Question Will a damaged socket keep a PC from booting?

[cydewaze]

Recently I was swapping components out on a system, and when I got everything back together, the power button did nothing. I took everything back apart and tested each component (other than the CPU) in another box, and they all worked fine. Eventually I noticed a dent in the socket (AM4) that's approximately the width and shape of a fingernail, maybe 1-2mm deep. It's on the side closest to the lever, and it's the only damage I can find. NO idea how it got there.

I don't have another AMD board to test the CPU in, and I don't have another AMD CPU to test in the board.

So, the question is, will damage like this keep the machine from even powering up at all? There's nothing. No lights, no clicks, nada. The system is around 16 months old, and everything worked before I took it apart.

 

[Barty1884]

On the plastic of the socket itself? In and of itself, not likely to be an issue - but it could result in issues with the pins making their way into the socket, with mounting pressure of the cooler & potentially any number of small issues that would be near impossible to diagnose.

However, a dent in plastic shouldn't stop the PC from doing anything at all. Even if the CPU was damaged, you'd probably see signs of life - fans spinning, LEDs lit up etc.

If the power button does nothing, does shorting the pins manually with a screwdriver (or similar) do anything? Entirely possible a mechanical switch could fail. Rare, of course, but possible.

Please post your full system specs.

 

[cydewaze]

The plastic platform on which the CPU mounts is what has the dent. My worry is that the CPU pins are not able to reach down and make contact, or that the connectors inside the socket have been bent down.

Here's a pic of the dent:
https://ibb.co/YLfV664

Specs:
Asus ROG Strix B450F
AMD Ryzen 7 2700X
GSkill Ripjaws DDR4 PC3200 RAM (2x8GB)
NVidia 1050 Video card (2GB)
Samsung Evo 970 M.2 drive (500GB)
WD Black 640GB spinny drive
OCz ModX Stream Pro PSU (600W)

This is a bit of a parts machine.

 

[jay32267]

The plastic platform on which the CPU mounts is what has the dent. My worry is that the CPU pins are not able to reach down and make contact, or that the connectors inside the socket have been bent down.

Here's a pic of the dent:
https://ibb.co/YLfV664

Specs:
Asus ROG Strix B450F
AMD Ryzen 7 2700X
GSkill Ripjaws DDR4 PC3200 RAM (2x8GB)
NVidia 1050 Video card (2GB)
Samsung Evo 970 M.2 drive (500GB)
WD Black 640GB spinny drive
OCz ModX Stream Pro PSU (600W)

This is a bit of a parts machine.

After seeing the dent....I think it's possible that could cause the problem.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

The plastic platform on which the CPU mounts is what has the dent. My worry is that the CPU pins are not able to reach down and make contact, or that the connectors inside the socket have been bent down.

Here's a pic of the dent:
https://ibb.co/YLfV664

Specs:
Asus ROG Strix B450F
AMD Ryzen 7 2700X
GSkill Ripjaws DDR4 PC3200 RAM (2x8GB)
NVidia 1050 Video card (2GB)
Samsung Evo 970 M.2 drive (500GB)
WD Black 640GB spinny drive
OCz ModX Stream Pro PSU (600W)

This is a bit of a parts machine.

Yup, that's a seriously damaged socket. Looks like a screwdriver was dropped on it. Motherboard replacement time.

 

[cydewaze]

Thanks, that's what I was thinking.

Part of this swap was showing a young one how to assemble/disassemble a PC, so there are countless ways the dent could have happened.

Thanks for the advice. I'll swing by Microcenter and pick up a new board.

 

[Barty1884]

Yeah, that's more than I was picturing as a dent in the socket.

It's not so much that the pins won't reach down, but given the holes are (almost) in the right place, the pins likely take a slight bend once inserted, so won't be making proper contact .

Agreed with the sentiment, it's time for a new board.

 

[cydewaze]

Well I went ahead and got another motherboard, and I didn't realize what a short compatibility lifespan parts have these days. I got B550 board, with which my Ryzen 7 2700 isn't compatible. So, I've decided I don't really need another PC and I'm selling all of this to a friend. It's just not important enough to me to drop another couple of hundred dollars on this.

Thanks for everyone's help on this. The motherboard was indeed the culprit.

 

[Barty1884]

I got B550 board, with which my Ryzen 7 2700 isn't compatible.

EDIT I was wrong.

 

[cydewaze]

Sorry? R7 2700 is compatible with B550?

Oh? I booted it and it goes straight to CMOS, so I did a Google. I found an article that said that the B550 is only compatible with gen 3 and up. When I went to PC parts picker and put in R7 2700x, and click AMD B550, I get zero results.

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/motherboard/?compatible_with=bddxFT

Hopefully I'm missing something.

 

[Barty1884]

Oh? I booted it and it goes straight to CMOS, so I did a Google. I found an article that said that the B550 is only compatible with gen 3 and up. When I went to PC parts picker and put in R7 2700x, and click AMD B550, I get zero results.

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/motherboard/?compatible_with=bddxFT

Hopefully I'm missing something.

My bad. I thought AMD backtracked on that pretty much from the outset. I could've sworn the same ROM rationale was given as we saw with 300 and 400 boards supporting 3000 series CPUs. Apparently it never went any further & B550 doesn't support older chips. Wow. Sorry about that

 

[cydewaze]

Nothing to apologize for. I should have thought to check before buying.

 

[Barty1884]

Nothing to apologize for. I should have thought to check before buying.

Ultimately, any B450 (or X470) board will 'work'... and for a 2700X, you're probably looking at ~$85 (ie avoiding the true 'cheap' boards)

Depending on the retailer, you might be able to return the board & only pay a restocking fee. Failing that, selling it second hand (with an explanation you bought the wrong chipset etc) shouldn't result it much of a loss - should be enough to get you a B450/X470 without being further out of pocket.

What B550 did you buy?

 

[cydewaze]

What B550 did you buy?

I got the Asus Prime B550-Plus. I've been an Asus fanboy since... well, probably the late 1990's, when I switched over from Abit.

So, I'm not convinced now that you are not the one who is correct and the websites telling me this combo won't work are wrong. The thing boots fine into setup with this chip, sees the ram, sees the HDD, sees the CPU (and lists it properly in the BIOS) but it can't find the M.2 boot drive.

BUT... I just stuck an Ubuntu LiveUSB in it, and I'm right now looking at Tom's Hardware on Firefox. I find it hard to believe that I'd be able to get this far with a CPU that was not compatible.

I know the M.2 works because I just popped it into this machine, and I can read it fine. The new machine won't recognize it however, nor will it recognize the Windows boot USB. Maybe this is a UEFI boot issue?

 

[cydewaze]

Update: I can now boot off of the Windows install stick. For some reason it needed to be in a USB 2.0 plug and not the 3.0. Still can't see the M.2 drive though. Back to Google.

Update 2: If I go into the EZ Flash Utility in the BIOS, I can see the M.2 drive. If I boot from the Windows install stick, and drop to a command prompt, it's drive F (!?). So the system can see the drive. Just not when it boots for some reason.

 

[cydewaze]

So, it looks like my only option is to wipe the M.2 by converting it to GPT and installing Windows again from scratch. What I'll probably do is buy a 2nd (identical) M.2, install Windows onto that, then either clone my old one onto it, or just copy my files over. It just won't see the existing M.2 or the old Windows installation that's on it.

 

[cydewaze]

So, a final update.

I ordered a new Evo 970 drive for this PC because I didn't want to install over top of the old one and risk losing my files. The first one I ordered (from Amazon) never arrived, so I reordered from Newegg.

Despite all the websites telling me that the 2700x was not compatible with the B500 motherboard, it actually works fine, so @Barty1884 was originally correct. Windows 10 is up and running, and now I'm going to stick my old M.2 in as a second drive and copy over my data.

Thanks for the help.