sparetimepc
i guess i missed it where it was booted without the gpu power connections being plugged in.

It sounds like it was definitely my fault, but I hadn't heard anything like this before, though with hindsight, it does make sense. Should I assume the PSU is fine? 
 
But on the BIOS front, is there any further advice you can give, or should I just give up and either be PC less or buy now? 

sparetimepc

black_falcon120

sparetimepc
i guess i missed it where it was booted without the gpu power connections being plugged in.

It sounds like it was definitely my fault, but I hadn't heard anything like this before, though with hindsight, it does make sense. Should I assume the PSU is fine? 
 
But on the BIOS front, is there any further advice you can give, or should I just give up and either be PC less or buy now? 

Well i have accidentally booted a computer a couple times before without the power connections hooked on the gpu and i have never had one burn up, but all said and done i guess its kinda in your court now on what to do with a pc but if you can get into bios and your cpu fan and everything is working for the most part i'm gonna think your psu is ok. If nothing else just buy a cheapy pc for now to use and then start figuring out your new build if your going that route and take your time planning it. A custom build is always nice as you get the distinction of saying you built it yourself and it can be your pride and joy.

Makes sense, it sounds like the iGPU route is not working, and doing some googling myself, it doesn't seem like anyone has this problem, maybe the fire fried some other bits of the mother board, the flames were pretty impressive with hindsight. 
 
I was thinking of either waiting or getting an x570 and a 3200g and swap out to a decent cpu/GPU when they come out mid September.  Is the 3200g idea workable? 
 
I am split between doing this and 'wasting' £80 on a 3200g for a month of having a pc (September 17th isn't it), or not having a pc for a few weeks (2 of which I'm on a holiday), but as you say, that ball is in my court, but I do want to do a custom build purely for the experience. 

Zeddivile
@OP
On the power button press behavior question.  This sounds like the difference between coming of out a sleep, hibernate, fast boot and a cold boot power on.
 
You can control the behavior in Windows and there is also probably some silly HP bios level function as well.
 
A little detail could be beneficial...
 
A typical behavior of the HP power switch could be that if in sleep state or hibernate state and power button press needs 3 seconds. Another behavior could be that your HP is in a sleep state and at the software level quickly depressing the power button does nothing, however holding the button for 3 seconds forces power on or off.
 
Also in Windows 10 Fast boot is basically a start from a hybrid hibernate state therefor it could effect the function of the power button programmatically.
 
I point that out because some people disable hibernate / delete hiberfil.sys ect and keep fast boot enabled....
 
Typically all of this behavior can be adjusted in the OS, BIOS or a combo of both.

I tried to run a few more tests, then I realised that my SSD had somehow become unplugged, which was causing the computer to not boot up, as soon as I plugged it in, it was something like 480p, but it worked, I messed up... 
 
Btw, do you think it is safe to plug a new GPU in? or is given the earlier photo, it too dangerous? I am thinking of waiting for ampere then upgrading for a Vermeer? I am just concerned that I don't know what caused the original problem, my hard drives were all plugged in for most of my testing, so I have to assume either my GPU or my connections to the GPU were bad, and I'm unsure which, or if I can damage a theoretical RTX 3080 in.

Zeddivile
I would not wait for Ampere and then attempt to run it on that motherboard. Personally I would not test any GPU of value on that motherboard at this point.
 
Idk why no one is saying this but AFAIK HP cuts ALL its corners on motherboards.  Which is most likely why when you plugged a real PSU into it you ended up here on the forum with burn marks on components.
 
Is the HP out of warranty? IF not HP is the route I would go with the HP chassis and related components.  Propriety OEM is not engineered to play nice with enthusiast so to speak....
 
If budget is a concern a decent z170 motherboard can be found for 100$. I was not able to find the HP Z170 replacement for less than 190$...
 
If upgrading is your plan the sky's your limit.
 
 
 

Just to clarify, the original PSU broke about 2 years after buying it, then I ran it with the original G2 with no problems until recently, and the GPU only burned because I started it without plugging the GPU's auxiliary power connectors in.  Does your advice still hold? I am not sure if damaged psi-e traces can fry a GPU?
 
It's 4.5 years old, which is twice its warranty, I was working under the impression that only the memory and PSU are suitable for upgrading, and I think the memory is 2133, so shouldn't be used with Ryzen. 
 
As for the motherboard replacement, I think that might be a bit too expensive, the amount of weird and wonderful problems I've had one the past few weeks suggest that there may be other things wrong, and I'm unsure what.  For interest, when it boots up now, it looks like 420p, and I can't change the resolution from 1024p, there is no way it is actually showing anything close to 1080p.  So I think there may be a cpu issue as well, I was just hoping it would be enough to tide me over to when Vermeer comes out...
 
btw, when will good aftermarket cards come out and actually be available after Ampere's launch, I've been reading that we should expect two months?