Question Problem with MSI H97 Gaming 3 motherboard ?

[Str3ssl3ss]

Hi there everyone

I have a headache of a problem regarding my MSI H97 Gaming 3 motherboard. The issue I have is that when powering on my pc, it goes on for 1-2 seconds and then goes off and then it starts looping continuously. I unplugged everything on the board except the RAM and CPU and it still does the same thing. Does anyone have an idea on how to repair it or any idea on what the problem might be ?

PS: I tried powering on the board with no CPU or RAM and it still does the power loop. I also used 3 different PSUs with the same result.

I am a pc technician so any repair work I will be able to do no problem.

 

[Darkbreeze]

What are the FULL hardware specifications in use including the EXACT model numbers of ALL THREE power supplies and approximately how old (How long since purchase or length of time they've seen service) each of them is?

Given the age of that board, this is totally not surprising as you are right about, or even somewhat past, the age where many boards start experiencing problems with capacitors or other onboard components. Did this just start out of the blue or had you performed any sort of upgrade or maintenance prior to the problem beginning?

 

[Darkbreeze]

Are you still seeking help on this issue or not?

 

[Str3ssl3ss]

What are the FULL hardware specifications in use including the EXACT model numbers of ALL THREE power supplies and approximately how old (How long since purchase or length of time they've seen service) each of them is?

Given the age of that board, this is totally not surprising as you are right about, or even somewhat past, the age where many boards start experiencing problems with capacitors or other onboard components. Did this just start out of the blue or had you performed any sort of upgrade or maintenance prior to the problem beginning?

The one I changed to is a recent PSU 850w an prior to that I was running a 650w PSU that I bought approx 4 years ago. Just before the issue started I was receiving a few bsod's. I honestly can't remember the exact code but I do remember it was about corrupted system files and I did a reinstall as well which fixed the bsod error.

What I did notice like a few days before it started was one of my RAM sticks weren't showing so instead of 16GB it was showing 12GB.

My pc specs are:

Motherboard: MSI H97 Gaming 3
CPU: i5 4th gen
RAM: 4x 4GB ddr3 crucial 1600
GPU: RX 470 Radeon 4GB
PSU: 850w (currently)

PSU Model:

LC-8500 BTX - 850w
Corsair CX 430 - 430w
HP1-J650GD-F12S - 650w

 

[Darkbreeze]

Ok, so we have to be honest here, or at least, I have to be honest with you.

Your LC-8500 BTX is complete garbage. I'd be surprised if that unit could safely power a light bulb and no, I am not joking about that. It's a door stop. A PSU shaped object, plain and simple. You would be well advised to throw it directly in the trash and never use it with any hardware you have even the slightest concern for or that you value at all. It is literally a dumpster fire waiting to happen.

You CX430 is also a very poor quality unit. I've seen a LOT of those older CX units completely toast the systems they were attached to, including for some veteran members around here. Besides which, it is definitely ALSO underpowered for any system using an RX 470 that should only be used with at least a decent quality 450w or higher capacity unit. It also has to be pretty old because that model hasn't been manufactured for a pretty long while now so unless it was purchased used or was very old stock sitting on somebody's shelf for quite some time, it wasn't purchased recently.

Your High Power 650w unit is the best of the bunch, and even that one is relatively mediocre, but it's definitely better by far than the other two especially the LC-8500BTX. Even at 4 years old I'd trust it far more. It uses a decent platform, even on the cost down version of it as this platform is used by several brands for various models. High Power is an OEM, which means they actually design and make power supply platforms which they supply to other brands who are not power supply OEMs, like Antec, EVGA, Be Quiet, Thermaltake, Corsair, Fractal Design. NZXT, Gigabyte, MSI, etc. None of those companies design or make power supplies, they have companies like High Power, CWT, Seasonic, Super Flower and FSP do that for them basic on the platform and specifications they want, and then slap their own branding on them.

But if that unit is more than 5 years old or was used when you bought it so you don't really know how old it actually is, then it might just as well have problems due to age. And, a weak or failing power supply can absolutely cause one or more memory modules to not be recognized or cause errors.

I think the VERY FIRST order of business for you should be getting a good 550w or higher power supply. The following resources should be helpful in determining whether a unit is worth considering or not.

Discussion - PSU recommendations and power supply discussion thread - Tom's hardware

Below you will find MY standard list of recommended power supplies and beyond that this thread is intended as a landing place for questions or discussions regarding specific units, platforms or related PSU tech, all of which are all welcome to be discussed here. If it's related to power supplies...

forums.tomshardware.com

PSU Tier List rev. 17.0g - Cultists Network

PSU Tier List will help you to choose the best PSU out of hundreds of models on the market. From budget to the highest end Power Supplies.

cultists.network

RAM generally, USUALLY, doesn't just "go bad". It can happen, but it is not very common. Motherboards, different story. Those definitely can fail at any point, but it would be somewhat unusual for just one DIMM slot to suddenly stop working. Which slot was it that started having problems?

 

[Str3ssl3ss]

What are the FULL hardware specifications in use including the EXACT model numbers of ALL THREE power supplies and approximately how old (How long since purchase or length of time they've seen service) each of them is?

Given the age of that board, this is totally not surprising as you are right about, or even somewhat past, the age where many boards start experiencing problems with capacitors or other onboard components. Did this just start out of the blue or had you performed any sort of upgrade or maintenance prior to the problem beginning?

The one I changed to is a recent PSU 850w an prior to that I was running a 650w PSU that I bought approx 4 years ago. Just before the issue started I was receiving a few bsod's. I honestly can't remember the exact code but I do remember it was about corrupted system files and I did a reinstall as well which fixed the bsod error.

What I did notice like a few days before it started was one of my RAM sticks weren't showing so instead of 16GB it was showing 12GB.

My pc specs are:

Motherboard: MSI H97 Gaming 3
CPU: i5 4th gen
RAM: 4x 4GB ddr3 crucial 1600
GPU: RX 470 Radeon 4GB
PSU: 850w (currently)

PSU Model:

LC-8500 BTX - 850w
Corsair CX 430 - 430w
HP1-J650GD-F12S - 650w

Ok, so we have to be honest here, or at least, I have to be honest with you.

Your LC-8500 BTX is complete garbage. I'd be surprised if that unit could safely power a light bulb and no, I am not joking about that. It's a door stop. A PSU shaped object, plain and simple. You would be well advised to throw it directly in the trash and never use it with any hardware you have even the slightest concern for or that you value at all. It is literally a dumpster fire waiting to happen.

You CX430 is also a very poor quality unit. I've seen a LOT of those older CX units completely toast the systems they were attached to, including for some veteran members around here. Besides which, it is definitely ALSO underpowered for any system using an RX 470 that should only be used with at least a decent quality 450w or higher capacity unit. It also has to be pretty old because that model hasn't been manufactured for a pretty long while now so unless it was purchased used or was very old stock sitting on somebody's shelf for quite some time, it wasn't purchased recently.

Your High Power 650w unit is the best of the bunch, and even that one is relatively mediocre, but it's definitely better by far than the other two especially the LC-8500BTX. Even at 4 years old I'd trust it far more. It uses a decent platform, even on the cost down version of it as this platform is used by several brands for various models. High Power is an OEM, which means they actually design and make power supply platforms which they supply to other brands who are not power supply OEMs, like Antec, EVGA, Be Quiet, Thermaltake, Corsair, Fractal Design. NZXT, Gigabyte, MSI, etc. None of those companies design or make power supplies, they have companies like High Power, CWT, Seasonic, Super Flower and FSP do that for them basic on the platform and specifications they want, and then slap their own branding on them.

But if that unit is more than 5 years old or was used when you bought it so you don't really know how old it actually is, then it might just as well have problems due to age. And, a weak or failing power supply can absolutely cause one or more memory modules to not be recognized or cause errors.

I think the VERY FIRST order of business for you should be getting a good 550w or higher power supply. The following resources should be helpful in determining whether a unit is worth considering or not.

Discussion - PSU recommendations and power supply discussion thread - Tom's hardware

Below you will find MY standard list of recommended power supplies and beyond that this thread is intended as a landing place for questions or discussions regarding specific units, platforms or related PSU tech, all of which are all welcome to be discussed here. If it's related to power supplies...

forums.tomshardware.com

PSU Tier List rev. 17.0g - Cultists Network

PSU Tier List will help you to choose the best PSU out of hundreds of models on the market. From budget to the highest end Power Supplies.

cultists.network

RAM generally, USUALLY, doesn't just "go bad". It can happen, but it is not very common. Motherboards, different story. Those definitely can fail at any point, but it would be somewhat unusual for just one DIMM slot to suddenly stop working. Which slot was it that started having problems?

Thanks for the information regarding the PSUs I'll definitely look into that.

I'm not to sure which slot went bad because I tested each slot and all of it had the same result with the motherboard going on and off.

I have this motherboard for about 8 years now so I'm also aware that it's quite dated. I so badly want to upgrade but the system I want to build in my currency is 25000 rand/zar. It's sound so much cheaper in USD being $1400 approx.

Do you think it could be my RAM itself that is a problem or my chipset being so old? I found one of my gigabyte 4th gen board and it's doing the same thing with my chipset and RAM and PSU which I honestly find strange cause it rare to have to different boards do the same thing. The gigabyte board was working I just put it away when I upgraded to a gaming rig 8 years ago.

Also when I powered on the gigabyte board with a speaker connected it gave continuous long beaps but with my H97 I don't get any beaps codes when powering it on. The gigabyte board however stays on but I don't get a display where as the H97 board just power cycles all the time.
That's why I'm so frustrated.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Everything is just guesswork without a known good PSU that has sufficient capacity for the hardware. Same thing with two boards can really only be a few things and PSU is the most likely.

Try this, take the RX 470 OUT of the board completely and try using ONLY the integrated graphics from the CPU by plugging your display into one of the motherboard video outputs. This will tell us a couple of things if it works including potentially that it IS a power related issue, although there could still be a problem with a bad PSU even without the graphics card installed, and/or that it might potentially be a video card problem. Don't just unplug the power and video cables from the card, completely remove it from the motherboard. A bad card even when not plugged into anything except the board can still cause problems.

 

[Str3ssl3ss]

Everything is just guesswork without a known good PSU that has sufficient capacity for the hardware. Same thing with two boards can really only be a few things and PSU is the most likely.

Try this, take the RX 470 OUT of the board completely and try using ONLY the integrated graphics from the CPU by plugging your display into one of the motherboard video outputs. This will tell us a couple of things if it works including potentially that it IS a power related issue, although there could still be a problem with a bad PSU even without the graphics card installed, and/or that it might potentially be a video card problem. Don't just unplug the power and video cables from the card, completely remove it from the motherboard. A bad card even when not plugged into anything except the board can still cause problems

 

[Str3ssl3ss]

Everything is just guesswork without a known good PSU that has sufficient capacity for the hardware. Same thing with two boards can really only be a few things and PSU is the most likely.

Try this, take the RX 470 OUT of the board completely and try using ONLY the integrated graphics from the CPU by plugging your display into one of the motherboard video outputs. This will tell us a couple of things if it works including potentially that it IS a power related issue, although there could still be a problem with a bad PSU even without the graphics card installed, and/or that it might potentially be a video card problem. Don't just unplug the power and video cables from the card, completely remove it from the motherboard. A bad card even when not plugged into anything except the board can still cause problems.

So update... I tried what you said and it still going on and off. The CPU fan doesn't even spin it just moves and stops then the on and off starts. I only have the CPU and RAM in the board nothing else.

There is a jumper pin on my board that is names J1 and I'm not sure what that is cause it's not listed in manual. When I plug a jumper into it then it goes on and stays on but it's just the CPU fan is spinning. All my slots on the board doesn't work cause I tried it with my gpu plugged in but my GPU doesn't get power to it. I'm so confused.

 

[SkyNetRising]

So update... I tried what you said and it still going on and off.

What is model name of cpu?
Check cpu socket for bent/broken pins.
Make a high resolution photo of cpu socket and show here.
(upload to imgur.com and post link)

 

[Darkbreeze]

I'm telling you, this is absolutely not surprising with that PSU which is a pile of garbage. I'd take it out and put the 650w High power PSU back in there until you can get a decent PSU. Until you do this, we are just wasting time.

And as far as the CPU pins go, motherboards don't just suddenly develop a case of "bent pins" on a system that's been working totally fine for years and years, so it's pretty damn unlikely to be anything related to that unless you've recently had the CPU out of the socket and put it back in for maintenance or whatever.