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CPU died. Should I trust my mobo/PSU?

xichael

xichael

Junior Member
Computer randomly stopped booting after a restart. No BIOS (stuck at A2) with video card, and no video output from onboard graphics. Tested the CPU with a different motherboard and PSU, and confirmed it's dead.

Question is, can I use the original mobo/PSU with a new CPU, or would they just end up killing again? Or maybe neither are to blame and the CPU just died of natural causes?
 
It's pretty darn rare of a CPU to die, and even more rare to die of "natural causes", and not some external factor, such as static discharge / short circuit or temperature or voltage extremes (such as during overclocking).

What spec boards and CPU are we talking about?

I've heard about some X99 boards "killing" CPUs. (Expensive ones!)
 
It's an i3-4330 with an MSI H81. I am surprised it died. Just can't imagine what else the problem might be after testing it on two separate motherboards and PSUs. I'd like to think it's just a simple matter of getting a new CPU, but don't want to kill it too.
 
Different RAM in the second test rig? Every thing different except the CPU? The second MB work fine with another CPU? The only dead CPUs I can ever recall in my personal experience were either Cyrix brand or occasionally AMD back when they lacked sufficient thermal protection and the heat sink fan quit or the heat sink fell off. Never had a lick of trouble with any Intel CPU, ever. That said I have no idea what to do since it never happened to me.
 
xichael said:
No BIOS (stuck at A2) with video card, and no video output from onboard graphics.
Click to expand...
XavierMace said:
A2 is storage. Did you attach all your original drives to the second motherboard when you tested?
Click to expand...
Not sure why he wouldn't be getting BIOS POST screens at all, even if the drive(s) attached are bad. Unless, they're actually shorted out somehow. I've seen stranger things with PCs sometimes.

OP, does it POST properly, without any drives attached?

Or is XavierMace looking at the wrong POST error code chart?
 
Is the 2nd MB new enough to support that CPU? Sometimes you need a BIOs update...

Maybe try booting with the minimum configuration possible, like 1 stick of RAM, no drives, maybe put the MB on cardboard in case something is shorting it out in the case.
 
The CPU had previously been on that board. They're the H81I and H81M-P33. I'm not able to get into the BIOS with either, nor is there any onboard video output. When I plug in a video card, I see it run through a few codes, then get stuck at A2. If I hit delete, it freezes on the BIOS loading message. I've tried with and without RAM and storage.

I've read elsewhere that no BIOS can mean a bad CPU. Could also mean a bad motherboard, but I don't have a 3rd one to test with to rule that out, so I'm going with the assumption that it's the CPU.

Guess I'll wait for a cheap, low-end model to show up on craigslist and find out for sure.
 
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