New installation BSOD appears as I9 9900k frozen at 0.22GHz
New installation BSOD appears as I9 9900k frozen at 0.22GHz
I recently relocated to a different country and carefully packed my main PC parts in a protective bag to prevent any damage during transport. To get the system up and running, I needed only a new case and a CPU cooling solution. It’s been six years since my last build, so I’m not very experienced, but I believe I covered the essentials. The computer starts up normally, the BIOS functions correctly, and the only adjustment I made was setting the correct boot drive priority to prioritize the SSD with the operating system. It launches without issues, and I can log into Windows first. However, I find it extremely slow. After a few minutes—ranging from 3 to 8 minutes—I either see the PC shut down or encounter a BSOD. Upon checking the task manager, there’s nothing unusual running under processes, but I notice my i9 is spinning at just 0.22 GHz. That’s normal? It used to be overclocked to a stable 5GHz, so seeing it run at its default speed feels unexpected. The BIOS clearly reset itself. I’ve checked the cables and haven’t noticed any loose connections, so I’m hoping the motherboard is fine… any suggestions would be appreciated. The new cooler I installed is the ML240 illusion by Cooler Master, which seems to be functioning properly. Unfortunately, I can’t install better monitoring tools until my Wi-Fi adapter arrives, which will act as a temporary workaround without internet access on the PC. All other specifications remain unchanged: i9 9900K, GTX 1070 Ti, MSI Z390 Gaming, X Gigabyte Aorus RGB DDR4, 3200MHz, 4x8GB RAM.
If it stops working after a short period, I think it might be due to overheating. Do you have an air cooler you could try? With AIOs, comparing your setup to one with an air cooler is helpful. What’s the temperature setting in the BIOS? If it continues to rise, there’s likely a failing pump or a blocked cold plate or air bubbles in the tubes from water evaporating inside.
It was my mistake using the X62 cooler bolts, causing poor contact. The BIOS temperature dropped from 90°C to 30°C, but now it’s experiencing strange reboot cycles. BIOS, Dram, boot, and VGA indicators are flickering on and off during startup, then resetting after short intervals.
I removed the motherboard battery for short and used the A2 B2 RAM slots now. I also took out the GPU for a while but had to reinstall it because there’s no internal graphics. It still appears to be running through all the motherboard lights while trying to boot. Once it starts, it works well—either with the login screen or by going into BIOS. Sometimes it launches directly into the Windows automatic repair screen, but it shuts off and restarts after a few seconds to a minute if it’s lucky. BIOS temperatures are normal. I think the issue might be with the motherboard itself, so I’ll post another update with some photos.