Dead Motherboard?
Dead Motherboard?
This issue happened recently on my children's gaming PC... it started working properly, but the next day it stopped completely. The kid mentioned a VGA fault after the failure. Could this be related to a fake BIOS update during the Windows 11 auto-update process?
The system has a Ryzen 2600 processor with MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX (32GB, 4x8GB) and other components listed. I removed the GPU, tried another from another machine, but it still wouldn’t boot and kept hanging on VGA. I checked both GPUs in a secondary PCIe x16 lane, but the problem persisted.
I replaced the PSU (previously 650W) with a 1000W unit and also tested the original XFX GPU on another system—it worked fine and started up properly. I removed the RAM chips one by one, but each time it still wouldn’t boot and kept hanging on VGA. I pulled the CMOS battery, reset it, and even tried an "EZ Flash" via USB on the BIOS, but nothing changed.
My last thought is whether testing a different CPU would help. The other system I used to extract the test GPU has a 3600MHz model, and I’m confident the BIOS on this B450 should support it without issues.
Please let me know if I should try another CPU next time. Any suggestions before I consider the motherboard might be faulty? This machine has been running well for about nine years.
mistyped the mobo info. it's a b450 tomahawk max. i've flashed the bios but am unsure if it worked. testing on boot shows fault leds indicating issues with the mobo, cpu, vga, etc. it takes some time on the cpu, which made me consider swapping the cpu from my working pc (the media center one). the former psu is a 650w evga supernova. to confirm the motherboard, you can move everything except the psu to a known working board with the correct bios version. if it still fails, a replacement board is likely the solution. this was my plan since the vga card worked on another system. a faulty cpu can also cause other problems.
Update - it's still working!
I finally managed to swap the CPU this morning. Popping it from the other system and installing it in this faulty one worked. The PC is fully operational again. I think I'll be searching for another CPU for my media center PC now, since I don't plan to upgrade the 3600x on my kids' PCs.
Yeah, the most frequent issue I've encountered with Ryzen 1600 and 2600 is bad memory channels. They can sometimes work fine with all memory in one channel. It's not really worth it anymore, but it's a cool detail for anyone reading this thread.