Need assistance from a former inmate in the old folk's home?
Need assistance from a former inmate in the old folk's home?
A delivery is scheduled for this afternoon. You're welcome to continue helping with resolving the ongoing issues.
Thank you all, the PSU is an EVGA 700B 80PLUS BRONZE, a 12-year-old device. The spark came from a large flash where the loose cord entered the PSU at the PSU. The cloth was damp with dust but not wet. Someone here helped me privately via messages.
From my initial project to the present, Tom's forums and information have always helped me. By the way, this isn't my original account, so you can disregard the date I joined Tom's in 1997 when a guild friend from EQ reached out to share knowledge so I could learn rather than just buy. THANKS TOM'S PEOPLE.
EVGA 700B is low quality PSU and it ever came with 3 year warranty,
specs:
https://www.evga.com/articles/archive/00...efault.asp
So, it lasting this long is actually a surprise, since such poor PSUs hardly ever last longer than the warranty they have, let alone triple that amount.
The lower the PSU's build quality - the higher the chance of PSU taking other components with it when it goes "pop" with fireworks.
Since the PSU isn't that good of a quality and was WAY past it's expected lifespan, it took something else with it as well. Main suspect is MoBo, as i described above. GPU could be dead too. But without actual testing, there's no way to tell which components survived and which didn't.
Since there's solution in the works privately, there's no need to troubleshoot current PC issues. Still, i'll write the usual troubleshooting steps as information, as of what to do next, in similar situation, that anyone who comes across this topic can read it.
1st step would be buying (or getting) brand new, known to work, good quality PSU, to test IF the system works with 2nd PSU. Since current PSU is confirmed to be toast.
There are many PSUs out there, crap quality, low quality, mediocre quality, good quality and great quality. I, personally, suggest getting at least good quality PSU, while great quality PSU is preferred when PC has dedicated GPU in it. If PC is office build without dedicated GPU, then mediocre quality PSU would suffice as well, while good quality PSU is preferred.
E.g the Corsair CX-series i linked above, is mediocre quality and viable only when one doesn't have enough funds for good quality PSU. While Seasonic Focus, Corsair RMx/RMi, Super Flower Leadex Gold would be good quality PSUs. Seasonic Vertex/PRIME, Corsair HXi/AXi and Super Flower Leadex Platinum/Titanium would be great quality PSUs.
If the build doesn't power on even with 2nd, known to work, good/great quality PSU, then something else is dead as well.
Since you have old AM3 platform build, suspects are: CPU, MoBo, RAM and GPU. Either one of them, some of them or all of them.
Because build is old and uses DDR3 RAM, there's no point in getting old AM3 CPU socket MoBo, just to test out if CPU, RAM and GPU survived.
In this scenario, best would be going with new CPU-MoBo-RAM combo. E.g Ryzen 5000-series + AM4 MoBo + DDR4 RAM. Or Ryzen 9000-series + AM5 MoBo + DDR5 RAM. With Intel 12th, 13th and 14th gen CPUs, you have option regarding MoBos, if the MoBo uses DDR4 or DDR5 RAM. The latest Intel Core Ultra 200-series CPUs are such a flop, that i don't suggest those to anybody.
With new CPU-MoBo-RAM combo + the new PSU already bought, user essentially has new PC on their hands that they can use. Often, the CPU is much better than what was in the old PC, with nice performance uplift. And if one bought more RAM than they used to have, then there's additional performance uplift.
To save on money, user can re-use their old PC case. And SSD/HDDs as well, IF those survived the PSU going belly up. Even still, new SSD isn't that expensive and many are now going with new M.2 NVMe SSD, rather than old 2.5" SATA SSD. But SATA SSD is still relevant and can be good option when funds are low.
Once the new CPU-MoBo-RAM combo arrives, it is best to breadboard it outside of the PC case, to make sure if the combo works. If it doesn't, best to use warranty and RMA defective components. But when build does work and one can access BIOS, then new OS needs to be installed onto it.
As of GPU, that is best tested in 2nd system, to see if it works. In a case where user doesn't have 2nd system to test, the GPU can be tested in the new CPU-MoBo-RAM combo, to see if it shows up in BIOS.
Note: AMD Ryzen 3000/5000-series CPUs doesn't have iGPU in them, except when the CPU has G-suffix. While Ryzen 7000/9000-series CPUs have iGPU in them. So, when user buys e.g Ryzen 9000-series CPU, they can use the PC without dedicated GPU. Otherwise, dedicated GPU is needed to see the image.
On Intel side, when CPU has F-suffix, then it doesn't have iGPU in it. Otherwise it has iGPU.
As of this current setup, GTX 970 is also quite old GPU, 11 years old. So, GPU could be dead as well. We don't know it until it has been tested. IF it is dead, then there are cheap(ish) GPUs that one can buy. Like GTX 1630/1650/1660 or RTX 3050/3060/4060. On AMD Radeon side: RX 6400/6500XT/6600.
Once the GPU is also sorted out, user ends up with new PC, that they can use for many years (given that user didn't cheap out on PSU).
I don't care about join date since i don't look at it when helping out in the forums. Doesn't matter to me if user joined ~30 years ago or yesterday.
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