There was an unusual incident where a newly assembled PC unexpectedly froze without warning.
There was an unusual incident where a newly assembled PC unexpectedly froze without warning.
Before diving into the detailed troubleshooting notes, let's clarify a few points:
This report is quite extensive, so if you have any suggestions, feel free to try them first. I already went through what I had done previously, as this situation has happened before.
What exactly does "Freeze" mean in this context?
In simple terms, everything on the screen suddenly stops, the mouse and keyboard become unresponsive, yet the fans and RGB lights continue to operate. The fans eventually stabilize their speed, and if I was playing a game, they return to normal idle performance.
The only action I can take is press the shutdown/start button repeatedly to force the PC to power down.
PC Specifications:
- CPU: Ryzen 7 9800X3D
- GPU: ASUS ROG Astral RTX 5080
- RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws M5 Neo 6000MHz DDR5 64GB
- Motherboard: Gigabyte X870 Aorus Elite
- SSD: Samsung 990 Pro 2TB NVMe
- AIO Cooler: Arctic Liquid Freezer III 420
- Power Supply: Corsair RMe 1000e
- Fans: Eleven 140mm (including AIO)
- Case: HAVN HS 420
Please note: All components are new except the GPU, PSU, DP cable, and monitor. These parts had been working on my previous Intel PC for three months without issues.
In short, after assembling the PC, I encountered random freezing events under various conditions—idle, gaming, checking temperatures, adjusting fan curves, streaming, installing software, or changing Windows settings.
For two weeks, I searched for a solution but found nothing. Here’s what I attempted:
- Installed different BIOS versions with various motherboards
- Used the "One RAM stick" method
- Swapped RAM modules
- Replaced the SSD
- Changed the motherboard from Asus TUF B850 to Gigabyte Aorus X870
- Tested Windows 10, 11 Home and Pro
- Examined Event Viewer and Liability Viewer for errors
- Ran PC without GPU and connected monitor via IGPU (stable)
- Kept GPU connected but not linked to a monitor (still stable)
- Disabled AMD's Expo feature
- Installed all necessary drivers (chipsets, Nvidia, LAN, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, audio, USB, SSD...)
I also tried running the PC without a GPU and using my existing monitor as an IGPU.
Eventually, I gave up and took it to a repair shop for two days. They found some missing visual C++ files and confirmed the issue. They played games for over 16 hours without problems, but upon returning home, the PC froze again immediately.
Things that seemed to improve stability:
- Forced the motherboard to use PCIe Gen4 instead of auto from BIOS (stable all day)
- Swapped DP cable to match monitor’s refresh rate (155Hz) with HDMI (100Hz limit)
- Ran PC without GPU and connected monitor via IGPU (brief stability)
- Kept GPU connected but not linked to a monitor
- Replaced the DP cable that previously worked perfectly
With the DP cable changed to HDMI, the PC has run stably for about three days. However, there was one instance where it went into sleep mode with a black screen and stopped all visuals—then I had to restart by pressing "Space" on the keyboard. After that, it froze again, but otherwise games played smoothly at 100Hz.
This is quite frustrating, especially since the issue isn’t obvious. If you think I’m being too hard on myself, please share your thoughts on what might be causing this problem.
Welcome to the forums, newcomer!
Please note that we often need to dig deeper for specifics and clarification.
For your motherboard:
: Gigabyte X870 Aorus Elite
Could you confirm the BIOS version? It might help to disable the iGPU in BIOS, then use DDU to remove all GPU drivers (Intel, AMD, Nvidia) in Safe Mode, and finally install the newest driver from Nvidia's support site via an elevated command—Right click the installer > Run as Administrator.
For your SSD:
: Samsung 990 Pro 2TB NVMe
Are you sure this is the sole storage device? If not, disconnect all drives except the one you plan to install the OS on. I also like to clear all partitions from the drive for a fresh start.
I’ve even swapped my motherboard from Asus TUF B850 to Gigabyte Aorus X870 and it still freezes!
Have you reinstalled the OS after replacing the board? Recycling the OS onto a new board can sometimes cause issues.
Did you find the installers for the operating systems?
AMD's Expo was never turned on
Turn it on after completing the OS installation.
For software sources:
Where did you obtain the installers for the operating systems?
Hi thanks for the reply
For the Gigabyte X780 Aorus motherboard:
- I attempted to install a new Windows 11 and cleared all partitions on the SSD. However, I didn’t restart from the already-installed Windows; instead, I used a flash drive containing Windows 11 via the media creation tool from Microsoft.
- I encountered an error that caused the PC to restart before the Windows download completed. After updating the BIOS to version F7c (released on June 23, 2025), the issue was resolved.
- I haven’t disabled the IGPU in the BIOS yet, but it’s something I plan to check.
- Since every time I reinstall Windows there are no previously installed NVIDIA drivers, I didn’t use DDU during safe mode before.
- For the Samsung SSD:
- It’s the sole storage drive I have, serving as a replacement for an older one. I suspect it might be the source of the issue, so I’ve tested various Windows versions with different SSDs, motherboards, BIOS updates, and found consistent freezing problems.
- I never enabled Expo due to reported instability concerns, but now that you mentioned it, I’m willing to try.
- I reviewed critical events in the reliability monitor around a freeze and observed a livekernel event with code 1a8, which may be linked to driver problems according to online reports.