[SOLVED] No POST or beeps. Motherboard or CPU?

[Silki7]

About 4 weeks ago, my PC completely ceased to function to what I believe was a power supply failure. Tested with my friends confirmed working power supply and there was some sort of burning around the CPU socket but no physical damage I could discern.

Since the unfortunate incident, I have replaced my motherboard, case, and the power supply. After assembling the new parts along with a few old ones, The PC turned on and went in a power loop where it turned on for 3 seconds at a time before finally the power LED on the case went dark and all the fans in the PC kept spinning. After the 1st time I attempted to boot, the power button only flickers when I press it and it skips straight to uncontrolled fan spinning within the PC. Took out the RAM and plugged in the internal speaker to try and get some sort of beeping message from the board. No such luck.

Bought a power supply tester to rule out power as being an issue again. Passed the test with no inconsistencies. Now that I've ruled out the power, I attempted to breadboard the motherboard outside of the case to rule out any possible shorts within the case. Same results with the power button flickering on and off within a split second and fans continuing to spin. Even took out the CPU to look for any bent pins and then attempted turning the motherboard on without RAM or a CPU. Issue persisted.

I am assuming the issue has to do with either the motherboard or the CPU since it does not beep or POST and I've ruled out the power supply.

I have a video of exactly what happens when I attempt to turn the PC on but I am not sure on how to upload it here.

CPU: i7 4790k
MOBO: MSI Z97 PC Mate
PSU: EVGA 850w GQ
RAM: 2x8 G.Skill Ares Series DDR3
GPU: GTX 1060 6GB
Case: NZXT H510

Please forgive my poor formatting as I wrote this on a mobile device.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Is there a system speaker attached, because if there's not, you are not ever going to hear any beeps no matter what kind of problem it has.

If there IS a correctly attached system speaker connected to the motherboard, and there are no beeps, then the fact that you have already had the same issue with TWO motherboards, and the CPU is the only common denominator, then it stands to reason that the CPU must be the problem unless this second motherboard was purchased used and you actually have no idea if it works or not.

Was the replacement motherboard new, or used? Did you actually SEE it function before purchasing it? Do you have a fan or CPU cooler connected to the CPU_FAN header? Because many boards will not even fully power on if there is not immediately a signal from the CPU_FAN header indicating a cooling device is present.

 

[Silki7]

Is there a system speaker attached, because if there's not, you are not ever going to hear any beeps no matter what kind of problem it has.

If there IS a correctly attached system speaker connected to the motherboard, and there are no beeps, then the fact that you have already had the same issue with TWO motherboards, and the CPU is the only common denominator, then it stands to reason that the CPU must be the problem unless this second motherboard was purchased used and you actually have no idea if it works or not.

Was the replacement motherboard new, or used? Did you actually SEE it function before purchasing it? Do you have a fan or CPU cooler connected to the CPU_FAN header? Because many boards will not even fully power on if there is not immediately a signal from the CPU_FAN header indicating a cooling device is present.

Yes, there is a system speaker attatched. The board was bought refurbished from a trusted seller although I did not see it work in person. CPU fan was plugged into the correct header and I even tried to start without it plugged in with identical results.

What really strikes me as odd is how the power button flickers on and off for a split second almost as if there is a short somewhere. I have tested the motherboard outside of the case and jump-started it with a screwdriver.

Would there be any beeps from the internal speaker if the CPU was dead?

 

[Darkbreeze]

Who was the seller? Was it a Fleabay or Amazon 3rd party seller?

Personally, I'd return the board as defective. For one, that is the MOST low quality of all the Z97 boards that were ever made and two, there is really no such thing as a "refurbished" motherboard. If it is sold as refurbished that means it was returned at some point with a problem and since manufacturers do NOT repair these boards, they replace them with other boards that simply managed to pass some basic functionality tests, then it is either a seller trying to pass a used board off as refurbished OR a board that was sent out from the manufacturer as a replacement for another board that died, but is also used and had some kind of problem at some time or another. In some cases those work out. Often, they do not.

I'd call BS and return it, although admittedly there is no way for me to tell you for sure that IT is the problem, because it very well might be the CPU and since this is the SECOND board that the CPU did not work with, it's pretty likely that it is. Obviously, that does not mean that the problem is not also twofold.

Did the seller claim to have tested that board themselves or was it listed as untested?

It might very much be worth paying a small fee to take that CPU to a PC repair shop and have it tested. Or taking the motherboard there. Or both. They will have parts that can be used for testing to see if either or both of those have failed, because honestly about the only way to ensure that the problem is a motherboard is to eliminate everything else OR to use other parts (CPU, memory, etc.) that you KNOW are good and where the motherboard is the only new introduced variable.

 

[Silki7]

Who was the seller? Was it a Fleabay or Amazon 3rd party seller?

Personally, I'd return the board as defective. For one, that is the MOST low quality of all the Z97 boards that were ever made and two, there is really no such thing as a "refurbished" motherboard. If it is sold as refurbished that means it was returned at some point with a problem and since manufacturers do NOT repair these boards, they replace them with other boards that simply managed to pass some basic functionality tests, then it is either a seller trying to pass a used board off as refurbished OR a board that was sent out from the manufacturer as a replacement for another board that died, but is also used and had some kind of problem at some time or another. In some cases those work out. Often, they do not.

I'd call BS and return it, although admittedly there is no way for me to tell you for sure that IT is the problem, because it very well might be the CPU and since this is the SECOND board that the CPU did not work with, it's pretty likely that it is. Obviously, that does not mean that the problem is not also twofold.

Did the seller claim to have tested that board themselves or was it listed as untested?

It might very much be worth paying a small fee to take that CPU to a PC repair shop and have it tested. Or taking the motherboard there. Or both. They will have parts that can be used for testing to see if either or both of those have failed, because honestly about the only way to ensure that the problem is a motherboard is to eliminate everything else OR to use other parts (CPU, memory, etc.) that you KNOW are good and where the motherboard is the only new introduced variable.

Seller was on ebay and has tons of listings for refurbished tech products. I messaged him about it and he said that he tested it to make sure it POSTed before he shipped it to me and is offering to send a prepaid shipping label to return it. A friend is going to let me borrow his known working LGA 1150 motherboard so I'll get to see if it's any different with his board. I have a feeling it might be the CPU since there was burning in the CPU socket of the old board which might've just killed it

 

[Darkbreeze]

Yes, it might have AND if you put your CPU in your friends board, you might kill that too which is why I said it might be worth spending a few bucks to have a shop test it that way it is THEIR hardware that gets zapped and not yours or your friends. Honestly, you might be best off to simply return that board and move on from this platform because buying another motherboard and CPU makes little sense when you can probably get into a Ryzen 3600, with board and memory for very reasonable prices which would offer a significant jump in performance over that 4790k.

 

[Silki7]

Yes, it might have AND if you put your CPU in your friends board, you might kill that too which is why I said it might be worth spending a few bucks to have a shop test it that way it is THEIR hardware that gets zapped and not yours or your friends. Honestly, you might be best off to simply return that board and move on from this platform because buying another motherboard and CPU makes little sense when you can probably get into a Ryzen 3600, with board and memory for very reasonable prices which would offer a significant jump in performance over that 4790k.

Yeah, now that I look into it, you're right. I am going to get this CPU tested and if it's dead then I'll just move onto a newer socket type. Are there any ryzen boards that still work with DDR3? I'm certain that my 16gb of RAM still works so I wouldn't want to waste that just yet.

 

[Darkbreeze]

There are NO platforms that work with DDR3 anymore. Yours was the last. There is still somewhat of a market, if you aren't in a hurry to find a buyer, for DDR3, so you might be able to sell it. Unfortunately, it can't be used with anything newer than Haswell realistically.

Memory is pretty cheap right now though, so it's not like it was a year ago when memory was twice the price, or more, than it is now.