Is my MB broken?
Is my MB broken?
Hello there,
I've been experiencing unexpected restarts on my PC—just a quick reboot without any blue screen, just an instant shutdown. This happens randomly during idle, light tasks, or even during stress tests (Furmark2 and CinebenchR23 for all cores).
System details:
- AMD Ryzen 7 5800x3D
- XFX Speedster MERC 319 Radeon RX 6950 XT Black Gaming
- ASUS ROG Strix B550-F Gaming (WIFI)
- G.Skill Trident Z RGB DIMM 16GB, DDR4-3600, CL16-16-16-36 (2*8 GB)
- Boot Drive: WD_Black SN770 1 TB
- Other Drive: Seagate BarraCuda Compute 2TB, 3.5"
- Corsair RM1000x Shift
- Corsair iCUE H115i Elite Capellix
- Reseat GPU in the Top Slot
CPU and GPU are running normally under load—max CPU temp reaches 80°C, GPU 70°C, hotspot stays at 80°C.
What I did:
1. Switched boot drive from SATA SSD to NVME SSD
2. Upgraded PSU from Corsair RM850e to RM1000x Shift
3. Tested RAM modules in different slots
4. Upgraded CPU from Ryzen 7 3700x to 5800x3D
5. Reinstalled Windows
After resetting DDU, CMOS, and updating BIOS to version 3404, everything worked fine.
Today I attempted a similar fix: placed the GPU in the bottom slot (Top: PCIe 4.0 16x, CPU; Bottom: PCIe 3.0 16x, chipset). No crashes so far, not even during stress tests. However, occasional random crashes still occur for days.
Since I changed the CPU recently, I suspect the PCIe slot on the motherboard might be faulty. But since returns take time, I want to confirm before sending it back.
I’d appreciate your advice, thank you in advance.
Based on what you've attempted and the outcome with the secondary PCIe slot, it seems the main PCIe 4 slot might be damaged. Have you cleaned it out using compressed air or an ISO disk? You could try that before sending it back for replacement. However, I think sending it back now would be best.
For reference, PCie 3 with 16x slots still doesn't get fully saturated by most high-end GPUs. So it should work just fine as is. Still, I believe RMA is the proper course of action. The problem would just keep lingering in my thoughts.
I'm going to try the cleaning too, but my warranty is almost up in a month, so I'll have to act fast.
Edit: the slot came out super crispy clean and the cleaning didn't help.
🙁
Only the first PCIe x16 slot functions correctly in x16 mode.
The second PCIe x16 slot is only electrically compatible with x4.
You can attempt to force the first PCIe x16 slot into PCIe 3.0 mode using BIOS settings.
Also, do you have a PCIE riser cable installed?
No Riser, my GPU is bypassing the PCIe Slots
If the first slot could function in PCIe 3.0 mode, what would that indicate? Even if it did, that would still suggest the slot is faulty, correct?
Getting a short-term solution is helpful, but I want to replace it within the warranty period, since that would give me a new motherboard with another three years of coverage—perfect. Not having a PC for two weeks is annoying, but I’ll cope.
Appreciate the advice.
Is your ram a single kit of 2 x 8gb in the original package, or are there two separate part numbers?
Ram needs to match for correct functioning.
Run memtest86+
It starts from a usb stick and doesn’t require windows.
You can get it here:
Memtest86+ | The Open-Source Memory Testing Tool
Memtest86+ is a sophisticated, free, open-source, standalone memory tester for 32- and 64-bit systems (supports UEFI & BIOS)
memtest.org
If you manage to complete a full pass without any errors, your ram should be fine.
Additional passes may reveal problems, but they take longer.
Unless you strongly suspect a ram issue, it’s probably not necessary.
Is your motherboard bios up to date?
Ryzen boards often release updates addressing ram compatibility.
Avoid updating just for the sake of it. Only do so if you find a relevant fix.
Have you installed the appropriate motherboard drivers, directly from ASUS?
The default on windows might not be suitable.
If you used the asus tweak software, consider uninstalling it.
Ok I thought this was a lost cause but so far it works in PCIe 3 mode. I googled a bit and found out that multiple people had that kind of trouble and they were all using ASUS or ASRock Motherboards, but the GPUs were from NVIDIA andAMD and the CPUs were also Intel and AMD.
Are you sure it's the GPU or maybe the MB not handling PCIe 4.0 well?