Question Random restarts after I tried connecting my external amplifier and sound system (win 10)

[ydoumus]

Back after many years of flawless operations. Once again with random restarts.

I was trying to reconnect my old high quality Kenwood amplifier back up to my PC for some quality music listening. I can tell you right now this is a user error since my PC immediately froze, then the music played for a few seconds again, and then it just all went to black screen and wouldn't even start up. By that I mean it would actually turn on, with all the fans, AIO and LEDs firing up, but no screen was being detected.

I reseated my CMOS battery and then the system actually booted up, but it kept restarting a minute or two into the operations. No, the amp was long disconnected at this point.

Now the PC ran for about 2-3 hours and froze while I was taking a nap after work.

Note: no BSODs, no dump files. Nothing.


I do not have any spare parts to test with and I don't want to order stuff blindly, hence once again requesting help from you guys.

System:

Win 10
Aorus B450
Ryzen 2700x
2060
16GB 3000 RAM
600W PSU

Did a few memtest64 runs with no errors
Managed to run a game for a few minutes to see if it was a GPU/CPU issue; it was fine
Temps are really good: <40-50c on heavy load on mobo, cpu, drives and RAM, <70c on GPU.

The earliest couple restarts occurred right after boot, trying to start up my browser
The latest one happened when the PC was idle for 2 hours or so, with youtube open in the background (no video playing)


Question: Can an incorrectly connected amplifier cause a short circuit via audio ports through a 3.5mm jack (PHONES R/L OUT, 3.5MM IN)? If so, can it fry the system and what would be the first component to get hit: motherboard or the PSU?
There was no obvious burny smell inside the case or any visible trauma on the mobo (e.g. blown up caps).

Looking forward to your replies.

 

[jay32267]

I would suspect motherboard damage over PSU damage.
Specifically what did you connect to what?

 

[ydoumus]

I would suspect motherboard damage over PSU damage.
Specifically what did you connect to what?

I must have updated my thread right as you were writing your reply.

I connected PHONES right/left OUT to one of the 3.5mm INs for speakers via a dedicated cable.

 

[ydoumus]

Update:

The last freeze (I've disabled auto-restarts in an attempt to generate dump files [to no avail]) occurred during gaming; about 15 minutes into running the app.

First the screen and all peripherals froze, but the sound continue to render for about a second or two, then it also froze. Hope this helps in identifying the issue.

The power-up after the hard reset also took about 10 seconds to actually get to display the boot screen, which normally would take ~1 second on my setup.

 

[ydoumus]

Another update:

System is stable in safe mode.

Yet another update:

Today has been horrible. Freezing a few seconds into windows startup (desktop loads, services proceed to initiate and... bam).
I have disabled every single realtek audio-related device, software and also the chip itself in BIOS. I've now been in regular mode for about 30 minutes. I am starting to lean towards audio chip damage on the mobo.

Sadly my old audio card is PCI (Asus Xonar D1) so there is no physical way for me to install it into any modern mobo.


I have in fact ordered a new mobo to see if my theory is correct. If I'm lucky, I can even get to RMA my old mobo since it's still under warranty.

 

[ydoumus]

Final update:

It was, in fact, a motherboard damage. Most likely the audio chipset as it was the closest target to the area that caused the issues in the first place. I did a thorough inspection and there was definitely no visible trauma on the mobo itself, which would suggest it was the realtek audio chip that took a hit.

Replaced the mobo and everything seems to be running fine for now (~4 hours of uptime with all drivers and services running).