90% chance the board was bricked while updating. I think it's good for your channel to invest in bios flashing tool, you could revive some older mobos that are not easy to replace also good content
100% agree. At the little pc repair shop I work at we invested in one and have been able to bring back bricked boards with very little effort. Super useful tool to have.
Even though it's 8/10 cpu , 2/10 mobo on this series , it's inexpensive enough to be worth it. Unless board manufacturers send him enough freebie mobos to not have to bother with bios.
I'd suggest watching one of Adamant IT's video's he has up where he deliberately cuts power during a bios flash to show what happens, and then how to go about removing the Bios chip and reprogramming it. It may sound difficult, but it's really not, you can get clips that attach to the chip so you don't have to remove it, but they are hit and miss, removing the chip and using a bios programmer (which are very cheap) and the correct software will at least show you why the bios failed (you'll be able to compare the bios with a working one and see the differences) and you can easily flash the right bios and re-solder the chip. There probably isn't a hardware failure in the chip at all, this board can be saved with a little bit of work. Even if you don't intend to do Bios programming at any point, learning about how it's done, and doing it once or twice will save you a lot of headaches in the future if this happens on a high end board that you'd rather not lose.
It was very bizarre for me as well. By far my most frustrating cpu problem I’ve had to deal with. Thank you so much for doing this. Booted up great first try.
I fix computers all day and I still find myself watching all your videos, helps me learn new things to keep a eye out for or just new ways to tackle things I’ve ran into before. Love the content man, keep it coming.
Man I wish I had your patience. Seems the older I get "lets just say well over a half a century" the more of that seems to fade away. Well Done! & thanks for allowing me to learn with you. 👍
Man you and tronics fix are my favorite tech TH-camrs , you guys would make an amazing team you diagnose the failed components and he goes in and replaces them ! Dream team !
Would rather have seen a cheap cooler than a cheap PSU. Although that PSU is far from the worst I've seen. I've seen PSUs that didn't have any kind of certification whatsoever. This one at least is 80+ White
I really, really like this series! Also, I want to thank you for what you’re doing to your community! I’m pretty sure this is a corrupted BIOS issue. When it happens, the MB will do all sorts of weird things and you cannot trust any debug information it will give you. My programmer has an in-circuit adapter and cost me ~80$. You could also buy preprogrammed BIOS chips, but you would need to swap it, solder it on the MB. It’s for you to decide how far you really want to go, since you have sponsors (maybe they could offer that service to you?). Keep the videos coming!
I had same issue with the MSI board i have. Went to Update Bios in the MSI app it shut down and would not boot back up no post. I got lucky and used Flash back about 5x and finally got it back to posting. MSI is really weird I normally use ASUS.
Hi Greg, I have an MSI MAG X570S TOMAHAWK MAX WIFI in my Rig with the same issue sometimes. No Boot and stuck on a white DRAM Led. This is a Bug with the Firmware of some MSI Boards apparently, even reinstalling does not fix it. I sometimes have to Hard Power down and then Power on my System 3-4 Times to get it booting. I swapped everything (Ram, CPU, Storage etc.) and even reinstalled the Bios a few times. So chances are that when you power on / off the Board a few times it will boot in your case too. Oh, and it has to be done with not much time between the Power cycles, I don't know why, but if u wait like 10-15 minutes between them, it will just keep getting stuck on the DRAM Led.
@Greg Salazar You always "look a fool on camera" but don't worry about it. Enjoy "learning with you." Thanks for the great Fix or Flop series. Really enjoy walking through the process with you. As always Well Done!
The bios updates from msi in the 10th gen is a huge problem still and msi wont do a damn thing about it. I can't link the msi forums of all the confirm cases without my comment being marked as spam but it's been an ongoing issue for over a year now. With hundred upon hundreds of confirmed cases. And msi still wont put out a fix. My z490 tomahawk is effected by it. You try to update the bios and it bricks the board after it restarts with a dram code. The only fix is to buy a programmer for the bios chip which many have done being msi wont help. Being most of the msi z490 and other msi boards don't have bios flash back this is the only fix. It's a very messed up situation still for 10th gen users with msi boards without a bios flash back. I'm glad your video has a pc with the exact issue effecting so many people and hopefully you will see this comment and it can become public and help the people that msi silences and shrugs off like Newegg has done until a famous youtuber calls them out on it. If you go on the msi forums you will see the huge amount of people effected by this and have had to buy new boards or systems or a programmer and other things just to get their systems up and running again. The thread is labeled - "!!! Warning: Z490 boards - problem with recent BIOS updates !!!"
@ 13:29 just to the right of the cpu socket appears to be a scratch possibly from mounting or unmounting the cpu cooler maybe there is a trace or two broken.
Ebay sellers have preprogrammed bios chips for cheap. I ordered 3 latest revisions pre flashed for a X79 MOBO. These 8 pin chips are pretty easy to remove and replace. Did my first soldering on one to fix a Samsung TV.
I have to say thank you Greg your show is a great tool to use if there are problems and great ways to diagnose which is 90% of the job done right there. Being a mechanic as I am is the same if you can not diagnose you are not a mechanic just a parts replacer. Your a good man and hope nobody has anything to say about that because they will be wrong.
This channel is unique in the fact that you are the only TH-camr (I think) that hosts videos containing viewers PC's and try to fix them.....i love it i think you will hit the 1 million sub mark by summer at this rate if not before .......
I have been in a similar situation myself... Some years back I wanted to overclock my locked Skylake CPU using a sketchy bios and needless to say I completely bricked my z170 board... Thankfully though It had a detachable bios chip so a few weeks later I got my PC working again. Fun fact! I learned nothing and tried the bios flash again and it worked! Got my locked i5 6600 to 4.5 GHz!
I have that exact same case! I got it for $20 on FB/CL (I forget). Beautiful case. I took the power button out to fit a 20mm fill port for a custom loop. I just used the RGB button for a power button. It has room for a 360mm radiator, but terrible airflow. So I grabbed a $5 "rain gutter mesh" from the hardware store and bolted it on instead. Ao much better. What a fail of a front panel, sooo close and then dropped it. The glass is on with adhesive, so leave it on your car dash in the summer and it will soften, or use a heatgun, soak it in rubbing alcohol. Or just leave that side alone and only do the metal side (it unscrews) pics:
Pics got eaten by the comment sanitizer, just Google gutter mesh and your favorite big box home improvement store. Should be $4-5. My pictures are up on small form factor . 🥅
at 13:40 you see a damaged/exposed trace on the right side of the socket, at first I thought it was a smudge but it follows the trace too perfectly. Where the upside down Noctua cooler triggered your OCD, for me the most triggering part is the ketchup&mustard cables of the PSU.
think of it this way. Greg is not a actual repairsman, Greg is someone who troubleshoots lego rigs. Bios reflashing is more like fixing the individual lego pieces, while greg just swaps out lego pieces to fix the final product.
I have done this. It's not difficult. And the programmer was less than $20. If you have a mobo you want to save, and its out of warranty, I think its worthwhile to use a ch341a programmer.
I had the almost same experience, what happened I think was the uneven pressure of the cooler, I was using a cooler with four points to screw and it looks like I have over tighten the one or two screw. It now only working on single channel on the right most DIMM slots :). For now I stopped using the old style cooler with four points of screw and not over tightening them.
Never get tired of seeing the giant noctua coolers, ive had the nhu14s in my main rig for years and 0 complaints! Might swap it for a newer black one soon.
@@missterious69 You 100% used the wrong screws on the MB/Case. Or maybe you didn't tighten the cooler evenly and that caused a lot of pressure on the MB over time, since only one side was really carrying all the weight.
Greg try this: Download a bios for that motherboard, unpack it into an NTFS usb stick root foldert. Add it to one of the rear usb motherboard slots. Just leave the CPU, 1 stick of ram, boot it up and leave it there. Don't add any drive any keyboard, nothing. If there's anything live left in there, the thing will self flash itself after some time, like within half an hour. I salvaged so many motherboards like this you don't have an idea. Basically any uefi motherboard can do that, if the bios isn't physically corrupt.
I had the exact same issue with an msi mag b550 board a couple years ago. Happened right after attempting to update bios. I ended up replacing the board but a few months later was curious and used the bios flashback on the board to install a different bios version and sure enough it worked.
Had an AMD MSI mortar board similar to this and it had the same exact issue. DRAM debug LED was stuck on. Couldn't even use the flashbk button. Luckily the board still had a warranty and was repaired by an MSI shop.
Greg your video came just in time and saved me threwing away a good motherboard. The computer want posting and after conecting the 2 jumper pins the computer it's back runing . Thanks man !
I know with a Cooler like that, I add a fan in the back to help move air out of the system even with a rear fan in the system. That can help keep the air from having issues going from A to B. Also, most of these coolers want at least two fans, one in the middle and usually one in the front, but if you really don't have enough clearance from the memory, the back is a good option. As others have noted, sometimes you can have the front fan a little higher to deal with clearance issues without affecting airflow too much (that third fan can still be useful, may even let you run a little quieter due to how the airflow ends up). For those thinking to add a third fan on something like this, go with what was used on the front. Most coolers will tell you what model fan they are using for that front fan.
Fix or flop is back on the menu!! Looks like 2023 is going to be a good year. Let the playlist be full and the fix out weigh the flop.! Perfect way to finish off the day before bed. Thanks for the great content.
Yeah as many say an EEPROM programmer is the way to go on such a case. Only issue is to get the binary image of the correct bios once it is programmed. The downloadable file you get from the manufacturer website is either encrypted or get "processed" during flashing. So you just cannot directly flash it using an EEPROM programmer. You would need to get your hand on a known working (bootable) image from a working card, from forums or buy a pre-flashed bios EEPROM from Ebay, But if you get your hand on this binary file, the flashing process itself takes about 10 seconds and is super easy.
Great video, Greg. Keep 'em coming cause I'm learning alot! Oh BTW, the PassMark Inline PSU Tester is a bit spendy for me :) At $590 I guess it';s intended to sell to shops.
I know I am quite late to the party but that looks like a scratch at 13:57 that goes through some PCI-Lanes between the CPU and the RAM slots. A friend of mine killed a board the same way while mounting a new AIO by slipping with the screwdriver. But that wouldn't explain the symptoms of it bricking during a BIOS flash or while entering the BIOS flash menu so idk
If you are buying a bios flasher, get the ch341a v1.7/1.5 version.(one with IR receiver) useing a 5v flasher on a 1.8v chip will kill it. It has a voltage switch for 5, 3.3 ,1.8v.
It's really important to buy boards that allow updating the BIOS via a button and/or even without the CPU installed. Dual BIOS boards are very good to have as well.
There's another bios flash method that involves booting to a DOS prompt from a USB thumb drive (and all other drives disconnected), and then runs a .bat file which automatically flashes the bios, even though there's no video output as it happens. For such a procedure to work, would depend on what portion of the existing bios firmware is still functional. As others have said, the bios chip re-flashing procedure can be seen on several videos posted by the U.K. based TH-camr Adamant_IT. His method involves de-soldering, flashing using a special USB connected programmer device & then re-soldering the bios chip.
I had this similar issue, mine was the motherboard, it was throwing DRAM and VGA errors. It became obvious when there was a permanent buzz in the speaker soon after diag. New board and CPU for good measure and its good to go
I had to troubleshoot my main rig this past weekend and it made me think of your series. I got a new mobo but it ended up being the CPU. I also was getting a flashing red light on my GPU which indicated a PSU problem. It was exhausting but I finally got it working properly and with better temps than before. I fried it running Prime 95.
Just built my first pc a few weeks ago. Your vids made me anxious lol but informed me enough to double check my steps when it didn’t power on and I eventually got it.
Had a kinda similar Problem with a pc we built for a friend. Z690 + 13600k, so we had to do a bios flash. The board supported flashing without stuff on it so we did everything, as gigabyte said it has to be done. The flashing went way to fast, after a dozen seconds or so it signaled to be ready. So that was something weird, as it normally takes some time. Anyway we built everything together just to get rgb and fans spinning but no output, and after like a minute the pc just restarted. The debug leds were always switching between dram and cpu. So we went and checked the ram, and it was working fine, another ram also didn't work. So we messed around and only used one stick, and it just stayed on dram. Gpu was working btw. After we tried everything we just went and sent it back with the cpu, as that could also be the culprit.
I will - at a later date. They don’t show up overnight. Would rather have the viewer back up and running sooner. Also still in doubt that it’s BIOS related seeing as though he wasn’t actually flashing (supposedly) when it crashed.
@@GregSalazar I've had a computer do this to me too where updating the bios bricked the board. I was able to contact the vendor to get a new chip sent to me which fixed it. I know it doesn't come overnight but I would like to see if that works.
@Qasmoc They are not talking about the BIOS drivers, but rather the physical Chip which stores the BIOS drivers on the mobo (aka., a memory module specifically for the BIOS).
Some bios chips don’t pop out. You need a heat station and fine tools to remove. Then you also need fine soldering tools and if not a microscope then at least a magnifier. You can easily desolder more than you wanted or even damage the board if you don’t have the skills. Greg does not do that. If you want to see all that kind of stuff then watch NorthridgeFix.
Personally Greg, I like the way you are fixing systems right now because I'm 100% sure that most people, myself included, DON'T have the tools required to change or test bad components on a circuit bord. Although it's interesting to watch someone change those components, I think it's way beyond the average power user's ability to do that. If I had a component go bad I would troubleshoot it the same way you are doing!
I had a similar issue when I wanted to update my MSI B450M. I tried to get into the BIOS update enviroment and it just stayed black and unresponsive, even after several reboots. Lucky enough, poping out the battery and absolutely making sure I drained all power to clear the BIOS worked it back to the normal enviroment. That was scary to say the least. funny that it's the same situation on another MSI board
that is true, however in this instance, according to the owner of the rig he was not actually flashing the bios when the system black screened. Most likely something else failed on the board.
@@timbecker4037 yeah it is definitely worth a shot, depends on whether the original owner was honest or not, my CH341a has saved several boards that had bricked BIOS.
On the back of the motherboard in the correct slot flash the latest bios with a USB stick and keep the battery out until its installed , i had the same problem when trying to update my motherboard.. It did take me a while to find the right software and format the USB stick so it could read it but it now works fine :)
These videos are great, I love watching them. I bought my son a new case and did a straight swap and it turned on for 30 seconds, then black screen and kept rebooting, then nothing but black screen with the vga light on with the dram light flashing every few seconds. I had to strip my pc and test all components and it came down to motherboard or cpu, luckily my mate had a spare board and after testing found out the motherboard failed, I have no idea why I did not take anything off of it I just took it out of the old case and put it in the new case, if it wasn't for these videos I would no idea what was wrong or why, so thanks for the videos.
Same thing happened to me when attempted to enter flash mode through bios (Ram led flashing-black screen) on MSI Z690-A Pro Wifi DDR4. Luckily mine was fixed by reducing temporarily ram sticks from 4 to 2. First thing tried that didn't help was CMOS reset.
Having to double check while diagnose is really something customer tend to take as an insulte, it happen a lot as a car mechanics too. But like you highlighted, IT IS vital to follow a clean organizational chart in order to do a diag.
The same happed to me with my Sabertooth Z170S, couple years ago. One night, I just turned it off and when I powered back on, nothing. So I started to diagnose everything right away by unplugging everything the essential cable and nothing. The CPU LED was on on stock on it.. Well, the CPU socket died, just like that. RMA the board and got a new one. Now that rig is my home servers since I've upgraded while waiting for the board!
When do you normally upload your videos? I always try and watch it when you upload but it never notifies me. Lol. Thanks for all your doing. Love the channel! Also, quick question… was playing destiny last night and computer just, restarted by itself… have a 3070FE, ryzen 7 3700x 124 gig ddr4. 700 watt thermaltake power supply.
Great vid and nice that you had a board kicking around you could use. Maybe try getting one of those BIOS flashers with a small clip. Saw Hardware Haven do something with one of those on 3 small Ryzen PCs. Who knows, you could get lucky with the board and seeing as you like PCs and hardware in general, I mean fixing a fridge... that's kinda next level, maybe it could be fun to try.
As for re-flashing the bios, I use a CH341a bios programmer, some of them come with the clip so no de-soldering needed. I have saved several motherboards using this tool that for whatever reason had a corrupt BIOS, and I "fixed" a fake GTX 1050ti that I got from wish, that was actually a 650ti, got a full refund on it so basically I got the 650ti for £10 (cost of the reprogrammer). I've also used it to flash a clean BIOS dump which removed the BIOS password as sometimes we get old company laptops that were previously locked down. On the software side, there is the official CH341a software but I found ASprogrammer and NeoProgrammer to support more chips, plus you don't have to hunt down an english language pack for it. The CH341a programmers + the clip is only like £10-15 on ebay, you may find it cheaper. You do have to be very precise when putting the clip onto the chip otherwise it won't read. Also, make sure you backup the BIOS, then wipe it, read it again to make sure it did wipe successfully, then make sure you flash a full BIOS dump, then read it back to make sure it did write properly.
Hi Greg. So...after you swapped motherboards with completely different chipsets, how did the existing drives, and specifically, how did Windows behave after boot?
I've swapped CPU's and Motherboards using the same SSD booting drive and windows is perfectly fine the way you would normally use and operate it. Only different thing that will happen is instead of auto booting into windows you will get a Bios notification basically saying "new cpu detected" or "new motherboard detected" "press F1 to run" then your golden. Isn't hard thankfully, just lets you know its been detected the change and thats all
I upgraded from a Z390 with 9700K to a Z690 with 12700K and my Windows 10 was fine with it. I only had to install a few drivers for the new motherboard and that was it. Not sure what would've happened if I moved into an AMD platform though, probably would've had to reinstall it
Im having the same problem, im thinking a motherboard problem. Seems bout right because it was working just fine until its not showing anything on screen. It also beeps that indicates a dram problem.
We need a third series where you attempt to repair some of the previous failed components that seemed the most repairable. Maybe call it ROTFL (repair or thoroughly fail later?)
Having this issue right now with a brand new build, though a slight difference in event timing/cause. DRAM light stays on, though it does flash to CPU briefly maybe twice before staying on DRAM forever after. Booted and got windows installed rather speedily, restarted and was entering setup. Did a couple clicks in windows setup then it blacked out. Fans and all that come on, GPU probably has the zero RPM setting and was known to work anyway in my old rig literally the morning before pulling it out for the new one. The RGB fans are not lighting up at all however and when I was in windows they were lit up. Reseated RAM, got new RAM, single RAM, different slots, reseated CPU, checked pins (might check again I guess), tried clearing CMOS but after watching about 20+ of these videos now I definitely did not hold it long enough so trying again tomorrow. If no luck, either new mobo or CPU time I guess.
i had the same broad and had the same issues whiling flashing the bios so remove the chip and wrote the bios to the chip and replaced the chip back on to the broad still works today
You can still buy 10th and 11th Gen Motherboards from Amazon and NewEgg all day long. Why risk used? To bad the board doesn't have bio's flash back option. I had to use that feature on my Tomahawk board not to long ago.
When I built my friends PC, his PC wouldn’t post and the dram light was on. Turns out the issue was the HD_AUDIO connector from the case! Very odd right?
funny watching these videos and your hair is shorter compared to newer videos. Always love these gregs. more unprompted the better. We like seeing the struggle
Bought a windows key but it was for a different version, noticed it immediately and tried to get the order refunded. They tried to do everything but refund the order and only after threatening to open a paypal dispute did they say they would. Made me wait 3 days to test key's validity and here I am with a PP dispute with them. That was a fun experience.
I would probably have tried running the system outside of the case to see if it worked, and tried bending the board slightly in case the board had a hairline crack between the ram and the cpu lanes. I had a board like this before, and I could only tighten the cpu cooler so much before it put strain on the board and wouldn't boot. But it was kind of fun... tighten the cpu cooler, no boot, loosen a mobo screw it a bit, boot, tighten cpu cooler a bit, boot. Job done. But of course the fact that it failed during a bios update probably means that was the problem.
i have the exact motherboard and there have been problems with that one, even my nas server have had problem if i tried to change some setting in that so i have had to revert to old setting, using a 10400 in that rig
I noticed his ram is 3600 c18. I had a problem after a whole my computer started to blue screen, crash, and would not boot until remove and reinsert the ram with those same sticks. I even could not enable xmp on the board. DRAM light was on mine as well. I would try with a c16 3200. That fixed my problems and i can enable xmp with no problems. I would try that as a suggestion.
90% chance the board was bricked while updating. I think it's good for your channel to invest in bios flashing tool, you could revive some older mobos that are not easy to replace also good content
100% agree. At the little pc repair shop I work at we invested in one and have been able to bring back bricked boards with very little effort. Super useful tool to have.
Even though it's 8/10 cpu , 2/10 mobo on this series , it's inexpensive enough to be worth it. Unless board manufacturers send him enough freebie mobos to not have to bother with bios.
I'd suggest watching one of Adamant IT's video's he has up where he deliberately cuts power during a bios flash to show what happens, and then how to go about removing the Bios chip and reprogramming it. It may sound difficult, but it's really not, you can get clips that attach to the chip so you don't have to remove it, but they are hit and miss, removing the chip and using a bios programmer (which are very cheap) and the correct software will at least show you why the bios failed (you'll be able to compare the bios with a working one and see the differences) and you can easily flash the right bios and re-solder the chip. There probably isn't a hardware failure in the chip at all, this board can be saved with a little bit of work. Even if you don't intend to do Bios programming at any point, learning about how it's done, and doing it once or twice will save you a lot of headaches in the future if this happens on a high end board that you'd rather not lose.
Good stuff, highly recommend watching Adamant IT.
You beat me to it, I endorse this message.
i don't see greg going that deep into fixing a rig and you cant blame him...he is only working with what he has on hand and his time...
Intriguing. Thanks for the recommendation.
It was very bizarre for me as well. By far my most frustrating cpu problem I’ve had to deal with. Thank you so much for doing this. Booted up great first try.
I fix computers all day and I still find myself watching all your videos, helps me learn new things to keep a eye out for or just new ways to tackle things I’ve ran into before. Love the content man, keep it coming.
Greg's videos are a great tool to learn from. There's like a million reasons for a no post bit its fun to see which reasons are to blame.
Yesss! Just what I needed to top off a wonderful day! Thanks Greg for the amazing content
Thanks for the continued support!
@@GregSalazar Bios chips are verry cheap from Aliexpress.
When your cooler is worth more than your GPU.
Love it. Any PCDC episodes coming soon? 👀
Yes, one soon!
Man I wish I had your patience. Seems the older I get "lets just say well over a half a century" the more of that seems to fade away. Well Done! & thanks for allowing me to learn with you. 👍
Man you and tronics fix are my favorite tech TH-camrs , you guys would make an amazing team you diagnose the failed components and he goes in and replaces them ! Dream team !
My non-existant OCD wasn't tripped with the upside down Noctua cooler...but that Thermaltake PSU sure hell aggravated me!
Would rather have seen a cheap cooler than a cheap PSU. Although that PSU is far from the worst I've seen. I've seen PSUs that didn't have any kind of certification whatsoever. This one at least is 80+ White
I really, really like this series! Also, I want to thank you for what you’re doing to your community! I’m pretty sure this is a corrupted BIOS issue. When it happens, the MB will do all sorts of weird things and you cannot trust any debug information it will give you. My programmer has an in-circuit adapter and cost me ~80$. You could also buy preprogrammed BIOS chips, but you would need to swap it, solder it on the MB. It’s for you to decide how far you really want to go, since you have sponsors (maybe they could offer that service to you?). Keep the videos coming!
I had same issue with the MSI board i have. Went to Update Bios in the MSI app it shut down and would not boot back up no post. I got lucky and used Flash back about 5x and finally got it back to posting. MSI is really weird I normally use ASUS.
Hi Greg,
I have an MSI MAG X570S TOMAHAWK MAX WIFI in my Rig with the same issue sometimes. No Boot and stuck on a white DRAM Led. This is a Bug with the Firmware of some MSI Boards apparently, even reinstalling does not fix it. I sometimes have to Hard Power down and then Power on my System 3-4 Times to get it booting. I swapped everything (Ram, CPU, Storage etc.) and even reinstalled the Bios a few times.
So chances are that when you power on / off the Board a few times it will boot in your case too. Oh, and it has to be done with not much time between the Power cycles, I don't know why, but if u wait like 10-15 minutes between them, it will just keep getting stuck on the DRAM Led.
@Greg Salazar You always "look a fool on camera" but don't worry about it. Enjoy "learning with you." Thanks for the great Fix or Flop series. Really enjoy walking through the process with you. As always Well Done!
The bios updates from msi in the 10th gen is a huge problem still and msi wont do a damn thing about it. I can't link the msi forums of all the confirm cases without my comment being marked as spam but it's been an ongoing issue for over a year now. With hundred upon hundreds of confirmed cases. And msi still wont put out a fix. My z490 tomahawk is effected by it. You try to update the bios and it bricks the board after it restarts with a dram code. The only fix is to buy a programmer for the bios chip which many have done being msi wont help. Being most of the msi z490 and other msi boards don't have bios flash back this is the only fix. It's a very messed up situation still for 10th gen users with msi boards without a bios flash back. I'm glad your video has a pc with the exact issue effecting so many people and hopefully you will see this comment and it can become public and help the people that msi silences and shrugs off like Newegg has done until a famous youtuber calls them out on it. If you go on the msi forums you will see the huge amount of people effected by this and have had to buy new boards or systems or a programmer and other things just to get their systems up and running again. The thread is labeled - "!!! Warning: Z490 boards - problem with recent BIOS updates !!!"
@ 13:29 just to the right of the cpu socket appears to be a scratch possibly from mounting or unmounting the cpu cooler maybe there is a trace or two broken.
I noticed that as well
Can something as simple as a scratch cause that?
@@Rez_97 would not surprise me if it did....
Wow! Good eye.
It does look like they trace is running towards the memory, so I'd definitely say they could be the cause of the problem
Finally another fix and flop pc video keep them coming
These are my favourite videos i could watch them all day
Ebay sellers have preprogrammed bios chips for cheap. I ordered 3 latest revisions pre flashed for a X79 MOBO.
These 8 pin chips are pretty easy to remove and replace. Did my first soldering on one to fix a Samsung TV.
I have to say thank you Greg your show is a great tool to use if there are problems and great ways to diagnose which is 90% of the job done right there. Being a mechanic as I am is the same if you can not diagnose you are not a mechanic just a parts replacer. Your a good man and hope nobody has anything to say about that because they will be wrong.
This channel is unique in the fact that you are the only TH-camr (I think) that hosts videos containing viewers PC's and try to fix them.....i love it i think you will hit the 1 million sub mark by summer at this rate if not before .......
I have been in a similar situation myself...
Some years back I wanted to overclock my locked Skylake CPU using a sketchy bios and needless to say I completely bricked my z170 board... Thankfully though It had a detachable bios chip so a few weeks later I got my PC working again.
Fun fact! I learned nothing and tried the bios flash again and it worked! Got my locked i5 6600 to 4.5 GHz!
Greg triumphs again, never doubted you would'nt ! Still enjoy watching and learning from your antics, Cheers dude.
Thanks for the support Steve :)
I have that exact same case! I got it for $20 on FB/CL (I forget). Beautiful case. I took the power button out to fit a 20mm fill port for a custom loop. I just used the RGB button for a power button.
It has room for a 360mm radiator, but terrible airflow. So I grabbed a $5 "rain gutter mesh" from the hardware store and bolted it on instead. Ao much better. What a fail of a front panel, sooo close and then dropped it. The glass is on with adhesive, so leave it on your car dash in the summer and it will soften, or use a heatgun, soak it in rubbing alcohol. Or just leave that side alone and only do the metal side (it unscrews) pics:
Pics got eaten by the comment sanitizer, just Google gutter mesh and your favorite big box home improvement store. Should be $4-5. My pictures are up on small form factor . 🥅
at 13:40 you see a damaged/exposed trace on the right side of the socket, at first I thought it was a smudge but it follows the trace too perfectly.
Where the upside down Noctua cooler triggered your OCD, for me the most triggering part is the ketchup&mustard cables of the PSU.
That was thermal paste IIRC. It was not a scratch.
Would you ever try and use something like a ch341a programmer to try and reflash the bios?
i am also curious about this
think of it this way. Greg is not a actual repairsman, Greg is someone who troubleshoots lego rigs. Bios reflashing is more like fixing the individual lego pieces, while greg just swaps out lego pieces to fix the final product.
He acknowledges in the video that those exist and says he might try using one in the future to salvage the board.
I have done this. It's not difficult. And the programmer was less than $20. If you have a mobo you want to save, and its out of warranty, I think its worthwhile to use a ch341a programmer.
@@Appri lol Lego rigs
I had the almost same experience, what happened I think was the uneven pressure of the cooler, I was using a cooler with four points to screw and it looks like I have over tighten the one or two screw. It now only working on single channel on the right most DIMM slots :). For now I stopped using the old style cooler with four points of screw and not over tightening them.
Never get tired of seeing the giant noctua coolers, ive had the nhu14s in my main rig for years and 0 complaints! Might swap it for a newer black one soon.
@@missterious69 You 100% used the wrong screws on the MB/Case. Or maybe you didn't tighten the cooler evenly and that caused a lot of pressure on the MB over time, since only one side was really carrying all the weight.
Did you try the updating the bios with M-Flash from a usb pen?
Greg try this:
Download a bios for that motherboard, unpack it into an NTFS usb stick root foldert. Add it to one of the rear usb motherboard slots. Just leave the CPU, 1 stick of ram, boot it up and leave it there. Don't add any drive any keyboard, nothing.
If there's anything live left in there, the thing will self flash itself after some time, like within half an hour.
I salvaged so many motherboards like this you don't have an idea. Basically any uefi motherboard can do that, if the bios isn't physically corrupt.
You should buy some cheap celerons for every Intel gen. To have testing CPUs in the future.
Not the celeron, they don't work on some sockets lmao. but yes, some cheap CPUs only for testing for each socket
I had the exact same issue with an msi mag b550 board a couple years ago. Happened right after attempting to update bios. I ended up replacing the board but a few months later was curious and used the bios flashback on the board to install a different bios version and sure enough it worked.
13:58 There is a scratch there between the cpu socket and the ram slots, maybe that's the problem?
Had an AMD MSI mortar board similar to this and it had the same exact issue. DRAM debug LED was stuck on. Couldn't even use the flashbk button. Luckily the board still had a warranty and was repaired by an MSI shop.
Greg your video came just in time and saved me threwing away a good motherboard. The computer want posting and after conecting the 2 jumper pins the computer it's back runing .
Thanks man !
I know with a Cooler like that, I add a fan in the back to help move air out of the system even with a rear fan in the system. That can help keep the air from having issues going from A to B. Also, most of these coolers want at least two fans, one in the middle and usually one in the front, but if you really don't have enough clearance from the memory, the back is a good option. As others have noted, sometimes you can have the front fan a little higher to deal with clearance issues without affecting airflow too much (that third fan can still be useful, may even let you run a little quieter due to how the airflow ends up). For those thinking to add a third fan on something like this, go with what was used on the front. Most coolers will tell you what model fan they are using for that front fan.
I really wish they would make bios chips removable. I know they used to but id love to see it come back.
Fix or flop is back on the menu!! Looks like 2023 is going to be a good year. Let the playlist be full and the fix out weigh the flop.! Perfect way to finish off the day before bed. Thanks for the great content.
Yeah as many say an EEPROM programmer is the way to go on such a case. Only issue is to get the binary image of the correct bios once it is programmed. The downloadable file you get from the manufacturer website is either encrypted or get "processed" during flashing. So you just cannot directly flash it using an EEPROM programmer. You would need to get your hand on a known working (bootable) image from a working card, from forums or buy a pre-flashed bios EEPROM from Ebay, But if you get your hand on this binary file, the flashing process itself takes about 10 seconds and is super easy.
One of my favorite series on YT. Keep it up
Great video, Greg. Keep 'em coming cause I'm learning alot! Oh BTW, the PassMark Inline PSU Tester is a bit spendy for me :) At $590 I guess it';s intended to sell to shops.
The ketchup & mustard cables are jazzing my cdo. Enjoyed the video, cheers.
I know I am quite late to the party but that looks like a scratch at 13:57 that goes through some PCI-Lanes between the CPU and the RAM slots.
A friend of mine killed a board the same way while mounting a new AIO by slipping with the screwdriver.
But that wouldn't explain the symptoms of it bricking during a BIOS flash or while entering the BIOS flash menu so idk
If you are buying a bios flasher, get the ch341a v1.7/1.5 version.(one with IR receiver) useing a 5v flasher on a 1.8v chip will kill it.
It has a voltage switch for 5, 3.3 ,1.8v.
I think you did great man, you took all the steps I would have taken in the same situation, in exactly the same order. thumbs up
I recently built myself a backup PC using a Z590 board I got on sale and I must say its an impressive board, an MSI MPG gaming force .
It's really important to buy boards that allow updating the BIOS via a button and/or even without the CPU installed. Dual BIOS boards are very good to have as well.
Try to flash the CMOS chip with an external BIOS Flashing tool. Only costs a few dollars!
I had similar issue with MB. After several hours of testing etc. I tried to downgrade BIOS to previous version and that worked MB is working again.
There's another bios flash method that involves booting to a DOS prompt from a USB thumb drive (and all other drives disconnected), and then runs a .bat file which automatically flashes the bios, even though there's no video output as it happens. For such a procedure to work, would depend on what portion of the existing bios firmware is still functional. As others have said, the bios chip re-flashing procedure can be seen on several videos posted by the U.K. based TH-camr Adamant_IT. His method involves de-soldering, flashing using a special USB connected programmer device & then re-soldering the bios chip.
I had this similar issue, mine was the motherboard, it was throwing DRAM and VGA errors. It became obvious when there was a permanent buzz in the speaker soon after diag. New board and CPU for good measure and its good to go
I had to troubleshoot my main rig this past weekend and it made me think of your series. I got a new mobo but it ended up being the CPU. I also was getting a flashing red light on my GPU which indicated a PSU problem. It was exhausting but I finally got it working properly and with better temps than before. I fried it running Prime 95.
Just built my first pc a few weeks ago. Your vids made me anxious lol but informed me enough to double check my steps when it didn’t power on and I eventually got it.
Had a kinda similar Problem with a pc we built for a friend. Z690 + 13600k, so we had to do a bios flash. The board supported flashing without stuff on it so we did everything, as gigabyte said it has to be done. The flashing went way to fast, after a dozen seconds or so it signaled to be ready. So that was something weird, as it normally takes some time. Anyway we built everything together just to get rgb and fans spinning but no output, and after like a minute the pc just restarted. The debug leds were always switching between dram and cpu. So we went and checked the ram, and it was working fine, another ram also didn't work. So we messed around and only used one stick, and it just stayed on dram. Gpu was working btw. After we tried everything we just went and sent it back with the cpu, as that could also be the culprit.
Great job on the fix. Nice video as well.
The best category on TH-cam!!!
You can usually find the OEM BIOS chip very cheap why not just pop a new one in and test it?
I will - at a later date. They don’t show up overnight. Would rather have the viewer back up and running sooner. Also still in doubt that it’s BIOS related seeing as though he wasn’t actually flashing (supposedly) when it crashed.
@@GregSalazar I've had a computer do this to me too where updating the bios bricked the board. I was able to contact the vendor to get a new chip sent to me which fixed it. I know it doesn't come overnight but I would like to see if that works.
@@GregSalazar You could use a usb flasher for it, pretty cheap and working for more boards, and you wont have to solder something.
@Qasmoc They are not talking about the BIOS drivers, but rather the physical Chip which stores the BIOS drivers on the mobo (aka., a memory module specifically for the BIOS).
Some bios chips don’t pop out. You need a heat station and fine tools to remove. Then you also need fine soldering tools and if not a microscope then at least a magnifier. You can easily desolder more than you wanted or even damage the board if you don’t have the skills. Greg does not do that. If you want to see all that kind of stuff then watch NorthridgeFix.
Personally Greg, I like the way you are fixing systems right now because I'm 100% sure that most people, myself included, DON'T have the tools required to change or test bad components on a circuit bord. Although it's interesting to watch someone change those components, I think it's way beyond the average power user's ability to do that. If I had a component go bad I would troubleshoot it the same way you are doing!
I had a similar issue when I wanted to update my MSI B450M. I tried to get into the BIOS update enviroment and it just stayed black and unresponsive, even after several reboots. Lucky enough, poping out the battery and absolutely making sure I drained all power to clear the BIOS worked it back to the normal enviroment. That was scary to say the least. funny that it's the same situation on another MSI board
If it happened during a bios flash, couldnt you try a bios programmer? I mean, you wouldnt lose anything and could actually fix it if the bios got fkd
True there are usb programmers for those chips for a few bucks on amazone.
@@mrrobot6137 i actually have one and a windows repair usb that’s saved like 5 of my friends PCs
that is true, however in this instance, according to the owner of the rig he was not actually flashing the bios when the system black screened. Most likely something else failed on the board.
@@yotoprules9361 well it won't hurt the board and If he uses a USB flasher it only takes around 5-10min to reflash the bios.
@@timbecker4037 yeah it is definitely worth a shot, depends on whether the original owner was honest or not, my CH341a has saved several boards that had bricked BIOS.
you could have tried flashing with a CH341A bios flasher. had good expierence with that.
LOVE the autographed Scorpions album in the back!
Nice, mine is a B365m mortar... nice to see it's bigger brother on YT.
nice work and that board looks so good as a combo
On the back of the motherboard in the correct slot flash the latest bios with a USB stick and keep the battery out until its installed , i had the same problem when trying to update my motherboard.. It did take me a while to find the right software and format the USB stick so it could read it but it now works fine :)
These videos are great, I love watching them. I bought my son a new case and did a straight swap and it turned on for 30 seconds, then black screen and kept rebooting, then nothing but black screen with the vga light on with the dram light flashing every few seconds. I had to strip my pc and test all components and it came down to motherboard or cpu, luckily my mate had a spare board and after testing found out the motherboard failed, I have no idea why I did not take anything off of it I just took it out of the old case and put it in the new case, if it wasn't for these videos I would no idea what was wrong or why, so thanks for the videos.
In the old days we would use a chip puller and switch BIOS while powered up and do a live flash. Then swap back. :)
Another great video Greg! A great way to start the New Year!
Same thing happened to me when attempted to enter flash mode through bios (Ram led flashing-black screen) on MSI Z690-A Pro Wifi DDR4. Luckily mine was fixed by reducing temporarily ram sticks from 4 to 2. First thing tried that didn't help was CMOS reset.
Having to double check while diagnose is really something customer tend to take as an insulte, it happen a lot as a car mechanics too. But like you highlighted, IT IS vital to follow a clean organizational chart in order to do a diag.
The same happed to me with my Sabertooth Z170S, couple years ago. One night, I just turned it off and when I powered back on, nothing. So I started to diagnose everything right away by unplugging everything the essential cable and nothing. The CPU LED was on on stock on it.. Well, the CPU socket died, just like that. RMA the board and got a new one. Now that rig is my home servers since I've upgraded while waiting for the board!
When do you normally upload your videos? I always try and watch it when you upload but it never notifies me. Lol. Thanks for all your doing. Love the channel! Also, quick question… was playing destiny last night and computer just, restarted by itself… have a 3070FE, ryzen 7 3700x 124 gig ddr4. 700 watt thermaltake power supply.
Thanks for the video again. That video does not have a bios flashback function right? This is must have when buying mb
Some boards do come with dual bios.
My gigabyte H61M bios somehow got corrupted and had to force switch to other bios to get to boot screen
Great vid and nice that you had a board kicking around you could use.
Maybe try getting one of those BIOS flashers with a small clip. Saw Hardware Haven do something with one of those on 3 small Ryzen PCs. Who knows, you could get lucky with the board and seeing as you like PCs and hardware in general, I mean fixing a fridge... that's kinda next level, maybe it could be fun to try.
As for re-flashing the bios, I use a CH341a bios programmer, some of them come with the clip so no de-soldering needed. I have saved several motherboards using this tool that for whatever reason had a corrupt BIOS, and I "fixed" a fake GTX 1050ti that I got from wish, that was actually a 650ti, got a full refund on it so basically I got the 650ti for £10 (cost of the reprogrammer). I've also used it to flash a clean BIOS dump which removed the BIOS password as sometimes we get old company laptops that were previously locked down.
On the software side, there is the official CH341a software but I found ASprogrammer and NeoProgrammer to support more chips, plus you don't have to hunt down an english language pack for it.
The CH341a programmers + the clip is only like £10-15 on ebay, you may find it cheaper. You do have to be very precise when putting the clip onto the chip otherwise it won't read. Also, make sure you backup the BIOS, then wipe it, read it again to make sure it did wipe successfully, then make sure you flash a full BIOS dump, then read it back to make sure it did write properly.
when clearing the cmos should the power cable be unplugged as well?
Hi Greg. So...after you swapped motherboards with completely different chipsets, how did the existing drives, and specifically, how did Windows behave after boot?
I've swapped CPU's and Motherboards using the same SSD booting drive and windows is perfectly fine the way you would normally use and operate it. Only different thing that will happen is instead of auto booting into windows you will get a Bios notification basically saying "new cpu detected" or "new motherboard detected" "press F1 to run" then your golden. Isn't hard thankfully, just lets you know its been detected the change and thats all
I upgraded from a Z390 with 9700K to a Z690 with 12700K and my Windows 10 was fine with it. I only had to install a few drivers for the new motherboard and that was it. Not sure what would've happened if I moved into an AMD platform though, probably would've had to reinstall it
Im having the same problem, im thinking a motherboard problem. Seems bout right because it was working just fine until its not showing anything on screen. It also beeps that indicates a dram problem.
We need a third series where you attempt to repair some of the previous failed components that seemed the most repairable. Maybe call it ROTFL (repair or thoroughly fail later?)
Having this issue right now with a brand new build, though a slight difference in event timing/cause. DRAM light stays on, though it does flash to CPU briefly maybe twice before staying on DRAM forever after.
Booted and got windows installed rather speedily, restarted and was entering setup. Did a couple clicks in windows setup then it blacked out. Fans and all that come on, GPU probably has the zero RPM setting and was known to work anyway in my old rig literally the morning before pulling it out for the new one. The RGB fans are not lighting up at all however and when I was in windows they were lit up. Reseated RAM, got new RAM, single RAM, different slots, reseated CPU, checked pins (might check again I guess), tried clearing CMOS but after watching about 20+ of these videos now I definitely did not hold it long enough so trying again tomorrow. If no luck, either new mobo or CPU time I guess.
My first MB I ever bought had a debug code display, and I never bought a board without some sort of debug indicator. That and side facing sata ports.
Yay someone one els likes the blue towels for automotive works great also gun cleaning pads work real good and are clean
i had the same broad and had the same issues whiling flashing the bios so remove the chip and wrote the bios to the chip and replaced the chip back on to the broad still works today
You can still buy 10th and 11th Gen Motherboards from Amazon and NewEgg all day long. Why risk used? To bad the board doesn't have bio's flash back option. I had to use that feature on my Tomahawk board not to long ago.
"You went and updated the bios, man. Never go update the bios." - Robert Downy Jr. in Tropic Thunder
When I built my friends PC, his PC wouldn’t post and the dram light was on. Turns out the issue was the HD_AUDIO connector from the case! Very odd right?
funny watching these videos and your hair is shorter compared to newer videos. Always love these gregs. more unprompted the better. We like seeing the struggle
an external usb bios flasher would be cool to see how many boards you can save that way.
love your video's, its good content for pc tweakers really nice you are teaching all day ;p
Next season can you get a quality clip on BIOS flasher?
*gulp*
When people say they were attempting to update the BIOS, what they really mean is that they updated with a wrong one...
Bought a windows key but it was for a different version, noticed it immediately and tried to get the order refunded. They tried to do everything but refund the order and only after threatening to open a paypal dispute did they say they would. Made me wait 3 days to test key's validity and here I am with a PP dispute with them. That was a fun experience.
3:43 trust but verify
I would probably have tried running the system outside of the case to see if it worked, and tried bending the board slightly in case the board had a hairline crack between the ram and the cpu lanes.
I had a board like this before, and I could only tighten the cpu cooler so much before it put strain on the board and wouldn't boot.
But it was kind of fun... tighten the cpu cooler, no boot, loosen a mobo screw it a bit, boot, tighten cpu cooler a bit, boot. Job done.
But of course the fact that it failed during a bios update probably means that was the problem.
That NZXT motherboard looks clean!
That ended up becoming a really clean build.
i have the exact motherboard and there have been problems with that one, even my nas server have had problem if i tried to change some setting in that so i have had to revert to old setting, using a 10400 in that rig
I noticed his ram is 3600 c18. I had a problem after a whole my computer started to blue screen, crash, and would not boot until remove and reinsert the ram with those same sticks. I even could not enable xmp on the board. DRAM light was on mine as well. I would try with a c16 3200. That fixed my problems and i can enable xmp with no problems. I would try that as a suggestion.
Thank You also Greg!