[SOLVED] Weird Symptoms with friend's PC

[Sel46290]

So my friend just recently got into PC gaming. Not too long ago he bought his first pre-built and soon after that he upgraded and built his own rig. The specs I know from his new rig that he built are an RTX 2070 Super, a Ryzen 7 3700x(I believe), 32 GB of Corsair Vengence RGB Pro series ram, his mobo is an Asus rog Strix b450-f gaming mobo, and I don't remember his exact PSU but I know that it is 650W. As for his storage, he has two different SSD's I believe, and an HDD as well. Anyways, with this rig, he's been experiencing some issues as of late and we're not sure which part is at fault here. So the first issue he's experienced is that his PC was randomly shutting off whenever he would do something like play games and whatnot. Even at one point if he touched it a little bit it would shut off. But for the random shutoffs, my other friend and I believe it's a PSU issue since his PSU is only 650W which is more than likely not enough for the build he has. That would at least explain the random shutoffs. But it doesn't explain these other issues he's been having. Another issue he's been having is that none of his sticks of RAM are being detected by his motherboard at all. Because of this, his rig won't even boot to any screens at the moment. We've tried all the different RAM slots and even going as far as to plug in only one stick in the different slots, but none of them worked. Now for this issue, we've been thinking that either something with the RAM slots on his Mobo is messed up, or that even perhaps the ram itself is faulty. But we're not exactly sure which of these reasons it would be. Before I tell him to go out and buy new parts I wanna be sure on exactly what should be replaced or what may need replacing. If anyone can toss me some ideas as to what exactly is causing these types of issues I'd really appreciate it. I've never really encountered something like this so I'm not exactly sure what would be the cause of these issues.

 

[mamasan2000]

Did he use the spacers for the case before installing motherboard? Could be a short.
Did he push the RAM all the way in? It should click in place.
If 650 W is not enough, it's probably a crappy PSU. Should pull nowhere near that.

 

[Sel46290]

Did he use the spacers for the case before installing motherboard? Could be a short.
Did he push the RAM all the way in? It should click in place.
If 650 W is not enough, it's probably a crappy PSU. Should pull nowhere near that.

Hi, thanks for the reply! I'm sorry for not responding quickly, life got in the way so I wasn't able to get online to respond to you. But I actually don't think we used the spacers on his PC. I helped him install his parts and I don't recall using any spacers for his Mobo. Heck, I didn't even know what spacers were somehow before you mentioned them. But luckily now I do after doing some google searches. So can not using spacers really affect the rig and cause issues down the line? Like would it affect the PC so much that it causes issues like my buddy has been experiencing? But man I feel kinda stupid now for not knowing about using spacers. Seems like a no brainer in hindsight. But you live and you learn I suppose.
As for the RAM I'm fairly certain that it was all the way in. He even reinstalled the RAM just to be sure so I don't think it was loose or anything. And as for the PSU, it honestly probably is just a crappy PSU. That's even what my other buddy was thinking. So if anything my friend is probably just gonna buy a new PSU and see if that fixes his issues. But yeah if you could get back to me about the spacers I'd really appreciate it. I'm always open to expanding what I know about PC parts and learning the proper way of doing things

 

[mamasan2000]

Hi, thanks for the reply! I'm sorry for not responding quickly, life got in the way so I wasn't able to get online to respond to you. But I actually don't think we used the spacers on his PC. I helped him install his parts and I don't recall using any spacers for his Mobo. Heck, I didn't even know what spacers were somehow before you mentioned them. But luckily now I do after doing some google searches. So can not using spacers really affect the rig and cause issues down the line? Like would it affect the PC so much that it causes issues like my buddy has been experiencing? But man I feel kinda stupid now for not knowing about using spacers. Seems like a no brainer in hindsight. But you live and you learn I suppose.
As for the RAM I'm fairly certain that it was all the way in. He even reinstalled the RAM just to be sure so I don't think it was loose or anything. And as for the PSU, it honestly probably is just a crappy PSU. That's even what my other buddy was thinking. So if anything my friend is probably just gonna buy a new PSU and see if that fixes his issues. But yeah if you could get back to me about the spacers I'd really appreciate it. I'm always open to expanding what I know about PC parts and learning the proper way of doing things

Most cases when you buy them already has spacers screwed into the slots. The placement is a standard so on every ATX motherboard it will fit perfectly. The srewholes line up. Between 6-9 spacers. If you don't use them, your motherboard is not grounded and that will make it short and any component on it. And whatever powers the system. Short of it is, it's really bad.

Spacers/standoffs generally look like this http://sgcdn.startech.com/005329/media/products/gallery_large/STANDOFFM3.bom.jpg
Can be different color, maybe even slightly different style. But the goal is the same, to lift the motherboard off the metal case.

 

[Sel46290]

Most cases when you buy them already has spacers screwed into the slots. The placement is a standard so on every ATX motherboard it will fit perfectly. The srewholes line up. Between 6-9 spacers. If you don't use them, your motherboard is not grounded and that will make it short and any component on it. And whatever powers the system. Short of it is, it's really bad.

Spacers/standoffs generally look like this http://sgcdn.startech.com/005329/media/products/gallery_large/STANDOFFM3.bom.jpg
Can be different color, maybe even slightly different style. But the goal is the same, to lift the motherboard off the metal case.

Oh okay, I see now. Yeah, this makes much more sense now. So I still can't remember if we did use spacers or if they were preinstalled for us already. But I already messaged my friend to find out. So if we didn't use them then this may be the cause of his issues. Or at least it's a POTENTIAL cause for this stuff. Anyways, now I'm just waiting for my buddy to get back to me on that. Thanks for all your help and for explaining the importance of spacers to me! I will definitely keep them in mind when I work on any PC in the future Once again thanks man! I'll be posting back here after we check if we used the spacers or not.

 

[Sel46290]

Most cases when you buy them already has spacers screwed into the slots. The placement is a standard so on every ATX motherboard it will fit perfectly. The srewholes line up. Between 6-9 spacers. If you don't use them, your motherboard is not grounded and that will make it short and any component on it. And whatever powers the system. Short of it is, it's really bad.

Spacers/standoffs generally look like this http://sgcdn.startech.com/005329/media/products/gallery_large/STANDOFFM3.bom.jpg
Can be different color, maybe even slightly different style. But the goal is the same, to lift the motherboard off the metal case.

So my friend just got back to me right now, and apparently we actually did not use the spacers at all. He said that when he opened up the back to look at the PSU that the Mobo was in direct contact with the case. So yeah I think that solves the mystery so far. Trying to see when he wants to fix this so that we can confirm that this is the source of the issue. But so far from what you've told me, it's looking like this is the culprit. I'll post another update whenever we finally get into his rig to install the spacers. Thanks Mamasan for all your help so far! You're a true legend