Asrock a75 pro 4 motherboard died, curiosity sake id like to know why

[buttons]

I don't have a processor for this board nor do i feel an FM1 processor is worth buying to do any further testing -- but it doesnt post, i think it powers on (fans spin) but no screen / post. no speaker to hear beeps.

I looked over the board for any signs of burn marks or damage but it looks clean, my only question for you folks -- i took off the heatsink that covers the VRM area and one of the spots is empty, however the pad on the heatsink doesnt show any indent -- so im guessing its never been there or maybe it wasnt seating well over heated and fell off?

EDIT: I took all the parts off this board and put them on a new board and system is working fine -- so cpu,memory, psu were all fine

Just curious if anyone thinks this vrm spot should be empty.

 

[BillR]

unless that's a bad reflection around the CPU socket it looks like someone before you let all the smoke out.

 

[LigTasm]

That PCB is probably used for multiple board models, yours does not have that component. If the board is dead, it isn't because that "fell off". Its dead because it is low-end ASRock crap.

 

[pgaster]

That PCB is probably used for multiple board models, yours does not have that component. If the board is dead, it isn't because that "fell off". Its dead because it is low-end ASRock crap.

I have to agree with this.

Also you can count the black mosfets and gray chokes to get an idea of what is going on with the vrm phases on a board. In this case there are 5 gray chokes, so I expect to see 5 sets of mosfets to match. There are 10 black mosfets, so 2 per phase, which is typical on a lower end/mid range board. It makes sense and nothing seems missing.
Sometimes you see maybe 3 or 4 mosfets per phase on higher end boards.

I think what is around the socket is just dust, so no tell tale sign of a problem there either.
Sometimes boards just die and the reason isn't obvious to the eye. There are many layers and a trace might have broken internally for all we know.