CPU/Mobo PC Not booting, blank display, how to diagnose

G

gourav

Skilled
A few days ago, my PC stopped booting all of a sudden. When I shut it down, it was working fine, next time I switched it on, it wouldn't turn on.

At first, the VGA light on my motherboard was lit, indicating issue with GPU. But after trying a couple of things (removing one stick of RAM, tightening the GPU power cable, etc.), the CPU light started glowing instead. There was a slight change in behaviour as well. When the GPU light was on, pressing the power button turned off the PC. But when the CPU light started glowing, I had to hold the power button to turn it off. There was no display in either scenario.

One kind friend here sent his old GT730 for free to me so that I could check if my GPU was faulty. However, it turns out the PC doesn't turn on even with the GT730. The LED marked CPU glows on the motherboard and nothing happens.

I will probably have to take it to a repair shop now, but before that, is there anything else I can try?

I have the following components
MotherboardMSI B550M Pro VDH Wi-fi
ProcessorRyzen 5600
RAMCurcial Ballixtix 3600 MHz 16x2
GPUInno 3D RTX 3080 10 GB bought recently from Nikhil Singh on this forum
PSUDeepcool PM650D
SSDWD Sn570 512 GB (main) + Crucial P3 1 TB (secondary)
Fans1 Noctua + 2 Arctic PWM fans, 1 corsair and 1 silverstone (came built in) non-PWM fans
 
Remove BIOS battery and unplug power, press power button to drain residual power and wait for 30 secs.
Replug everything and check. Make sure all connections are tight and secure (24 pin and 8 pin CPU power).

Lastly you can remove cooler and reseat the CPU if you're comfortable doing that.
 
Dismantle your entire setup.
On a flat wooden surface place the mobo and reset the bios- short he jumper and then remove the battery and reinsert. Then connect plug only one ram, gpu and psu.
Power-on ans check.
 
Thanks for the suggestions folks. I tried removing the RAM and plugging them back one by one in a different slot, then loosened the battery. The battery wasn't coming out with the GPU in, so I decided to try booting once more before removing the GPU to remove the battery. And somehow the PC just booted up. Then I tried the other stick of RAM and back to regular dual channel config and things kept working. I have no idea why it wasn't booting up earlier.

So back to the original problem, it turns out it's the RTX3080 at fault, as the motherboard again started showing the VGA LED the moment I plugged it back in. Everything was working fine with the GT730.

I was kinda hoping it would be something else as all other components are not only under warranty, but also cheaper to replace if I had to. But alas, as luck would have it, it turned out to be the only out of warranty component which is also the most expensive one.

Lesson learnt, staying away from used GPUs in future. If I had bought a new RX 6750 XT instead, I would have gotten comparable performance at just 5k more with full 3 years of warranty. It was a foolish decision in hindsight.
 
vivek.krishnan said:
Try to use the baking method to see if this could be the issue
Click to expand...
90% of the time, you make the problem worse by baking it, 10% of the time, the problem goes away temporarily.

Baking a gpu bakes everything on the board including all the capacitors that can easily pop/blown from overheat. When you bake and the problem goes away, that usually means there is a solder crack beneath the GPU die or VRAM and u temporarily can fix the issue by heating it. Solder cracks can be caused by old age or board flex. These 30 series are imo still too recent to have natural cracks, meaning there is a very high chance the problem doesn't come from there.

In short, never try baking a GPU unless you don't care about fixing it in the future and you are fine throwing it away.

@gourav If you have a multimeter, I could try helping you check where the issue comes from.
 
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gourav said:
Thanks for the suggestions folks. I tried removing the RAM and plugging them back one by one in a different slot, then loosened the battery. The battery wasn't coming out with the GPU in, so I decided to try booting once more before removing the GPU to remove the battery. And somehow the PC just booted up. Then I tried the other stick of RAM and back to regular dual channel config and things kept working. I have no idea why it wasn't booting up earlier.

So back to the original problem, it turns out it's the RTX3080 at fault, as the motherboard again started showing the VGA LED the moment I plugged it back in. Everything was working fine with the GT730.

I was kinda hoping it would be something else as all other components are not only under warranty, but also cheaper to replace if I had to. But alas, as luck would have it, it turned out to be the only out of warranty component which is also the most expensive one.

Lesson learnt, staying away from used GPUs in future. If I had bought a new RX 6750 XT instead, I would have gotten comparable performance at just 5k more with full 3 years of warranty. It was a foolish decision in hindsight.
Click to expand...
if your GPU died without showing any signs of problems get your PSU tested it might have been a faulty psu that killed it and if the PSU is under warranty you will be reimbursed for the GPU.
just my recommendation try that GPU in another system ,it might work

checking the deal page,you seem to have taken a huge risk with the card ,i am sorry but an OOW card for that price is no brainer ,you could have scored a 6800xt with 2 year warranty for that price
 
Last edited:
gourav said:
Lesson learnt, staying away from used GPUs in future. If I had bought a new RX 6750 XT instead, I would have gotten comparable performance at just 5k more with full 3 years of warranty. It was a foolish decision in hindsight.
Click to expand...
It's almost impossible to get PC components repaired reliably here, so only buy stuff with warranty.That way you will be getting to use a product for the remaining warranty period at the very least.

Treat out of warranty items as paper weights and pay accordingly, because if/when they die that's exactly what they become.

3 year warranty + lower performance should be chosen over even top tier performances + 0 warranty except at throwaway prices.
 
vivek.krishnan said:
Try to use the baking method to see if this could be the issue
Click to expand...
I'll probably skip this for the time being, will try to get it checked at a repair shop first.

Hachune said:
@gourav If you have a multimeter, I could try helping you check where the issue comes from.
Click to expand...
I don't have a multimeter. Thanks for the offer though. I'll try to find a repair shop first.

ikkhan said:
if your GPU died without showing any signs of problems get your PSU tested it might have been a faulty psu that killed it and if the PSU is under warranty you will be reimbursed for the GPU.
just my recommendation try that GPU in another system ,it might work

checking the deal page,you seem to have taken a huge risk with the card ,i am sorry but an OOW card for that price is no brainer ,you could have scored a 6800xt with 2 year warranty for that price
Click to expand...
n1r0 said:
It's almost impossible to get PC components repaired reliably here, so only buy stuff with warranty.That way you will be getting to use a product for the remaining warranty period at the very least.

Treat out of warranty items as paper weights and pay accordingly, because if/when they die that's exactly what they become.

3 year warranty + lower performance should be chosen over even top tier performances + 0 warranty except at throwaway prices.
Click to expand...
Yes, learnt my lesson. The card had just gone out of warranty and keep hearing people using cards for 6-7 years, so I didn't think I would be this unlucky. I thought it would work for another 2 years at the very least. It was sheer bad luck that the card conked off in just a month.
I will try to check if the card is working on a different system. I don't have access to a different system, so will again have to rely on some repair shop for that as well. The Card's RGB lights and fans are still working, so there's a small chance that the fault lies with the PSU. The other GPU I tried on my system, GT730, does not require power from the GPU, so that part is not assured.
 
gourav said:
...The card had just gone out of warranty and keep hearing people using cards for 6-7 years, so I didn't think I would be this unlucky. I thought it would work for another 2 years at the very least. It was sheer bad luck that the card conked off in just a month.
Click to expand...
Usually PC components last a long long time. No components of mine have ever conked off in 10+ years, except for a Sabrent NVMe. But if they did, it was nice to have warranty, which ensures a minimum period of usefullness.
 
gourav said:
I'll probably skip this for the time being, will try to get it checked at a repair shop first.


I don't have a multimeter. Thanks for the offer though. I'll try to find a repair shop first.



Yes, learnt my lesson. The card had just gone out of warranty and keep hearing people using cards for 6-7 years, so I didn't think I would be this unlucky. I thought it would work for another 2 years at the very least. It was sheer bad luck that the card conked off in just a month.
I will try to check if the card is working on a different system. I don't have access to a different system, so will again have to rely on some repair shop for that as well. The Card's RGB lights and fans are still working, so there's a small chance that the fault lies with the PSU. The other GPU I tried on my system, GT730, does not require power from the GPU, so that part is not assured.
Click to expand...
It could be that gpu isn't receiving enough power from the psu,but power from the pcie slot should be enough to turn it on atleast .i do hope man your gpu starts working it sucks when components fails and you loose money
 
n1r0 said:
Usually PC components last a long long time. No components of mine have ever conked off in 10+ years, except for a Sabrent NVMe. But if they did, it was nice to have warranty, which ensures a minimum period of usefullness.
Click to expand...
I guess thats a problem with new components coming old components were more durable
 
ikkhan said:
It could be that gpu isn't receiving enough power from the psu,but power from the pcie slot should be enough to turn it on atleast .
Click to expand...
I think once when cleaning, I forgot to reconnect the PCIe power cables to the GPU, and it did not boot.
 
ikkhan said:
It could be that gpu isn't receiving enough power from the psu,but power from the pcie slot should be enough to turn it on atleast .i do hope man your gpu starts working it sucks when components fails and you loose money
Click to expand...
It seems unlikely to be the PSU. Nevertheless, I'll get it checked.
hellblazer33 said:
I guess thats a problem with new components coming old components were more durable
Click to expand...
At least for PC components, this doesn't seem to be as big of a problem as other consumer electronics. PC components are the only thing where you still see 3 year warranty on almost everything, some also going as high as 10 years.
n1r0 said:
I think once when cleaning, I forgot to reconnect the PCIe power cables to the GPU, and it did not boot.
Click to expand...
Ha ha. At one point, I put my monitor on HDMI1 and connected the PC to HDMI2 and got frustrated that it wasn't turning on. But the final setup doesn't have any such issues, I double and triple checked everything.
 
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