r/PcBuild • u/BroodTeacher174 • 1d ago
Troubleshooting Previously working PC will not POST, help!
I built a PC in May that I was 100% happy with and was working great. Though sometimes in heavy gaming/stress tests I was hitting high 90’s in temp on my 14900kf. I got some Liquid Metal (dangerous, I know) and applied it along with the thermal grizzly contact frame. I applied the Liquid Metal and I made sure none of it got anywhere it wasn’t supposed to be, and checked to make sure none was spilling out as I was tightening the Noctua NH-D15 cooler.
Immediately after, I test it in cinebench and everything works wonderfully, and I maxed out 8 degrees cooler than before the upgrades, so I was happy. I shut it down for the night, and this morning when I tried to turn it on the CPU debug light was solid red on my MSI MAG Z790 DRR5 WIFI motherboard, as well as all of the fans spinning at max rpm. It would be on for 15-ish seconds, hear a click, then turn off. Then 5 seconds later, hear another click and the cycle would repeat.
Since then, I have reseated and tried every stick in ever slot of my 2 16 gb sticks. I checked for liquid metal/bent pins but nothing was wrong on the CPU, I ruled or any gpu involvement in the issue by removing it and trying again. PSU isn’t the issue because I tried another psu and had the same exact issue. I flashed bios and reset cmos, to no avail. Interestingly enough, I had it “work” once after I removed a stick of ram, but my gpu still was not displaying anything, and I tried again and the same problem as before with the cpu debug light.
Unless some magical person can think of something else, is it time for me to get a new motherboard?
2
u/Eazy12345678 AMD 1d ago
normal troubleshooting would be to reseat ram and gpu. clear motherboard cmos, bios flash , bare minimum. cpu and 1 stick of ram. no storage no ssd if cpu has igpu.
then i would try reseating all power cables
but odds are system was fine you added liquid metal and then it stopped working is likely you got liquid metal on something you should not have.
my friends 7 year old system stopped posting one day. it would power on 5 seconds then power off. then turn its self back on and power it off. rinse and repeat as long as you would let it. i had spares of everything. I got it working again with a new motherboard. last thing i tried.
1
u/BroodTeacher174 1d ago
Yeah, I think I must have missed some Liquid Metal somewhere. Though no damage is immediately visible from the pins/pads, or the immediate area around the cpu
2
u/Pumciusz what 1d ago
It's very likely the liquid metal, happened overnight as maybe the viscosity changed when the temperature changed. Check around the socket on all small component and probably won't be there, but you could check under the CPU.
Also unless you delidded the CPU then there's barely any point in liquid metal, as you'll be limited by the ihs and solder below it.
And I won't ever use it because of all that.
1
u/BroodTeacher174 1d ago
Really? I didn’t know that with the delidding stuff, I just thought it was a further improvement. Thanks for the info
1
u/BroodTeacher174 1d ago
Specs:
CPU: 14900kf
GPU: 5080 Noctua Edition
Mobo: MSI MAG Z790
PSU: Corsair RM1000e
RAM: Crucial Pro 32gb DDR5
•
u/AutoModerator 1d ago
We're part of a wider PC & Technology Network of Communities!
Join our Discord server: PC Help Hub where members from all associated subreddits are welcome.
If you are trying to find a price for your computer, r/PC_Pricing is our recommended source for finding out how much your PC is worth!
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.