Here are some solutions for my PC hard lockups, I'm asking for your input on what steps I took to fix them.
Here are some solutions for my PC hard lockups, I'm asking for your input on what steps I took to fix them.
i am having PC issues and need some advice. I have an idea on what to swap out soon, but I won't mention it because i don't want people judging me. Any help is welcome. My computer specs are: a ryzen 9 5900x, asus tuf x570 plus wifi, corsair 8gb ddr4 running at 3200mhz, vengeance lpx, asus tuf rx6700xt with 12gb of memory, samsung 980 evo nvme for the primary drive, another samsung 980 evo for storage, samsung 940 ssd with 128gb capacity, thermaltake toughpower gf3 cooling system, windows 10 ltsc 2021 running on ubuntu 25.04. About two weeks ago, i started having hard lock-ups. Everything would freeze up, showing whatever the screen was before. There were no visual display problems, but my mouse stopped working and caps lock didn't toggle. This happened even when the computer wasn't being used much at all. The PC still ran programs like python scripts for discord bots, discord apps, and browsers. I could play games fine without issues (last epoch). But i had to hold down the power button to restart it. I could get many hours of use before a problem happened. There were no stop errors in event viewer except for "system recovered from a crash." i tried reinstalling windows, formatting the os drive completely. It locked up once during the install process and again while doing the part that says don't turn off the computer. After finishing but still booted into windows, i tried installing drivers and got some lock-ups during the installation. Even after getting drivers in, i had lock-ups every 1 to 5 minutes. At this point, i disconnected all hdds, an 840 sata ssd, usb stuff, sound card, and extra monitors. Only nvme drives were left because taking them out hurts. I reseated the gpu. Samsung magician simple tests passed on both nvme drives. I connected the 840 sata ssd back up and tried installing windows there. No lock-ups during install, but after getting to the desktop screen, i started having lock-ups again every 1 to 5 minutes. Tried to make a ubuntu live usb from another computer, but got lock-ups while writing to the drive. Made a live usb on another machine. Once booting into linux, still had lock-ups after 1 to 5 minutes. Ran memtest86+ for 20 hours with no lock-ups. No errors. 12 full runs, all passed. The psu was from before and was a 1050w seasonic, so i replaced it with the thermaltake gf3 1200w listed above. Connected the same minimal hardware again. Still getting lock-ups on both nvme drives, sata ssd, and linux live usb. Had a usb drive not show up in boot once, so i switched to a different port and got the same results. I would guess someone would say try disconnecting the nvme drives, but that is painful to do and since the problem happens with the linux live usb, it seems unlikely to be the drives. Like i said, i know what my experience says to replace now, but i wanted outside opinions for a sanity check. See if i missed something obvious. I am terribly annoyed and frustrated, so i am worried im missing something. So, what would you look at replacing next? Thanks in advance!
I can't see anything specific right now. Either find posts here or check out some troubleshooting videos and other places online. At this point, it might make sense to try swapping the CPU for something new. You could also buy a whole new computer platform, but matching it up with that 5900X would cost quite a bit of money.
You have Samsung 980 Evo drives in 500GB and 1TB sizes, and a Samsung 940 with an 840GB capacity. Is there any chance the other drives are disconnected except for the one where you want to put your operating system? Did you erase all partitions on that drive so there is no leftover stuff from before? Also, did you make a new USB installer just to check if your OS has broken? About your motherboard: Asus TUF X570 Plus with Wi-Fi, what BIOS version do you have? You got 4 sticks of Corsair DDR4 memory at 3200MHz. Did you test using two sticks instead of one kit? I think that's the trick here; try working with just one kit. You can find the PCB revision number on the side of your memory sticks to check this. I guess someone would say turn off all the NVMe drives, but it takes too much time so I haven't tried yet. As you are living with the system, we only have advice here, but you should rule out everything carefully one by step. Maybe the problem has been there from the start and you just didn't see it. I would try putting the NVMe drive on a working computer like a friend's or neighbor's to see if it still breaks. Replacing isn't what we want because that costs money from your pocket.
i took out every drive but kept the two nvme drives for a fresh install. those hard drives are really hard to reach; i have to pull out the gpu to get at them, which means breaking into part of my case because they are so big. (perhaps foolishly) i am avoiding that step right now. my excuse is that the linux live media keeps failing when it tries to use the drives. even though they could cause problems, i deleted the old partitions during both reinstall jobs and completely formatted the new os drive. the usb installer was brand new just before i used it. version 4021 came out first, but 5021 is now the latest one. my fear is that with all these locking features, the system will freeze or crash while trying to update the BIOS. i didn't think about that because it never happened. yes, you are absolutely right; there are two matched sets of drives here. i had not tried them since they passed the long memory test. i have now tested each set in both of my DDR sticks and every single time it locked up all four times. unfortunately, there are no known working systems to pull from or use as a replacement for these units. you are right about course; sadly, this stuff is older than three years, so most things are out of warranty except the ram, fans, and now the power supply unit. thank you very much for taking your time.
Should you need to swap your CPU? Maybe on an AM4 board, but worth trying just in case. Otherwise, it's most likely the motherboard or the CPU itself. The Ryzen 3000 and 5000 series can be a bit unreliable with their I/O chips; sometimes they fail completely. You might lose a memory channel right away. Those early signs on memtest could point to that dying RAM. Just because you passed a full load check doesn't mean the CPU or motherboard is safe, especially if it bounces around from idle to heavy use. A buggy voltage setting on your board could also be at fault; sometimes the voltage drops and the CPU or memory loses stability. Also, don't forget silly little things! I once fixed a computer for an hour only to find out the SATA power cable was bad. The system would even start up into the BIOS and begin loading drivers, but it crashed as soon as that started. Unplug all unnecessary fans too; never know when a tiny short inside something could cause the PSU to fail and shut down the whole thing. Even though you'd see the PSU stop working without power being cut from it.
here are some links i could check out so maybe something works now. i looked everywhere and found nothing except lots of articles about 5000gigs failing. i cut it down just to cpu, ram, gpu, fan, kb, and mouse. still stuck. i changed the mobo to an asus b550 and tried with the same stuff. still locked up. i got an old r9 290 and swapped the gpu. still stuck. by now i guessed it was the cpu but figured there is no harm in trying without a fan just in case if it was being replaced anyway. ran for nine hours idling that way. temps hit ninety-two degrees but it kept running. plugged the cpu fan back in, locked up minutes later. unplugged the fan and plugged the chassis fan into the cpu 4pin pin. ran for an hour or so with no lock up. went back to the regular fan, stuck again in minutes. tried the optcpu fan on a 4pin socket, same problem. tried the chassis fan on a 4pin socket, same problem. unplugged the fan and plugged two fans into a y splitter to the cpu 4pin pin. no lock up. tried a second set of two fans via the y split again, ran fine for hours. plugged in all the chasis fans and it kept running fine for several hours. one thing to note is that the cpu fan never stops spinning when plugged in and there is no whining noise. its about twenty-eight thousand hours old but rated for forty thousand hours. i thought this was the source of the problem so i went back to an x570 board. plugged all fans in, two m2 ssds, and switched back to the rx6700 gpu. did not plug in the cpu fan and it stuck after several hours. took out all fans again and it stuck after one hour. took out one of the m2s and ran fine for five hours. put the second drive in and ran fine for five hours. now i have added back a y splitter chassis fan set and waiting to see if that helps. i am totally confused by what is happening here. i cant find a known good cpu to swap with. would you replace the cpu? my very frustrated part of me wants to just dump the whole thing but it costs something new too much money to spend on something completely new right now.