PC Processors

[tpatana]

So I built new PC on Friday and was playing happily for two days. Then Sunday when I went to get more coffee, I came back and the PC was turned off. And nothing I could do was able to turn it back on.

Looking inside, the motherboard (MSI Tomahawk X570) has debug LEDs, which say "DRAM". Reading manual, this could be CPU or memory issue. I tried all I can, swapping memory around, re-seating, etc. Nothing helped. I now tried swapping the memory with my old PC. Old PC with new memory is working fine, but the new PC with old memory is not working fine. So I don't think the problem is with the memory.

Don't think it matters, but the memory is G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 64GB (2 x 32GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 4000 (PC4 32000) Intel XMP 2.0 Desktop Memory Model F4-4000C18D-64GVK.

Also I've removed everything else from the motherboard, only CPU and memory in. It keeps giving the DRAM error. Actually first boot-attempt after swapping memory lit up the CPU error LED, but second boot-up it returned back to DRAM.

I start to fear the CPU died on me. I have good water cooling too, one of those recommended by AMD. When I was playing flight sim on 4k-ultra settings it was staying around 70C, so I don't think that was the problem either. I tried cleaning and re-attaching the cooler, but didn't do anything.

I guess it could be the motherboard too, but I don't have another AM4 based CPU to try, or AM4 socket motherboard. Is there any good debug items I could try to understand where is the problem? It literally was running beautiful for 2 days and then while I was getting more coffee, it had died so I can't imagine it's anything related to settings or setup.

Any suggestions what to try?

[tpatana]

And to add on that, I have flashed the MSI with v14 (since it was working for 2 days, I had to do this earlier but I also tried it again).

I have cleared the cmos with the reset pins, but that didn't help either.

[tatane]

Had a similar issue with my 5950x (x570 Tomahawk too) , but mine was only ever getting the CPU error led ...

If you can, try getting your motherboard in a friendly PC parts shop (or the one you bought it from if not online) and ask them to test it with another Zen2 or 3 cpu to check the motherboard is working (they'll likely insist to do that with their own RAM sticks as they did with me). This will tell you if you need to RMA your CPU as I had to, or if the motherbard is the faulty part (will also ease the RMA procedure if you have to get there as once you prove it's not the motherboard and ram by testing them with other components, AMD will just approve the RMA straight away) ...

Really hope you won't have to RMA it, as it can take a while sonce AMD themselves are completely out of stock and don't seem to have any spare for warranty exchanges (3 weeks into my RMA and AMD informed me last friday it would take them 2 to 3 more weeks to be able to source a 5950x to send back to me ...) 

[elstaci]

I found out that if the PC doesn't boot up the only way to find out what is wrong is by exchanging parts or testing individual parts on another PC to rule out hardware issue.

When I built my first Ryzen I had a hell of time since it wouldn't boot up. Kept giving me VGA Trouble LED on the 3 Motherboards.

Finally found a Computer shop that tested my GPU card for free and found out the GPU Card was good. Then I took my entire Tower and found out that it boots up with his monitor.

Turned out that my 4K monitor wasn't able to accept the GPU Card's signal. First time I reset the monitor to Factory defaults and finally started to boot up. Next time after messing with BIOS I had the same issue again. But I was able to go into BIOS since I had video on my HDMI HD TV Set which I also had connected to my GPU card but not on my 4k Monitor.

Just an example about how I was able to troubleshoot my computer when not booting up.

I suggest you open two tickets, One to MSI Support to see if you need to RMA your motherboard to be checked and one to AMD Support to see if you need to RMA your Processor to be checked.

[Thanny]

The only suggestion I can make is to try booting with just one stick of memory, then try the other if that doesn't work.

A single bad stick can prevent the entire system from powering on.

[tpatana]

Yea tried different memory, still didn't boot. I got desperate and only CPU around here in stock was 3700x, so went and bought it. Still didn't boot :( 

So I guess the motherboard is dead then.

[tpatana · Accepted solution]

For those who are curious, yesterday I received new motherboard (same MSI tomahawk x570) and that fixed it. So some reason after 2 days of running, it decided to die on me. Luckily Amazon is easy with returns so I'll ship the broken one to them.