Multiple System Errors (WEIRD)

[jakey1479]

I have been trying to identify an issue for the last two weeks with a PC I have put together made up of second hand parts. Essentially every time I install an OS there is various errors that stop the installation, If I insert a working drive with an OS installed into the PC it crashes/ blue screens etc. This happens in windows and ubuntu. I will leave below my troubleshooting steps to help with providing advice, but I am currently thinking it is a Motherboard/PSU issue (which seems very strange but the only justifiable explanation) 

 

 

PC Specs: 

i5 8th Gen CPU 

MSI B360m PRO-VDH Motherboard 

8gb DDR4 Corsir memory (Unsure of the exact name) 

 

 

1.  Created a Ubuntu installation media, when running installation it freezes, errors or took over 12 hours and therefore I cancelled the installation.  
2.  Re created installation media with a different USB stick, same issues occurred 
3.  Changed drive that I was installing it to, same issues 
4.  Tried installing Windows 10, this crashes and froze during installation
5. Failed when trying to install Debian
6. Installed Ubuntu onto the drive using my gaming PC
7. Plugged the bootable drive into the 'newly built PC' This caused Ubuntu to crash in the desktop environment. Firefox wouldnt launch and would error. Terminal would fail to start etc. Eventually it wouldnt boot into the OS and would launch in Emergency mode.  
8. Changed RAM stick to a known working one. Made no difference 
9. Flashed back the Motherboard BIOS to 3 different versions. This just created different issues such as Ram not being recognized in 2 out of 4 of the slots
10. Took back the i5 back and swapped it for a i7. This stopped the RAM issue where it wasnt recognised but still booting into Emergency mode 
11. Tried wiping the drive again and resetting the BIOS, then installing Ubuntu onto an empty drive. This saw the same problems with crashed and errored installations 
12. This started to make me certain there is a motherboard issue
13. Removed the motherboard and put in another older Motherboard CPU and Ram, that i had laying around 
14. This motherboard also started to suffer from the same issues of crashing whilst booting or installing 
15. I then started to believe the PSU was at fault, as two separate boards and components were suffering the same symtoms when hooked up to the PSU. So I took another PSU and plugged it into the older Motherboard CPU and Ram, just to confirm it wasnt two faulty boards. Which it wasnt 
16. Emptied the PC Case, hooked back up my i7 8th Gen, 8gb DDR4 and the same MSI B360m PRO-VDH Motherboard, however I used a different power supply, after this everything was running perfectly. Ubuntu installed within 5 minutes and I could start setting up my device and installing software etc. (COUDLNT BE HAPPIER!!!)
17. After 3-4 hours of getting the machine up and running finally and assuming there was a power supply fault, the issues started to come back.... Since the issues came back the 'newly' swapped out PSU that was working is also not working and when i use it in another machine it causes the same kind of performance and reliability issues the original PSU seemed to be causing. 

 

 

I have now tested the PSU and the 12v Pins on the 24 pin connector are reading as 11.4v through my multimeter. My working theory currently, that I want opinions on, is that the motherboard has a fault that is killing my power supplies? 

 

This issue has been driving me mad for two weeks now and I would appreciate any help or advise. As I say above I am fairly confident in my troubleshooting that I have a fault with a PSU, I now think that it is the B360m motherboard that is causing power supplies to fail. I have a new motherboard on the way, but annoyingly I need to buy a new PSU as well because I currently dont have one that doesn't cause my machine to fail