be ANY percent sure it was either component unless, for example, you could see leaking or bulging caps on the motherboard that were clearly to blame. Otherwise, they are just guessing and since it is FAR more common for the motherboard to be faulty than it is for the CPU (Sometimes common to be BOTH if there is an electrical reason for the CPU to have been damaged BECAUSE of the motherboard) to fail.

Unless it's a CPU with the pins on it, like AMD has, and they are bent, I'd almost always want to test the CPU in another known good motherboard before claiming the CPU was the problem.

If they did not have a CPU, but they had a motherboard that was known to be good, and it still didn't work, that would be different. Doesn't sound to me like they had any test hardware for the X99 platform to be honest.

 

[Danra]

You had this problem before you took the CPU out, which was something you did not need to do. So, now you may have two problems if a pin is bent.

I am assuming the shop tested your computer with one of their video cables, did they? Did you try a different video cable?

Excluding the CPU, the problem is most likely the power supply or the video card - unless there is a busted CPU pin stuck in the motherboard. I cannot believe a computer shop would not have a used power supply to test your computer with, in my mind it is inexcusable unless the shop is operating on a razor thin budget.

I suggest you find a shop or a friend with a computer that has a power supply powerful enough to run your video card, just to see if you get a signal when the BIOS is testing components, you do not need to enter Windows to determine if a signal is being sent. In fact, you can disconnect your friend's hard drive and you will get a message on the screen.

Your Corsair CX series power supply is getting old, and the CX series is close to an OEM power supply in quality, which means barely acceptable in my opinion. The next time you purchase a power supply, and want a Corsair, I suggest something other than the CX line.

In any event, I would have the video card checked. If you have a Micro Center near by they should be able to check it for a small fee.

Now to your picture of your CPU pins. I see one slightly bent and another unrecognizable. By the way, one of the best methods to bend pins back in place is with a razor blade or something else that is just as thin. Put it in a row of pins where there is a bent pin then in another row that touches the same bent pin and wiggle it back and forth using very slight pressure until it is aligned with the other pins. I do not know what tool you used or how you used it.

Can you take another picture of the pins with the camera at an angle to the motherboard so we can better see the condition of the pins in question?

Here is your picture with a possible bent pin, and another possible slightly bent pin. The right hand pin circled in blue is most suspect. The yellow lines are where a very thin blade is to be placed in order to push the pins into alignment - if the far right pin is not to far out of alignment. Those pins break easily.

Please reply.

https://imgur.com/PttqF5j

 

[DaddyOG]

the thing is that he tried "Powering on with nothing but CPU and one RAM stick" so it's not his video card. it's not going to be his PSU because he boots into windows "I'd log into my USER and there would be no wallpaper, icons, cursor, nothing. Nothing except for my auto-run programs booting up. I'd restart and the problem would be fixed." what hes saying there is a CPU problem and it is from those 2 pins. he's going to get the Motherboard RMA'ed

 

[Danra]

the thing is that he tried "Powering on with nothing but CPU and one RAM stick" so it's not his video card. it's not going to be his PSU because he boots into windows "I'd log into my USER and there would be no wallpaper, icons, cursor, nothing. Nothing except for my auto-run programs booting up. I'd restart and the problem would be fixed." what hes saying there is a CPU problem and it is from those 2 pins. he's going to get the Motherboard RMA'ed

In his initial post the OP said, "A few days ago this happened, naturally I restarted but only to find that this time I'd get no display."