Sudden crashes when installing on boot drive

[Tsuyara]

Recently massively upgraded my 4-5 year old PC, it went mostly fine, including activating windows using my old key. Windows was installed via USB (win 10, 64 bit). However, when installing things on my main drive (970 evo), it'll crash randomly (no bluescreen, just black and restart).

New 1tb 970 evo, various other drives (new 2tb mx500, 240gig kingston, 2 2tb seagate hdds)

New 3900x

New 32g trident z neo

New x570 MSI gaming edge wifi (bios updated to newest)

New 2070 super

1200 be quiet dark rock power (80+ gold, which powered my old 4790k and 980ti just fine, but is at this point also 4-5 years old).

 

When crashing it may suddenly just turn off or start to slog (like 0.2fps on the desktop), before just turning off. No bluescreens. Either way, it'll always reboot. I have managed to install most of the main software by simple trying again, it'll only crash some of the time. I'm having to return my GPU soon, so i won't be able to run any diagnostics from then on, but i checked the evo with windows and it said everything was in order.

I have done some light gaming (i.e. overwatch menu), but the faulty GPU is preventing anything extensive (one of the fans is hitting the plastic around it). CPU does get oddly hot with the stock cooler (still waiting for an AIO), but i haven't seen it exceed 80° in cpu temp.

I'm guessing it's the PSU or Motherboard, any way to tell which?

[Founders]

If your PSU was stable in the old system then you should be fine will the system specs you provided, more than fine really. I'm curious how you reached the conclusion that your GPU is bad when your new system has never been stable enough to test it. Did the system crash while installing Windows? If so, you'll need to reinstall it. Have you checked your error logs at all after the computer crashes? Is it actually BSOD'ing or just shutting off? We need more details to help. 

[Founders]

Also, I'm not sure what revision BIOS your board shipped with but given the recent issues AMD had with stability and boost frequency I would flash to the newest rev. ASAP. 

[Tsuyara]

6 minutes ago, Ehmc130 said:

If your PSU was stable in the old system then you should be fine will the system specs you provided, more than fine really. I'm curious how you reached the conclusion that your GPU is bad when your new system has never been stable enough to test it. Did the system crash while installing Windows? If so, you'll need to reinstall it. Have you checked your error logs at all after the computer crashes? Is it actually BSOD'ing or just shutting off? We need more details to help. 

One of the fans is hitting the plastic, otherwise I'd probably have been able to test some games (i might still be able to, it just sounds terrifying and scares me). The fan is not spinning while idle though.

I have not checked any error logs, wasn't even aware there were any.

Sorry for being unclear, it just shuts off and restarts. No BSOD. (Or as mentioned in the OP, it sometimes just slows to a crawl before shutting off and restarting).

4 minutes ago, Ehmc130 said:

Also, I'm not sure what revision BIOS your board shipped with but given the recent issues AMD had with stability and boost frequency I would flash to the newest rev. ASAP. 

It's the newest available from MSI (sorry, i forgot to mention it and only when rereading the before posting read this did i edit, which was probably when you were writing your post).

[Founders]

Do you have another video card? Anything will do just for testing purposes as we know this one is having issues. Double check that your RAM is running within spec, see if XMP is selected or if it's all set to auto. If it's on auto change it to XMP. Take the other hard drives out until you know the rest of your system works. Do a quick run of crystal disk on that SSD just to see if your even close to the advertised speeds.    

[Tsuyara]

1 hour ago, Ehmc130 said:

Do you have another video card? Anything will do just for testing purposes as we know this one is having issues. Double check that your RAM is running within spec, see if XMP is selected or if it's all set to auto. If it's on auto change it to XMP. Take the other hard drives out until you know the rest of your system works. Do a quick run of crystal disk on that SSD just to see if your even close to the advertised speeds.    

No other video card and this one is now spinning up the problematic fan at idle, i only bought it because my 980ti didn't fit, originally just wanted to keep using it for another month or two.

 

SSD speeds seem fine, surprisingly didn't crash running crystal disk. XMP is working.

[Founders]

You could try removing those extra hard drives and running one stick of RAM. If the computer runs fine after that you've at least isolated the issue. If it's still the same you may want to contact MSI. They'll run through some troubleshooting first, then RMA your board if need be. You could also return the board if that's easier for you and your still within the return window. Frustrating I know but at least you have some options. 

[Tsuyara]

Okay so did some rework of the PC, putting in the new GPU after returning the broken one (which the store promptly started selling the same day, yay). Anyway, when plugging it back in, i noticed the issue: A broken power cable. It'd spark and break connection when moved slightly. Not sure why it'd just die whenever i installed something, maybe i moved (though weirdly i didn't when i was installing things on my slower drive and even moving games around? Not sure). Took the cable from the PSU Box and everything's been working fine.

 

Thanks for your help Ehmc130, even though the issue ended up being resolved by sheer luck.