Although the number of motherboard RMAs has been declining slowly in recent years, unfortunately there is an error that keeps repeating itself over time and that some of you have surely experienced. We are talking about the famous error 00 in the QCode of the motherboard, that is, in the display that many mid and high-end models carry. What does this error 00 mean and how does a motherboard get to display it?
Unfortunately, this error generally does not mean anything good. It is an error that we have been able to see in almost all platforms and always, in all cases, it has a series of problems behind that in some cases have a solution and in others it requires a guarantee.
Error 00 on motherboards, the fear of any user
Let’s start with the basics, what is error 00 and what causes it? Depending on the manufacturer of the motherboard we will have a nice manual (physical or online) where it is possible that this error is explained to a greater or lesser extent.
The truth is that the board will show this code in its QCode when it is not able to start the CPU or detects a physical connection failure between it and the socket. This that seems so simple and so simple has behind a series of errors that we are going to try to see if we can start our board again.
Bad CPU placement
As weird or strange as it may sound, poor processor placement can trigger this error. In PGA sockets this is much more difficult to happen, since the processor is the one that has the pins and enters each hole vertically, but in LGA …
As much as AMD and Intel try to do their best to avoid these types of errors, many users believe that the placement of the CPU is to come and drop, but not to fit. There are times when the CPU doesn’t quite lock up and the retention system is forced just enough to close.
In these cases there is a bad contact alignment on the pins and the board will give this error. If everything goes well and there is no break anywhere, it will only be to correctly place the CPU and restart the PC.
Dirt in the socket
It is a classic, but the truth is that a user’s PC is a box of dust, literally, be it to a greater or lesser extent. If we have not taken care of the interior cleaning of the tower we have many ballots so that in a CPU change or for any reason that involves removing the processor from its socket, the dirt has entered in the form of microscopic or very small particles, making contact between two or multiple pins.
This is sometimes really difficult to see because of the size of the dirt, but it does take time and cleaning the socket, usually with a can of compressed air and at a distance so as not to cause damage.
Motherboard or socket bending
It is another recurring problem that implies that one good day you are so happy with your PC and the next day we find error 00. Many users think that it is necessary to take heatsink and block anchors to the extreme, or that the weight of a heatsink High-end giant is not going to affect your motherboard problems. Big mistake. The pressure exerted by a block or a heatsink on the socket anchor is in many cases so brutal that with the passage of hours, days, months or years they end up bending the motherboard making an S right in the center of it. at the top.
What happens when this happens? That the socket and CPU stop making contact no matter how tight the retention system or heatsink / block is. The deformation is only a few millimeters to the human eye, but in the socket they are tenths of a millimeter, just enough so that the pins and the CPU (LGA) do not make contact. In PGA sockets it is much more complicated than this to go through the length of the CPU pins and their retention systems.
Error 00, CPU KO?
Perhaps the biggest trauma any user can have who loves their PC as if it were a part of themselves. The 00 error on a motherboard can mean that the CPU has died, in addition to a large number of possible causes:
- Sudden death due to causes to be investigated.
- Death from over voltage .
- Death by degradation .
- KO for a short circuit .
- KO for overclocking .
Some more bombastic causes could be added, such as death from delid or dirt in the socket, but they are somewhat less common. In any case, the 00 error on a motherboard can mean that the processor has passed away.
Broken motherboard
Finally, the error 00 can also mean that the motherboard has said goodbye, and it could even be the case that after a short, it is both the CPU and the motherboard that have passed away, although this is less common.
In any case and if we try another CPU with the same error 00, we will have to send the motherboard to RMA so that they detect what the specific failure has been within all their systems. This error 00 on motherboards is more or less common depending on the chipsets they have installed, not by the socket they carry, since this error is also related to certain internal buses that must be checked in the POST and that if the CPU cannot checking them will mark this error in the QCode.
