Windows 10/11 Freezes or restarts every 2 minutes after fresh intall

[pukoarmin]

Hello,

As a disclaimer I want to mention that while I have seen posts with simillar issues, none of the solutions suggested worked for me.

Now, the story goes like this...

I was cleaning up some files in my PC (specifically in AppData). Unfortunately, I was not very careful and I deleted things I shouldn't have. So, I drove my Windows 10 installation into an unrecoverable state. Therefore, I decided to do a fresh install. First, I tried resetting it from the settings. The reset failed with an error code that I do not remember. But from my online search, it was about some missing files. So, I made an USB Installation media. When I tried to install it, during the installation procedure, it either froze or randomly restarted. Fast forwarding a bunch of tries and remakes of the USB installation media (even with different USB drives), I went through the installation procedure very fast. Then, I got Windows to install. However, after around 2 minutes it would keep restarting itself. I tried turning off automatic restart both from Windows and BIOS, I tried to find Windows logs, but I did not manage to (it was also very fast to poke around in the few minutes the PC would stay on). I tried some other settings like Global C-state Control ore Secure Boot in BIOS. None of the combinations worked for me. Someone was also suggesting driver issues, but the PC would simply not stay on enough to install any updated drivers. I also updated by BIOS to the latest version, still no scuccess.

 

Even though I was in doubt (because my PC was literally working fine a bunch of hours before), I thought that maybe due to me poking arround where I was not supposed to and the failed reset, my SSD's addressing got scrambled somehow. So, I changed it with a new one and tried it all again. I tried resetting the bios, removing the cmos, reseating the RAM (and testing the RAM on another system). No success. Then, as I tend to do whenever Windows is driving me crazy, I just installed linux. With the latest version of Ubuntu, there were no issues. My PC was running smoothly. So, my conclusion was that there is no hardware issue, it indeed is just Windows acting up again.

 

I thought that maybe they did something with the Windows 10 installation that prevents it from running anymore on my PC, so since I had no more ideas, I just gave Windows 11 a try. Same things happened.

I would very much love to ditch Windows, but because some of my peripherals drivers work tools and some very niche games, I am stuck with it and Linux has to wait.

 

Now, at the end of this long story, comes my question. Does anyone have any other ideas that I could try? I really can't even figure out what is wrong. Anything new would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advace!

 

Here are my specs:
MB: MPG B550i Gamaing Edge WiFi

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5500

Memory: 32GB Corsair Vengeance 3600 MHz

GPU: Nvidia RT 3060

NVMe SSD: Samsung 990 pro 2TB (the one that I just installed)

[emosun]

pop one of the ramsticks out and rerun the windows installer and see it if stays stable with a single ramstick.

1 hour ago, pukoarmin said:

With the latest version of Ubuntu, there were no issues. My PC was running smoothly. So, my conclusion was that there is no hardware issue, it indeed is just Windows acting up again.

this isn't accurate. if the machine cannot run a bone stock windows install then there is indeed an issue.

[pukoarmin]

9 hours ago, emosun said:

pop one of the ramsticks out and rerun the windows installer and see it if stays stable with a single ramstick.

this isn't accurate. if the machine cannot run a bone stock windows install then there is indeed an issue.

Hey. Thanks for the answer. Yeah, I tried it. No luck. As I mentioned, I also checked the RAM sticks with another system and they seem to be running fine.

[T487]

During the installation of Windows, did you delete all of the partitions on the drive?

[pukoarmin]

Just now, T487 said:

During the installation of Windows, did you delete all of the partitions on the drive?

Yes. I deleted all of them. Then I tried in two ways.
1. I hit new partition and then pressed next duirng install

2. I left the partition as unallocated space and pressed next (essentially to let the installer do its thing

 

Both ended up not working.

[emosun]

34 minutes ago, pukoarmin said:

As I mentioned, I also checked the RAM sticks with another system and they seem to be running fine.

ok so the ram sticks can be working and the way the motherboard manages them might not be , thats why you don't go off of software tests alone when checking ram

[pukoarmin]

2 minutes ago, emosun said:

ok so the ram sticks can be working and the way the motherboard manages them might not be , thats why you don't go off of software tests alone when checking ram

I did a memory test last night using the motherboard's self-test function and it said it does not have any errors. I do not know exactly what else you mean.

 

What really baffles me is that my PC was working fine before I tried to reset it. Nothing happened in-between.

[T487]

Take a (software) memory test with a pinch of salt. If it fails the test, it is almost certainly bad. But if it passes, it could still be bad.

[pukoarmin]

I have an update.

Apperently running windows in Safe Mode, it's totally fine. Running it in diagnostic mode (setting found in msconfig), also fine. But the moment I boot normally, the problem comes back. I though it was some driver issues, so I booted in diagnostic mode and installed updates using windows update and nvidia experience.

However, the issue persists.

[pukoarmin]

New update.

For anyone having the same issue and stubling accross this thread, if you tried all the previous steps I described and noticed the same behaviour:

The issue was indeed Windows. More specifically, the chipset driver. 

Apparently, these Ryzen 5 CPUs together with older AM4 motherboards that required driver update to run the CPUs, are notorious for having these kinds of issues. To be more concrete, what happened is, even though I managed to install windows updates, it would not get the proper drivers for the CPU. So the PC would still crash.

 

So, what fixed it is to very quickly install the CPU drivers from AMD's website before the PC would crash. It required a few tries, but in the end it got installed and the crashes stopped.

[Nyro]

On 2/10/2025 at 5:30 AM, pukoarmin said:

New update.

For anyone having the same issue and stubling accross this thread, if you tried all the previous steps I described and noticed the same behaviour:

The issue was indeed Windows. More specifically, the chipset driver. 

Apparently, these Ryzen 5 CPUs together with older AM4 motherboards that required driver update to run the CPUs, are notorious for having these kinds of issues. To be more concrete, what happened is, even though I managed to install windows updates, it would not get the proper drivers for the CPU. So the PC would still crash.

 

So, what fixed it is to very quickly install the CPU drivers from AMD's website before the PC would crash. It required a few tries, but in the end it got installed and the crashes stopped.

I am having the same issue but it is with the ryzen 7 pro 5850U. What can I do to fix my issue short of reseting the pc

[Nyro]

I am having the same issue but it is with the ryzen 7 pro 5850U. What can I do to fix my issue short of reseting the pc

[dogwitch]

2 hours ago, Nyro said:

I am having the same issue but it is with the ryzen 7 pro 5850U. What can I do to fix my issue short of reseting the pc

list mobo and gpu. . might need to do a full ddue, then dl mobo chipset with aamd one also