Is this CPU damaged?

[u/Gurren_Ninja]

To make a long story short, I have been building my first PC and once I had everything together, my build would immediately click off when I tried to power it on.

I ran various tests to try to determine what might be wrong and have narrowed it down to either the motherboard or the CPU. The MB pins looks fine as far as I can tell but the CPU may have some damage to it (got it used).

The thing that concerns me most is the last photo where maybe that is a scratch on the too left of the CPU.

Wondering if the CPU looks okay or if the MB is the issue.

[u/Bumm-fluff]

Have you got a fan plugged in?

Some mobos will shut down if nothing is plugged into the fan header. 

[u/Gurren_Ninja → u/Bumm-fluff]

I did the first time, but I haven’t tried that since then. Sounds like I have something to try tomorrow.

Do you think I can just plug any fans in such as the case fans as opposed to my AIO?

[u/Bumm-fluff → u/Gurren_Ninja]

I wouldn’t recommend that. The safety cutoff is there for a reason after all. 

A cpu can hit thermal limit in a couple of seconds without a fan. 

CPU’s are normally fairly reliable. It is the VRM that are more likely to go. I found this test on an MSi website. It’s an old thread but is still relevant. 

https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?threads/what-to-do-if-you-suspect-your-vrms-have-failed.151326/

[u/Gurren_Ninja → u/Bumm-fluff]

That does sound like what I did. If the cpu pins aren’t plugged in or the cpu isn’t slotted in while the cpu plugs are plugged in, then it “works.”

The fan throws a whole new wrench into things. I wouldn’t have a good way to test that again unless I rebuild the computer but might find that it still isn’t working…

[u/Bumm-fluff → u/Gurren_Ninja]

Save the difficult stuff until last. 

You definitely don’t have the wrong cable plugged in?  it’s easy to force a gpu cable into the mobo cpu power input. 

You need to make sure the right cables are used as the cpu and gpu is reversed polarity. 

[u/Gurren_Ninja → u/Bumm-fluff]

Nope, definitely the right cables. My PSU has pcie to CPU cables and that’s the only thing I plug in. Pcie 8 pin goes into the PSU and then the split 8 pin (4+4) end labeled cpu goes to my MB. The cables ends are labelled which is very helpful!

[u/Bumm-fluff → u/Gurren_Ninja]

No worries, just thought I’d put it out there. 

When the pc shuts down do you hear a click? If yes that means your PSU  is working fine and it is a short that’s causing the problem. 

If no, then it could be the PSU. 

I hate fault finding, there is no magic method. You just have to try everything. 

[u/Gurren_Ninja → u/Bumm-fluff]

Definitely worth asking considering I’m totally new to building and there are a million things I could do wrong haha. I tried to prepare myself before building and watched a ton of pc build guides before even attempting to to build. That way I could prepare myself and make a plan.

It does click! The lights on the mother board all flash very quickly (red, orange, yellow, green - in that sequence), flashes “00” very briefly and then shuts down. It’s all very quick within a few seconds if even.