PC Processors

[Dano1]

Greetings!

  I have a Ryzen 7 5800X on a MAG B550 Tomahawk Max WiFi motherboard that seems to have stopped working. I was playing Baldur's Gate 3 when it appeared that my power went out as my picture disappeared and my screen was black. Except my power was not out, everything was still running but I no longer was getting a feed to my monitor. Upon closer inspection, the cpu light on my motherboard is red and I can get the computer to do anything, I have to cut the power to turn it off.

  Is this something that I can trouble shoot or is it cooked? Any suggestions or help would be welcome.

Thanks for your time and assistance.

[elstaci · Accepted solution]

CPUs are pretty sturdy and dependable hardware.

I would disconnect all the hardware connected to the motherboard except the PSU and CPU and see if the Motherboard's CPU Trouble LED light goes on and stays on or turns off and the Motherboard's RAM Trouble LED lights up.

If the CPU Trouble LED stays on and doesn't turn off indicate that BIOS tested the CPU and found something wrong with it and stopped the booting process.

So it could be a defective Motherboard or CPU or even PSU with bad voltage outputs.

Best way to eliminate the CPU or Motherboard is by installing another CPU in your PC or taking your current CPU and installing it in another PC to see if the same thing occurs.

You can take the CPU to a local computer shop to have it tested but that might be expensive.

You can check the PSU by using a Multimeter to check if it has 12 vdc  output at one of the PSU's  Molex or PCIe cables.

[Dano1]

Thank you for such a quick reply, I am seeing this as I am knee deep in pulling it apart. I actually started with pulling out the cpu and reinstalling it so it seems I have done the exact opposite of your suggestions. I also unseated and seated the memory. If this does not do anything, I will unhook everything except the cpu and the psu and report back. Unfortunately I do not have any compatible cpu's to insert as it seem the 2700x I have in the box is not compatible. The current computer I am using is a 8350? on a tuf mb so I doubt any of that is compatible either. Thanks again for the reply!

[Dano1]

Ok, so my 1st attempt did not provide the desired results. I followed your suggestion, disconnected the gpu and the memory and fired it up again, still nothing. As far as LED lights go, the cpu light is still glowing red, no other lights came on, including the memory.

Your other suggestions I can not do as I do not have compatible cpu/mb's to swap in and out. Any other thoughts?

[elstaci]

Its either a Motherboard or CPU issue.

I would open a AMD SUPPORT - WARRANTY ticket to see if they believe the processor needs to be RMAed to be checked.

I also would open a MSI SUPPORT Ticket to see if they believe the Motherboard needs to be RMAed to be checked.

My guess it most likely the Motherboard because most processor are pretty hardy hardware but processor do go bad.

Can you borrow another CPU to install in your motherboard?  That would eliminate either the Motherboard or CPU.

See if a friend or family has a 3000 series processor which is compatible with your MSI Mobo.

If another CPU works normally on your motherboard then you have a bad CPU and vice versa.

[Dano1]

Right, I might have an option to check. Thanks for the help and suggestions.

[Dano1]

Tried to use the 2700x I have on the MAG B550 mb as I read some reddit posts saying they work together. I did not have success, I did not go through post however I did not add the heat sink as I was just testing. Which leads me to ask, do I need to add the heat sink each time I am swapping out, paste and all?

[elstaci]

Of course!

Otherwise the CPU would overheat within seconds and shut down.

Also the 2000 series CPU is not supported by your motherboard.

To troubleshoot Booting issue with your Motherboard's Trouble LED lights and using BIOS, you first just start with the basic hardware of Mobo, PSU, & CPU and Windows drive with CPU Cooler installed and nothing else.

With no Windows Drive the SYSTEM TROUBLE LED LIGHT will light up and stop the booting process.

With just the CPU and PSU installed and you boot up, BIOS will check or test the CPU installed. If it passes the test then it will check for RAM MEMORY installed. If none is found then it will light up the RAM TROUBLE LED LIGHT while turning off the CPU TROUBLE LED LIGHT.

You then now install one stick of RAM MEMORY in DIMM Slot A2. Boot up again. Now both the CPU and RAM MEMORY TROUBLE LED LIGHTS will turn on and off and the GPU TROUBLE LED LIGHT would turn on or possibly the SYSTEM TROUBLE LED LIGHT. It might actually start to boot into Windows without a GPU card installed though unless the SYSTEM LED light turns on.

That is how you use BIOS to test your hardware to narrow down the exact hardware you are having issues with during boot up.

Boot up again with just your PSU, CPU with CPU COOLER installed and Windows drive. See if the RED CPU light turns on and then off and the RAM LED lights up.

If it stays on the CPU RED LED LIGHT then you either have a Motherboard or CPU problem.

That means the BIOS tested your CPU and found something wrong with it and stopped the booting process until it is fixed.

A defective Motherboard/PSU could prevent the CPU from working correctly thus failing the BIOS test for the CPU or you may have a defective CPU.

That is why I suggested you open a Support Warranty ticket with AMD SUPPORT and MSI SUPPORT.

[Dano1]

Ok so I added back the heat sink as when I tested prior, I had removed it. I am light on thermal paste however, I used what little I had. I disconnected the gpu and the memory as well as extra drives. The hdmi now connected directly to the mb, still no post and just the cpu led light lit up. Added in the 1 stick of ram to the A2 slot, still just the cpu led, nothing else lit up. Started the rma for the cpu, will also get one started on the mb.

I very much appreciate your attempt to help, thank you.

[elstaci]

Your actions is the best way to solve your issue by replacing both CPU and Motherboard if you are not sure which one is at fault.

I mean you can always just replace your CPU and cross your fingers that was the problem but if it turns out to be your motherboard then you need to wait again for a replacement. So if you don't have an problem being without a PC for possibly weeks than you can replace either the CPU or Motherboard first and see if it fixes your problem.

Otherwise the fastest way is to replace both at the same time if still under Warranty unless you can test the CPU in another motherboard or install a different CPU in your PC. That would tell you which hardware was the problem without RMAing everything.

[digipointer0]

If you have access to another compatible CPU and motherboard, try swapping them out to see if the issue persists. This can help you determine if the problem lies with the CPU or motherboard.

[qbtheslayer]

I went through this entire process in the past and it actually turned out to be my PSU...  Bought a new CPU, didn't work.  Returned that and bought a new motherboard, didn't work...  then decided to buy a new PSU...  problem solved.  Just adding that it may indeed be more than just CPU or MB as the culprit.

QB