My computer stopped working and won't send any data, though it can be turned on.
My computer stopped working and won't send any data, though it can be turned on.
Hey everyone, I’m in a bit of a tight spot and need your assistance right now. This problem has been ongoing for several days. Here’s what happened:
My PC was built up by me myself back in 2020 (details to follow). It’s generally running smoothly with only minor issues lately, but overall it’s stable.
A few days ago, while playing a game, I paused to watch something else while eating. After finishing my meal and coming downstairs, I returned to find the PC completely unresponsive—keyboard lights off, no input on the screen, headset docking station lights extinguished. However, the motherboard lights stayed on, RAM indicators lit, and the power button LED remained active.
I assumed it might have frozen or restarted itself. I waited a while, then tried pressing the power button repeatedly without success. After holding it for a short time, nothing happened. Eventually, I activated the hard reset, but again, no effect.
At this stage, I’m worried because I’ve never seen my PC lock up to the point where a hard reset didn’t help. Then I turned off the power entirely and restarted. The lights stayed off, and when I tried to power it back on, it refused to shut down or restart properly.
I’ve already tried several fixes:
- Replaced all RAM sticks with known working units.
- Installed a new CPU of the same type, which also showed the same symptoms.
- Reset CMOS and removed the battery.
- Removed the GPU to test if it would work without it—no changes.
- Removed all RAM and booted again to check for error codes—still no improvement.
Additional observations:
After several restarts, I noticed that when I first turned on the PC after cutting power, it tried to boot but froze immediately, showing a post code LED before disappearing. Resetting CMOS (which has a built-in trigger on the motherboard) also caused it to power off like cutting power.
In the past few weeks to months, I’ve seen an error about the CPU reaching maximum temperatures and shutting down forcefully—but this was just a false alarm. It rarely happened and usually occurred only while running a specific CPU-heavy game.
Initially, I thought my CPU had failed, but after replacing it with a new one, the same issues persist. I’m now leaning toward suspecting a problem with the motherboard or power supply unit.
I’m hoping they’re still functional since the PC can hold power and the motherboard seems to activate during the first boot attempt.
Anyone else have experienced something similar? I’d really appreciate any guidance before making another purchase.
I don’t have another motherboard or PSU available, but I have multiple GPUs and RAM sticks as backups.
Here are my specs:
- Motherboard: X570 ROG Crosshair VIII Hero
- CPU: Ryzen 9 5950x
- RAM: 2x 32GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4 at 3600MHz
- PSU: Corsair AX1200i 80 Plus Platinum 1200W
- GPU: Founders Edition NVidia RTX 3090
- NVMe: Samsung EVO Plus, 2TB and 1TB
- Case: Corsair Crystal Series 680x
- Cooler: Corsair H115i Pro XT
Feel free to share any further details—your help would be invaluable.
If you believe the motherboard is the source of the problem, try moving the CPU to a known functional board with the appropriate BIOS version and observe if the issue improves. If you suspect the power supply unit is the cause, obtain a dependable PSU with at least 1KW capacity for the whole system and check if it powers up successfully.
Thank you, I attempted this and obtained intriguing outcomes which now make me think my motherboard might have failed.
Recently I updated my BIOS about two to three months ago, but no new updates are available. Yet, after checking, it still permits flashing to the same version and allows downgrading, although not advised. I had previously used a flash drive set up from the BIOS update a few months back, so I inserted it and pressed the flashback button. Nothing occurs at all—it doesn’t light up and isn’t supposed to glow after a few seconds.
This has only strengthened my doubts about the motherboard’s condition.
I don’t have another motherboard available for testing, so I’m considering ordering a replacement unless someone else has recommendations.