CPU or Mobo failure???

Associate
Joined
21 Nov 2018
Posts
14
Location
East Midlands
Hello everyone, this is my first post on here so hope I am meeting all the criteria and putting this in the correct place! Apologies if I have made any mistakes.

Now, I recently started building a Fractal Design Node 202 build with the following parts list:

Case-Fractal Design Node 202
Mobo-MSI B360I Gaming Pro AC (new from MSI)
CPU-Intel I3 8300 (B grade from OC)
RAM-2x8GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4 RGB 3000MHz (2nd hand but known working)
PSU-Corsair SF450 (2nd hand but known working)
GPU-MSI Aero 1070 OC (2nd hand)
Storage-SSD and M.2 SSD

When I put everything together the PC booted but gave no display output. I checked the LED indicators and I am getting the DRAM warning LED with the CPU warning LED coming on instead every 1.5 seconds for about 0.5 seconds in a constant cycle between the two. The PC stays on and everything appears to be powered up; GPU fan, CPU heatsink fan, RGB on RAM and mobo lights/RGB. I also noticed that the on board graphics display (DVI-D), does know that the PC is on and connected but says their is no signal. When the PC is not on or the cable is disconnected whilst on, the screen immediately changes, implying that some signal is going through.

Troubleshooting

I stripped down the PC to just PSU, mobo, CPU and one stick of RAM and tried the following:

-I tried placing the RAM in either slot, used both sticks of Corsair by themselves and even tried another known working stick by itself. The other stick (Team Group Elite 4GB DDR4 2400MHz) does give a slight difference in that when fitted by itself, it causes only the RAM LED indicator to turn on and there is no flashing between that and the CPU indicator.

The mobo says it only supports 2133, 2400 and 2666 MHz Ram but it should just downclock I believe, and the other stick I tried was 2400 anyway. I also checked the voltage rated by the mobo for the RAM and it says 1.35v which is what the Corsair states it uses and the TG stick is 1.2v rated. I have looked on the MSI compatibility page for this mobo and it seems to support both of these sticks as far as I could tell (both sticks come from 4 stick bundles so I cannot search their code properly for just two or one stick that this board can fit in its two slots).

-I used another known working PSU and same effect.

-I tried clearing the Bios by disconnecting CR2032 battery and holding down the power button for 60 seconds with the cable disconnected and no difference. I also did this in between swapping out between RAM.

-I tried taking the CPU out and checked for bent pins and re-positioned it/the cooler back on. CPU looks fine for what its worth.

-Tried reconnecting the 24 pin and CPU 8 pin on both ends.

Think that covers everything I have tried or thought about so far. My understanding is that the fault must either lie with the CPU or mobo which I cannot swap out for lack of spare 8th gen parts. Both are meant to be working, but I understand that mobos are far more likely to be DOA than CPUs. I would appreciate any ideas on troubleshooting or on what is more likely to be causing the issue here.

Thanks in advance!
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
14,047
Location
West Midlands
Given the fact you have a B grade CPU that would be my first choice of culprit, since you've done a great job already and ruling asking everything else out.

Maybe contact OCUK and ask them to swap it out for you? :)
 
Associate
OP
Joined
21 Nov 2018
Posts
14
Location
East Midlands
Given the fact you have a B grade CPU that would be my first choice of culprit, since you've done a great job already and ruling asking everything else out.

Maybe contact OCUK and ask them to swap it out for you? :)

Thanks for the reply. But surely OC would not sell a B Grade CPU without having checked it or at least taken it out of a working system, do you think?
 
Back
Top Bottom