Installed a Ryzen 7 5700G processor to a Gigabyte GA-AB350M-HD3 motherboard. Plugged computer back in, hit power button. Computer powered on but no video output. Double-checked cables, then started Googling. Apparently this is commonly a result of an out-of-date BIOS. Got the latest BIOS update on a flash drive with my roommate’s assistance, then went to put the old processor (a Ryzen 5 1500X) back in so that I could run the system BIOS and flash the update, at which point I learned that I accidentally bent several of the pins when removing it. Tried to seat the processor out of a sense of wishful thinking, and sure enough, no number of attempts would get the computer to turn on with it inside.

So, in short: I have a new processor my motherboard doesn’t recognize, an old processor it does recognize but is now broken, and a BIOS update that would presumably let it recognize the new processor but that I can’t install without a working processor. I’ve read that some Gigabyte motherboards support loading BIOS updates from a flash drive without a processor, but as far as I can tell, the GA-AB350M-HD3 isn’t one of them. Not sure what I’m supposed to do here. I could order another Ryzen 5 1500X, but 1) that costs money and 2) I’d have to wait for it to arrive.