Puzzling issue, computer won't start/display properly

[jamesmith29]

Hi all,

SPECS:
CPU: Intel Core i5-7500 3.4GHz
Motherboard:Asus STRIX B250G GAMING Motherboard
Graphics Card: Galax (60NNH7DSL9C3) 3G GTX 1060 OC
PSU: Antec EDGE-650 650W Edge 80Plus Gold
RAM: Kingston HyperX FURY 8GB Kit (4Gx2) DDR4 2133
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO 250GB SSD

So I can't seem to figure out to save my life what the issue could be. Little bit of back story.

I built my PC around a year ago. I used to have a I3 6100 with an after market cooler, GTX 1050ti, a Gigabyte H110M-S2H Motherboard and a 7 year old Antec True Power 650w PSU.

So over time I eventually upgraded it bit by bit. First thing was the graphics card went to a Galax 3GB GTX 1060 OC. That was about a month ago. No issues at all. I was than worried that the CPU was going to bottle neck or not be utilized 100% on some games so I upgraded it to a Intel Core i5-7500 3.4GHZ that was around 2 weeks ago. Smooth sailing, installed it fine, temps where fine and it ran fine.

So now the real trouble starts. I was apply some better quality thermal paste to my CPU and heat sink. So it's a push and clip heatsink/fan combo. Latches on to the motherboard. Anyway I pushed the clips in at an angle or something to that extent and I bent them. So the heat sink sure as hell wasn't going to stay on. At that point I decided to upgrade to an even better CPU cooler.

I went with the Coolermaster Hyper-212X Universal version. This particular cooler has mounting brackets and a mounting plate. So I installed them placed the heat sink on and screwed it in.

This is when everything decided to go bad. Afterwards I powered my PC up. The CPU fan wouldn't spin and I noticed that my graphics card fans weren't spinning. I than realized that it wasn't displaying anything on my monitor. Just said that no source was found. Using DVI by the way. So I do some research. Turns out with this CPU cooler it can sometimes short circuit or there are electricity related issues due to the mounting plate at the back of the motherboard.

So I loosen the screws a bit for the heat sink. I power everything on again and the CPU fan starts spinning and working. How ever the graphics card fans still won't spin and the same display error. I leave it for a week till I can afford to replace the motherboard. During that week I looked at forums and advice as to what the issue could be. I suspected possibly a short circuit and was confident the motherboard was the issue. So I replaced the motherboard with a Asus STRIX B250G GAMING 2 days ago. Thought the issue would be fixed, I used a stock cooler and heat sink instead to see if it was the heat sinks issue. It wasn't I think... Because same issue, fans for my grapics card won't spin and it doesn't detect a display.

So than I decided maybe the PSU has kicked the bucket. I mean it's fairly old. So today I replaced it with a new Antec EDGE-650 650W Edge 80Plus Gold. I thought surely this would fix it. Unfortunately the exact same thing happened. No signal detected and graphics card still doesn't power/spin.

So now I think okay it's the graphics card. So to make sure, I tested it in my friends rig and it works perfectly fine. Powers on and displays everything. Iv'e also noticed that when I turn on my PC my external HDD powers on but the leds on my keyboard doesn't. So I thought maybe its not even posting/booting in to the operating system. I remove my graphics card and try using the on board motherboard grapics. Same issue, no signal.

What Iv'e tried:

Remove my SSD and test it in another rig. It boots fine and nothing has changed.
Tested keyboard in another rig works fine.
Tested PC by using a different monitor same issue
Tried Different cables, HDMI for on board and the Graphics card.
Triple checked every cable and power cable was plugged in correctly
Installed the Coolermaster Hyper-212X instead of stock (no changes)
Tried different power points and power boards

I than tried my old CPU the I3 - 6100 and my graphics card powered up and the fans spun. But I still get the same message on my monitor. So signal to display etc.

Tried the on board graphics with the old CPU same issue. No signal to display. I tried everything I mentioned above as well with the older CPU. Same problems..

I put my new CPU back in and the graphics card wont power or the fans on it won't spin.

So now I am honestly confused as to what the problem could be. Iv'e replaced the motherboard and the PSU and all of the other parts are brand new. Hell the graphics card worked in my friends rig.

Apologies for the excruciatingly long post, that about sums it up.

Any ideas?

[EDIT] Only thing I couldn't properly test was the RAM. I tried it with one stick in. No differences but I don't have a spare set or anywhere else to test it.

 

[DRagor]

Time to move back to basics. Make your build outside of case, start with just mobo+old CPU+RAM and PSU. If you have motherboard speaker, you can go without RAM expecting no-RAM beep code. If you can't make it work at this stage, then most likely case is something was shorting the motherboard and possibly even managed to break new mobo too. But lets hope it's not that.

 

[jamesmith29]

Time to move back to basics. Make your build outside of case, start with just mobo+old CPU+RAM and PSU. If you have motherboard speaker, you can go without RAM expecting no-RAM beep code. If you can't make it work at this stage, then most likely case is something was shorting the motherboard and possibly even managed to break new mobo too. But lets hope it's not that.

Well there's some good news and some bad news. Took it out of the casing reconnected everything. Put the old CPU in and it still wouldn't start. So I tried it with no ram. Still wouldn't. I tried it with one stick still failed. Took out the stick and put the other one in. Success! Everything powers on and the bios shows up! This is with the graphics card in too by the way. So I figured out okay its has to be the one stick of ram. I did some further testing. Unfortunately with the new cpu in the graphics card doesn't power up. Could that mean that one of the ram sticks was damaged/shorted and the new CPU too?

 

[DRagor]

It is possible to fry CPU with bad stick of ram, as ram controller is on CPU, but that does not happen too often. One more thing to test - check the working RAM stick at every motherboard slot to make sure all slots work. If motherboard pass this test, all you have to find is why new CPU is not working. One possibility, is wrong BIOS - note that on B250 normally it should not happen, as this is 7th gen board, but I've seen stranger things - so with your old CPU check out what BIOS version mobo has. Also, try running 7500 without GPU so we have all possible tests completed.

 

[jamesmith29]

It is possible to fry CPU with bad stick of ram, as ram controller is on CPU, but that does not happen too often. One more thing to test - check the working RAM stick at every motherboard slot to make sure all slots work. If motherboard pass this test, all you have to find is why new CPU is not working. One possibility, is wrong BIOS - note that on B250 normally it should not happen, as this is 7th gen board, but I've seen stranger things - so with your old CPU check out what BIOS version mobo has. Also, try running 7500 without GPU so we have all possible tests completed.

That's true didn't think of that. Well The good stick of RAM works in all slots so I'm glad that's ruled out at least. Iv'e ran it without the GPU as well same results. I did a quick inspection of the new board and I noticed that one of the pins in the motherboard socket is slightly bent. Which would explain why only some parts are working and why its all over the place. I took it back to where I bought it. Guy said the stock they had for this model had bent pins in a lot of them. Wish he could of told me that when I bought it. Anyway it's getting sent in for repairs. So hopefully that will fix any issues.

I'm still baffled as to what could of caused the first board to stop working. Iv'e had it for about a year and if I think about it. The mounts for the Coolermaster Hyper-212X were installed properly and nothing was touching the case. Not sure if even with everything done proper;y it could still cause a shortage? I'm also thinking although it's a stretch that maybe considering the first board was one of the cheapest ones I could get at the time since I was on a budget. Could be the parts wore out quicker/quality wasn't that great.

Iv'e also inspected both CPU's and although I'm not 100% sure what to look for there doesn't seem to be any damages to the pins or golden connectors on either. Thought maybe the bent pin on the motherboard could of damaged it. Not sure how I missed that. Frustrating sometimes the simplest things you overlook. So fingers crossed it will work fine when the board is fixed. Wasn't a total loss the PSU although working fine was eight years old. Was due for an upgrade and a better motherboard never hurts.

Your suggestions led me to finding out what the issue was too. Iv'e never had it setup without a case before. So that was also a fun experience certainly makes assembling everything easier and than transferring it over to the case haha.