Can an, otherwise well working, SSD brick a motherboard?
Posted by 4ShotMan@reddit | buildapc | View on Reddit | 7 comments
TL;DR Working SSD from old PC seems to kill new motherboards.
I've recently bought a new PC (Optimus E-sport Extreme GZ790T-CR1 i7-13700KF Win11) which, upon first startup didn't show any image on either screen. Not "windows doesn't start", straight up no image. No way to get to BIOS or anything, looks like a case of CPU being dead on the spot. Plugged in screens report no signal from CPU and from GPU just show black screen.
I've sent it to a repair shop, they sent it back, it started up once. Then, when I inserted my old M2 SSD (the first time I did so immedietaly), it went back to what I described above. The SSD in question works perfectly fine in my old PC and has no OSs on it.
EDIT: The issue persists after removing the offending drive.
I've tried removing the CMOS battery + resetting it, removing all "non critical" pieces (externals stuff, GPU, limiting RAM to one stick), powercycling, screens plugged in GPU and/or CPU...
I reiterate so it's clear - there is no image at any point, no way to access BIOS without it.
persondude27@reddit
Yes, it's possible that an SSD can prevent a board from booting. Usually it's some sort of issue with the PCIe - short, not plugged in correctly, etc.
If the board works fine without the SSD, then the SSD is almost certainly bad.
I usually see "bricking" used in a slightly different sense - usually bricking would be a component that is totally and entirely useless and there's no chance of it being fixed. Eg, a motherboard with a corrupt BIOS or a GPU that just doesn't work.
4ShotMan@reddit (OP)
I will amend the POST, but the issue persists after removing the SSD.
ReferenceNo393@reddit
What was your conclusion? I’m wondering if my SSD had killed two mobos in a row now.
madynheaven@reddit
yeah this cursed ass ssd killed 2 of my boards already
4ShotMan@reddit (OP)
Unfortunately, I had to get a new SSD and couldn't find out what happened
ReferenceNo393@reddit
Did your pc return to its functional state after replacing the ssd? Or did you have to replace your mobo as well?
4ShotMan@reddit (OP)
It didn't, but I sent it to a repair shop and supposedly "routine" fixes helped, but they literally wouldn't tell me what they were. Afterwards, I plugged the disk back in, it once again screwed the machine over, and after next round of esoteric repairs I decided I'd buy a new disk rather than egsorcose the old one.
IF you find out more, please let me knkw, I still have the old disk somewhere and would love to be able to keep using it.
Tldr As far as I know, hardware didn't need changing, or the repair shop omitted this.