Interesting fault with Ryzen 5 1600x - won't post when all cores enabled.

[SonySandy]

So first, 1st post. Go easy on me please.  I work in IT, and I used to be a Field Engineer, like 20 years ago though.

 

Second, I'll paint the whole picture so if TLDR; skip to that section.

 

Back in February 2021 I got hold of a Asus m/Board, Ryzen 5 1600x and 16gb ram on an ebay combo auction.  Deal was too good to miss!  Built a PC from it with a couple of old ex-mining RX570 cards I also secured on ebay.  Risky I know but all the kit arrived, appeared pretty cared for and best of all it all worked.

 

I've used this kit since then, but last week I had a couple of random reboots, now this was when running HiveOS over night, so I didn't think much of it, it does that sometimes.   So during day its gaming using Windows 10 on a NVME drive (remote play to a steamlink) and at night I boot it off a USB with HiveOS running.

 

So I notice one morning it hadn't been running in Hive, the PC was online but not mining so I gave it a remote reboot then..... nothing.  It would post but would die as soon as I tried to boot windows or HiveOS.  ( I only GPU mine, so the CPU is not taxed most of the time)

 

TLDR;

 

So a reliable for 8 months now won't boot properly but will post to bios.  

 

1. I reset the CMOS - no effect.  I also popped the button cell - no effect.  Load defaults in BIOS to be sure, no effect.

2. I pull the power from 1 GPU wondering if it might be the PSU sagging under load.  Nope effect.

3. I hook up a spare "good" supply.  Dead, what?  Turns out the spare good supply was DOA.

4. Pulled memory, stuck in an 8GB from another PC.  Same as above, posts but won't boot.  Tried all 4 memory slots, same.   

5. Pulled NVME, used a different USB to boot.  No joy still.

6. I try another GPU from another PC.  Same.   GPUs both work fine on another PC.

7. I order a new supply, this arrives and I fit it, no effect still post to bios but no boot.

8.  Getting desperate now, down to m/Board or CPU.  Order a low cost MicroATX MSI B450 board fit it and........... same.   Must be the CPU that's died.

 

Now this frustrated me as its ran fine for months, not constantly hot although it has peaked up to 85 degrees on occasion.  Its fitted with a Noctua cooler and 2 Noctua fans so they soon ramped up and cooled it down.   So anyway, not to be completely beaten the MSI board had fault leds and confirmed the issue is CPU (sticks on CPU led).  So I begin messing about CPU settings to see if perhaps there is still life in the old bird yet.   I clock it way down to 1gig but still dies on boot.  I then dial down the number of cores to use with the options in the bios, 4 + 4, still locks, 3 + 0 still locks.  all the way down to 1 + 1 and the poof it boots.  So it runs on 2 cores and 2 threads.

 

Question is - Has anyone else seen this behaviour?   Been googling around but can't find anyone who's had same issues.

 

Finally - I refitted the old ATX board, dialed down the core and fitted both GPUs so now I'll just mine it until the CPU dies and perhaps I'll make enough to cover some of the cost of a new CPU.   Least I have some of the parts to build another PC for the kids.

[Bombastinator]

ryzen1 has a bunch of weirdineses which could matter here (or not).  

Things i can think of off hand:

-its famously persnickety about memory model, to the point that it more or less single handedly made the QVL relevant again

-it has maximum memory speeds which can be quite low for modern ddr4, 

-it may not work well with some 5 series boards

-it is left out of win11 compatibility

 

 

[SonySandy]

Cheers for that info.  I think I can rule out all those things though.

 

1. The memory is 2400mhz Crucial and has been in the PC for 7 months.  I also tried a 2100mhz Crucial dim when I was trying to rule out memory.

2. I could of course reduce the memory speed, but as above it had been running for a long time at stock speed.

3. Same board as before, B350, the replacement board is also a B350.

4. Running Windows 10 and HiveOS

 

I might try tinkering with memory speed and timings though, can't hurt.  Shame though it was a decent CPU until it decided to play at being an Athlon.  

[Guest]

Yes single core from a package can take a shit.

 

Was more a common thing to see with Phenom II chips that unlocked. After a while of abuse, some chips would loose those unlocked cores. My 565BE is actually an example of that.

 

Any single part inside a processor can go bad. It's just a seldom type of thing.

[Bombastinator]

1 hour ago, SonySandy said:

Cheers for that info.  I think I can rule out all those things though.

 

1. The memory is 2400mhz Crucial and has been in the PC for 7 months.  I also tried a 2100mhz Crucial dim when I was trying to rule out memory.

2. I could of course reduce the memory speed, but as above it had been running for a long time at stock speed.

3. Same board as before, B350, the replacement board is also a B350.

4. Running Windows 10 and HiveOS

 

I might try tinkering with memory speed and timings though, can't hurt.  Shame though it was a decent CPU until it decided to play at being an Athlon.  

Sounds like it probably.  There is some stuff that is limited to 2666 max.  I think it’s just low end intel though.  Not sure.