Computer help

[Broke EF]

How old is "a few years"? 3? 5? More?

If it's 3 years or newer, go ahead and focus on the MB which it sounds like it could be. If it's older than that, I'd just do a new build with modern parts.

I am too lazy to look, but I would say 2 years? Its a 6th gen CUP, and a 1060 video card so not real old stuff.

I ordered a replacement power supply (I bought the one I used yesterday as a test with plans to hold onto it for future troubleshooting), and a new MSI Z370 MB. I hate to throw parts at it, but I am trying to have this fixed for her this weekend. I think its the MB, so I figured I would get my hands on one if I need it. My plan today is to take the MB out of the case, and bench test it with the new PSU that I got yesterday. I can verify that nothing in the case is shorting the board, and I can go through components one by one to validate them. Ill have a fresh MB and PSU on stand by. I can pull memory from my systems easy enough to check if need be. If its a CPU, well we can cross that bridge when we get there.

Just trying to fix this for her without building her a new computer. Sure would have been nice if it was just the PSU


Sean

 

[Broke EF]

Have you checked your RAM, is there more than one stick? if so try removing them one by one and see if you still have the issue.

I tried the RAM on the first go around, but have not yet done it with the new PSU.

Since I am here, may as well give a parts list for this build
MB: MSI Z170 SLI PLUS
CPU: Intel i5 6600K
GPU: Asus GTX 1060 Strix
PSU: Corsair AX1200
Memory: Gskill Ripjaw DDR4 (16GB Total, 2 X 8GB)

Nothing too crazy, but decent. It was built around March 2017 from what I can tell looking at old pics.


Sean

 

[Fish]

i actually just dealt with this yesterday.... a friend had a pc I built for her and she got a new monitor for xmas...that has hdmi only (wtf is that shit btw...)

So it was either add a graphics card to a 10 year old pc running a core 2 duo..

or upgrade everything for 150$ more then what a graphics card would cost... So this weekend ill be rebuilding her pc with a new MB, CPU, RAM and SSD for $250.

Really? Part lists?

I tried the RAM on the first go around, but have not yet done it with the new PSU.

Since I am here, may as well give a parts list for this build
MB: MSI Z170 SLI PLUS
CPU: Intel i5 6600K
GPU: Asus GTX 1060 Strix
PSU: Corsair AX1200
Memory: Gskill Ripjaw DDR4 (16GB Total, 2 X 8GB)

Nothing too crazy, but decent. It was built around March 2017 from what I can tell looking at old pics.


Sean

Thats not old at all. Thats basically my gaming PC cept I have a 6500 and a 1070.

 

[Lord Tin Foilhat]

Really? Part lists?



Thats not old at all. Thats basically my gaming PC cept I have a 6500 and a 1070.

From microcenter

 

[Fish]

Holy hot damn, Ive actually never even bothered looking at Ryzen 3 stuff.

That wouldnt be a bad build for my daughter actually. She usually is just minecraft and starting to get into photography stuff.

 

[Lord Tin Foilhat]

Holy hot damn, Ive actually never even bothered looking at Ryzen 3 stuff.

That wouldnt be a bad build for my daughter actually. She usually is just minecraft and starting to get into photography stuff.

exactly. its an upgrade from a core 2 duo so its already like 400% faster

its perfect for everyday tasks, add a gpu and you can throw more at it.

 

[Lord Tin Foilhat]

and its a newer 2xxx series Ryzen. I was surprised by the price honestly

 

[Fish]

The G series have graphics OTB right? Just not that good?

 

[Lord Tin Foilhat]

The G series have graphics OTB right? Just not that good?

correct. It isnt going to compete with GPUs but for onboard its good enough

 

[Broke EF]

Alright fellas, here is where I am at

MB on the desk
No GPU
No Memory
No HD (either SSD or Spinner)

Still the same issue. The only way it doesn't do it is if I disconnect the 8 pin CPU power from the top of the board. Of course it wont start that way, but the power stays on when I do that. Anything else to check before I swap the MB?

Sean

 

[Gamble]

reseat the cpu and make sure the heatsink is on even. If it's off a little it will overheat and keep rebooting itself

 

[Broke EF]

reseat the cpu and make sure the heatsink is on even. If it's off a little it will overheat and keep rebooting itself

I can do that, but temps in the BIOS and in Windows always checked out normal.

 

[Broke EF]

Well, this sucks. I changed the MB and the problem is still there. Guess that means its the CPU? That's the only thing left.

Sean

 

[Lord Tin Foilhat]

Well, this sucks. I changed the MB and the problem is still there. Guess that means its the CPU? That's the only thing left.

Sean

Run the original board with cpu and single ram stick in slot A or 1, whichever the manufacturer recommends for single ram applications. Run them outside of the case on the cardboard box the new board came in. Just MB, CPU, RAM and a monitor.

Time to factor out grounding issues before buying more parts.

 

[Lord Tin Foilhat]

and yeah... only thing left is the CPU unfortunately

 

[Broke EF]

Run the original board with cpu and single ram stick in slot A or 1, whichever the manufacturer recommends for single ram applications. Run them outside of the case on the cardboard box the new board came in. Just MB, CPU, RAM and a monitor.

Time to factor out grounding issues before buying more parts.

Yeah, I did all that first. The only way it didn't do the recycling was when the the CPU power plug was disconnected. That should have clued me in, but I was being hopeful that it wasn't the CPU.




Sean

 

[Broke EF]

Ran down to Microcenter this morning and picked up a new i5 9600K. From a bit of research, I don't believe that the X170 chipset will work with the 9th gen CPU so I put everything together in the new Z370 board. I need to update the drivers for the board and put everything back together. On the bench though, everything seems to be good! I would imagine it would be now that its mostly new. Aren't I glad that I volunteered to fix this for her.


Sean

 

[Broke EF]

Just a bit of an update now that its all 100% The short version is it was the CPU. As I said previously, I got a new 9600K, and installed it in the new X390 Pro board

Everything ran great, so I was confident that was the issue. After talking with the owner, we decided to also change out the PSU as a precaution. The one that was in there was pretty old, and there was a slight chance that it was the root cause of the damaged CPU.

Case all stripped down

New PSU on top of the old one. That extra space was nice to have

All back together from the back

And from the front

I ended up overclocking everything just a bit, because why not. The CPU has a base clock of 3.7Ghz, and it ended up at just about 4.4Ghz. I cant remember the GPU base clock, but it ended up at just a bit over 1920Ghz. Everything ran stable, and cool. I don't even think any of the fans ramped up to keep temps in check under full load.

It ended up costing a lot more than I planned, but she should be happy with it. Most importantly she should have a nice solid computer for school again. Thanks again for all of your help guys, it is appreciated.


Sean

 

[Thirdgen89GTA]

Holy crap, 1200w is nuts for a single card setup.

You planning on going Double or triple SLI at some point?

 

[sickmint79]

3.7 to 4.4 is considered mild?

 

[Broke EF]

Holy crap, 1200w is nuts for a single card setup.

You planning on going Double or triple SLI at some point?

The 1200i was from her old computer, which was nuts. It was a triple SLI setup with I believe 580's. It was fully water cooled, CPU, GPU's, MB, and Memory (total overkill). It was pretty old, and neglected but I tried to salvage it and get it fixed up for her. That wasn't going so well so eventually we decided to build this computer. She wanted to save anything she could to save some money. Unfortunately the only thing that was really compatible by that point was the power supply.

Sean

 

[Lord Tin Foilhat]

I would never overclock somebody elses computer that I built for them. The goal is reliability and stability when it comes to customer builds.

Less problems in the long run and less stress on the hardware.

 

[Thirdgen89GTA]

I would never overclock somebody elses computer that I built for them. The goal is reliability and stability when it comes to customer builds.

Less problems in the long run and less stress on the hardware.

I would if they wanted, but I wouldn't guarantee stability. And I'd probably lock the BIOS down with a password so they couldn't alter the settings.

But I would more than likely just offer to build the system with better parts to meet goals than overclocking it. Sure, more money, but guaranteed functionality.

I've still got a Geforce 2 GTS 32MB card sitting next to me that I installed heat sinks to the RAM and an aftermarket cooler. Back when it was a very rare thing to do so. I remember taking the the 3D Mark title for a week with that card. it survived me pushing the hell out of it.

Most times when I went to far I just got texture corruption from the memory not being able to keep up when OC'd.


My gaming PC doesn't get overclocked. It just runs stock clocks with whatever the OEM boosts are.

 

[Broke EF]

You guys are absolutely right, I normally would not overclock someones computer either. In fact, the first time I built this system I didn't. When we were first looking at it she was giving me shit about it not being overclocked, so I said I would when I fixed it. She is used to having a modified and overclocked system. She is also capable of turning the overclock back off if she wants. Because it is not my system, all I did was enable the MSI OC Genie overclocking in the BIOS. I was a bit surprised it clocked it that high for a built in auto deal, but I ran prime 95 to watch temps and make sure it was stable with no issue so I left it on.

Man, its been so long now I cant remember which card I was running, but I had the fastest air cooled single GPU setup for a while in 3D Mark. It was way too overclocked and would look like total shit on screen while running, but the score was solid. I want to look now and find the pics, but I got bored one day so I decided to see how far I could push my current computer. It is a 3rd gen i5 with a lower base clock than this computer. I cant remember how fast I got it, but it was higher than the 4.36Ghz this one did. If I can find the pics later Ill post them up.


Sean

 

[Thirdgen89GTA]

You guys are absolutely right, I normally would not overclock someones computer either. In fact, the first time I built this system I didn't. When we were first looking at it she was giving me shit about it not being overclocked, so I said I would when I fixed it. She is used to having a modified and overclocked system. She is also capable of turning the overclock back off if she wants. Because it is not my system, all I did was enable the MSI OC Genie overclocking in the BIOS. I was a bit surprised it clocked it that high for a built in auto deal, but I ran prime 95 to watch temps and make sure it was stable with no issue so I left it on.

Man, its been so long now I cant remember which card I was running, but I had the fastest air cooled single GPU setup for a while in 3D Mark. It was way too overclocked and would look like total shit on screen while running, but the score was solid. I want to look now and find the pics, but I got bored one day so I decided to see how far I could push my current computer. It is a 3rd gen i5 with a lower base clock than this computer. I cant remember how fast I got it, but it was higher than the 4.36Ghz this one did. If I can find the pics later Ill post them up.


Sean

The 4000 series i7's reach 5ghz pretty easily on basic air cooling.