[SOLVED] Not sure if PSU or Motherboard is faulty

[joshbrown151]

Hey there,

A few days back I had an issue with my GPU producing artifacts in-game. The following day, it couldn't run any game without crashing. As I needed the system up and running urgently for work, I had a new PSU delivered thinking it was running into a power delivery issue through degradation (I was running an RTX 2070 on a 450w PSU for months).

Now after installing the new Be Quiet PSU, the PC wouldn't power on at all. Nothing happened. I tried the paperclip trick with still got no response other than a quiet pop or crack (like what you hear when plugging in a power cable before switching the power off). So I assumed I was just unlucky enough to get a DOA PSU from Amazon. I've tried all sorts of diagnostic lists, but I still can't find a way to power the system up.

So I hooked up the old PSU so I could at least use the PC for anything but gaming, but then that wouldn't power on either. The fan fires up if I do the paperclip trick, but it won't do anything once plugged into the motherboard.

So at this point I'm just not sure how to progress. Do I chance another power supply, buy a new board, or get both and hope for the best? The board is probably still under warranty with Gigabyte, but it could take weeks to get it replaced as it's no longer stocked at the store I bought it for (probably replaced by B450)

System specs are

Gigabyte AB350 Gaming-WiFi motherboard
Ryzen 5 1500X CPU
Nvidia RTX 2070
Crucial Ballistics 2x16GB DDR4 2666Mhz
Fractal Design Integra 450W SFX PSU

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Aeacus]

Artifacts in game, especially games crashing once you run them, where system works otherwise fine is a sign of faulty GPU or faulty GPU drivers. Here, i would've first reinstalled GPU drivers, using DDU to be sure and if the issue remained, i would''ve went with new GPU.

All you've needed to do was to replace the GPU or it's drivers but since you replaced PSU and new Be Quiet! PSU blew up inside your system, you may look at everything new that PSU was connected to. Thing with PSUs is that they have the magical ability to fry everything they are connected to when they go sky high. The lower the PSU's build quality - the higher the chance. Also, MoBo is usually 1st to go when PSU pops.

So, at bare minimum, you're looking towards new good quality PSU, new MoBo and new GPU as well (or reinstallation of GPU drivers).

This time, don't cheap out on PSU and get a good quality unit. For RTX 2070 + the rest of your system, any Seasonic PSU in 600W range will do fine. E.g:
Focus 650 (80+ Gold), Focus+ 650 (80+ Gold), PRIME SnowSilent 650 (80+ Platinum) or PRIME Ultra 650 (80+ Titanium),
pcpp: https://pcpartpicker.com/products/compare/WrNypg,qn7v6h,yJgzK8,fnjJ7P/

Warranty wise:
Focus: 7 years
Focus+: 10 years
PRIME: 12 years (includes all PRIME models: regular, Fanless, AirTouch, SnowSilent, Ultra)

All my 3 PCs: Skylake, Haswell and AMD are also powered by Seasonic while i have the PRIME 650 (80+ Titanium) unit in Skylake build. Full specs with pics in my sig.

Also, PRIME Ultra 650 (80+ Titanium) is the best 650W PSU money can buy at current date and with it, you'll get the highest efficiency (94%), tightest voltage regulation (0.5%), longest hold-up time (30ms), lowest ripple noise (20mV) and longest warranty (12 years) there is. Fully modular cables and toggle-able Premium Hybrid fan control too.
specs: https://seasonic.com/prime-ultra-titanium
review: http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=536

Oh, all fully-modular Seasonic PSUs are also compatible with CableMod SE-series custom sleeved power cables.
To match my 3x PCs build themes, i have replaced the stock black power cables with CableMod SE-series custom sleeved power cables,
cablemod: https://cablemod.com/products/?filter_series=se-series&show_products=48

 

[joshbrown151]

Artifacts in game, especially games crashing once you run them, where system works otherwise fine is a sign of faulty GPU or faulty GPU drivers. Here, i would've first reinstalled GPU drivers, using DDU to be sure and if the issue remained, i would''ve went with new GPU.

All you've needed to do was to replace the GPU or it's drivers but since you replaced PSU and new Be Quiet! PSU blew up inside your system, you may look at everything new that PSU was connected to. Thing with PSUs is that they have the magical ability to fry everything they are connected to when they go sky high. The lower the PSU's build quality - the higher the chance. Also, MoBo is usually 1st to go when PSU pops.

So, at bare minimum, you're looking towards new good quality PSU, new MoBo and new GPU as well (or reinstallation of GPU drivers).

This time, don't cheap out on PSU and get a good quality unit. For RTX 2070 + the rest of your system, any Seasonic PSU in 600W range will do fine. E.g:
Focus 650 (80+ Gold), Focus+ 650 (80+ Gold), PRIME SnowSilent 650 (80+ Platinum) or PRIME Ultra 650 (80+ Titanium),
pcpp: https://pcpartpicker.com/products/compare/WrNypg,qn7v6h,yJgzK8,fnjJ7P/

Warranty wise:
Focus: 7 years
Focus+: 10 years
PRIME: 12 years (includes all PRIME models: regular, Fanless, AirTouch, SnowSilent, Ultra)

All my 3 PCs: Skylake, Haswell and AMD are also powered by Seasonic while i have the PRIME 650 (80+ Titanium) unit in Skylake build. Full specs with pics in my sig.

Also, PRIME Ultra 650 (80+ Titanium) is the best 650W PSU money can buy at current date and with it, you'll get the highest efficiency (94%), tightest voltage regulation (0.5%), longest hold-up time (30ms), lowest ripple noise (20mV) and longest warranty (12 years) there is. Fully modular cables and toggle-able Premium Hybrid fan control too.
specs: https://seasonic.com/prime-ultra-titanium
review: http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=536

Oh, all fully-modular Seasonic PSUs are also compatible with CableMod SE-series custom sleeved power cables.
To match my 3x PCs build themes, i have replaced the stock black power cables with CableMod SE-series custom sleeved power cables,
cablemod: https://cablemod.com/products/?filter_series=se-series&show_products=48

Oh, believe me, I did the whole DDU process before tossing a new PSU at it. I actually managed to try the GPU in my brother's PC a few minutes ago and the artifacting is dramatically worse on his. The GPU is utterly screwed and ready to be shipped off.

What gets me though is that this means it probably wasn't a PSU issue at all at first. But buying a new Be Quiet (Gold rated, too) just took something else out along the way. This was without the GPU installed. Surely a faulty (new) product breaking my otherwise perfectly fine mb/cpu is grounds for a complaint, right? Where do I stand on that?

 

[Aeacus]

You can file a complaint to Be Quiet! about their new PSU frying your system but best they would do is to replace your PSU under warranty. PSU manufacturers doesn't include any other component in the warranty terms which popping PSU might fry. Mainly because it's next to impossible for you to prove that this specific Gigabyte MoBo was fried by Be Quiet! PSU under normal operating conditions. Also, even if you want to send dead MoBo alongside dead PSU back to Be Quiet!, they have no way to test how or why MoBo died. Only Gigabyte techs can tell that.
In other words, PSU warranty doesn't cover any other component PSU might fry.

In my past 25+ years that i've dealt with PCs, i know only 2x instances where PSU brand did refund the money for the other fried components as well. Since it was long time ago (about a decade ago), i don't remember the details why PSU brand (Corsair) did that.

 

[joshbrown151]

You can file a complaint to Be Quiet! about their new PSU frying your system but best they would do is to replace your PSU under warranty. PSU manufacturers doesn't include any other component in the warranty terms which popping PSU might fry. Mainly because it's next to impossible for you to prove that this specific Gigabyte MoBo was fried by Be Quiet! PSU under normal operating conditions. Also, even if you want to send dead MoBo alongside dead PSU back to Be Quiet!, they have no way to test how or why MoBo died. Only Gigabyte techs can tell that.
In other words, PSU warranty doesn't cover any other component PSU might fry.

In my past 25+ years that i've dealt with PCs, i know only 2x instances where PSU brand did refund the money for the other fried components as well. Since it was long time ago (about a decade ago), i don't remember the details why PSU brand (Corsair) did that.

Well I guess it's worth a shot either way. At this point I'm just in a real difficult situation. They don't make this motherboard anymore, and nowhere stocks any B450 boards of the same form factor due to Ryzen 3000 being so close. My GPU probably won't be back for a week or two, and now I'm not even sure what to do about buying a new PSU. Sending the board back to Gigabyte will take weeks. It's almost like it's worth just buying into Ryzen 3000 next week, but I wasn't planning an upgrade and this potential PSU pop shouldn't be the thing to make me have to do that.

Then again, my AB350 is technically compatible with Ryzen 3000 chips, so it's not even like I really need a new board. I can just get it replaced and still follow that upgrade path later. It'll just take weeks to get my system running again.

 

[Aeacus]

The MoBo you have is in stock at SuperBiiz though,
link: https://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=MB-B350NGW&c=CJ&cjevent=6c6519b99d0f11e9801200dd0a180512

Either get that one or for other B350 chipset mini-ITX MoBos, here's the full list,
pcpp: https://pcpartpicker.com/products/motherboard/#c=124&f=8&sort=price&s=33

Though, that much is true that Ryzen 3000 series is around the corner (relase date 7th of July) and it does look worthwhile upgrade for your R5 1500X.

As far as PSUs go, you can't go wrong with Seasonic (due to that, all 3x of my PCs are also powered by Seasonic) but you can go wrong with other popular PSU brands, including Corsair, EVGA and Thermaltake. Oh, XFX is also good to go for since their PSU OEM is also Seasonic, except the XFX XT series, avoid those.