No Post, No Video Signal Output, I'm Stuck!

Hello. I've been trying to problem solve what is wrong with my old PC gaming rig for over a month now with no success. I've been posting on another forum but can't get a single reply, I could really use some assistance, my knowledge is not only lacking, but very dated (where did all the ribbon cables go man?!)

History:
Pre-built gaming PC from DigitalStorm "Marauder"
Upgraded the PSU, GPU, and CPU
Has had a history of overheating and restarting or turning itself off, probably because my lazy butt never bothered to clean out the dust screens like a dope.
Never been overclocked or modified other than parts swaps and an upgrade to windows 10 at one point.
Old PSU went bad, was under warranty and replaced. Never used the replacement as I upgraded to a bigger PSU.

Specs:
Processor: AMD Bulldozer FX-4100 Zambezi (3.6GHz) (4 Core) (8 MB Cache) AM3+ Socket
Motherboard: ASUS M5A97 (AMD 970 Chipset) (SATA 6 and USB 3.0) (Socket AM3+)
System Memory: 8GB DDR3 1600MHz Corsair Vengeance Series (High-Performance)
Power Supply: PSU CORSAIR| HX850 850W R
Hard Drive Set 1: Operating System: 1x (500GB Western Digital/Seagate/Hitachi/Samsung (7200 RPM) (16MB Cache)
Optical Drive 1: DVD-R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 24x / CD-Writer 48x)
Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)
Video Card: SAPPHIRE 100363-4L Radeon R9 280X 3GB 384-Bit GDDR
Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio
Extreme Cooling: Standard Factory Heat-sink and Fan
Chassis Airflow: Standard Factory Chassis Fans
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Home

Current status:
Breadboarded.

All I have assembled:

PSU - Connected power to motherboard, CPU, and Graphics card.
Hard drive - Connected to PSU (I can hear it spinning) and to the motherboard
Graphics card - Connected to the PCI slot and the PSU and a functioning monitor. Fans spinning.
CPU - fresh paste, pins all intact, heatsink fan spinning.
RAM - 1 stick in the primary slot per manual instructions
USB Keyboard
Motherboard speaker for POST (didn't come with one, no integrated speaker either)

What it does:
Powers on, all fans spinning, no POST beeps, no signal to monitor.

What I have tried in this current breadboarded configuration:
Visually inspected all components for any kind of damage.
Used air to blow out every slot and cable connection.
Cleaned the contacts on the RAM sticks and the Graphics Card
Cleaned the paste off CPU, no damage observed, all pins intact.
Reapplied conductive paste in better fashion (Arctic silver 5)
Each RAM stick individually in each RAM slot.
Graphics Card in different PCI slots.
A smaller graphics card in both PCI slots.
2 different data cables for Hard Drive
Fresh CMOS battery and reset.

I really don't know what to do next, as I don't know what components could be causing the issue. Is it just the Hard Drive? The motherboard? The PSU should be good in theory as I tried another brand new one that I had boxed up with the exact same results (although not breadboarded at the time). The CPU doesn't look fried or damaged, both graphics cards SHOULD be working...

 

So for complete clarity this rig was powering up / working before, albeit with overheating issues, and you have replaced the PSU. Was that the only change to the original spec?

- You've connected both the ATX power supply connector and the ATX12v connectors on the mobo? as per page 2-2 of the manual? As well as the CPU fan.

On page 2-2 of the manual, item 8 is the Standby Power LED. Is that LED light illuminated? That light should be on when the mobo has power. By has power, I don't mean that the rig is switched on, I mean rig off, with psu on. Look at page 2-15 of the manual.

- 1 ram module only installed in DIMM slot 1. The slot immediately to the right of the CPU socket. There is also an LED to the right of DIMM slot 4, is that illuminated in at all?

- You VGA card is in PCIe slot 1 the first one just below the southbridge.

At this stage, I would disconnect the HDD. Since your rig does not post / boot, it's just another complication.

Personally, faced with such a problem, I would do a bare bones set up ie take mobo out of case and just have cpu, 1 stick of ram, psu, vga connected to monitor. This would remove the possibility of any kind of electrical short.

You say that who have a speaker. Connected correctly, as per page 2-20 of manual

BTW, how is the VGA connected to the monitor ie type of cable?

This may not be an easy problem to resolve. Apart from a spare vga & psu, do you have any other spare components, like a spare mobo of that model? Strange thing to ask but when I build a system, I always buy a spare mobo.

Good Luck

 

Re: VGA, that should be the northbridge.....

 

It worked great for a long time other than the original PSU issue that needed warranty replacement. I myself eventually upgraded and replaced the PSU, the GPU, and CPU. It worked great in that configuration for a long time other than the overheating issues once in a while (after long hours of video game play) The overheat issue was a problem in its original form also.

- Yes all of those are connected, I also blew out all the connections.

- Yes, when PSU is switched on, the LED lights up when computer is still off

- I tried one RAM only in each slot, and I have tried with both RAM sticks. The LED is not lit up, if I am reading the manual correctly that LED (red) only turns on if there is a RAM issue? and the MemOK! button is to troubleshoot a RAM issue?

- The Gaphics Card is in PCI slot one, I have tried it in both slots also. I don't know what northbridge or southbridge is.

I have now disconnected the HDD and the associated cables, and ran the same tests trying each of the RAM sticks individually in each slot. I also changed just now to another CPU that I knew was functioning but still the same problems.

It is already out of the case and setup on a desk.

It is a DVI cable, I also have another working monitor (I use it with another computer) that uses HDMI and have also tested with that monitor. Same problems.

I don't have any further spare parts. It seems that this motherboard is only found used now, I have just purchased another motherboard that is listed as compatible so I will be trying that in a few days.

 

What did you buy? out of interest.

On your mobo there are two heatsinks on the mobo one above the top pci-e slot and one on the right towards the bottom. Look at the manual and it explains what each does.

That board has an AMD 970 northbridge with SB950 southbridge. That particular northbridge is susceptible to overheating leading to issues ie restarting, as a result of the poor stock heatsink. The way around this if you have purchased another mobo with this chipset is to change the northbridge cooler.

Good Luck

 

Before I removed the hard drive and changed the CPU
https://i.imgur.com/ElOtBb6.jpg

 

Thank you for your quick response I missed this!

I purchased this one: ASRock Motherboard ATX DDR3 1600 AMD AM3+ Motherboard 970 PRO3 R2.0

Do you suggest something different? I'm hoping to also upgrade to a 8350 CPU at some point (I think that was the one that worked in this setup)

Ah great information thank you very much!

 

Different manufacturer almost same chipset ie AMD970 SB950. If you are gaming then you may still get overheating of the northbridge and issues as previously. Depending on case cooling.

This board has a 4 + 1 Power Phase Design ie a cheap board which can not handle any overclocking of any kind.

Supports CPU up to 140W which is better than your Asus especially as the TDP of the FX 8350 is 125w (from memory).

You will probably (almost certainly) have to run the ram at 1333Mhz if running it in Dual mode.

Much of these AM3+ boards especially at this price range (4+1 power phase) will be much of a muchness.

I run a Gigabyte GA970A DS3P rev 2.0 (built it some 2 years ago). Same chipset as your Asus. Cheap board also but I am no longer into o/cing so fine.

I opted for the FX6300 6core, 95TDW heat output from cpu, so easier to keep cool, especially if you only have the stock cooler and poor case ventilation. Plus the difference between the FX 6300 and FX 8350 will be so minimal that I personally preferred to run the cooler one.

If you are interested in putting a different northbridge let me know and I will search where I got my aftermarket cooler from.

Good Luck

 

I can tell from your reply that I need to learn a lot more haha.

Do you think I would be better off using a different board that has more options for upgrading the CPU in the future?

I'm just plug and playing in PC part picker and found the ASRock 970A-G/3.1 ATX AM3+/AM3 Motherboard could run my current CPU as well as upgrade to a fx-9590 in the future. I will be playing some older gaming titles like Skyrim special edition and fallout 4, I'm hoping to optimize capability for the both of them. But if it's going to turn into a situation of me having to eventually swap every single component out I might just scrap the whole idea.

 

I am not entirely sure as some boards such as the one you have opted for are for AM3+ cpus only (so no further upgrade path available). If you buy a newer board (and stick with AMD), then you would be looking at getting a mobo using the latest Ryzen cpus.

To the best of my knowledge a Ryzen board cannot accommodate an AM3+ cpu (which you have). Although you should be able to re-use your current vga.

So in essence do you want to stick with your current cpu or not is the question?

Also the kinds of games that you play or likely to play in the future plays a part in this.

I am only an occasional gamer nowadays but with my set up I can play Far Cry, Call of Duty and Crysis among others with very good frame rate usually not much less than 60fps. I run an MSI GTX660 o/c version fyg (2Gb onbaord ram + 8GB of system ram). These are older games which require lesser specced VGAs.

Have a look here and you will see your vga's benchmark, it's pretty low. Mine lower than yours!

https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

There also videos on you tube which show games being played with different video cards with side by side comparison with frame rates.

Also playing games nowadays is much more to do with the spec of the VGA (amount of onboard ram important) and to some extent the overall ram in the system. It has very much less to do with the cpu, so that the difference in fps of an FX6300 compared with a FX9350 would probably be trivial when using the same graphics card. if you see what I mean.

Good Luck

 

I do see what you mean, thank you very much! I used to be a hardcore gamer and played competitively online. But it sucked my life away. I am now only willing to play casually with some older single player games, just having fun. I honestly don't really plan to play much in the way of modern games. Red Dead Redemption 2 was on my radar but it looks much more system intensive so I might just scratch that one off my list. I don't have a ton of spare time these days anyways.

 

It did turn out to be the motherboard. Runs great now! I'd love to know the cooler you liked if you have the time

 

Excellent! Sorry late reply.

It's this one

https://www.moddiy.com/products/PC-Cooler-H.D.T-Technology-Northbridge-Cooler-.html?setCurrencyId=1

I would suggest that you get some thermal pad also

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GELID-So...953597&hash=item1c601d913b:g:ApwAAOSwCypWoQtp

So take off old Northbridge heatsink, cover the area surrounding the die with the thermal pad (get the 0.5mm one as I found the 1mm too thick, which meant that the base of the heat sink did not make contact with the die).

Re-grease the die with fresh paste. Personally I prefer Artic Ceramique, almost as good as Silver but non-conductive.

Then gently install new heatsink on the northbridge. The screw attachments to this northbridge heatsink need to be placed (in my case) as far as possible ie widest pitch. It is a bit tight to fit through the mobo holes but it does work. Well for my mobo GA 970A DS3P in any case.

There is a version of that heatsink with a fan. Personally, don't bother with it.

Careful when installing the heatsink. Keep it flat on the die when you position it and screw down evenly keeping even pressure on heatsink. Other wise you may chip a corner of the northbridge die.

Before you order anything make sure that there is sufficient room between the VGA and the cpu cooler to insert the new northbridge cooler.

Good Luck