Need Help...30 years of building computers but stumped

[Shredded_Wheat64]

Computer: Asrock AM4, 5600X, NVME harddrive for OS, 32 gigs Corsair memory, gpu RX 5700, 750watt Antec psu (about 15 years old though), misc harddrives, and opticals. Problem: My keyboard had a stuck key, booted down, unplugged, used friends air compressor when I plugged back in got a no signal from monitor, computer booted up though. Tried everything I could think of, unplugged everything, etc...wasn't until I reseated the ram that it booted...lasted for a little while then nothing again. After continally trying all I could think of it would start booting into the bios but was showing only 1 stick of ram instead of 2, cleared cmos and then bios wouldn't come up anymore and got msg that to install boot media...No idea what is going on and what to do. I did order a new kb/mouse, and a better heatsink/fan. Any suggestions???

 

[Paperdoc]

This is a new build, right? Do you understand the proper placement of stand-offs under the mobo? Any stand-off where there is NOT a matching mounting hole in the mobo can cause intermittent short circuits to traces on the mobo bottom. If you need more details, post back.

 

[mikeymikec]

Yup, age of build would be useful. If the problem persists then disconnect everything that's not strictly necessary to POST / get to a memtest86 test.

 

[daveybrat]

Seeing as the bios is only recognizing one stick of ram, one of them might be bad. Have you tried just one stick at a time?

 

[PowerEngineer]

My suggestion is that take this problem to the Computer Building forum. 😄 Note that there are recommendations on what information you should include while describing the problem. Following these recommendations ups your chances of getting help. Good luck.

 

[Shredded_Wheat64]

Thanks for the suggestions...yes I know about the stand off mounting, I have tried only 1 stick of ram of my older ram, the computer is about 2.5+ years old. I recently moved over some data from an external portable hd and AVG lit up like a Xmas tree but and still once it was over had problems with the AVG for a few more days then it stopped but was getting intermittent shut downs...the cpu has been running hot and just got a little while ago a better heatsink and fan so will try. I didn't see the computer building forum to post in initially...will look for it. Thanks and anyone else is more than willing to chime in.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

"750watt Antec psu (about 15 years old though)" Time to replace it.

 

[Steltek]

"750watt Antec psu (about 15 years old though)" Time to replace it.

I second this.

Another thing.

@Shredded_Wheat64 , you indicate you used an air compressor to clean the machine out. Did you have an in-line moisture trap installed when you did this?

If you didn't have a moisture trap, you very likely could have sprayed pressurized water all over your motherboard/components, which could have all sorts of consequences.

 

[mikeymikec]

Also, if the processor has been overheating, then the only relevance that has is because it's been allowed to chronically overheat and thermal shutdown for so long that the processor is damaged. A replacement heatsink is nigh-on irrelevant until the larger issue has been fixed.

(and frankly, the machine should be able to POST without a heatsink).