Dead motherboard?

[2blzd]

Brand new system, asus x99 aII, i7 6800k..been running rock solid for a week w.o issue. Today I decided to rewire my drives and add a side panel fan, connected via moles adapter directly to psu.

Gamed hard and worked on it all day w.o issue. Now it won't turn on and there is a red led light permanently lit on the mobo whenever I try to power on. No q codes, no nothing. I trid to look up the red light in the manual but it's completely undocumented. There are another set of 4 led error lights that are labeled, dram, cpu etc and it's none of those. It's a single led by itself.

I saw a thread on linustech tips with a few people with this same issue but there was no solution other than multiple board replacements. I'd like to troubleshoot this before I assume it's dead.


I'm at a loss. It was working perfectly fine and now nothing?

Help

 

[Sheep221]

I would definitely check for loose power cables within PC, CPU supply or mobo supply cables can become loose with 2-3 conductors and it won't post after.

 

[2blzd]

Ive tried everything at this point. Checked and reseated ram. Unplugged and replugged all my connections. For a minute I thought I solved it because I swapped out the brand new psu for an old one and it powered on but I had a bunch of stuff unplugged. So I swapped everything out, rewired with the old psu and went to power up and had the same no-boot red light problem.

I tried to replicate what I did and leave everything unplugged but the 24pin motherboard cable but that didn't work. I'm pretty sick to my stomach atm because it's been working great for a week and I just loaded all my editing projects on it to work and now this....

3 people on Linus forums have this issue but all they did was replace the cpu and motherboard

 

[2blzd]

Anyone?

I just don't understand. I used this system perfectly fine for 10 days. The xmp on the ram worked fine, I benchmarked all my components and drives throughout the week, all fine and rock solid. I oc'd the cpu a little to 4ghz, up from the 3.8ghz the motherboard had it running at stock. Gamed and worked on it fine no problem. Temps were ways low and stable. The system was rock solid and now it's deaf out of nowhere. I am so beside myself.. What could cause a perfectly good system with all brand new components just to give up and die?

 

[UsandThem]

Anyone?

I just don't understand. I used this system perfectly fine for 10 days. The xmp on the ram worked fine, I benchmarked all my components and drives throughout the week, all fine and rock solid. I oc'd the cpu a little to 4ghz, up from the 3.8ghz the motherboard had it running at stock. Gamed and worked on it fine no problem. Temps were ways low and stable. The system was rock solid and now it's deaf out of nowhere. I am so beside myself.. What could cause a perfectly good system with all brand new components just to give up and die?

Electronics are complex items, and they can die out of nowhere. Maybe you inadvertently did something when you "rewired" it. Maybe something just is flaky or dead.

Take everything out of the case, and try booting with only the PSU, CPU, 1 stick of RAM, and one hard drive.

If it boots, great. Add back one item at a time until it it doesn't boot anymore. If it doesn't boot off of the bare minimum, inspect the CPU/socket to make sure there isn't any damage from installing it. If there isn't any, contact Asus support or RMA it to them, or exchange it with the retailer you bought it from if you are within their return period.

 

[UsandThem]

I tried to replicate what I did and leave everything unplugged but the 24pin motherboard cable but that didn't work.

You also had the CPU (2 x 4 pin) power cable plugged in too, right?

Gamed hard and worked on it all day w.o issue. Now it won't turn on and there is a red led light permanently lit on the mobo whenever I try to power on. No q codes, no nothing. I trid to look up the red light in the manual but it's completely undocumented. There are another set of 4 led error lights that are labeled, dram, cpu etc and it's none of those. It's a single led by itself.

I think you are referring to the PWR_LED, and it is explained on page 1-15 in your manual. It shows you that there is power going to your board, so that you know to unplug it from the wall when changing connections on your motherboard. You did do that when you "rewired" stuff, correct?

 

[2blzd]

I took everything out of the case, took the cpu out, checked for bent pins. Put everything back in, reseated the cooler, 1 stick of ram, not trying to put HDDs in, just trying to see if the board/fans power up.

Nothing. Just got off the phone w/ Asus technical support. 0 help and 0 documentation of the red LED I'm getting. Just like the manual.

If I plug in 2 power supplies, I can get the board running, its so bizarre. One PSU plugged directly into the 24pin and the other PSU plugged into the CPU 8pin. Only the PSU plugged into the 24pin gets powered on, so I don't know what the f' is going on...

 

[2blzd]

You also had the CPU (2 x 4 pin) power cable plugged in too, right?



I think you are referring to the PWR_LED, and it is explained on page 1-15 in your manual. It shows you that there is power going to your board, so that you know to unplug it from the wall when changing connections on your motherboard. You did do that when you "rewired" stuff, correct?

No its not that PWR_LED. Its an undocumented light. Trust me.

I think you misunderstand. This didn't happen right after I did the rewiring. I rewired my drives, I gamed and played on my machine for about 5-6 hours afterward with no issue. Turned my machine off. Took a nap. Came back from said nap and my computer wouldn't turn on, with said RED LED glowing.

 

[UsandThem]

No its not that PWR_LED. Its an undocumented light. Trust me.

I think you misunderstand. This didn't happen right after I did the rewiring. I rewired my drives, I gamed and played on my machine for about 5-6 hours afterward with no issue. Turned my machine off. Took a nap. Came back from said nap and my computer wouldn't turn on, with said RED LED glowing.

It's not that I misunderstood what you said, but part of the trouble-shooting process is start with all of the easy questions and to make sure something wasn't simply overlooked like a cable or component, and then move onward from there. In the past, whenever someone comes on here and says "It was working, but I moved some cables around and now it doesn't work", 99.9% of the time they just missed something. It could perfectly well be your motherboard is defective, and it was just a coincidence it happened shortly after moving stuff around. Our job here is to walk you through what could be wrong, and see what you need to do to get your system up and running again.

So this LED you are talking about, where is it at? In your manual it shows there are 5 LEDs on your board:

-One by the Q Code reader

-Four by 24-pin ATX power connector

-One for XMP near the system connector panel

The red light that is on now is not one of those? If not, could you take a picture and show us where it's at?

If I plug in 2 power supplies, I can get the board running, its so bizarre. One PSU plugged directly into the 24pin and the other PSU plugged into the CPU 8pin. Only the PSU plugged into the 24pin gets powered on, so I don't know what the f' is going on...

What model of power supplies are you using? I've never heard of someone hooking two power supplies up at the same time.

 

[2blzd]

It's not that I misunderstood what you said, but part of the trouble-shooting process is start with all of the easy questions and to make sure something wasn't simply overlooked like a cable or component, and then move onward from there. In the past, whenever someone comes on here and says "It was working, but I moved some cables around and now it doesn't work", 99.9% of the time they just missed something. It could perfectly well be your motherboard is defective, and it was just a coincidence it happened shortly after moving stuff around. Our job here is to walk you through what could be wrong, and see what you need to do to get your system up and running again.

So this LED you are talking about, where is it at? In your manual it shows there are 5 LEDs on your board:

-One by the Q Code reader

-Four by 24-pin ATX power connector

-One for XMP near the system connector panel

The red light that is on now is not one of those? If not, could you take a picture and show us where it's at?



What model of power supplies are you using? I've never heard of someone hooking two power supplies up at the same time.

The reason for 2 PSU's was not intentional. I have a brand new EVGA supersonic 650w G2. And I have an older corsair 650w that I brought out to test to see if it was a PSU issue.

I had my 8pin cpu and 8pin pci-e power cables plugged into the motherboard and videocard respectively from the EVGA power supply that was already mounted in the case. Rather than unscrew and take the EVGA PSU out, I just moved the corsair PSU closer and plugged in JUST the 24pin motherboard connection just to see if I could get power.

Keep in mind the 8pin cpu and 8pin vga are still plugged in from the EVGA as I described above but not powered on nor si the psu plugged into an outlet (this was not intentional, just happened when I tried to test the new/psu). Just the corsair psu, with the 24pin connection plugged into the motherboard was plugged in and powered. The motherboard boots and the cpu fan spins up, Q-Code 00 - meaning no cpu installed. Which makes sense because there is no power be driven to the cpu. Now if I connect power to the cpu etc all from the same PSU, I'm back to no boot, no power, no fans spinning and the RED LED light. The 2 power supply thing working I think is just a random coincidence.

I either have a dead motherboard or CPU, or both? Wouldn't I get beeps or an error code for a dead CPU? The PSU just clicks and nothing happens.

I will post of the LED after this post. And yes, is not one of those.

 

[Burpo]

Asus generally has a red led near the cpu, and it will stay on if cpu fails or not enough current going to cpu (power supply or board). Is it near the cpu?

 

[UsandThem]

I took everything out of the case, took the cpu out, checked for bent pins. Put everything back in, reseated the cooler, 1 stick of ram, not trying to put HDDs in, just trying to see if the board/fans power up.

Nothing. Just got off the phone w/ Asus technical support. 0 help and 0 documentation of the red LED I'm getting. Just like the manual.

If I plug in 2 power supplies, I can get the board running, its so bizarre. One PSU plugged directly into the 24pin and the other PSU plugged into the CPU 8pin. Only the PSU plugged into the 24pin gets powered on, so I don't know what the f' is going on...

The reason for 2 PSU's was not intentional. I have a brand new EVGA supersonic 650w G2. And I have an older corsair 650w that I brought out to test to see if it was a PSU issue.

I had my 8pin cpu and 8pin pci-e power cables plugged into the motherboard and videocard respectively from the EVGA power supply that was already mounted in the case. Rather than unscrew and take the EVGA PSU out, I just moved the corsair PSU closer and plugged in JUST the 24pin motherboard connection just to see if I could get power.

Keep in mind the 8pin cpu and 8pin vga are still plugged in from the EVGA as I described above but not powered on nor si the psu plugged into an outlet (this was not intentional, just happened when I tried to test the new/psu). Just the corsair psu, with the 24pin connection plugged into the motherboard was plugged in and powered. The motherboard boots and the cpu fan spins up, Q-Code 00 - meaning no cpu installed. Which makes sense because there is no power be driven to the cpu. Now if I connect power to the cpu etc all from the same PSU, I'm back to no boot, no power, no fans spinning and the RED LED light. The 2 power supply thing working I think is just a random coincidence.

I either have a dead motherboard or CPU, or both? Wouldn't I get beeps or an error code for a dead CPU? The PSU just clicks and nothing happens.

I will post of the LED after this post. And yes, is not one of those.

I would have suggested removing the video card (not sure of what model of EVGA) to see if your PC would boot without it, but since the 6800k doesn't have IGP, that might not be an option.

If you correctly hooked up your old Corsair PSU (24 pin and the 8 pin CPU), will it boot? I am a fan of the EVGA G2 power supplies, but a few months ago I ordered one and it was flaky, and I had to exchange it for a new one from Newegg, so the potential is there for it being the problem.

 

[2blzd]

Yes, its on the top right corner of the cpu socket, in between the first DIMM slot to the right..Posting a picture now..

Asus tech support had 0 clue what that was. The manual, like I've stated doesn't document it either. Although it shows it on every picture of the motherboard within the manual, its never labeled or marked.

 

[2blzd]

I
If you correctly hooked up your old Corsair PSU (24 pin and the 8 pin CPU), will it boot? I am a fan of the EVGA G2 power supplies, but a few months ago I ordered one and it was flaky, and I had to exchange it for a new one from Newegg, so the potential is there for it being the problem.

It won't boot from either the EVGA or Corsair with everything plugged in. Only with both, which is bizarre because only one PSU is plugged in when doing that.

 

[2blzd]

so do I have a dead motherboard AND cpu? I need to figure out if I should send both back for replacement or just the motherboard. I don't really have time to get a new motherboard, and then discover its the CPU, then send that back and wait again.

It seems like so many people have had this issue and they had to replace both.

Like literally, all I did was do some cable management with my sata cables and added a door case fan to blow on my 950 pro. It installed and worked great for hours. Then poof. I just don't get it.

trying to figure this out as quickly as possible. being w.o my work machine is really f'n my schedule up.

 

[Burpo]

That's CPU led telling you something is amiss. Usually it can mean you have a bent pin, or a bad CPU. Of course it could also be the board shorting to the case somewhere. Try removing the board & test it outside of the case..

 

[2blzd]

That's CPU led telling you something is amiss. Usually it can mean you have a bent pin, or a bad CPU. Of course it could also be the board shorting to the case somewhere. Try removing the board & test it outside of the case..

I already removed the board and tested outside the case. I removed every single component and left one ram stick in.

The red led went away after much testing, but still no boot. Just nothing. Power and reset switches light up still.

Also, the CPU led is in another location, with the rest of the LEDs described above. Are you sure the picture I posted is the CPU?

 

[Burpo]

Does CPU get warm?
That led on my older Asus Sabertooth came on once when I installed a bad CPU. After that I had to reset bios to get it to post with a new cpu.

 

[UsandThem]

so do I have a dead motherboard AND cpu? I need to figure out if I should send both back for replacement or just the motherboard. I don't really have time to get a new motherboard, and then discover its the CPU, then send that back and wait again.

It seems like so many people have had this issue and they had to replace both.

It's tough to say. It's likely your motherboard or CPU, or both. The only way to rule out which ones are defective, is to put a known working one and see if it boots. If you don't know anybody who has a CPU or motherboard (highly unlikely because of the chipset) or have a local PC repair shop who could test it, you simply will have to return one of the parts, and hope that was the issue. I know it's not want you want to hear, but that is the downside to buying parts and having them shipped to you. The people who are near a Fry's or Micro Center have it made because if the part is defective, outside of getting the items cheaper to begin with, they can also get it swapped out immediately if there is an issue.

I have just seen so many quirks and issues with the X99 motherboards posted.

EDIT

I will say it is a lot more common for a motherboard to be bad, than a CPU. But like Burpo mentioned, a CPU can be defective as well.

 

[2blzd]

Well the motherboard is packed up and on its way back to Amazon.com - Getting it replaced. Now the issue is IF it's also the CPU. Of course Amazon didnt have the board in stock and had to jump through hoops to get one. Should be here Thursday.

With that being said, what's the easiest and quickest way to test the CPU when the new motherboard comes, without reinstalling everything?

Just plug in CPU, cpu-fan, 8pin EATX and 24pin motherboard? Do I need to mount the CPU fan and put grease on?

Edit:

The cpu never gets warm. cold.

If the motherboard wasn't defective, wouldn't it power on with fans and everything? Or does a motherboard not power on with no CPU installed?


Edit2:

I just read a couple people on Amazon had defective boards after it worked fine first, like me. This one caught my attention and I suspect have the same issue=:

"The CPU Power header exhibited a short after putting the computer into standby one night for roughly an hour. Luckily my PSU has short circuit protection.

The motherboard does not allow the PSU to power on (same thing with me). I measured 0.1Ohms at the CPU power header between +12V and GND, which is a dead short. Likely a MOSFET went bad."

So my cpu might be ok?

 

[UsandThem]

The easiest, and really the only way to test it is to install it.

On a non-conductive surface outside of the case, install the CPU (properly with paste and your heatsink/fan), a stick of RAM, video card, and your OS hard drive. Connect your PSU to it and power it on by shorting the two power pins with a screwdriver or similar.

If everything boots up, you are good to go. You can test it for a while outside of the case by running something like Intel Extreme Tuning Utility or the Intel Processor Diagnostic Tool.

 

[2blzd]

The easiest, and really the only way to test it is to install it.

On a non-conductive surface outside of the case, install the CPU (properly with paste and your heatsink/fan), a stick of RAM, video card, and your OS hard drive. Connect your PSU to it and power it on by shorting the two power pins with a screwdriver or similar.

If everything boots up, you are good to go. You can test it for a while outside of the case by running something like Intel Extreme Tuning Utility or the Intel Processor Diagnostic Tool.

Why do I have to short the power pins? There is a power button on the motherboard?

 

[UsandThem]

Why do I have to short the power pins? There is a power button on the motherboard?

Use that then. I haven't used too many boards that have that on there, so the first thing that comes to mind is shorting the power pins.

 

[2blzd]

Called Intel tech support just for the hell of it. They were so much more helpful and curtious than ASUS. They can get me a new cpu overnighted to me within 24 hours of calling. I almost just want to go ahead and do that to get the ball rolling because I still fear I have a dead cpu, but obviously I should wait for the new motherboard to arrive first to test the old cpu. Grr..really hate this waiting game.

 

[UsandThem]

Called Intel tech support just for the hell of it. They were so much more helpful and curtious than ASUS. They can get me a new cpu overnighted to me within 24 hours of calling. I almost just want to go ahead and do that to get the ball rolling because I still fear I have a dead cpu, but obviously I should wait for the new motherboard to arrive first to test the old cpu. Grr..really hate this waiting game.

I don't think any of the remaining motherboard companies have what would be considered good customer service. A person's best bet is to return it to the retailer whenever possible, and hopefully find answers to technical support questions on the various hardware sites out there.

All the motherboard companies that had good end-user support are now out of business. I might be dating myself a little, but at one time when Anandtech did their motherboard reviews, they actually used to pretend to be a customer with an issue and contact the motherboard company to see what kind of support they provided, and then would rate the various companies on how well, or how bad their customer service was.

Now all that is pretty much left are the big four: Asus, Gigabyte, Asrock, and MSI. There are a few other smaller ones as well, but those four probably control 90%+ of the retail motherboard market.