Fixing a Viewer's BROKEN Gaming PC? - Fix or Flop S3:E5

this right here is another viewer's broken  gaming PC and this one's kind of sort of a   basket case first off I wasn't expecting to work  on this I changed my mind one of the reasons why   I didn't want to tackle it is because it has  an intermittent crashing problem which means   we could spend hours potentially trying to  replicate this issue being described by the   owner I do have video evidence of it shutting  off during some pretty heavy stress tests so   we're going to try to replicate those here in  the office I also think this system might have   a dead memory Channel because if you notice  the two dimms are in the innermost slots to   the left closest to the CPU that is not where  they should be and the owner told me that the   system won't boot with one of the dimms in  the outer slots so we're going to fiddle   with that kind of after the fact we'll try to  tackle the random shutting off first and then   we'll deal with the dead memory Channel if  that is what we're looking at are you ready   stay with me introducing kyocsya's new xg8 series  in vme ssds featuring 5th generation Bix flash 3D   TLC memory and pcie 4.0 compatibility with  capacities up to 4 terabytes and support for   optional security features like TCG pyrite and  opal kyocsia drives are perfect for your next   desktop server or workstation sequential reads  and writes reach up to 75800 megabytes per second   respectively and are suited for Ultra FAST program  OS and VM load times bundled with peace of mind   warranties and at affordable price points qxu's  comprehensive pcie 4 SSD portfolio continues to   grow with products offered for a wide range of  applications check them out including their new   XJ8 drives by clicking the link below hi there  this is the fixer flop playlist I'm not going to   run through the same things I always do just  know that what we do in these videos is free   of charge if you live in and around Orlando  Florida and you want a chance to have your   system fixed potentially for free this is why we  call it fixer flop we're not guaranteeing a fix   but we will guarantee we won't charge you you  can submit a form via the link in this video's   description first things first I want to go ahead  and power the system on make sure that it works   as of now oh I didn't really turned on  the front fans aren't spinning the rear   fan isn't spinning either what is it going on here   we'll uh we'll check that anyway while this is  booting up I just want to say that if you want   to check out any of our troubleshooting gear stuff  you'll see occasionally popping up in these uh in   these videos it's all Linked In the description  along with some of our cleaning gear as well that   you'll see in the pcdc and gcdc playlist alright  so it boots up that's good um not going to be too   worried about temperatures here just because we're  going to leave the left side panel off but we'll   definitely address the uh the fans not spinning  a bit later in the video let's see if we can get   the system to crash I believe the way that the  owner was able to do it was by running furmark   so it's possible this might be a GPU issue maybe  a memory issue on the frequency side of things if   we're running a manual overclock uh that could be  something that we could easily change to get rid   of that crashing issue let me get the keyboard  we've got firm Mark open here and I'm going to   run it in the default settings I'm just going to  let this go for about 30 minutes if it doesn't if   it doesn't crash within 30 minutes or an hour  I'm just gonna I'm just gonna have to move on   again I don't really have time to stress these  inconsistencies it's possible this issue might pop   up right away and if it's something we can repeat  here then we'll try to tackle it but again I can't oh uh it it just completely powered  off that didn't even last a second   okay it's all starting to make a bit of sense now  because he was telling me that it was inconsistent   while he was playing games but anytime he fully  stressed his graphics card the system would shut   down now if this was a bad overclock or something  of the sort the screen would just go black and   you'd hear the fan spin up to 100 RPM that's  usually what happens I'm not saying that this   can't be the case here but for the system to  completely shut off in the middle of a burn-in   test that could very well be a power supply  issue so I'm definitely going to want to check   that we will check graphics card frequencies  the GPU and memory will check temperatures as   well the fans and the Shroud were spinning so  it's not as though the card's getting too hot   but we'll try our best to monitor those metrics  before the system craps itself in another firm   Arc run connected to our inline PSU tester here  everything looks very healthy actually slew rate   timings a ripple is very low so I don't really  have a reason to swap about the unit at this point   I've gone ahead and reconnected his case fans  through some of the extra cables just hanging   around and what I think I'm going to do now is  try to replicate the issue again shouldn't be   typing an issue since it uh yeah it happens so  fast the first time and then we'll also monitor   Hardware utilization and temperatures while we  do it to see if there's anything fishy going on   with this graphics card because the next thing  I'm inclined to do is Swap this out completely   alright so I've got MSI afterburner here to the  right we'll open up furmark again and let's see I   totally forgot that uh I didn't even get a chance  anyway I totally forgot that it's gonna go full   screen on me it shuts off so fast um I don't  even think we're gonna get any accurate data   from afterburner I think we're just going to go  ahead and swap out the card that should rule out   the guard entirely uh honestly and if the symptom  persists then we'll know it's some sort of power   delivery issue possibly motherboard related  or even CP related I mean despite this being a   strictly GPU intensive task we were running for  Mark it's possible that there could be an issue   with a CPU as well I've seen so many different  things go wrong in these rigs over time I would   not be surprised now funny enough I actually have  a practically identical graphics card to slot in   its place this should mean that we don't need to  reinstall drivers my ddu just to be on the safe   side but uh yeah these are both 60 hundred XTS  so we'll slot this in Connect supplemental power   and then get the rig posted hopefully it posts  this card I have used in a previous build before   and we'll run furmark again we got drivers  reinstalled let's go ahead and start the test here yeah um running without issue I mean it's not  crashing within like two seconds of starting   The Benchmark so that's nice later and it's  been a good while this thing is still running   without issue so my graphics card is fine his  entire rig at this point seems to be running   without issue so that means the next thing  we're going to do is remove my card which is   scalding hot by the way we'll get his back  in here and we're going to reinstall all   drivers from scratch using ddu by the way you  should totally ddu before installing the new   card so you would just choose the option  clean and shut down here at the bottom I   will do it again just to be on the safe side  alrighty here we go let's see if it works now pretty much the same thing now if you notice  the system behaves slightly differently there   the fans ramped up quickly and then everything  shut off so it lasted about a second longer but   it still turned off and I'd be willing to bet  at this point that this is a hardware related   issue with the graphics card the crossroads I'm at  however involves disassembling this card do I do   it and risk the owner of this card losing its  warranty that is something that you shouldn't   really be worried about here in the States but I'm  I've run into many retailers who make a big deal   about it and they just it just complicates the  entire process I will consult with a viewer and   see if he's okay with me doing that sometimes  just changing mounting pressure of the cooler   replacing the die checking that there's proper  you know contact with thermal pads over the   memory chips can fix stability issues with  cards like these we run into that very same   scenario already in this fixer flop playlist  all right so uh and it's been a minute I was   talking with the owner and there's a bit of story  behind this that I wasn't aware of beforehand   I asked him when the graphics card was purchased  if it's something he could easily RMA he might   prefer to do that versus me tearing it down and  potentially making things worse for everyone   he said that he doesn't know when the card was  purchased because he bought the entire rig second   hand from somebody on a Facebook Marketplace  and these symptoms as far as I'm aware popped   up right when he bought it so he was scammed  long story short he tried reaching back out to   the owner just now to see if he could get his  money back and the previous owner blocked him   so I told him to make sure that he left a negative  review for that person on the marketplace and uh   yeah just I mean what are you gonna do no you're  not gonna sue somebody for something like this   you're going to spend as much if not more in  legal fees than you would just to get you know   the value of the system back so it sucks it  is what it is but uh he basically gave me   the green light to go ahead and disassemble it  now because we have nothing left to lose right   so let's see what we can do so here we go then  his graphics card will flip it over I have not   disassembled one of these before but most of them  are fairly straightforward we'll start with all   these screws surrounding the back plate get this  bracket out of the way and now I believe check   on the side here I think we've got a couple more  screws make sure everything we can remove is out   before we take the Shroud off let's see oh that  wasn't so bad so we'll pull straight away there   flip everything over we'll disconnect these  two cables one I'm assuming for RGB and the   other for the fans nice so we'll set the Shroud  aside and this is what will spend the bulk of   our time analyzing here we'll see if we see any  physical defects obvious things we could clean   up I did notice right away there's a fairly large  exposed area of the die that should be completely   covered by thermal paste and it is not is it  possible this card is just overheating so quickly   because part of this die is not making well it's  making contact with a copper cold plate here you   can see but it's it's not filled with paste and  the issue one of the reasons why you need paste   actually the primary reason why you need it is  because the paste fills in those small little   like microscopic canyons in the different metal  surfaces so when you put two metals against each   other you have a lot of tiny little gaps and those  gaps of air are inefficient for heat transfer so   you fill those gaps those little again microscopic  Canyons with thermal paste which is a much higher   conductivity than air alone and so that increases  the efficiency all around of heat transfer from   the dye in this case here it does not look like  there's enough paste there so we will address that   I still want to give the Border once over we'll  remove the smaller heatsink here surrounding the   die and see what else we find got the back plate  removed a bit of the thermal pad here thin strip   peeled up but we'll fix that and just a few more  things let's see are there any screws on this side   holding that heat sink in place it doesn't look  like it so this should just pry up but we want   to be careful there we go it's sticky because of  yeah the thermal pads so we'll go ahead and clean   all this up and give it a once over I want to be  very careful around these small smds on the GPU   but just looking a lot better already  okay so let's see if we can find anything alrighty and she's looking super clean now  also cleaning the other side of this board I   honestly I don't see any issues if we do have a  dead short or something somewhere it's just not   something I'm super comfortable with working on  cards this new very small parts my soldering kit   is just not equipped for a very precise work like  this so I'm hoping that just by deep cleaning the   board and re-pasting the GPU re-situating the  thermal pads that we can get the cord working   again and often that is all it takes that's what  I'm hoping for I'm gonna go a bit heavier on the   thermal paste this time just to ensure that  everything's going to be covered again it's   okay to have just a bit of excess it's not okay to  have too little so yeah that's that's definitely   more than we need then it's going to give us  total coverage fosho and now just to tighten   everything back down and the X bracket last we'll  want to cross tighten this so that uh to make   sure that the thermal paste spreads evenly this  time so we'll tighten just slightly one corner   then we'll move to another Corner tighten that  slightly and so on and now we're ready to give   this one final shot hoping it works and she  goes once more and let's see what happens   Crossing everything I got here let's click go okay it's not shutting off immediately   GPU temperatures are actually looking pretty good  that's 73 74c we'll see what this levels out to   but this is a great start we're already way  better off than we were the first time but uh   yeah we do need to let this run for a good while  just to be sure that it's stable enough to give   back to the owner I definitely think at this  point it came down to his graphics card just   overheating GPU attempts were likely hitting 95  100 degrees whatever t-junction is for the 6800   XT almost immediately and that was causing the  system to shut down because the car needed to   turn off in order to save itself from pretty much  just yeah blowing up so uh temperatures are still   pretty high here and again we need to let this run  longer but 83c is is still again what I expect to   be a much better temperature than what we were  getting before and I think this has to do with   the fact that that die was not fully covered  by pace so if it was from the factory it was   just a pretty shoddy job by the way while the firm  Mark test is still running and it's looking pretty   good so far about 10 minutes into it we still need  to worry about the Dual Channel issue here right   now we're only running running in one channel  that's because both dims are on the innermost   slots that's Channel a typically and then Channel  B consists of the other two slots so if you run A2   B2 or A1 B1 that's dual Channel but you have A1 A2  well the a channel is the only one being utilized   so what we'll do is swap one of his dims into  the outermost slots in fact we'll put these in   the correct slots are supposed to be so the second  slot in the fourth slot see if we get a post if we   don't then I'll try my dims the dims that I know  work here in the office if that still doesn't work   then we'll have to swap his CPU out because  I imagine at that point his CPU will have a   dead memory Channel all right all right all right  and would you look at that we've been running for   about 30 minutes now and zero issues temperatures  11 at around 85 degrees Celsius that is awesome so   uh yeah we just saved a pretty expensive graphics  card here simply by tearing it down cleaning it   up a bit and re-pasting that was all it took the  last thing to do then is to check on the memory   channels to do this with the system off we can  very easily pull out one of these dimms and Slot   it into the correct slot let's see should be that  one right there so now we're running in slots A2   and B2 which I believe are recommended for this  board if you have two dims and we can try powering   it up again and when you know the system has yet  another issue and it probably involves yet another   expensive component so when I have the modules in  the correct two slots we get nothing no post at   all uh we don't even get lights on the motherboard  which is quite concerning basically the system   can't post it's powered on but nothing's happening  so I'm gonna get my known working kit of ddr4 in   here in the exact same Slots make sure that  it's not a ram issue and then we'll focus on   the CPU it's easier to swap the CPU out than the  motherboard but I imagine this is CPU related   probably just uh yeah dead memory Channel but  same issue nothing has changed let's see I didn't   notice before what CPU are we working with it is  a ryzen 7 5800 X alrighty yeah this one I'm almost   I I'm almost 100 sure I don't have um  I don't even think I have an upgrade   for this I think if I were to swap him out I'd  be able to give them a downgrade then you have   to weigh the pros and cons of not having dual  Channel memory with ryzen which will noticeably   impact performance but I don't think it's going to  impact it as much as me downgrading into something   like a 5500 which AMD was kind enough to send a  few out for the fixer flop playlist but uh yeah   5800x is pretty much in a totally different League  I also just noticed these brackets are super loose   and this can affect mounting pressure over the CPU  which can in turn affect temperatures and boost   frequencies Etc the trips getting too hot so and  there are a lot of issues with this rig but we'll   tighten this down if you had any temp issues  before on the CP side of things hopefully this   addresses them now I do have a 5900x here and this  would be a decent little upgrade form the issue is   I pulled this out of a rig that had some problems  and I never got around to fully testing the CPU   itself which is why I labeled it with a little  question mark on the top right I'm just going to   throw this in there and see if everything's stable  it might not work at all but this is really all   I've got the you know without giving them a pretty  substantial downgrade we'll probably just leave   things as it is and I'll let them know hey if he  wants to run dual channel in the future he'll need   to replace that CPU I think I'm gonna end up  starting a patreon or something and just have   all those proceeds go toward Hardware because I've  been buying a lot of stuff lately to keep up with   how many things are wrong with these rigs that  end up in this playlist let's uh let's see what   happens shall we click the power button up front  ah okay I think I realized why I put a question   mark on that CPU for some reason I've ever seen  this before in a CPU the system just boot loops   I I don't know why like whenever it tries to  load into Windows it just it just Cycles over   and over after trying to load into windows I don't  understand see like that's the splash page that's   good now it tries to load WIndows that's good  and then it'll freeze watch it freeze and well   it didn't freeze there it just completely shut  off and there you go the system completely reset   itself like you have to start all over again and  it just does that over and over and over it tries   to throw itself in automatic repair it can't even  get in there because it shuts itself off so fast   so yeah I think um that 5900x is toast at least I  was able to take this opportunity to verify that   so here's our verdict then this is his 5800x and  it does have a dead memory Channel I slotted in a   5500 off camera and I can get dims to work in any  slot no problem heck we could even get the dims to   work with the 5900x at least in the beginning  at least it posted uh but that ship again has   different issues bigger ones to worry about this  chip does allow us to post and get into Windows we   just cannot do so while any demitol is in either  of the outermost slots on the motherboard you   would think that it's the motherboard's fault  because well it looks like a slotting issue but   it's actually the CPU it's a controller in here  that handles dual Channel memory that goes bad   and we've had a few of these ryzen CPUs have that  issue not necessarily Zen three closer to well   actually this is yeah not Zen three but Zen two uh  the 3000 Series and Zen plus we've run into that   issue as well I don't have a chip that's anywhere  near as powerful as this to replace this one with   so what I'm going to do is put this one back in  there and let him know that he has that issue   it is affecting performance it's not the end  of the world that Lisa's system now works and   doesn't randomly shut off while gaming or stress  testing his graphics card but yeah so not a total   fix here but at least yeah at least it works for  the most part I think I should go ahead and just   uh bite the bullet then yeah buy like 10 ryzen  CPUs we run into so many issues with these chips   in this playlist so that might be the best bet I  just I don't have anything close to I have a 5500   brand new but it's a 5500 it's it's not an eight  core chip it's certainly not a high frequency a   court chip so I think that the losses from the  lack of dual Channel memory support on his 5800x   are more than outweighed by the performance loss  opting for a six core lower frequency counterpart   in the 5500 I really hate to end on this kind of  note because while we had a pretty big success   getting that graphics card to to work again under  heavy load the CPU still has that memory Channel   problem and I suppose the the one good thing he  can take away from this in that regard is that   he knows it's a CPU issue so if he ever wanted to  address it in the future he could very easily swap   that out run dual Channel run four sticks whatever  you wanted to do without issue at least now he can   game again without a system randomly crashing  and to that I'd say this was a moderate success   we were able to fix things like cable management  as well we addressed the mounting pressure issue   that I expect we were having with the CPU both  brackets on both sides of uh just the mounting   mechanism for this noctua cooler were very loose  which I think was going to impact temperatures if   it wasn't already and then of course repacing  the GPU was something that it just needed to   be done from the factory it did not look good at  all and just that I think just repasting was what   allows the CV or the GPU now the graphics card  as a whole to work without the random crashing   with that if you or someone you know lives in  around Orlando Florida and has a broken system   I'd like a chance to fix it for free here on the  channel you can submit a form via the link in this   video's description and I'll get to you as soon  as possible thank you so much for watching this   far into this one your continued viewership  is a huge reason why we're able to continue   doing what we're doing here so thank you very much  for that I know I mentioned patreon I might kick   something like that off again we used to have  a patreon but I felt guilty about not putting   forth enough content there to make it worth your  while I think what I might do going forward is   just have a little patreon set up for videos like  these where all those proceeds will go towards   Hardware replacements for viewers so none of that  money will go into my pocket and that will be my   pledge to you there it will all go into parts  for computers like these and if we end up with   surpluses every month or let's say every year then  we'll just do giveaways I'll put together systems   with the remaining funds and we'll give them  away to folks around the world I think that'll   be a really cool way to to give back and to make  things just a tad bit more exciting especially   with all the new hardware coming out at the end  here of 2022. thanks so much for watching consider   subscribing if you have not already leaving a like  and commenting down below I'll uh yeah I'll catch   you in the next one sorry it's been a long two  days my name is Greg thanks for learning with me

Channel: Greg Salazar

Views: 372,920

Keywords: fix or flop, broken gaming pc, how to fix a broken pc, pc no post, pc won't post, computer won't turn on, pc black screen, greg salazar, pc no signal, fix or flop s3e5, Fof, greg salazar fix or flop, greg salazar pc cleaning

Id: R-5UdfD6JBU

Length: 24min 5sec (1445 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 31 2022