I believe I succeeded.
I believe I succeeded.
I’ve been assembling PCs for most of the last two decades, but today I just had to replace a friend’s CPU cooler. They were using an ASUS TUG gaming motherboard with an R5 3600X and wanted a Corsair H100 AIO. The swap went well until power-on—no initialization at all. Removed GPU and RAM, tried again, then took the board out to test it on one of my known working power supplies. The motherboard had RGB lights, but nothing for troubleshooting. Should I try another approach or should I ask them for a new board?
Boards often fail just like any part, without clear reason, making it seem random. Even experts can make mistakes. Have you taken out the CPU along with what you said? I’d begin by inspecting it closely—using my phone’s zoom to check for any issues, scratching through traces on the back, and gently brushing with a soft paint brush. This could reveal small problems or something as simple as a dead component.
coolers exert significant force on the board, causing warping. In normal use it works fine, but once the pressure is released or changed slightly with a new cooler, a tiny crack in solder or trace may form, preventing proper contact. This is purely a hypothetical scenario.