New build hangs within 1-3 minutes of power on...

x047x · July 12, 2019

So full disclosure it's been years since I've built a PC (7-8), but I've built plenty in my life. My dad says to me "Hey my 13 year old PC is apparently not worth fixing anymore, can you build me one?". Cake walk, sure dad I'll spend your money and build you one!

I order the parts shown below...
Motherboard: MSI Z390-A Pro
CPU: i7-9700k
GPU: Gigabyte GTX 1660
M.2: Crucial MX500
RAM: 16gb (8x2) Corsair Vengeance
PSU: Corsair Vengeance 650M
Case: Corsair 275R

I have no loyalty to Corsair despite the list, they just had value that seemed to fit the bill.

So...

I build it, everything POSTs fine, BIOS detects everything correctly, temps look good in the BIOS so I think I'm good to go. I change boot priorities to only use USB and the M.2 and boot into a freshly created Win10 Pro install image via USB. I get to the point that it's copying files, then extracting and it hangs. Weird. But I try again and it hangs every time.

I install Ubuntu, and I was able to use it for a full 30 minutes until I'm convinced it was a fluke so try Windows 10 again and it hangs...

Ok, ok... So I boot into the Hirens GUI and start poking around for some stress testing utilities and after a few minutes. Crash... WTF...

At this point I pull the GPU and use on board video, Swap the M.2 for a SATA spin drive, swap PSUs with a known good one, and remove one stick of ram so now only the motherboard, CPU, case, and RAM are new stuff. Boot into Win10 setup; crash... Try each stick of RAM individually in each slot. Crash, crash, crash, crash, crash, crash, crash, crash still all within a minute or two of powering on. At this point I also notice that the changes I made to boot priority have been reset to default. Hmm, that's weird...

Boot into the BIOS, notice there is a BIOS update so I try to install it, but it crashes before I can even load the file to install.

At this point considering the instability and the fact that mysteriously my BIOS settings were reset to default, I decide to RMA the motherboard. I get the replacement yesterday, install it and it's still crashing...

So what's next? Is there something about the latest gen hardware that I'm not accounting for? Maybe some compatibility problem I'm missing? Worth RMA'ing the RAM and CPU? TIA for any ideas!

TL;DR
Problem: New build crashing in multiple environments after 1-3 minutes from POST
Ruled out: Motherboard, GPU, M.2, PSU, OS environment
Still unsure: CPU, RAM, case, BIOS settings

ShadowChaser · July 12, 2019

check the underside of the cpu? Maybe something got under there, you never know...

And I would try other ram and cpu if possible, but I have to wonder if a BIOS update would help. Is the memory on the mobo's QVL?

Is it thermal throttling?

This sounds rather odd given that it gets into the installation environment but you could try a drive with windows preinstalled.

x047x · July 12, 2019

Checked the CPU after removing it from the first motherboard and before installing on the new board and everything looks clean. Nothing is throttling that I can tell, as soon as it locks up I've booted right to the BIOS (under 10 seconds) and temps are stable at 35 degrees. Unfortunately I don't have access to a spare chip and RAM to swap, but that's the next step I think. I'm tempted to RMA both and go for broke, but that seems like a waste. Not sure what else to try though.

I'm wondering if there's some RAM settings I can try. I read two reviews late last night that mentioned that even though the RAM is sold as 2666 they would only run stable at 2133. Haven't had a chance to try that though.

A pre-installed image is a good idea. I don't think it's Windows installer related personally but it's something easy to try.

Thanks for the ideas!

x047x · August 2, 2019

Figured I'd report back with the solution on the off chance it helps someone else...

tl;dr: Outdated BIOS; turn off Intel C-State to update.

Full explanation. Received a replacement 9700k yesterday, put it in and was totally defeated when it locked up just like before. I was ready to throw in the towel and try to sell off the chip and buy a different one outright. Had everything put away and discovered there was one other guy out there in the interwebz with my exact problem (source). He updated his BIOS and all was right in the world. What threw me a month ago when I started all this was that i was unable to update the bios because, you guessed it, it would freeze before I could. It appears that even though the BIOS was discovering the processor, the microcode was showing as "N/A", maybe because the 9700k is relatively new. In order to update the BIOS, however, I had to disable Intel C-State which was the silver bullet to this whole thing. Disabled c-state and everything just worked. Updated the BIOS, the microcode was discovered, turned c-state back to auto, and everything still just worked. 5 minutes of actual work...

I dunno, I'm kicking myself for not trying harder to update the BIOS the first day and for going down a hardware black whole. I guess as long as you learn something, it's not a total waste. Anyway, just wanted to leave this here in case someone else runs into something similar.