[SOLVED] PC Stuck in booting loop

[Shadowyxp]

I've been doing a bit of troubleshooting with my pc that I built about 5 years back. It started with my PSU and motherboard failing together. I replaced the motherboard and the PSU, and rebuilt everything after giving the old parts a much needed cleaning.

After my first boot with the new motherboard though, my computer just starts for a few seconds - all the fans stay on, including the cpu cooler and GPU fan, and then turns off, and repeats in a loop like this. Luckily my motherboard has Q-LED's which aid in debugging, yay!

I have also tested the ram by removing each stick one by one, replacing each one, and trying other slots, nothing changes what happens.

What happens: power on - CPU light on - moves to dram light (stays on for ~8 seconds) - it sometimes moves to vga for a second or 2, but sometimes just skips this step - light flickers back to CPU, and the computer turns off. In a flash of incredible genius I did not buy new thermal paste while putting back together my computer. I was hoping that the old thermal paste that was previously applied would be enough. Is it reasonable to believe that my PC is turning off because the CPU is overheating? Causing the debug light to jump back to it at the end? If that is likely the case, I will place an order for some new thermal paste to make its way over.

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[punkncat]

Most certainly a CPU with old or ineffective paste can overhead very quickly, even in BIOS/post.

Unfortunately you might be faced with a situation where the power supply and/or motherboard failure took other items with it.
Based on the lack of detail we are assuming that this is the same model motherboard you had before replaced? New? Used?

Do you have any other systems available to test other components in?

 

[Shadowyxp]

Most certainly a CPU with old or ineffective paste can overhead very quickly, even in BIOS/post.

Unfortunately you might be faced with a situation where the power supply and/or motherboard failure took other items with it.
Based on the lack of detail we are assuming that this is the same model motherboard you had before replaced? New? Used?

Do you have any other systems available to test other components in?

Unfortunately I cannot test my computer in another system. This has been causing a lot of trouble in my debugging because I have no idea which parts fully work.

I can note a few things.

Asus z170a was my old motherboard
the new one i bought is a Gigabyte z370 gaming X (because I'm a gamer) - it is a new model.

I have not been testing with my graphics card plugged in, i had it plugged in and unplugged it when it was causing loops, and unplugging it caused no change.

I cannot verify that my ram is alright. It doesnt boot no matter which stick i use in which slot (i have 2, but have been testing with one and moving them around). It could easily be the case that both sicks were destroyed.

Currently I'm trying to fix things in order of cheapest fix first, at the beginning it was apparent that my motherboard was getting no power whatsoever.

Afterwards the motherboard was getting powered, but it's boot failed immediately, and nothing happened

Now that the motherboard is in, it starts for a few seconds, and fails at seemingly random intervals. So currently my next steps are: Buy thermal paste and re-apply it. If that doesnt work, is a good next step buying new RAM? Or would it be possible that I need a new CPU altogether?

 

[punkncat]

Asus z170a was my old motherboard
the new one i bought is a Gigabyte z370 gaming X (because I'm a gamer) - it is a new model.

Found your problem. Your first is for 6th gen and the latter is for 8/9th gen.

 

[Shadowyxp]

No way... I feel really dumb to admit this, but I couldnt remember what CPU I had before, I thought it was an 8th gen skylake. But I could totally believe it's a 6th gen as well. The name is covered by old thermal paste so I was guessing.

I hope I can return the motherboard without a ton of trouble.

You rock, I'll post an update later!

 

[Shadowyxp]

Thanks for the help! I placed an order for a new CPU, figured it was time for an upgrade soon anyway.

going from an i5-6600K to an i5 9600K, I really enjoyed my old one so I think this will be worth it.