MSI B650 Gaming Wifi Red + Yellow Debug LED. Noticeable smell from the board

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bcoleman65156a02df

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Board: MSI B650 Gaming WiFi
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
RAM: CORSAIR VENGEANCE DDR5 RAM 32GB (2x16GB) 6000MHz CL30
GPU: MSI GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12G VENTUS 2X OC
Power Supply: 750W Corsair RM750e V2 ATX 3.0

I should say that initially I got this build working first try. Had it running for 3-4 hours, cpu and gpu temps all normal. Was able to get a few hours of gaming. I then went to the bathroom and when I came back the PC was dead. Hit the power switch and nothing. Resat all the components and nothing. Tested the PSU on a different computer and it worked fine. I will say that at this point the debug LEDs wouldn't even light up. I downloaded a previous version of the BIOS and used the flashBios feature using a USB which got me to the point the debug LEDs now work. They show constant Red and Yellow indicating no CPU or DRAM detected.

It's at this point there was a noticeable smell coming from (where I think is) the rear IO port on the board. Given that the CPU had been working perfectly fine, is it safe to assume there's some sort of short on the board, or a blown capacitor and have it RMA'd?
 
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Was it a burning smell? I mean, brand new PSUs for example certainly have a smell to them the first couple hours (or even couple dozen hours) of use, as certain materials heat up and gas out a bit. But a burning smell would not be normal. Probably your case exhaust fan made it seem like it was coming from the rear I/O, and it could've been elsewhere in the system.

I would definitely dismantle this system again and check carefully for any signs of damage anywhere, if it was a burning smell. Probably even take off the cooler, take out the CPU, and check for any bent socket pins (looking different from the surrounding ones). Then start off with a very basic system, just the board, perhaps outside of the case on a wooden table, with the CPU and cooler installed. PSU hooked up (2x CPU_PWR, 1x ATX). You should get the DRAM LED without any RAM. If it's still CPU+DRAM LED, then it's already between the PSU, board or CPU, the board being the most likely. Since we get this quite frequently lately, CPU+DRAM LEDs for no apparent reason (check the forum for other cases).
 
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citay said:
Was it a burning smell? I mean, brand new PSUs for example certainly have a smell to them the first couple hours (or even couple dozen hours) of use, as certain materials heat up and gas out a bit. But a burning smell would not be normal. Probably your case exhaust fan made it seem like it was coming from the rear I/O, and it could've been elsewhere in the system.

I would definitely dismantle this system again and check carefully for any signs of damage anywhere, if it was a burning smell. Probably even take off the cooler, take out the CPU, and check for any bent socket pins (looking different from the surrounding ones). Then start off with a very basic system, just the board, perhaps outside of the case on a wooden table, with the CPU and cooler installed. PSU hooked up (2x CPU_PWR, 1x ATX). You should get the DRAM LED without any RAM. If it's still CPU+DRAM LED, then it's already between the PSU, board or CPU, the board being the most likely. Since we get this quite frequently lately, CPU+DRAM LEDs for no apparent reason (check the forum for other cases).
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I don't know if I'd outright call it an outright burning smell but very close to it. Maybe a blown capacitor? It wasn't coming from the power supply as after the computer failed and reseating everything did nothing, I put the mb on it's box on top of my desk for testing. Smell was coming from the area of the IO but that's also right beside the power connectors for CPU1 and CPU 2. If anything I'd think there's a short up there somewhere.

I was doing the tests you suggested when I located the rough area of the smell. I had the CPU in with fan, and the RAM in and still both lights were lit. I decided to not do any further testing giving the smell and just RMA the board. Fingers crossed the CPU isn't dead too.
 
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citay said:
Did you check for bent socket pins, and visually inspect the CPU_PWR headers on the board?
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Yeah. Socket pins look perfect and I can't see anything wrong with the power headers. The entire board looks perfect. No visual signs of any shorts, unless it's under the plate over the rear IO. I did notice that when the CPU PWR and ATX are plugged in, the second I flip the switch to the power supply (before actually activating the board power using the pins) the led to indicate a bios flash happens. Maybe there's a short up there that basically killed the board?
 
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It's possible. The board certainly seems to be the most likely culprit. It's unfortunate that it happened when it happened, and you only saw the system that's off, without seeing/hearing (or smelling) anything at the initial moment. Were you still in the game when you were away?
 
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citay said:
It's possible. The board certainly seems to be the most likely culprit. It's unfortunate that it happened when it happened, and you only saw the system that's off, without seeing/hearing (or smelling) anything at the initial moment. Were you still in the game when you were away?
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No. The only thing happening when I was afk was it was downloading a game from Steam. I will note that when I was out of the room by dog suddenly started growling and when I came back she was in the hallway, staying out of the room. Implies there was some sort of noise. I didn't notice any smell though, but had been several minutes.

I should have the replacement board tomorrow so I'll find out if something else is wrong then.

Just sucks that it has been so long since my last upgrade that I don't have a spare AM5 motherboard to quickly check the CPU.
 
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