[SOLVED] PC blue screened, doesn't POST with red VGA light on motherboard.

Jan 27, 2023
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I was playing CSGO for a few hours and my PC blue screened just after a kill with UNEXPECTED KERNEL MODE TRAP error. Then it restarted multiple times, saying preparing automatic repair. At one point it got stuck on preparing automatic repair for a few minutes so I tried restarting and resetting BIOS to defaults but it changed nothing. After restarting it manually a few times it stopped sending signal to the monitor with a solid red VGA light on the motherboard. I tried reseating and cleaning the GPU pins and tried with a GPU from my second PC but still nothing. I also tried my GPU on the second PC where everything worked. It didn't work with only one RAM stick from the second PC, I tried it in different slots. All 4 sticks from my PC worked on the second PC. I tried reseating the CPU but still nothing changed. I tried resetting the CMOS multiple times and put a new battery in but nothing. I put the SSD and HDD from my PC on the second PC and it ran the automatic repair, fixed some files, booted and everything ran. Then I put them back in my PC turned it on and it showed the motherboard logo but then stopped stopped sending signal to the monitor again and the red VGA never went away.

Hardware:
CPU: Intel Core i7-9700F
GPU: GIGABYTE RTX 2060 Windforce OC Edition
SSD: Samsung 970 Evo Plus NVMe PCIe M.2 250GB
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 2TB
RAM: Corsair VENGEANCE LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 3200MHz + Corsair VENGEANCE LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 3000MHz
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z370 HD3P
PSU: Corsair CX650M 650W Bronze
 

Aeacus

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Based on your troubleshooting, your MoBo is toast.

Most likely reason is this:
PSU: Corsair CX650M 650W Bronze

CXm, at best, is mediocre quality PSU, only good to power office PC without dedicated GPU. But it is nowhere near the build quality required to power gaming PC, especially with dedicated GPU.

So, you cheaped out on PSU and now, it has came to bit you in the arse, where you now need to replace the PSU and MoBo as well.

2nd time around, do not cheap out on PSU. Instead, buy proper, good quality PSU. E.g Seasonic Focus/PRIME series or Corsair RM/RMi/RMx/HX/HXi/AX/AXi.
(All 3 of my PCs are also powered by Seasonic, full specs with pics in my sig.)
 
Jan 27, 2023
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CXm, at best, is mediocre quality PSU, only good to power office PC without dedicated GPU. But it is nowhere near the build quality required to power gaming PC, especially with dedicated GPU.
I misremembered, it's actually a TX650M Gold and PSU calculators tell me I need 400W, so it should be a great PSU? I've used this PC for 4.5 years without any problems too.
I saw a person with a very similar problem who had a dead CPU, but I can't test that since the 2nd PC has a different socket. When I turned it on without any RAM the DRAM light turned on so I'm guessing the motherboard is at least somewhat alive. I will try to find a 1151 socket processor to test it before taking it to a repair shop to try fixing the motherboard since there are no 1151 motherboards with 4 RAM slots for sale in my country and buying a new motherboard means buying new everything. Still, I don't know what could have killed the CPU/motherboard.
 

Aeacus

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it's actually a TX650M Gold and PSU calculators tell me I need 400W, so it should be a great PSU? I've used this PC for 4.5 years without any problems too.

TXm is iffy, since over the years Corsair has used different OEMs and platforms to make the same label PSU.

Overall, TXm is considered decent to good, but i, personally, doesn't suggest getting one (since you'll never know which variant you'll get). Still, there are lemons, even among the best and without testing with 2nd, good quality PSU, the PSU issue can't be ruled out.

I saw a person with a very similar problem who had a dead CPU

CPUs are very robust and it is a rare sight to see CPU die outright. You'll be seeing MoBo to bite the dust far often than CPU.
 
It would seem that the problem is the motherboard, but, it is good enough to show a red gpu problem light.

The only thing left is the psu. See if you can't test with a known good psu.

One other possibility is a bent cpu socket pin.
This is all too easy to damage if you rare not careful.

If you determine that your motherboard is at fault,
I would not replace it, but upgrade both cpu and motherboard instead.

CSGO would benefit from the much higher single thread performance of the new 13th gen intel processors.
$300 should buy you a stronger processor and motherboard.
You can reuse your ddr4 ram.
 
Jan 27, 2023
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I tested my PSU on the second PC where it worked and the 2nd PSU (System Power 9 400W) on my PC where nothing changed. I checked the CPU pins again before posting and I would have told you that they were as straight as they get but as I was checking my dad tried cleaning the socket with a towel?????? tbf he is a little drunk right now. There were 4 wounded but with some patience I fixed them. We thought about getting a motherboard with DDR5 because it's a lot cheaper and faster than DDR4 but that would mean a 13th gen i7 to support it, new GPU so as to not bottleneck and a new PSU. Tomorrow I'll try my CPU on my friend's PC and on monday I'll take the motherboard to a repair shop. If it's totally dead I will buy a motherboard for 50$ with only 2 RAM slots until it's time for a new PC because this PC still runs everything great and there is no need to upgrade. When starting the PC after fixing the pins it skipped the CPU light so I'm guessing the socket is fine. You can see the picture, the bent pins were on the bottom left. https://ibb.co/dKm16Xn
 

Aeacus

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We thought about getting a motherboard with DDR5 because it's a lot cheaper and faster than DDR4 but that would mean a 13th gen i7 to support it

DDR5 RAM is far more expensive than DDR4 RAM. Same goes with MoBos as well.

DDR5 support is with Intel 600 and 700-series MoBos, meaning that any Intel 12th gen or 13th gen CPU will do. So, you don't need 13th gen i7 only (i7-13700). You could get as low as 12th gen i3 (i3-12100) or even Celeron (G6900), whereby they all support DDR5.
 
Jan 27, 2023
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I decided to get a new motherboard (MSI B365M PRO-VH). Now the CPU and DRAM debug lights turn on and off but after the DRAM turns off, the VGA and BOOT don't turn on at all and there is no signal to the monitor. I tried with different RAM, GPU and checked the wiring. Should I just take it back to the shop or can I fix it?
 

Aeacus

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You have 4x sticks of RAM, try with 1 stick of RAM at a time.

Also, BSoD could indicate fault in a CPU. Since CPU isn't tested in 2nd PC, i'd suspect CPU issue. If you could get your hands on 2nd, known to work, 9th gen or 8th gen CPU, it would tell if CPU is the issue.
 

Aeacus

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but I still don't know how my last cpu died.

CPU deaths are so rare that it isn't common knowledge on how do they die. Only select few cases, where steps to reproduce CPU dying can be reliably made, are known. E.g this latest saga with Asus MoBos and AMD CPUs;

Recap by JayzTwoCents;

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZ-QVOKGVyM


Steve (GamersNexus) has more in-depth videos about it.