Question Very unusual freezing problem?
Question Very unusual freezing problem?
Ok, I'll try to keep this as short as possible, but here's what's been going on. A few weeks ago I went to restart my system and Windows froze before exiting, forcing me to hard reset. I didn't think much of it, but Windows was buggy and unresponsive after the reboot, so I restarted again. Once again it froze before going through with the restart, but then from there it didn't boot. Most of the time it didn't get past BIOS at all, occasionally I could get as far as the Windows login screen but then it would fully hang. Not having much in the way to test hardware, especially without a computer to make boot disks from and the like, I got it diagnosed by a PC repair shop. They tested CPU, PSU, GPU, SSDs, etc. on a testbench and narrowed it down to the motherboard. And so, I bought a new motherboard, rebuilt the system, and...
After about a day of full stability, the issue is back.
With this motherboard I
do
have a little more stability, I can occasionally get the thing running, but here's the extremely weird thing to me: the common factor before every single freeze is that it's when the system is relatively idle. If I, for example, have a YouTube video playing, or have a benchmark or test running, or am playing a game, the system will run. But once I stop? It will freeze within maybe 30 seconds. This seems to me like it might indicate that there's something weird going on with the voltages when the CPU starts idling, or something to that effect, but I'm not knowledgeable enough in this sort of thing to be able to detect it. The voltages seem normal in
HWiNFO64
, but since I can't see what's happening the moment of the freeze who can say for sure. I will say that one of the CCD sensors is always a good 10–15℃ hotter than the other one, but I don't know, maybe that's just the 5950X for you.
Most of the time the freezing occurs without a crash so I'm not even given a dumpfile. Or it happens before getting to Windows at all. Every now and then I've gotten a BSOD, but nothing that gives a whole lot of information. The failing driver is always
ntoskrnl.exe
, which as I understand it doesn't shed much light on the true problem. There's nothing of use on the mobo debug code.
Here's what I have done:
I've updated the BIOS, I've reverted the BIOS to older versions. I've installed and uninstalled and reinstalled chipset drivers. I have run
memtest86+
and
testmem5
for multiple passes without issue (testmem5 occupying the CPU with something to do meant I got to leave the system running for hours). I've uninstalled and reinstalled any drivers I could think of and unplugged my audio interface, DAC, PCI capture card, every other USB device I have. I've turned PBO fully off in the BIOS, I've kept memory settings stock instead of clocking them to XMP speeds.
So, what do I do at this point? It seems highly unlikely to me that two motherboards would be bad in the same exact way, so I'm mostly ruling that out. The fact that the freezing occurs in many cases before ever booting into Windows, or even when I tried booting into a Linux live USB, rules out a boot drive issue or some sort of drivers issue. This leads me to think that the problem is with the CPU or PSU, though as I understand it PSUs typically don't fail in that kind of way. The computer has otherwise been just fine to me for the past two years.
And finally, the specs:
AMD Ryzen 9 5950X
ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Dark Hero (orig. mobo was a Gigabyte AORUS X570 Master)
G.Skill 2x16GB F4-3600C16D-32GTZRC | Trident Z RGB DDR4-3600 CL16-19-19-39 1.35V
Gigabyte Vision 3080
2 WD SN850 NVMe SSDs
1 8TB HDD I don't remember
Seasonic FOCUS GX-850, 850W 80+ Gold PSU
Thank you so much to anyone who helps out. I'm losing my mind here, this has all been so frustrating and disheartening and I don't have the money to just start wildly dumping into possible solutions right now. Getting halfway to just becoming an "off the grid" kind of freak by this point.
Consider removing all drives by taking them out from the M.2 slots and disconnecting the SATA cables. Also, cut off power to the SATA drive. Check if you can now reliably boot into BIOS consistently. If not, and the issue persists, try replacing any other graphics card you have with a working one and swap it in for the 3080. This may help determine whether the problem lies with the drive or the graphics card, or if another factor is involved. I would question any advice from the shop, as they likely misunderstood the cause—especially since the motherboard issue seems unlikely. If you keep your original motherboard, consider returning it, as it probably isn’t the root of the problem. Also, remove any USB devices other than the mouse and keyboard until the issue is resolved. Malfunctioning USB devices can often lead to unrelated but related problems that aren’t obvious.
As for the PSU, don’t assume it’s the cause because power supply failures can mimic other issues. Weak or faulty power supplies can make any component appear defective even though everything else seems normal. Remember, all hardware depends on the power supply, and a failing PSU can cause various symptoms that look unrelated but are actually power-related. There are multiple power rails in a PSU, and different devices may draw from different sections. While the PSU might seem fine overall, a fault in one part could lead to component failure.
I wrote quite a bit, so if I missed anything, it looks like you haven’t reinstalled Windows. I’m reconsidering now since everything seemed fine until the shutdown forced manually. It might have been a major update that caused corruption without your knowledge.
You mentioned trying a Linux live USB too. What’s going on with your situation? Are you moving to an “off the grid” lifestyle? Do you still use an inverter, or is that part of it?
Just asking how things would work if I could help fix the PC while you’re using an inverter.
Haha, that part was just a joke, showing how much I’m getting frustrated with all this. Still, I’ve already tried everything possible:
A new power supply unit,
Disconnecting every possible combination of drives and USB devices,
Freezing even without the Windows boot drive installed to rule out a Windows issue,
Using both DIMMs separately,
I remembered I still had a 1080 and double-checked it wasn’t a GPU problem,
Which strongly suggests it’s a CPU issue. I’m not sure what else could be wrong except that the motherboard might be broken in the same way as before (unlikely) or there could be some serious electrical trouble at home.
I’m planning to try returning the 5950X through RMA, though AMD makes the process quite complicated, and then I’ll let you know what I find. Unless anyone has any suggestions left.
CPU is the next stage, but what is the precise model of the "new PSU" you bought? It’s highly unlikely, almost impossible, that the issue lies with a new motherboard if the motherboard was the cause. This makes it even more likely the problem isn’t the board itself. Keep your original board or return it if possible, especially if the store still has it. Also, consider requesting a refund since no effort was made and the board wasn’t the issue. I’d also like to know exactly how they tested the CPU and other components—did they actually see them replace the CPU and stress-test it?