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I built my own PC for the first time in a months long slog of research, finally finishing it at the end of February. It lasted two and a half months before I heard a very loud pop while I was playing football manager last Wednesday, everything shut off, and I could smell smoke.

Earlier that day, I had attempted to connect a second monitor to the PC. I'd had two monitors for quite some time, but only had one power cable, and the graphics card (MSI Geforce RTX) only had one HDMI port (which was used for my first monitor) and three Display Outputs, which I didn't initially have the appropriate cables for.

The power cable for my second monitor was delivered first, and it was the day I was fiddling with trying to attach it - and realising I couldn't - that the PC went up in smoke, causing nothing to turn on.

Opening up the PC and inspecting, I couldn't find any visible damage. After some research, it appeared that the Power Supply (Corsair RM750e) was the most likely culprit, so on Thursday I bought a replacement (MAG 850GL). And sure enough, lights and fans all began working, and I was elated. What's more, the Display Output cables had been delivered, I could hook both monitors up.

But when I connected the two monitors, they recognised connection, but only displayed a 'no video input' popup. After more inspection and research, the EZ Debug Light on the Motherboard is bright red for the CPU (AMD Ryzen 5700).

I'm worried it's because I've been a bit too forceful with the fan (also AMD, the model specifically designed for my processor), which was surprisingly difficult to actually screw in. There were some times when the motherboard would not turn on and no lights would come on, even with the new power supply, and I was able to isolate the fan as the issue after I had screwed the fan in as tightly as possible, unscrewed it after I thought I'd turned the power switch off on the power supply, but in actuality hadn't, and everything turned on while I was unscrewing it.

I found two bent pins on the CPU and figured that would be causing the debug light, but I was able to straighten them, and the debug light would still turn on whenever the motherboard gets power, and I still get no input on the monitors.

My RAM consist of two GSkill Ripjaws (16gb each).

To be clear, all of the cables I have been using were in use before the power supply exploded and I never had any problems with them, and have not encountered any cable damage.

When I first heard the pop, I was worried that the graphics card was the culprit, as I'd been fiddling with its sockets a few hours earlier, and I was worried something was still wrong with it after I couldn't get displays, but its fans were running. I have no idea where to go from here.

Am I missing anything??
 
Either way the smoke is not a good sign.. So you did not find any popped caps and or any scorch marks ?

@PeterOz
No I didn't, but I think it was likely to be the power supply - I have tested both plugged into the motherboard back to back and the new one at least gets the lights on the motherboard and all the fans going, whereas the old one gives no response
 
Big mistake.
When you took the fan off and checked the cpu pins did you reapply thermal paste?
I did not reapply thermal paste as I had none on hand. It felt impossible to screw them all in as screwing one corner of the fan in seemed to slightly displace the other sockets a little bit.

CPU was a 5700X
 
ok remove the fan and check the pins again incase you have rebent them.
When you install the fan you screw one side in about 2-3 turns only
then do the diagonally opposite 2-3 turns
then the one next to that one 2-3 turns
then do the diagonally opposite 2-3 turns
once all 4 screws have taken you can the go more than 2-3 but NOT all the way
Slowly work your way around.
You do not over tighten - just till it takes.
I would recommend you replace the thermal paste.


Apply Thermal Paste Click On Me to CPU Everyone has a different method.
The aim is a nice covering Too little = Bad, Too much = Bad (Think Goldilocks and the three bears). Pic attached
1716691471838.png
 
So purely a lack of thermal paste could cause enough of a problem to inhibit the cpu and cause video display to fail?
No
Lack of proper thermal can cause rapid heat in the cpu.
Because you had trouble installing the fan I would check the cpu pins again and reinstall the fan as per my instructions or the video.

I always replace the thermal paste once it has had the bond broken But that's just me.
 
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