[SOLVED] Upgraded motherboard, CPU and RAM, now PC keeps shutting down a few minutes into startup ?

May 22, 2021
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Yesterday I upgraded my pc by installing a new motherboard, CPU ad RAM. During the building process, I dropped my CPU and one of the pins got bent. I read online that you could straighten them back into shape, so I did and I managed to fit the CPU into the board just fine. Although I did remove and reapply the CPU fan a couple of times, maybe that messed up the thermal paste somehow? Does the PC shut down if there's a slight error/misalignment on the CPU fan?

The PC boots, sometimes it goes until the login screen, sometimes until the desktop, but in the end it always crashes after a couple of minutes, even in safe mode, if I try to do system repair or in the BIOS (more specifically, the PC simply turns itself off without blue screen etc akin to what would happen if it overheated, but since it happens before the PC even gets warm I doubt that's the issue).

Now I'm wondering if the CPU is still broken and if I need a new one. The issue is that I can't know if it's the CPU that's causing the crash for sure, so I don't want to spend money on a new one only for it to not fix anything.

My specs are:

Motherboard: ASRock Phantom Gaming 4/ac B550 PCIE GEN 4.0 Ready (Socket AM4)
RAM: 2 x 8 3200 Corsair Vengeance
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 6 Core, 12 Thread Processor, 4.2 Ghz Max Boost, 3.6 GHz Base
GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 (Manufacturer MSI, card is named "Aero")
Hard drives: 1 HDD 2TB, 1 SSD 890 GB
PSU: be quiet! BQ SU7-600W

I double and triple checked all the cables, I tried putting the RAM into all the different slots, I removed as much dust from the case as possible, and I'm positive that all the fans are working properly (I have 1 CPU fan and 1 case fan).
 
Solution
Sounds like the bent pin is not straight enough - when it contacts the socket PC works, but once it stops (for example due to temp change) your PC crashes. The simplest method to check it would be to enter the BIOS and leave it running there (this will also let you observe CPU temps). If it crashes while in BIOS that's a strong clue against CPU.
Also it may be a temp problem too. Re-seating heat sink several times without changing thermal paste is not advised. But still CPU should not overheat in few minutes on idle UNLESS the heat sink is not installed correctly. Watching temps in BIOS will help you find out if that's the case.
Sounds like the bent pin is not straight enough - when it contacts the socket PC works, but once it stops (for example due to temp change) your PC crashes. The simplest method to check it would be to enter the BIOS and leave it running there (this will also let you observe CPU temps). If it crashes while in BIOS that's a strong clue against CPU.
Also it may be a temp problem too. Re-seating heat sink several times without changing thermal paste is not advised. But still CPU should not overheat in few minutes on idle UNLESS the heat sink is not installed correctly. Watching temps in BIOS will help you find out if that's the case.
 
Solution

jasonf2

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Anytime you reseat a heatsink you must clean and reapply thermal paste, even if applied 10 seconds prior. It causes air gaps. Also you mentioned new RAM. Are you running at SPD clocks or did you set a XMP profile or overclock. If so set back to SPD and see if it stabilizes. Corsair Vengeance and Ryzen do not get along when clocking to corsair advertised clocks sometimes.