I haven’t had any takers on a hardware forum; does anyone here have any bright ideas?
I have two non-portable PCs, a home-theatre one (AMD A8, 8GB RAM, badly in need of an upgrade), and an image-processing workhorse (Ryzen 7-2700X, 32 GB RAM)
Seeking to upgrade my home-theatre PC, I needed a motherboard I knew worked with my existing AMD A12-9800.
So I upgraded the motherboard that used to hold the A12 and now holds a Ryzen7-2700X (my Imaging processing system, which now working even better, with new mobo, faster RAM and an M2.nvme drive as well).
Having now a mobo with RAM known to have previously worked with the board and the A12, situation is this:
Mobo: Gigabyte A320M-HD2
RAM: 2x Crucial 16GB DDR4-2400 UDIMMs
CPU: AMD A12-9800
P/supply: Antec 550W
Symptom: no video display of any kind.
Things I have tried:
used a separate video card (even though I have onboard graphics, plus the A12 has integrated GPU)
reset the BIOS NVRAM
tried 0, 1 and 2 sticks of RAM
a different power supply (with lower wattage)
yes, as well as main mobo power supply, extra CPU power connetor
CPU has been thoroughly cleaned and inspected, correctly inserted, new thermal paste applied, heatsink/cooler fan installed.
motherboard starts ok: audio shield LED comes on, CPU fan spins (I would expect a power-supply issue to turn off the CPU fan)
tried (briefly) running without any thermal solution - CPU got progressively warmer, seeming to indicate power consumption
Things I haven’t yet tried:
the only case speaker I have is soldered to the old mobo I am seeking to replace; so, I could get another and check for a beep code.
What is perplexing is that - until a few hours before my first attempt at booting this system - the mobo and RAM were running reliably as they have for some years in my imaging-processing system.
Elimination would seem to suggest the A12 CPU. Yet why would it be getting steadily warmer if not functioning?
Any ideas would be welcome.
PS … one thing occurs to me: I had to update the motherboard to support the Ryzen, Surely that would not have made the A12 suddenly unsupported?!
As mentioned, I have no ability to hear beep codes, so I cannot confirm that (yet).
As regards the required hardware, I have for many years been a mythtv fan, and record lots of free-to-air TV, from two network-connected HDHomeRun-dual devices. Unfortunately, the size of my database plus kernel-size on Ubuntu 20.04, plus basic mythtv functionality comes close to maxing out the RAM - 8GB is all my current hardware supports. The moment any com-flagging or other job starts up, swapping kills the performance.
I have a couple of Raspberry devices - a 3+ as a network-attached backup storage, and a 4 as a media device in my bedroom. The 4 could potentially replace the media PC, however the logistics of moving from a tower-case with 2 WD-Red HDDs, plus a couple of USB-3 attached HDDs to using the Pi-4 would mean quite some changes!
Thanks for the suggestion … it is on my list of things to try, but due to its risky nature, I am not keen to flash BIOS until I have eliminated every other possibility.
A12-9800 is based on the old FX (pre-Ryzen) architecture… perhaps that’s why the newer BIOS caused some sort of incompatibility. Speaking from experience, a similar FX-based CPU didn’t allow booting from a NVMe drive on an Asus AM4 motherboard.
Thanks, Mica, you are confirming my fears - the CPU is likely bad. The RAM and mobo are a working match. The CPU has not been used for 18 months, and - as mentioned - not since I upgraded the BIOS on the mobo for my Ryzen7. I need to wait until 2400 UTC to get into my local Jaycar electronics to get a buzzer speaker to see if I can get a beep code.
Thanks; I deliberately bought an A-series that was AM4 socket based to give me the opportunity to upgrade to Ryzen when funds permitted. When I did (18 months or so ago), I had similar issues because the Ryzen needed a BIOS upgrade, but I had already applied thermal solution, so had to go back to the A12 just to flash the BIOS - grr.
I am in a similar bind now - because I can’t get a video display of any kind, I could only flash the BIOS on this board if I were to resinstall the Ryzen. That, however, would mean taking my image-processing computer offline, and I am loth to dissamble something working in order to have a longshot at getting something not working working again!
Buzzer fitted, gives a chirp on power supply powerdown, but no beep-code. Tried deliberately with a stick of RAM partially seated - no beep code. Seems the CPU is cactus.
