Dead pfsense Hardware

Hardware:
Router Motherboard: Jetway NF592-Q170
Processor: Intel Core i5-6500

Initial Symptoms: pfsense slow to respond and move from screen to screen. I was making a port change to port forwarding when this started. Restored to known good configuration and the slowness continued. Did a restart from SSH and the firewall stopped responding all together.

Removed from rack and opened case. Inspected interior found what looked like black soot from power supply fan output. Tested power outputs, voltages were normal. Examined power supply internally and there was no visual anomaly. Powered Firewall up. Case and CPU fans come on but there is no video output from onboard Intel graphics. Motherboard has green power indicator on when power is applied. The motherboard refuses to post. Soft off from front panel power switch appears to work.

CPU ran in the green temperature range in the pfsense dashboard sometimes in yellow range briefly after a restart. Firewall has been running great for 2 years then just died.

I tried another power supply and the same conditions remain.

Any of you hardware gurus have any advice?

My thoughts is that the CPU was throttling before the hardware failed and is likely that the CPU died.

Iā€™m going to try a replacement CPU and see what happens.

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