Question OSes don't boot, MB is dead? [solved]

[daggs1]

Greetings,

I have an aorus b450 running Ryzen 2700X with two kits of F4-3200C14D-16GFX, xmp enabled.
this setup worked for three weeks without any issue until yesterday.
I've turned on the system and got grub rescue shell (using linux).
any other livecd (ubuntu, fedora, sysrescuecd, hirencd) either failed booting from the bios or failed midway of the boot.
I've tried resetting the bios, taking out 2 memory sticks, swapping their location and testing every kit alone, nothing works.

does this means my mb is dead?

Thanks,

Dagg.

 

[Furious_Styles]

So you have no problem getting into the bios, just booting from your drive won't work?

 

[daggs1]

Greetings Furious_Styles,

So you have no problem getting into the bios, just booting from your drive won't work?

its not only my hdd, it is any live usb I generated. the last one is fedora 31 which I've tested on another system and it worked.

the grub shell on the actual installation shows all 5 hdds.

when I try to boot the fedora live usb, I get the boot menu list, when I select the proper entry, the screen goes black, the aorus logo is showed again and the system is stuck there.

I have tried a few additional things to debug:

1. bios reset - system won't boot.
2. disabled xmp - same.
3. took out two mem sticks out of the four - same.
4. moved the two sticks to the other channel - same.
5. replaced the two sticks with the ones I've took out (same other channel) - same.

fw version is f40 (I didn't upgraded to latest version because GB now requires an additional installation of a app which is a windows exec).
what other option can it be? PSU?

 

[RLGL]

try clear cmos

 

[Furious_Styles]

You should still be able to update the bios by going in and using a usb drive with the file on it. I'd do that even though it does sound like the board may have failed.

 

[Steltek]

Please provide information about your system components , i.e. specific make/model of video card, storage drives, and power supply.

Have you unplugged and firmly re-plugged both the 24 pin ATX and 8 pin CPU power supply cables (on both the motherboard side and the PSU side if your PSU is modular)?

If so and it is still not working, I would immediately suspect either the motherboard or PSU.

If you have access to another PSU, you could try to hook it up outside the case and swap over all power cables to the motherboard to see if it will properly boot the flash drive with the new PSU.

As a last resort, if it still doesn't work with a different PSU, you could also try to pull the motherboard and place it on an anti-static bag or piece of cardboard with video card and one memory module installed. Use a screwdriver to short the switch jumpers to start the machine and see you can boot it from your flash drive on one of the integrated USB ports. If it does, the motherboard is grounding out somewhere in the case.

If it still doesn't boot, at that point I would presume the motherboard has developed a fault and attempt warranty service (or preferably a return/swap to vendor if it is still within the return period).

 

[daggs1]

try clear cmos

no dice, still not working

You should still be able to update the bios by going in and using a usb drive with the file on it. I'd do that even though it does sound like the board may have failed.

no point upgrading the bios if the mb might be dead

Please provide information about your system components , i.e. specific make/model of video card, storage drives, and power supply.

the gpu is sapphire RX560 pulse 2GB oc, the psu is antec ea550g-pro, the hdds are 3 spinpoint f1 1T (2 samsung, one rebranded seagate), one wdb blue 1T and one old wdc blue 320GB

Have you unplugged and firmly re-plugged both the 24 pin ATX and 8 pin CPU power supply cables (on both the motherboard side and the PSU side if your PSU is modular)?

I've played with the cables, even disconnected the hdds and the cdrom, still no dice

If so and it is still not working, I would immediately suspect either the motherboard or PSU.

If you have access to another PSU, you could try to hook it up outside the case and swap over all power cables to the motherboard to see if it will properly boot the flash drive with the new PSU.

no alt psu unfortunately, my gut feeling tells me the psu is ok, the fan is spinning ok.

As a last resort, if it still doesn't work with a different PSU, you could also try to pull the motherboard and place it on an anti-static bag or piece of cardboard with video card and one memory module installed. Use a screwdriver to short the switch jumpers to start the machine and see you can boot it from your flash drive on one of the integrated USB ports. If it does, the motherboard is grounding out somewhere in the case.

a bit extreme, no? did this ever worked?

If it still doesn't boot, at that point I would presume the motherboard has developed a fault and attempt warranty service (or preferably a return/swap to vendor if it is still within the return period).

I think the board is still under warranty, but I suspect that the ram was to intensive for the board's vram.
assuming the RMA will be approved, I can face the same issue down the road again, this time, I don't think the RMA will be approved.
thing is, what alternative board I can get instead which will work without any issues won't be expensive?

 

[Furious_Styles]

no dice, still not working


no point upgrading the bios if the mb might be dead


the gpu is sapphire RX560 pulse 2GB oc, the psu is antec ea550g-pro, the hdds are 3 spinpoint f1 1T (2 samsung, one rebranded seagate), one wdb blue 1T and one old wdc blue 320GB


I've played with the cables, even disconnected the hdds and the cdrom, still no dice


no alt psu unfortunately, my gut feeling tells me the psu is ok, the fan is spinning ok.


a bit extreme, no? did this ever worked?


I think the board is still under warranty, but I suspect that the ram was to intensive for the board's vram.
assuming the RMA will be approved, I can face the same issue down the road again, this time, I don't think the RMA will be approved.
thing is, what alternative board I can get instead which will work without any issues won't be expensive?

Highly unlikely the memory caused the failure. You should be able to get the RMA approved.

 

[Steltek]

a bit extreme, no? did this ever worked?

It is mainly meant to eliminate every possibility other than a problem with the processor, memory, and power supply. You have to remove the motherboard anyway in most cases, so it doesn't hurt to give it a try.

However, in this case, if the PSU is good it sounds like something has blown on the board itself which would render the exercise moot.

I think the board is still under warranty, but I suspect that the ram was to intensive for the board's vram.
assuming the RMA will be approved, I can face the same issue down the road again, this time, I don't think the RMA will be approved.
thing is, what alternative board I can get instead which will work without any issues won't be expensive?

You can create an account and check the warranty status of the board by its serial number at this link. Gigabyte warrants most of its boards for 3 years.

Although you didn't say specifically what B450 Aorus board you have, all of them I know of officially support up to DDR4-3600 OC'd - there should be no way your DDR4-3200 DRAM could have damaged the board even running on an XMP profile.

You probably just got a faulty board, which is not unusual - quality is hit and miss in pretty much all motherboards at this point. The manufacturers spend more money making them look nice with blinking LED bling than they do to ensure they will keep working.

If you want, you can buy a new board. However, I don't know if what you end up with will be any more reliable than what you have. If you do decide to get a new one, I'd go with an X570 board due to PCIe 4.0 compatibility - when you eventually upgrade to an SSD (and you should) the newest SSDs greatly benefit from PCIe 4.0 bandwidth.

 

[daggs1]

I need to find an anti-static bad, not sure I have one...

in regards to the board, your are correct, the board is an aorus b450m.
my kits are rather fast and have cl14, initially I wanted to go with an asus prime b350 but I was told the vram on that chipset is not that good.
this board is less than one year old, I still have a feeling the vram on that board might be insufficient.

getting a new board is an possibility, I was looking on a x470 because the x570 is more than I need (no need for PCIe 4.0, I don't see any scenario where I migrate my sw raid 5 based on spindle hdds to a sata based sdd, I see no value in sata based sdd, nvme however Is another thing, that I might consider but I don't have enough pcie slots on the board)
but the price of x570 is lower than the x470.

 

[daggs1]

the mb came back from rma inspection stating it's ok.
so I've dug into it and found out that due to grub upgrade, all my kernel images weren't loaded into grub's cfg.
that was because I decided to be a smartass.
after fixing it, all works well.
5 week of downtime due to utter stupidness.

sorry to have wasted your time.