I'm having some weird problems with my workstation, here are the relevant components:
- PSU: Corsair AX860i
- CPU: Intel Core i7 6700K
- GPU: Asus STRIX GTX970
- RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws V DDR4 2x16GB (F4-3000C15D-32GVR)
- MBO #1: Asus Z170-A
- MBO #2: MSI Z170A KRAIT GAMING
I've had the machine for about two months, when after a few lockups on reboot it wouldn't power the monitor (fans working, no beeps, no diagnostic LEDs blinking). Tried couple of things (swaping RAM modules around, using the onboard GPU, etc.) and after a while I figured the motherboard died.
Replaced the Asus motherboard with a MSI one, and it died just few hours after putting it in! All the same symptoms, fans spinning, no diagnostic LEDs blinking, but monitor will not power on.
That seemed incredibly weird to me, so I started researching and I came across the issue of PIN 20 on DisplayPort cables. Sure enough, my cheap cable has a live PIN 20.
Is it possible that the faulty DisplayCable fried the motherboard? And possibly the graphics card?
Come to think of it, just after completing the build Asus anti-surge protection was triggering on every reboot. I figured it was just faulty surge detection and turned it off in the BIOS (since the Corsair PSU is supposed to be quite good).
Am I imagining things or did my monitor/cable fry my motherboard?
