Hi everyone.
I’ve been having serious troubles with my setup as of two weeks ago. One day, after 6 months of functionality, my system decided it no longer wanted to turn on. When the power button is pressed, all fans start spinning and the CPU debug light on my MSI motherboard lights up (does not flash, light is steady). There is no video output, and none of the normal beeps that would indicate POSTing. As most experienced with troubleshooting know, there are a lot of potential causes for this specific issue.
PC Specs
MB: MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk Max WiFi
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Slim
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws V 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3200 CL16
Case: Corsair 4000D Airflow
PSU: Corsair RM750e (2022) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (using provided cables)
GPU: GeForce RTX 2060
This problem persists when every other component other than the MB, CPU and CPU fan and the RAM are disconnected. If the RAM is disconnected, the CPU debug light will show for a second, before it turns off and the DRAM light turns on instead. There are no other noticeable differences.
I have extensively studied the guide at https://forums.tomshardware.com/thr...deo-output-troubleshooting-checklist.1285536/ and none of the items on the checklist that I tried had any noticeable impact (except breadboarding which I have not yet tried). All the required standoffs are in place (for both MBs tested). All the requisite cables are comfortably seated in their relevant positions (I’ve unplugged and replugged all of them dozens of times over the past fortnight). Changing RAM around doesn’t do anything other than cause the DRAM light to flash on in certain configs.
Other things I’ve tried:
Naturally this starts to point me at the CPU being the issue as there is basically no other components left to be at fault. I’ve inspected the pins of the CPU as closely as I can, none of them are missing or bent as far as I can tell. I’m led to believe that CPU failure after only 6 months is very uncommon but I’m absolutely willing to hear any information anyone might have on that front. I might be grasping entirely at straws here, but I have this weird sinking feeling that there's something amiss with my CPU cooler, my Dark Rock Slim does not fit snugly onto the provided bracket and I feel like it should. I’ve reviewed all relevant documentation for the cooler but I am certain I am not installing it incorrectly. I have no idea if this is relevant at all, but it has been nagging at me so I felt like I should include it. See pic below of what the brackets look like when installed and tightened as far as is reasonable. As you can see, there's still a noticeable gap.
View: https://imgur.com/a/QBS1wAG
The only thing I haven’t done here is breadboard it – I will try this while I wait for replies to this thread and edit this post with any notable results.
I am frankly at my wits end. I haven’t really been able to relax the past fortnight, as pathetic as that sounds. I even took the revolutionary step of taking my computer to a PC repair shop, who charged me $170 for the privilege of being told “we dunno, its probably the motherboard”. If you have literally any ideas at all, please tell me them as I am frankly getting desperate.
I’ve been having serious troubles with my setup as of two weeks ago. One day, after 6 months of functionality, my system decided it no longer wanted to turn on. When the power button is pressed, all fans start spinning and the CPU debug light on my MSI motherboard lights up (does not flash, light is steady). There is no video output, and none of the normal beeps that would indicate POSTing. As most experienced with troubleshooting know, there are a lot of potential causes for this specific issue.
PC Specs
MB: MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk Max WiFi
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Slim
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws V 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3200 CL16
Case: Corsair 4000D Airflow
PSU: Corsair RM750e (2022) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (using provided cables)
GPU: GeForce RTX 2060
This problem persists when every other component other than the MB, CPU and CPU fan and the RAM are disconnected. If the RAM is disconnected, the CPU debug light will show for a second, before it turns off and the DRAM light turns on instead. There are no other noticeable differences.
I have extensively studied the guide at https://forums.tomshardware.com/thr...deo-output-troubleshooting-checklist.1285536/ and none of the items on the checklist that I tried had any noticeable impact (except breadboarding which I have not yet tried). All the required standoffs are in place (for both MBs tested). All the requisite cables are comfortably seated in their relevant positions (I’ve unplugged and replugged all of them dozens of times over the past fortnight). Changing RAM around doesn’t do anything other than cause the DRAM light to flash on in certain configs.
Other things I’ve tried:
- Using an entirely different PSU that I’m decently confident still works, no difference
- Using an entirely different motherboard (MSI B550M PRO-VDH WIFI) newly purchased after incorrectly concluding that my MB must be the problem, no difference
- Using the MSI flashback to install a new BIOS after doing CMOS resets, tried multiple times with both motherboards, no difference (using most recent non-beta BIOS from MSI website)
Naturally this starts to point me at the CPU being the issue as there is basically no other components left to be at fault. I’ve inspected the pins of the CPU as closely as I can, none of them are missing or bent as far as I can tell. I’m led to believe that CPU failure after only 6 months is very uncommon but I’m absolutely willing to hear any information anyone might have on that front. I might be grasping entirely at straws here, but I have this weird sinking feeling that there's something amiss with my CPU cooler, my Dark Rock Slim does not fit snugly onto the provided bracket and I feel like it should. I’ve reviewed all relevant documentation for the cooler but I am certain I am not installing it incorrectly. I have no idea if this is relevant at all, but it has been nagging at me so I felt like I should include it. See pic below of what the brackets look like when installed and tightened as far as is reasonable. As you can see, there's still a noticeable gap.
View: https://imgur.com/a/QBS1wAG
The only thing I haven’t done here is breadboard it – I will try this while I wait for replies to this thread and edit this post with any notable results.
I am frankly at my wits end. I haven’t really been able to relax the past fortnight, as pathetic as that sounds. I even took the revolutionary step of taking my computer to a PC repair shop, who charged me $170 for the privilege of being told “we dunno, its probably the motherboard”. If you have literally any ideas at all, please tell me them as I am frankly getting desperate.
Last edited:
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