Computer Build Question....Involves smoke!

[d-dave]

OK, so I have been wanting to build a personal PC for a long time, more for gaming and running my more complex renders and simulations (Houdini).  I sold some of my junk on good ole' facebook marketplace, made enough cash and got the following:

Ryzen 7 1700 ("gently used")- $60 

Asus B450 Prime A II (New) - $79

32 gb Corsair LPX DDR-3600 Ram - $72

XFX GTS RX 580 4gb - Had on hand, from a friend.

Antec NeoGold 500watt PSU - highly rated by the Power Supply Cultists)

A M.2 SSD for the OS and stuff ($30)

My slightly older SSD from a junk build

I finally get all my parts in, and I'm stoked!  I set it all up, do a post check and it works!  Get my case, have some fun getting everything in the case, but low and behold - IT WORKS!!!!!!  Then I spent a while downloading all my stuff onto the PC, great!  Everything is going GREAT for a few days.  I ran some benchmarks, and it performs as expected.  Cool, this morning, I go to turn it on and NADA.

A small click from the PSU (like it did when I started it normally) and NOTHING.  No fans, nothing.  I don't have any RGB.  The board has some amber running lights, but that's it.  No flashing, no beeping.  Hrm.  So I dialed up the guy I bought the CPU from and he was super cool and walked me through the basic trouble shooting.  We thought it might be the motherboard.  We did the CMOS reset, I tried a different power supply, etc.  Nada.  

Then I took out the GPU - and low and behold - we have action!  The case fans ran, the CPU cooler ran (it's AMD with it's little red ring was lit up).  But when I put the GPU in and plugged it into my power supply, nothing.  After realizing the power switch on the case was not working, I pulled the GPU, swapped the power button with the reset button, a reset the GPU.  Plugged it back in. and tried to fire it up. 

As soon as I powered the computer on BLAM!  A loud pop, then the back of the GPU started smoking.  It came from the surface like water evaporating from a hot rock.  I immediately pulled the cut the power.  I pulled the GPU, which didn't show any black marks on the PCI connector, nor in the motherboard.  But the smell was bad.  I'm curious if not having a good connection with the power and the GPU caused the smoking.  It's my understanding that the GPU just wouldn't operate or have a lot of problems if it didn't have enough power.

To hope I didn't destroy everything, tried another GPU-less start and it fired up.  The little amber running lights on the MB, the red ring on the AMD cooler, and all my fans immediately kicked on.

So aside from the horror show that was - what damage do you think I did?  I'm pretty sure my GPU is fried.  I'm returning the MB since I have some time to do it.  What can I do differently?  Thoughts?  Ideas?  Or do you just want to laugh and make fun of me?  Ha ha, I won't blame you!

[TheMaulClaw]

While it is probably a bad GPU, it could be a bad GPU cable from the PSU.  I had one melt one time.

Was the GPU very hot to touch? What about the PSU shroud?

Edited February 6, 2023 by TheMaulClaw

[d-dave]

1 hour ago, TheMaulClaw said:

While it is probably a bad GPU, it could be a bad GPU cable from the PSU.  I had one melt one time.

Was the GPU very hot to touch? What about the PSU shroud?

It was, and the room stank of something similar to mineral oil.  Nothing else was hot.  Getting a cheap gpu to test tomorrow.

 Thinking that the gpu died, and the futzing with it led to the smoking ruin of that gpu.

[TheMaulClaw]

16 hours ago, d-dave said:

It was, and the room stank of something similar to mineral oil.  Nothing else was hot.  Getting a cheap gpu to test tomorrow.

 Thinking that the gpu died, and the futzing with it led to the smoking ruin of that gpu.

Is there another system that you could plug that gpu into?

[d-dave]

I wouldn't.  lol

 

But no, I have nothing.  Just my one little system I'm trying to build.

[d-dave]

I did snag another GPU and nothing was damaged!  Someone sold me a 1660 for $100, which wasn't bad, put it all together again, and no problems.  Posts up like it's fine.  GPU also works within spec as ewll.

So I dodged a bullet!  I even sold the busted GPU for $10 for parts.  Cool!

[TheMaulClaw]

1 hour ago, d-dave said:

I did snag another GPU and nothing was damaged!  Someone sold me a 1660 for $100, which wasn't bad, put it all together again, and no problems.  Posts up like it's fine.  GPU also works within spec as ewll.

So I dodged a bullet!  I even sold the busted GPU for $10 for parts.  Cool!

Good deal. 1660 is great a great card. 

[d-dave]

20 hours ago, TheMaulClaw said:

Good deal. 1660 is great a great card. 

Yes it is!  Thus far, I'm fairly impressed with it.  Aside from a little dust, the card I bought was clean.  That's always my biggest worry buying used.  Will I end up with something that "looks" the part but doesn't perform.  

Ran some benchmarks, some games and it's performing within expectations.  Today I'm going to see how well it does a water and fluid simulation in Houdini >=)

[TheMaulClaw]

5 hours ago, d-dave said:

Yes it is!  Thus far, I'm fairly impressed with it.  Aside from a little dust, the card I bought was clean.  That's always my biggest worry buying used.  Will I end up with something that "looks" the part but doesn't perform.  

Ran some benchmarks, some games and it's performing within expectations.  Today I'm going to see how well it does a water and fluid simulation in Houdini >=)

That card performs well in anything 1080p. 

[lightsout]

Not for nothing, I'll sell you either or both of my r5 3600 and 5700xt for fairly cheap

[d-dave]

Troubleshooting help:

So I turned off my computer earlier today, and went to turn it back on and it won't post.

I've disconnected the power supply, basically took the computer apart, testing out each componenet, all the ram slots, no USB/perepherials, etc.  Nada.

Here's what it does: the LED on the cooler (AMD box cooler), and the case lighting will start for a second.  I hear a "click" that would normally happen before the rest of everything start to spin up, then NADA.

Any other ideas for troubleshooting this issue?  Could be a power supply issue?

[PanthersATL]

55 minutes ago, d-dave said:

Troubleshooting help:

Here's what it does: the LED on the cooler (AMD box cooler), and the case lighting will start for a second.  I hear a "click" that would normally happen before the rest of everything start to spin up, then NADA.

Any other ideas for troubleshooting this issue?  Could be a power supply issue?

Yup, that'd be my initial guess.  

If the only thing the Power Supply is powering is the motherboard, the CPU and the CPU Fan and you're still getting a click --- then try a different (and decent) power supply swap, see if that helps

[d-dave]

4 minutes ago, PanthersATL said:

Yup, that'd be my initial guess.  

If the only thing the Power Supply is powering is the motherboard, the CPU and the CPU Fan and you're still getting a click --- then try a different (and decent) power supply swap, see if that helps

I filed a warranty claim with Antec so we'll see how that goes.  I chose them because a lot of IT folks swear by them. 

[MickMixon'sMetaphors]

Years and years ago, I had that issue. It turned out I didn’t use little rubber washers when putting the board in the case. I guess I wasn’t grounding correctly. On a whim, I put some pressure “up” on the board and it turned on.  That was what clued me in.  I was really relieved at the time.