Question PC not POSTing after motherboard upgrade ?

[Gigawiz]

Hello everyone,
I just did a motherboard upgrade on my PC. My old hardware is as follows:

Asus ROG Strix Z270i
Intel i7 7700k (overclocked to 5ghz)
32GB 3200MHz DDR4 Corsair Vengeance Pro (2x16)
Corsair H100i V2 liquid CPU cooler
AMD RX 580

This build was fully functional as my gaming PC. I decided to get a bigger case and upgrade my motherboard so I could get some extra features (like USB 2.0 ports so I could use the h100i's software). I found a motherboard on eBay supposedly pulled from a working PC. Now my computer won't boot. It powers on, the QLED lights clear CPU, but then gets stuck on DRAM and the computer goes no further. The only thing different between the two builds is the new (used) motherboard, which is an ASUS ROG Strix Z270E.

I have tried a single stick of ram in slot A2, the pair of sticks in all configurations of each slot and even different ram sticks entirely (I have an 8gb kit (2x4) and a single unbranded 16gb stick). All of these have had the same results. I also tried pulling the CMOS battery thinking maybe the last guy has an overclock or something, that didn't work either....

I still have access to my old components (ended up helping my cousin build a gaming computer out of them and he lives with me), so I could probably try my old i5 7600k and the RAM sticks from that.

But now I'm kind of at a loss. I want to make sure I get through as much troubleshooting as I can before I message the eBay seller about a return, is there anything that I might have missed?

Thanks for any help in advance.

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

Have you tried booting with and without the gpu on board?

 

[logainofhades]

Try a CMOS reset. I had that board, and it can be a bit of a pain, when changing hardware. Often needed to do a CMOS reset to make it work.

 

[Gigawiz]

Have you tried booting with and without the gpu on board?

Yes, the GPU was my first suspicion. Same result when using onboard graphics.

Try a CMOS reset. I had that board, and it can be a bit of a pain, when changing hardware. Often needed to do a CMOS reset to make it work.

CMOS reset works.... Kind of.... I pulled the CMOS battery and let the computer sit with a jumper on the CMOS reset pins for about 15 minutes. With more than one ram stick installed, it fails to boot. With a single stick in B2, it boots to bios. Gonna try to boot into windows and do a bios update...

 

[logainofhades]

A bios update may help. Have you tried both sticks of ram, in B2, to rule out one of the sticks being bad?

 

[Gigawiz]

A bios update may help. Have you tried both sticks of ram, in B2, to rule out one of the sticks being bad?

Okay, quick update. The system is now booting with 2 out of 4 ram slots populated. It did need a BIOS update (installed BIOS was from 2017, newest BIOS is from 2021). I'm not sure if this fixed anything or not, because slots A1 and A2 will cause a no-post if they're populated with anything at all. That being said, B1 and B2 work as expected.

As to the issues with the first two slots, I'm not sure if it is a motherboard issue or a CPU issue. The i7 7700k that I have came from my little brother's old computer which he told me died one day while booting the system. We were both under the assumption that his motherboard was the cause especially considering that the CPU works fine in my z270i. However when I pulled the CPU initially from my brother's computer, I noticed the CPU was warped, almost like it had too much pressure on it. I am hoping that the warped CPU is just causing the first two memory channels to be inaccessible, but I plan to test this later tonight as I still have my old i5 7600k that I was using originally in the z270i, it's just in use by my cousin currently, I'll talk to him about borrowing that tonight.

 

[logainofhades]

Ram should be in slots A2 and B2, per the manual, when using 2 sticks of ram.

https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/...AMING/E12192_STRIX_Z270E_GAMING_UM_V2_WEB.pdf

 

[Gigawiz]

Ram should be in slots A2 and B2, per the manual, when using 2 sticks of ram.

https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/...AMING/E12192_STRIX_Z270E_GAMING_UM_V2_WEB.pdf

Unfortunately that's not gonna happen until I get a replacement CPU. Tested the ram with my old i5 7600k and it boots up fine with all 4 sticks. I'll attach some pictures of the CPU to show how bad it is... Explains why I had an issue overclocking on the last motherboard 🤔

 

[logainofhades]

Now might be the perfect opportunity, then, to upgrade to a more modern platform. Your ram is fast enough, that you could switch to an AM4 platform, or do a ddr4 LGA 1700 platform. For close to the cost of an i7 7700k, on ebay, you can probably get a CPU and board, and get a faster CPU out of the deal.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600 3.5 GHz 6-Core Processor ($129.99 @ Adorama)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B550M DS3H AC Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $229.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-11-30 16:05 EST-0500

Even an i3 12100 is a very healthy upgrade, over a 7700k, though not quite as good, at multitasking, compared to a Ryzen 5 5600.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i3-12100F 3.3 GHz Quad-Core Processor ($109.00 @ B&H)
Motherboard: MSI PRO B660M-A DDR4 Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard ($109.99 @ B&H)
Total: $218.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-11-30 16:07 EST-0500

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

Did you have a large cooler on that cpu? That is usually caused by the cooler/fan/aio cooler being tightened down too much.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Did you have a large cooler on that cpu? That is usually caused by the cooler/fan/aio cooler being tightened down too much.

Overtightening a cooler could not possibly do that to a cpu that is fully seated in the CPU socket. There is no place for it to bend TO, as the entire substrate is supported by the socket. The only way you can get deformity is if one side or corner pops loose and allow it to LIFT up a bit. But an over tightened cooler bending the CPU, even if it was possible, would bend it completely opposite of the way that CPU is bent. I can't think of any way through normal use that a CPU could become bent like that. Completely impossible IMO and in 35 years of installing and removing CPUs from hundreds and hundreds of systems, I have never seen anything like that before no matter what kind of cooling it had.

Over tightening a CPU cooler could never cause that. It would damage the motherboard before it would ever do anything like that to the CPU.

Edit: Actually, I DO have an idea how that could happen. It could happen by somebody trying to pry the corners of the CPU out of the socket because they didn't know what they were doing and neglected to release the retention mechanism arm so that the CPU could just come right out. I've actually seen somebody break a motherboard socket and bend the hell out of a CPU before doing that exact thing. That is literally the only way I can see the CPU getting bent in the direction which it is bent. If somebody tried to pry it off the bottom of a heatsink because it was stuck, it would be bent the other way. If a CPU cooler COULD push down on the edges, they would be pushed the other way as well.

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

Overtightening a cooler could not possibly do that to a cpu that is fully seated in the CPU socket. There is no place for it to bend TO, as the entire substrate is supported by the socket. The only way you can get deformity is if one side or corner pops loose and allow it to LIFT up a bit. But an over tightened cooler bending the CPU, even if it was possible, would bend it completely opposite of the way that CPU is bent. I can't think of any way through normal use that a CPU could become bent like that. Completely impossible IMO and in 35 years of installing and removing CPUs from hundreds and hundreds of systems, I have never seen anything like that before no matter what kind of cooling it had.

Over tightening a CPU cooler could never cause that. It would damage the motherboard before it would ever do anything like that to the CPU.

Edit: Actually, I DO have an idea how that could happen. It could happen by somebody trying to pry the corners of the CPU out of the socket because they didn't know what they were doing and neglected to release the retention mechanism arm so that the CPU could just come right out. I've actually seen somebody break a motherboard socket and bend the hell out of a CPU before doing that exact thing. That is literally the only way I can see the CPU getting bent in the direction which it is bent. If somebody tried to pry it off the bottom of a heatsink because it was stuck, it would be bent the other way. If a CPU cooler COULD push down on the edges, they would be pushed the other way as well.

Intel: "When backplate bending occurs on the motherboard, the warping is caused by the mechanical load being placed on the motherboard to make electrical contact between the CPU and the socket. There’s no direct correlation between IHS deflection and backplate bending, other than they can both be caused by the mechanical socket loading."

 

[Darkbreeze]

First, they are not talking about anything even REMOTELY near to the level of bending we can obviously see on that CPU. They are talking about very minimal bending. They are not referring to a taco, which is what that CPU looks like.

Further, they specifically state "backplate bending", not "CPU bending". And, posting a quote without also indicating the link or source, is almost pointless because we have no clue what the context of that statement regards, so posting that is usually a good idea too.

 

[Gigawiz]

Wow, not going to lie I stopped paying attention to this thread because the problem was found... I have been missing out.

Bought the CPU off my little brother who lives across the continent in Texas. His computer just stopped working one day and he decided to just start fresh. He sold me the parts on the cheap due to an unknown reason of the death of his PC.

Apparently he had purchased the PC from ibuypower in "like 2017" brand new. He never did any upgrades besides adding an HDD.

The parts I purchased and their defects are as follows:

• GPU: OEM RX 580 (dell bios) - works flawlessly
• CPU: (obviously) this bent i7 7700k - It does overclock to 4.9ghz, it doesn't like 5ghz, and 2 out of 4 memory banks are unusable. Doesn't seem to be effected with only 2 channels available (on an itx board)
• Motherboard: ASRock Z270m-ITX/ac - doesn't power on. Tried both the i5 7600k from my last build and the i7 7700k. Didn't really dig into this one as it was assumed to be DOA due to a suspected power supply failure
• Ram: A single stick of Kingston PC4-2400T (16Gb) - works fine for a generic stick of ram

The only disassembly done was removing the motherboard from the case and ram from the dimm slots (to be shipped in a smaller profile). Which means it came from ibuypower bent like that?.... 🤔

Just figured I'd give out the history of the parts.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Which means it came from ibuypower bent like that?

That, would not surprise many of us here. Hell, we even have a thread on the private side of the fence with a literal collection of all the problems we see (Well, not ALL of them, only a sampling, which still adds up to a significant number of fails by iBuypower and Cyberpower PC) because it is such a common occurrence. So yes, the reality is, they are a cheap, scandalous company and the idea that they'd knowingly send install a bent CPU and send it out so long as it actually functioned somewhat would not surprise me in the least.