Question: Computer crashes with buzzing sound?
Question: Computer crashes with buzzing sound?
So I assembled this machine around late 2019. It worked fine until late 2021/early 2022 (I don’t recall the exact dates). At that time, my computer would randomly crash, and fixing it required just cleaning and swapping out the thermal paste on the CPU heatsink. After about a year, the same problem resurfaced, and swapping the thermal paste seemed to resolve it for roughly six months. Nowadays, crashes occur almost every day. I don’t see a BSOD, but sometimes the display shuts down completely, other times it just freezes without turning off, and occasionally I can still hear audio from my game or music even though the screen goes dark.
Occasionally, the audio plays for about five seconds, as if the crash never happened, then it turns into a buzzing loop sound that I can hear through my headphones. This happens even when the computer is idle or while watching YouTube. I have to press and hold the power button on my PC case to restart the system. I suspect this action stops it from generating a proper dump file—event viewer reports an error like “unable to create a dump file – volumgr error,” or something similar. Also, I’m using Windows 10 and it’s fully up to date.
Here are my specifications:
- Ryzen 5 3500
- B450m Aorus Elite Motherboard
- MSI Ventus RTX 2060 Super
- 650W PSU (exact model not remembered)
- 1TB HDD (model not remembered)
- 16GB RAM Single channel XPG Spectrix D60G
It’s quite notable because the most recent professional who brought me in performed a heavy stress test on both the CPU and GPU, but the machine didn’t crash during it. It failed right after the stress test ended—specifically when we opened Internet Explorer. Before installing the new RAM, I had two 8GB sticks, and I can’t remember which ones.
The professional diagnosed it as a RAM issue, mentioning that the gold plating on the DIMM slots started to wear off, so they replaced them, which apparently fixed the problem for two days. Now it behaves the same way again—crashes while playing Destiny 2, especially when there’s a lot going on, so I tried restarting but it crashed at the menu again.
I’ve tried several solutions:
- Replacing RAM
- Running stress tests on CPU and GPU
- Resetting Windows completely
- Uninstalling graphics drivers using DDU
- Cleaning the PC thoroughly
Plus many other things I’ve forgotten about.
The two professionals who serviced the machine both confirmed that this kind of buzzing crash is common with Ryzen CPUs, often starting with the thermal paste and progressing to this issue. Could it be that the CPU mistakenly thinks it’s overheating when it isn’t? The temperatures were ideal for both GPU and CPU under stress, and the PSU was operating at full capacity without failing. And there’s no indication it’s the RAM since I swapped it out.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
It seems to be about a Corsair model with a 650W rating, likely around 3 to 4 years old.
The Corsair VS series is often criticized, especially on the PSU tier list, where it's suggested as a D-tier choice just for IGPU configurations.
🤔
Did the repair shops understand the history you mentioned? It's simple to provide a solid explanation about what was wrong, especially if they managed to clear the memory slot and it started working, though the computer remained faulty.
I would use a contact spray cleaner for the memory slots, let it dry, and then test again.
Try using a different power supply.
Both the shops I visited were aware of the history. I plan to bring the PC back to one of them either today or tomorrow and re-test with various parts. Do you think it's more effective to take out the components and check them on another machine, or to remove just one part and try it on a different unit? For example, should I remove my GPU and test it on another system instead of taking it off completely, using another one on my motherboard first?