Question Possible dead MB, board has power but won't POST or turn on. Advice?

[65535]

Hi, all. I could use a second opinion on a possible dead motherboard. The MB is powered (at least partially - USB sockets have power, power LED turns on if I misconnect it to the power switch pins ) but the PC won't turn on at all. Won't even POST, no beeps, no fan activity. Usually that's a short to the case or a dead MB, right?

Computer worked fine on friday, wasn't used on saturday and refused to turn on on sunday. Nothing changed or moved, no power surges, no obvious cause of damage. It's plugged into a surge protector, in any case. I've no idea what could have triggered a failure.

Specs: Ryzen 3200g, Asrock A320M-HDV 4.0 MB, Silverstone 300W PSU, 8gb RAM, two hard drives. GTX 1650S added post intial build when he found out about Flight Simulator; makes the PSU a little underpowered for my liking but it works. Well, worked. He still hasn't played it, the old fart.

The PC itself isn't brand new, but it's not that old either. Six months, ish? Work/personal use. It's my old man's PC, built it myself; only odd behaviour recently is that the desktop clock kept showing the wrong time on startup (until windows checked it online and corrected it). Possible BIOS issue? Not sure if that's still the case for newer boards. Resetting the BIOS/CMOS didn't help, though. It's also had a persistent but only mildly annoying screen flickering issue that I suspect is caused by the processor GPU arguing with the actual GPU. Tried fixing that a while back but to no avail. Not sure if it could be relevant.

MB doesn't have diagostic LEDs or Q-codes. Put a MB speaker in, not a peep from it.

I've tested everything I can think of:

• The physical power button; switched it with the reset button, jumped it manually, nothing.
• The PSU. Paperclip tested, works. Switched it with a definitely working PSU, nothing. Yes, I plugged the 4/24 pin connectors in properly.
• Components: Pulled out everything non-vital, individually and entirely, no effect. With and without fans. Doesn't respond even with only the processor and RAM in. Tried each RAM stick individually, nothing. Tried different RAM too, nothing.
• CMOS battery. Put a new one in, nothing. Assuming one CR2032 is the same as another, regardless of make.
• CMOS/BIOS reset. Tried the jumpers, no effect. Nothing should have changed, in any case.
• CPU. I don't have another one to test with, but reseated the thing just in case and made sure the pins were OK/clean. Last thing I tried, since it was a stab in the dark. No difference. It should at least POST with a bad processor though, right?
• Shorting. I don't have a voltmeter to mess around with, but I can't see any cause or reason for it. Moving wires around changes nothing, screws are fine AFAICT. Again, it was working the other day.
• Cables, sockets. Tried different ones, nothing.

Seems to me that I've narrowed the problem to one of two: MB failure or me being an idiot. Maybe both. Basically, I'm hoping someone'll think of something obvious that I've missed, or confirm that I need to buy a new MB.

Thanks.

 

[icebearfan]

I'm actually having the same issue i think. My motherboard lights up(rgb only since it doesnt have a LED indicator) but when i turn it on, nothing happens, no fan movement, nothing. I brought my system to my friends house after a week and it booted. When i got home and plugged it on the same extension cord, it booted as well but the next morning, it was the same as before, motherboard lights up but doesnt turn on.
What i'm saying now is can you try plugging your system to an avr since my friend had an avr/ups when i tested mine and it booted.

 

[65535]

A clarification:

He's not sure if he turned it off normally on its last day, or if he just assumed that he'd already turned it off when he checked on his way to bed. Not sure if that makes a difference.

 

[chickenballs]

I assume you have tried to boot with out the 1650.

Won't even POST, no beeps, no fan activity

Well that's what happened when my old Asus board died two years ago.
Replacing it with a working and much better MSI board solved the problem

 

[65535]

So on a wild guess, I tried a third PSU, the one from my own computer. I'm now looking at my spare one suspiciously even though it's currently powering the computer I'm typing this on, because putting that third PSU into the broken PC got it working.

Why? No idea. Maybe one of the internal cables on the spare one is shot, and that threw me off. More likely is that I'm an idiot, somehow.

Question answered, I guess. MB's fine. Sorry for wasting everyone's time.

The lesson for future generations is this: never, ever trust a power unit.