I Tested 5 "DEAD" Ryzen CPUs 

The ryzen 5 3600s with dead memory channels would be worth something to dell so they have an excuse to use single channel ram

Fix or flop is getting intense!

Brian at Tech Yes City had similar issues with some Ryzen chips and found that some had bad cores and was able to get them working by disabling a core

Choosing a motherboard with a Post Code display would have provided much more useful information.

The 5900x seems similar to a few cases of degraded silicon I've seen. With some time you could probably dial in the voltage/clocks to get it running pretty close to stock. Not perfect but would still work well as a homelab CPU or something.

I love how you take everything as a learning experience, to many people want to just be right all the time instead of realizing that there is always something to learn. Keep up the good work greag! awesome video!

Great vid and quite helpful- I build a lot of Ryzen based computer systems and this helps with a "heads up" of possible outcomes. I have not yet witnessed these symptoms, but good to have this knowledge.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="387">6:27</a> There was a spark on the cpu socket when you turned the power on

Is that a Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon in the background? 😍 I think I also see The Winged Dragon of Ra and Relinquished, I could be wrong. I can’t tell what the other two are.

TechYesCity also had this overheating issue with ryzen 3600s. You can also try disabling cpu cores if undervolting doesn't work and see if it works.

I am wondering if the silicon shortage over the last two years has contributed to this issue, are manufacturers reducing the failure threshold/overhead to pump out their products? I am in the process of building my new 13th gen system and it is a major concern that component quality might be compromised by the current lack of raw materials globally.

The stubborn one is particularly interesting, obviously there's a clock speed for every chip that it simply won't exceed, the silicon lottery, sometimes chips are particularly sensitive about voltage at a given clock. You went the downclock and undervolt route, but I wonder if you couldn't push up the voltage to run at stock clocks. Overheating is one explanation, but it's equally possible it's the silicon itself that is defective and not the heat spreader application, heck it could be 1 core in the cluster of 12 that's not behaving nicely. If it's a die problem and it runs undervolted that makes it actually a decent chip, just not for an application that needs the full clock or potentially core count. Taken individually anyway it would stomp on the E5-2670v3s in my home server that does plex and game hosting. The one with a single dead memory channel also has some potential for re-use still as a gaming CPU even just with the understanding there's gonna be diminished performance, the application I'd probably use it for though if it were mine is in an openWRT router build for multigig networking after pulling the clocks down for efficiency.

When doing these sort of diagnostics, CPUs have a system called by various names "CPU Internal Error" "CPU IErr," or "CPU Machine Check". This system is basically in charge of double checking results, e.g. that the CPU didn't do 1 + 1 = 3. When such error is detected, the CPU will (try to) tell the OS and the OS will log the error and reboot itself (sounds familiar?). This may require a few tries because sometimes the error is so bad the OS doesn't get the chance to do any of this and the system just hangs or reboots. In the case of Windows, you'll find this in the Windows Registry Log (kinda hard to reach when you can't boot). In Linux, you should see it right on the boot terminal on screen right before reboot. This is very useful because it may indicate further info as to what is failing; and you may find workarounds online if others are having the same issue. I suspect the 5900X was having Machine Checks, and the 3900 from <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="595">9:55</a> may possibly too. Trying to boot into Linux may also yield more info (particularly if it gets stuck in a specific place)

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1075">17:55</a> recently I also experienced this issue (boot to automatic repair), my solution is disable fast boot and longer time for display bios (3s to 5s)

I spy with my little eye Egyptian God cards in background locked into some glass container :D xD

Ryzen cpu are very peculiar with memory. Is it possible to try different AMD recommended memory modules?

I always learn so much more from making a mistake then I ever would from getting it right every time.

Make sure to disable some cores in the BIOS to see if chips will run afterwards. You can try manually increasing voltages or lowering clocks too. Sometimes some cores will die completely, other times just enabling PBO or even any boost frequency at all will be the issue. I've also seen it where it would basically need an extra 50mV to hold the advertised boost frequency. Mostly, these chips can be saved if you're willing to make compromises.

I have a 5900x with the same issues, i even bought a new Motherboard and ram, and figured out today that it might be the CPU that is making my pc freeze when loading windows, and give me all the bsods and issues.

I know it's an old video but AMD CPU's require the primary memory slot to be occupied to post. You cannot just move it to another slot and claim a dead memory channel. You need to leave the primary slot populated and add a memory module to the second channel, to see if in fact the secondary channel works.

I have Asus B550 Tuf Plus with 5600x. After leaving it on overnight in the morning my screen won't turn on just no signal with fans spinning, after a reboot same thing with Dram Led on. Tried removing ram and testing each one on every slot, cleared cmos etc.. Nothing worked for me and since I don't have another pc to test my components I took it to a repair shop, after testing everything he told me that it was my CPU.. I'll just get a 5600 non X since it's 30$ cheaper where I live and update this comment if it does fix it.

Thanks for the follow up. I would like to see if any of the mobos are salvageable.

Any troubleshooting is a great thing.

That last chip you did I have an R5 3600 that does the exact same thing its at work in a storage box at the moment as I meant to send it back to AMD but got covid and when I was better the chip was out of warrantee. so I ran my old FX8350 for a few months until I got a replacement 5600g its been stuck in storage at work and I didn't have access to it but should get it back in the next few weeks so will try on it what you did see if I can get some function back. If i can get it working will make a good backup CPU.

I am interested in hearing AMD engineers investigation on this

just for the last chip there the 5900... Perhaps you have an unstable core where the system hangs or cycles when it tries to boost that one core too high. I used to use a rudamentry way of detecting this by simply running memtest86 (UEFI version), and limiting it to Core 0, then again on Core 1, etc. Typically with all cores running I would either get Memtest to hard hang or the system would reset itself. As I run on single cores, i would eventually hit a core that it either hard hung or power cycled on. Disable that core only is BIOS and then Windows booted and gamed easily, even passed high stress CPU tests. that said those chips all had similar faults, basically the OS would boot was fine at idle, but as soon as you entered a game it would either hard hang or power cycle. For the chips that are purely not POSTing, other than sending them off to a board level repairer with experience in removing the silicon packages from the CPU substrate checking pads/joints and reconnecting them then not much you can do. I know with the correct hardware GPUs, and VRAM as well as Laptop CPU/APU/GPU packages are easy to remove clean and reball then put back on. But I assume that actually remocing the silicon package from the substrate is a far more complicated procedure perhaps one that only AMD themselves can do. Still I agree with other comments. Having the POST Q-Code readout would be handy, so maybe if you have a spare ROG or MSI X570 board or other board with the code on it or a POST testing card that can be installed in a PCIe Socket then that would be handly to narrow down the issue.

Did you clear the CMOS for every CPU?

Try 200 mv + offset with a 500 Mhz or more boost decrease to test if it is silicon degradation with an aio installed to mitigate cooling stability. You can decrease voltage and or increase Mhz and finally add a 5-10% safety margin on the Mhz (on the 10% end if not on aio class cooling) to make it usable. Degraded chips always need more voltage at the same Mhz and more cooling. Ps. memory controllers can also be tweaked volt and mhz wise.

I have a r7 1700 that can't idle. It works perfectly with a fixed voltage or positive voltage offset but stock if I let het system idle then it will just reset the system as soon as the voltage drops. Tested it in two different boards exactly same behaviour. Really like your video's very informative!

How do you know the bod's who sent in the dead rigs did not have insane OC's that fried them.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="118">1:58</a> While i agree that making a Test Bench for CPU check is complicated and hard. But making a cheap one specifically to test GPU's should be possible and save a lot of time checking for GPU related issues.

Love your debug GPU! Cute

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="560">9:20</a> The correct saying is "spitting image" not "splitting image". 😁

i have a similiar issue with my laptop, ryzen 7 4800h, sometimes just black screens and restarts

Well done, young man. My father will be turning 91 in about 3 weeks and I will be turning 54 a week after that. We both still learn from mistakes. If you didn't there would not be much point in having your channel.

Greg you are a scholar and a gentleman, also nice yu gi oh cards.

After I had my fun diagnosing mu 7600X that just won't run stable with Curve Optimizer lower than 0 (despite -10 being my mobo default) AND after the Intel 13/14-gen defaults fiasco I guess it might make sense to check the BIOS for some failsafe or "nonstandard" OC options and see whether it's not that kind of issue, if you plan on ever gettin back to it. Guess mu trust for mobo vendors is null from now on.

Tech Yes City had an interesting video on failed Ryzen CPU's, and managed to revive some by undervolting..might be worth a try?

Should mark the episode on the bad parts I.E. BAD - S2E3

I have a brand new ryzen 9 5900x and it was bootlooping exactly the same as yours straight out of the box is it safe to assume that the issue isn't to do with my pc or compatibility issues and instead just a faulty chip straight out of the box? Should I return it and try a new chip? I also have a ryzen 5 3600 and it runs perfectly fine with that and yes I did update my bios before installing the ryzen 9 5900x.

I had the *exact* same issues like CPU #5 when I switched from Ryzen 3400G to 5600X on a B550-M motherboard. I thought I had the latest BIOS already flashed (it was a relatively new board, and I always flash the latest when I get a new board). But I had the same behavior…BIOS was fine. Could sit there forever. Windows? Would boot loop, again, forever. I re-flashed the most recent BIOS from a USB stick with the 5600X installed, and it has worked flawlessly since. Not sure if I missed an update, or what. I always clear CMOS on CPU change (thanks for the reminder…I remember a PC from years ago that failed if you didn’t clear CMOS on BIOS update). If you tried that, did it work? I’m curious. I had thought of a CPU microcode update, but apparently they happen dynamically according to other posts I’ve seen. Still, my B550 system is great now.

That first Ryzen is exactly what i had happen last week with my intel 9900kf, debug between CPU an DRAM quick flash on CPU long flash on dram... was weird reseated dram like 4 times switched cpus twice and it booted on the cpu it wouldnt 🤔

Probably the fix for 5900X with restart loop to make it to work more than this, you should disable C-states and all same feature sets at the Bios , That's issue on the ryzen Cpu its the first symptoms before die completely.

Why dont you get one of them cases where you put the platform on he has its own psu i cant remember the case is it a test bench

I love this channel. Fix or flop helped me to diagnose my problem on my new PC build. It's up and running now. AMD 7600x, rtx 3060, Samsung 980 pro 2tb m.2 drive, Asus tuf gaming b650-plus wifi. Housed in the musetex case that was shown in another video on this channel. I am going to get another case though, and an aio cooler. When the new 3d chips come out, I'm going all in, 7950x3d, or the one below it.

Would it help if you had a board that displayed numbers and not just lights?

Those graded Egyptian God Cards in the back

Hey Greg. I have a ryzen 5 5600x that boots and posts every time, but each core only runs at 546.54mhz. I cannot figure it out for the life of me! I'd love to send it to you and see what you can figure out...let me know what I'd have to do!

You can also verify if the CPU is working correctly if you check for any WHEA errors in the event logs.

Had my first CPU RMA with AMD on a 3900x and bootloop, same issue as the 3900x first one.

I would argue that we don't actually know what that graphics card is because you've stated that XFX didn't make a GT710

The 3900x was a hot chip, and if not properly cooled I could see the IHS becoming partially unsoldered from one or both of the CCX's. This would make it pretty much impossible to thermally manage from then on.

Hey Greg, thanks to you & your fix or flop series i was able to fix my 10 year old desktop, so let me share what happened the. Out of the blue the system started Blue screen of deaths different error everytime so i thought maybe the windows was corrupt and tried to fresh install the windows but it wouldn't let me boot via the Pendrive, so i thought maybe the HDD had given up the ghost. Had a spare HDD lying so decided to swap it and sometimes it would just bootloop and sometimes it would just give no output to display so started by disconnecting RAM's to narrow down the problem so guess what 1 of the RAM sticks had gone faulty so tried putting it in the other slot to rule out defective slot but the RAM was at fault so finally the system started with the other 4 gig stick. I didn't go to any repair shop as most of them just try to rip off, so thanks to you my potato pc started again.

for the chips that do boot in to bios you could try turning cores off, first try to see if it works ok with only 2 cores then enable 4 and so on to find out maybe a 6 core can work fine with 4 cores

"I wish I labeled my CPUs better." "Let's label this one.... _stubborn_ "

I would love to try to delid that 5900x and see if it's a contact issue. Maybe there's an internal issue where the chip is barely touching lid. Or maybe try turning one of the CCDs off amd try running at stock settings.

What percentage of the systems you've gotten in for repair are AMD vs Intel?

For the ones with dram led... Tech Yes Bryan found he could revive a "dead" 3600 by undervolting in the bios with a good cpu, and then switch to the dead one. It would be interesting if you could make any of yours work by undrvolting or reducing the clocks. [edit] lol, just got to the last one where you did just that. Worth re-checking some of the others similarly.

With the overheating CPUs, try delid and liquid metalling the CPU and putting the IHS back. The thermal glue inside might've dried out or not making contact with the IHS anymore

So question is there a possibility that improper instillation could have caused these chips to fail? Also maybe not having proper cooling?

Maybe contact Steve from gamer nexus. This sort of situation might be down his alley. Especially if it shows to be a batch wide situation There could be hundreds of Ryzen 3000 chips on the verge of going bad and could open exactly why they could be turning. Might turn into an interesting collab.

So the first 2 that get stuck on Dram light, I think you are correct mostly...I've seen this a bunch of times...It usually happens when the SOC voltage gets set too high and damages the memory controller...It really doesn't like getting overvolted too much unless you have extreme cooling...

Tech Yes City has had similar problems with AMD cpu's recently. Great video as always, Greg. Much respect.

Was wondering when we'd get this video since you've hinted at it a few times

For the 3600 cpus I would try a slower ram speed. I have a 3600X that will do nothing but give me issues if I use anything over 2400mhz ram. Its a definite issue and I only use the chip in a b550 board to test gpus and other components.

Send all of them to AMD. They have to change them free. Any CPU should last at least 5 years at very high temps 24/7 (see intel haswell). The only problem is that intel was using crappy thermal paste instead of solder the IHS. I have one 5900X that can only do 4.1ghz at 1.24Vcore. That is very low. On the other hand I have one 3600 that can do 4.6ghz at 1.29 vcore. AMD should take notes from these problems that you found.

Your results are the same as mine. I build systems as a hobby, I'm at over 400 systems built, and over 130 Ryzen builds. I've had more Ryzen fails than any other type of cpu combined. I had a 2600x wouldn't boot, and the replacement had a bad PCI-e controller. I've had three 3000 series cpu's fail, the last one "works" but fails(ie. shuts off the system) whenever its stressed. AMD makes more bad cpu's than any other manufacturer.

I've been in IT for over 30 years and I've personally only seen 1 failed processor. Two users with failed processors would have been crazy to me, but 5!? Intel isn't the best but this is shenanigans.

its funny how i got this video in my recommendation. just build a brand new PC using an AMD Ryzen 9 7900x, and the cpu was a dud, returned it to microcenter for a another one and everything is all good. just suck that i had to drive 2 hours away again to return the CPU,

ok soo try this manually turn the infinity/ fclk down to 1.3ghz set ddr4 to xmp then set cpu voltage to 1.2 v see if it posts

I had a 3600X keep resetting when I tried to play videos. I contacted AMD, they couldn't figure the issue. After 2 weeks, they sent me a replacement.

All them CPU's regardless of if it will post with 1 dead channel should all be in the bin.. there is no working around a dead channel or resell as slightly defective for cheap.. just no if they are defective then send them to the bin

Greg, I envy your access to hardware, but I don't envy how much thermal paste you must go through in a week. I'd love to know what brand you use though.

Recently I had a family member complain that shortly after plugging in his new WD 2TB Elements portable USB 3.0 (the next day actually) his monitor, keyboard, and mouse quit working. I saw that his MSI X470 Gaming Plus Max AM4 MB had every USB port filled with various crap...looked like a porcupine. His poor Corsair VS 450 PSU had to handle a Kingston 120GB SSD (OS boot drive), a WD 250GB HDD, a Seagate Barracuda 500GB HDD, the Ryzen 5 3600 w/stock cooler, 16GB G. Skill Trident Z Neo 3600, 5 UpHere RGB case fans, MSI GTX 1650 Super GPU with 2 monitors plugged in, and some gadget that appeared to have a few mini monitor screens. All the fans and lights were working, as well as the GPU fans. I noted the PSU didn’t have a connector for the 4-pin CPU PWR2 on the board, which I’ve read the MB only really needs the 8-pin CPU PWR1 but I can’t help but wonder so I suggested he buy a more powerful PSU to handle all the stuff he had plugged in and to make sure it had the connector to fill that void. Well a new Tier A Corsair RM1000e PSU didn’t help so I tried a known working GPU but that didn’t help either. I should note that no settings were ever tinkered with. Everything was totally factory and his Metallic Gear Neo case w/2 Skiron RGB fans, plus the 5-pack of UpHere RGB fans offered plenty of ventilation. I thought for sure the motherboard had an issue. The next stop was Micro Center for component isolation, which took 3 weeks and they said the problem was the Ryzen 5 3600 failed and it would be $180 to fix. He added that although he just bought everything last summer, (from MC) he didn’t buy the warranty so that’s something he’d have to handle himself through AMD. Noting how many of those chips have been diagnosed as “bad” plus the one I mentioned, I’m beginning to think AMD may have a dependability issue starting to emerge. EDIT: MC scared the kid by saying the new CPU would require a new OS and it would wipe everything on the drive. When the kid asked about saving his games and the cost of the next CPU upgrade. The tech said the ($129.99) Ryzen 5 5600 was actually just $20.01 more than the ($109.98) Ryzen 5 3600 and mentioned flashing the MB. So with another $150 to save his data, the price approached $500. I suggested that since his OS was on a cheap $20 120GB SSD that he should just put in a higher capacity & faster NVMe for the OS and the old SSD wouldn't have to be touched. Plus he already had the activation key from the previous OS installation. Next thing I know, the tech installed the ($49.99) Inland QN322 1TB NVMe and ended up costing “$200 something.” (his words)

I’m able to boot in b1 & b2 but anytime I try to use a1 or a2 I get error code 55 yellow light on ram everything lights on pc but no display on keyboard and mouse. Do you think this is a problem with the cpu or motherboard slits please let me know anything is helpful.

Ahh, the joys of troubleshooting used components. Loving this series, keep them coming!

Delid the cpu's to see what they have eaten. Or you could try playing golf with them to see how far they fly. 😁

I have a Ryzen 72700X. Where one memory channel crapped out. What happened was I changed my cooler for one of those tower coolers and the weight on the tower cooler ripped the Ryzen out of its socket, and I am guessing that that caused some sort of electrical faultin the CPU, as it doesn't like being pulled out of its socket when the power is on. But that's what happened. The main fault lies with the top-heavy weight of the tower cooler and the CPU retention arm. The weight of the cooler pulled the arm out of its socket. There was an easy fix for this and that was to bend the arm towards the socket again, making a better contact with the catch. But by then it was too late. My verdict is --- Tower coolers are too top-heavy and the CPU retention arms are too weak and don't latch hard enough.

But can any of these get replaced under warranty?

Send all them bad cpu's back to amd maybe they will send you working ones 😆

A motherboard with debug codes instead of just LEDs (and a power button) would've probably been beneficial for these tests. Or regarding the power button, you could just use one from an unused case to connect it to the pins instead of having to short the jumpers all the time.

It seems Florida has a Ryzen problem, here in Arizona I get a lot of bricked or broken intel's. hardly any AMD chips I've worked on had issues like this. But who knows what these owners are trying to do to them, and not say anything lol

some AMD chips that have dual CCD(x900, x950, or some x600 series) may experience some impedance between CCDs especially when theres a degradation problem related to the silicon, their voltage needs heavy adjustment to work normally. TechYESCity demonstrated that by disabling cores/limiting boost frequencies some of these chips could be salvaged.

It makes sense that the IMC in AMD chips fail more than non K intel chips. The more freedom you give users the more variety you need to support ram wise. Running outside of its preferred settings with higher clocks and tighter timings is higher risk. Similar to turning up the boost on turbo cars. It puts pressure on other parts: clutch, fuel system etc.

You could write "limping" on the dead channel CPU 😉

Hey Greg! Thank you so much for all the content! The PC:DC and fox or flop playlists are amazing! However I do need your help with something else. I reached out via Instagram but haven’t heard back. Is there a better way to ask you for help?

I recently had a Ryzen 7 2700x die on me!

I have a suggestion. Would be interesting to try a direct die cooling in the stubborn CPU.

im about to get a 7800x3d and first amd cpu for me since athlon, should i be worried about the quality of these amd chips?

I read the title and thought it said: "I tasted 5 dead Ryzen CPUs".

At <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1048">17:28</a>, was that a spark under the motherboard when he flipped the switch on his PSU?

i would reset the cmos every time when swapping the cpu. maybe it does not wanna work with various speeds or timings. just to be sure.

BAD CPU cache or bad infinity controller

I think your test gpu as an ati Radeon 8400gs I could be wrong but that card is the amd equivalent to the GeForce 210

Now I am scared for my Ryzen 9 3900x.

Why do these things happen with mostly amd cpus?

I take it AMD doesn't want these for testing?

I find it interesting the number of memory issues. Just replaced my 2700 X as the memory controller is depredating. It stopped being able to run the memory on XMP, so I had to drop the voltages and speeds down a few months ago(6) and it was stable until yesterday when the problem made a return. However, I believe a bad bios was to blame in my case as I found that the XMP had gone 1.45 V on Auto which was fixed with a bios update.

I have a Ryzen 5 7600 that posts and boots up into BIOS. BIOS can see it as a 7600; it shows the RAM (32 GB T-force vulkan 6000 MHz), but when I try to install Windows 10 or 11, it will give me a BSOD when the Windows install would boot up with random codes. I tried 3 different motherboards (asus tuf gaming x670e, a gigabyte b650m gaming plus wifi, and a MSI PRO B650M-A WiFi ProSeries), 3 PSUs or various wattages (Sama Black Diamond 1000W, 1 Corsair RM 850, and 1 Corsair RM750E), and it will always crash at the same point in the Windows installer boot up. So I just started the RMA process.

GREG!! LOVE YOUR CHANNEL! LOVE WHAT/HOW YOU DO YOUR CONTENT!! LONGTIME WATCHER!!..BUT..I'm sorry I have to correct you bid..the saying goes "SPITTING IMAGE"..not splitting...🤣🤣