I can't figure out if I have a hardware or a software issue (Long Post, lots of information). I will respond quickly I custom-built my pc (specs below) about four years ago. About six months ago, my power supply died. I knew it was my power supply because when I took it out, I could hear a piece rattling around inside. I then went to my local Microcenter and bought a new one. When I plugged it into my computer and turned it on, nothing happened. I tried that new power supply on my friend's computer, and it did not power on anything with his. So, I figured I just got a dead one, ran back and purchased another one, evga again, and plugged it in, and everything worked fine until about a week ago. I went from having a completely stable computer to one that crashes approximately every 15 min overnight.
The crashes typically present themselves in a few different ways.
- Complete screen freeze proceeded 1-2 min of being frozen, BSOD, with multiple versions of the BSOD overlayed on top of each other with pixelation and screen tearing. And it will stay like that until I restart. Giving a different error code every time.
- While I was doing a clean install, the screen froze on the USB bootable media. in the menu where I pick my drive. Sometimes, it would let me through this window and start the update, but it would never finish before it would freeze and have to restart.
- While updating Windows, just completely freezes.
- While updating, windows just endlessly cycles (overnight)
- The Keyboard(RGB keyboard with lights) and mouse go dark. The computer freezes, no BSOD, and needs restarting.
- Directly after powering on, the computer will freeze before the keyboard lights up. have to hard restat to get it to work.
Things that affect the frequency of the crashes.
- Safe mode: this completely stopped all of the crashes for the ~2 hours (session time) that I was in. And I did about two sessions, so 4 hours total, no crashes.
- Enabling/Disabling XMP: With XMP enabled (my default) crashes every ~15 min, Disabled crashes ~5 min
- Enabling/Disabling Game CPU boost (BIOS) : Enabeled, crash on startup, Disabeled(my default) ~15 min crashes
- Changing m.2 SSD to my older one with Windows 10: Made crashes less frequent at about every ~30 min.... This was my old (I used it 4 months ago) drive that I decided to upgrade for storage reasons.
- Length of time the computer had been on: I have not measured this, but something that i have noticed is that the crashes seem to be less frequent when the computer has just been turned on from being off overnight. Eg. My first boot of the day will give me ~30 min before a crash; my second boot will give me ~ 25 min, and so on.
Things that I have already tried (not necessarily in this order): 1. Clean install of Windows ( I cannot do it because my computer crashes before the install completes)
1.1 With that, i tried 3 different flash drives, multiple different ISO downloads, and media creation tools like Windows Media Creation tool, Rufus, wintousb, and one other I can't remember. All of them never were able to fully download Windows onto my hard drive.
- Update all drivers and flash bios
- Reset CMOS 3. Uninstall all drivers (that I can with DDU)
- Run Memtest on all sticks together and individually and in different slots (all came back with no errors), and my computer did not crash once while in Memtest boot
- Do command prompt commands sfc scan now.... and a few others I can't remember all came back clean though.
- Check hard drives with Windows and 3rd party software
- Use one stick of RAM instead of 4 cases. I just had one bad stick (tried with different sticks and slots)
- Change SSD entirely with a different version of Windows on it.
- Check the tightness of cables with the motherboard power supply and GPU.
- Check event viewer **LOTS OF ERRORS** (I am not a dev, so I have no idea what this stuff means). I will include a screenshot.
- Turn off automatic Driver updates for devices.
- Run a repair (crashes before it finishes)
- Run a diagnostic (Crashes before it finishes)
- Disable All startup programs (Not related to Windows Defender)
And probably a few more that I can't remember
To add more info to my clean install of windows. I experienced many errors and crashes with that, never actually getting to the point where I was able to run Windows on that drive again. Most of my attempts failed because the boot drive did not complete the Windows installation and crashed. A few times, it made it past the Installing windows phase and onto the updating windows phase. No matter how many times I tried, it never got past the updating windows phase of the installation process.
Computer Specs:
All parts were purchased new.
Cpu: Ryzen 9 5900x
GPU: XFX 6900xt
Ram: Crucial 8x4 gb DDR4 3600 CL16
Motherboard: MSI B550 GAM CARB ATX WF
SSD: M.2 Samsung Platnum P41 ( was my main drive I wiped it to try and do a clean install, and had Windows 11 on it. it is only 4 months old
Old SSD that I am currently using: A-DATA 500 GB bought it from a friend, so I don't have any more specs on it. PSU:
EVGA 850 GT 80+G FM ATX (Replaced 6 months ago with the same make and model power supply
Case: Corsair 4000D
**What I need help with...**
**I want to know if you think this is a hardware problem or a software problem.**
**If you think it's a hardware problem, what part do you think is the problem? Also, what confidence level do you have that part is the problem?**
**If you think it's a software or OS problem, what do you think is the problem? Any methods to fix that problem would be appreciated.**
Personally, I think it was probably both, maybe corrupted drivers or something that caused a hardware problem. I am not sure if that is even possible, but given that I am now on an entirely different SSD with a different version of Windows and the issue is still persisting (unless I am in safe mode, then the crashes completely go away). I am led to believe that it must be a hardware issue. The question is, with what? I have thoroughly tested my RAM and unless all 4 sticks whent bad at once, I don't think they are the problem (I am currently using one stick of RAM). I have tried two different SSDs, and the crashes persist with both. That just leaves the GPU, CPU, Motherboard, and PSU. If you have any way to narrow it down further, that would be of great help. Personally, on nothing but a complete guess, I think I have a motherboard issue. I'm not sure how common that is, but something just tells me that it is.
I am currently writing this in safe mode on my pc and have experienced no crashes, but as soon as I launch standard Windows, I have a crash within 15 min. Typically, it looks like crash 1. listed above. Also, I have just figured out that launching Windows Event Viewer crashes my PC in standard Windows **and** in safe mode. I have had no problems in safe mode other than scrolling around in Windows Event Viewer.
Event Viewer SS: [https://imgur.com/gallery/event-viewer-rGzYs0z](https://imgur.com/gallery/event-viewer-rGzYs0z "imgur.com") ( Sorry for the bad quality had to take it with my phone.)
The MiniDump folder is empty...
Thanks for the help :)