PC crashes and odd actions require assistance in identifying the issue.
PC crashes and odd actions require assistance in identifying the issue.
Hello everyone,
Here are the details about the system:
- PC build age: approximately 3 years
- Motherboard: Asus B560M A-AC
- RAM: Trident Z 64gb DDR4 with XMP enabled, dual channel
- GPU: EVGA RTX 3080 (not overclocked)
- CPU: Intel Core I7 11700KF
- SSD: XPG M.2 S5 (used for the operating system)
- SSD: WD 2TBS, where I store and play most games
I’m going to outline the problems as they might be clearer:
1. While downloading a game named Star Citizen onto the C drive, I noticed the progress bar stayed stuck at the same percentage for over 15 minutes. Upon arrival, the PC froze completely—no action could be taken except a hard restart.
2. After restarting, it kept launching into BIOS and failed to recognize the C drive. I exited via BIOS, performed a power cycle, waited 2 minutes, reconnected, and tried again; this time Windows booted normally.
3. In Event Viewer, I observed: The device \Device\Harddisk0\DR0 has a bad block.
4. I found on forums that such an error usually means the SSD is beginning to fail. In panic, I ran chkdsk /f /r via CMD and restarted. The check took time, then rebooted the PC successfully this time (though slower than before). It eventually triggered a blue screen saying "Windows can't repair/boot—try some options."
5. I entered the CMD from the blue screen menu but kept being denied admin credentials, so I chose to reboot instead.
6. After that, Windows booted again without issues. I ran an ADATA SSD toolbox scan on the C drive; both fast and complete scans showed no errors, with a 98% life remaining.
7. After all this, I removed Star Citizen from the C drive and installed it on the D drive. It worked for a few hours—then the game froze again when Discord was open in the background. I had to hard boot once more.
8. Once back to Windows, I launched the ADATA SSD toolbox, scanned the C drive, and both scans reported no issues, indicating 98% life left.
9. Following this, I started the PC and kept restarting to a blank blue screen with no errors. Initially, I followed through manually, then allowed it to stay in the blue screen to check—then it shut down completely. This confirmed the SSD was damaged.
10. Some forums suggested the blank screen might relate to a bad graphics driver or monitor connections. Against this, I changed the connection from GPU to MB and turned on the PC; it displayed no image, just a black screen as if the system was off. However, the same tasks usually take longer at startup, so I pressed enter, entered admin credentials, and everything functioned properly. The CPU temperature, keyboard light profile, and other details appeared normal. I unplugged DMI from the motherboard and reconnected to the GPU—Windows booted correctly.
At this point, I’m uncertain about the root cause. The "bad block" warning no longer appears in Event Viewer; if it did, it would confirm the SSD is failing. Do you anyone have any advice?
Hi Lutfij, thank you very much for your quick reply.
PSU: Cougar 850+ Gold
BIOS: v2001 (current version per Asus page for my model)
Adata: only 3 checks, indicates it's compatible with the latest firmware.
The problems in this thread are about my C drive, right? Anyone can verify? It's strange that the ADATA tool reports good health for my C drive without finding any issues, probably it's not trustworthy. What should I do next? Should I get another drive and reinstall Windows, or can I attempt to clone my C drive? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Final update: after several tools reporting no issues, I checked the properties of the C drive and used the built-in Scan for Errors feature. During the scan, I opened Event Viewer and noticed a TON error almost every second—“The device, Device\Harddisk0\DR0, has a bad block.” Based on this, I’m confident the problem lies with the C drive. I’ve just ordered a replacement and plan to clone it or, if necessary, install Windows on the new drive and transfer files from the old one (data is already backed up). Thanks for reading.