Complete rebuild causes freezing or crashes without any BSOD or issues.
Complete rebuild causes freezing or crashes without any BSOD or issues.
It was just the gigabyte board doing that, which still bothers me because now I realize the first memory kit wasn't the issue. That kit should work with Ryzen 7000 CPUs since it uses DDR5 with an Expo profile. It's surprising that the gigaboard, which has been around for a while and paired with AM5 CPUs, could enforce such strict memory timings on Expo that the system wouldn't even start Windows sometimes. That seems too coincidental. The CPU isn't the problem either, as the 7700X also failed in the same way. I'm still confused.
Unfortunately, I don't know Asrocks BIOS layout but you can start by turning off stuff like PBO / Anything that turbos the CPU above its rated boost clocks. You'll have to dig around and read the manual to find the other power saving options. Have you installed the Motherboard drivers previously? I think this is the BIOS guide for your motherboard right? https://download.asrock.com/Manual/Software/AMD B650/Software_BIOS Setup Guide_English.pdf
I added chipset drivers right after setting up Windows using the AMD tool. It seems PBO is disabled by default.
Have you experimented with increasing the CPU voltage a bit? A small positive adjustment or using an LLC controller might help. It could prevent cores from getting insufficient power and becoming unstable during low-power modes. Are your RAM modules listed on the motherboard’s QVL for both the Gigabyte and ASRock boards? If not, it would be wise to stick with a compatible set. Beyond that, I don’t see many other suggestions. (I just checked—seems supported with Trident Z5 6000 16GB sticks, though EXPO doesn’t appear to support them. Only XMP is listed?) You might also try ultra loose timings or skip XMP/EXPO entirely. Have you tested the PSU with another system on hand to confirm stability? I’m not certain if you’ve tried running the system without the GPU yet, but that could be worth a look. Let me know your results.
I believe the issue might be related to the steelseries engine. I'm using the arctis nova pro wireless headset, and it seems the engine loads certain audio drivers. Problems with drivers align with the watchdog BSOD I experienced a few times, and it could also explain media player issues. I performed several clean Windows installs without installing the engine, so that didn't help. However, some SteelSeries apps still appeared in the Windows Update, possibly because Windows auto-installed them or the driver was installed by default. My recent troubleshooting steps were: install Windows 11, stop updates immediately, wait a week for stability, then install the engine. It crashed three times within 24 hours, I uninstalled it, and it's now working fine again. The engine performed well on my older system, which might indicate a conflict with the audio driver on my current board—though I haven't manually installed it and don't know if the software installer did either. Essentially, I'm planning to wait before making any changes until another crash occurs.
This update addresses a problem encountered by others with a comparable issue. The crash occurs because Shadowplay's instant replay saves temporary files to the 4tb HDD. It doesn't crash when the save folder is changed to another drive, nor when the same HDD is used on a different machine. Likely the issue lies with the SATA controller. I plan to update the BIOS once the new AGESA version is released.