Newbuild Nightmare....

[Mvard]

I apologize for the book, y'all, but I need an adult.
 

So, it's been a hot minute since I've pulled the trigger on a new build, and I think the new GPU may be borked, but I want to make sure I'm not missing anything.

 

Here is the system:

• Ryzen 5 9600x
• 32GB (2x 16Gb) Patriot Viper Elite 5 DDR5 6000 CL30 (Now 32GB (2x 16Gb) Corsair Vengeance 6400 as of today - see below)
• Be Quiet Pure Rock 3
• Asus TUF B650M-E
• Asus ROG Strix 750w Gold PSU
• Asus TUF 5070 Ti OC
• 2T Samsung 980 Pro M.2 + 2 T Crucial Sata + Patriot p500 Lite 500G M.2
• Win 11 Education Edition 64 bit (Like Pro but free through school)

The build went without a hitch. I started without the GPU and had no issues installing Windows and downloading games on Thursday. The GPU arrived in the mail yesterday. I installed it, got it working, installed the drivers, and was able to play some Cyberpunk 2077 at Max Settings with RT on - it was fantastic. The only issue I encountered was that Windows would boot to a black screen / no video output after the BIOS splash screen and spinning wheel. I seemed like it was defaulting to the iGPU for some reason, so I disabled it in the BIOS and also turned off Fast Boot in Power Options (because that's a thing, apparently), and the issue was resolved.

 

The only additional BIOS settings I adjusted were enabling Re-Bar, EXPO, and activating Asus's auto OC mode for the CPU.

 

Fast forward to today - I was working on some schoolwork and got a random BSOD (PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA). It seemed to be a memory issue to me, so I dialed back EXPO to EXPO II (I read that it's more reliable when memory is flaky). It was fine, but then Windows started acting strangely, followed by another crash (I missed the reason). I adjusted some more memory settings with different EXPO profiles, thinking that was my problem, so I disabled EXPO entirely; however, I was still having issues. I assumed it was trash RAM (I got it free with the Newegg Memorial Day sale, bundled with something in my cart) - so I bought a kit of Vengeance from my local Best Buy. Slapped that in, and it was immediately acting better. EXPO enabled, no issues at 6400 - all good. 

I finally went to boot up a game to play tonight, but it froze up and the screen went black again, just like it did before with the iGPU conflict issue. I was able to access the BIOS and Windows recovery tools without issue, but as soon as the system booted, I encountered a black screen.

 

I then:

• Re-enabled the iGPU
• Re-Imaged Windows 
• Re-Seated Ram
• Re-Seated GPU Powercords
• Cleared CMOS

None of it worked until I pulled the GPU, and it booted without issue. I got excited and thought it was a seating issue or driver issue with the GPU on my end, so I uninstalled the drivers and reinstalled the GPU. Then I was met with a login screen with flashing artifacts... My temperatures are all fine - the CPU is hovering around 30-32 °C idle. I can still access the BIOS and Windows recovery mode without issues, but that's about it.

 

SO - did I just get Lucy with a bad GPU? I checked the card itself - it's brand new and has only been inserted twice, wasn't dropped, and there's no visible damage on the contacts, PCB, or anything else. Or is it potentially my MOBO PCIE socket? I don't understand how I was just playing a game yesterday, but all of a sudden, it decided to die today? I guess I've been too fortunate with good hardware in the past, and I think it's something I'm doing wrong.

 

Thanks in advance
 

[RONOTHAN##]

9 minutes ago, Mvard said:

I assumed it was trash RAM (I got it free with the Newegg Memorial Day sale, bundled with something in my cart) - so I bought a kit of Vengeance from my local Best Buy. Slapped that in, and it was immediately acting better. EXPO enabled, no issues at 6400 - all good. 

That Patriot kit is actually pretty decent, not likely to have been the issue assuming it wasn't faulty out of the gate. Your new RAM is actually more likely to have issues, since 6400 is beyond where 1:1 mode is guaranteed to work meaning you're in 2:1 mode and subject to the issues that entails (significantly worse memory performance and random instability that can go away with reboots). You'll likely get better performance if you lower the memory speed to 6000 CL30 instead of 6400 CL32, or if it's the CL36 version return it and go back to the Patriot kit as it's a significantly better kit of RAM. 

 

14 minutes ago, Mvard said:

SO - did I just get Lucy with a bad GPU? I checked the card itself - it's brand new and has only been inserted twice, wasn't dropped, and there's no visible damage on the contacts, PCB, or anything else. Or is it potentially my MOBO PCIE socket? I don't understand how I was just playing a game yesterday, but all of a sudden, it decided to die today? I guess I've been too fortunate with good hardware in the past, and I think it's something I'm doing wrong.

It's possible you got a bad GPU, but I wouldn't say that's guaranteed just yet. Before anything, I'd do a BIOS update as that can greatly affect system compatibility with GPUs. If you're already on the latest version, try reverting back a revision or two and see if that fixes anything as the newest isn't always the best (sometimes it is, sometimes they break stuff with newer revisions). 

[Amir F. Rad]

1 hour ago, Mvard said:

I apologize for the book, y'all, but I need an adult.
 

So, it's been a hot minute since I've pulled the trigger on a new build, and I think the new GPU may be borked, but I want to make sure I'm not missing anything.

 

Here is the system:

• Ryzen 5 9600x
• 32GB (2x 16Gb) Patriot Viper Elite 5 DDR5 6000 CL30 (Now 32GB (2x 16Gb) Corsair Vengeance 6400 as of today - see below)
• Be Quiet Pure Rock 3
• Asus TUF B650M-E
• Asus ROG Strix 750w Gold PSU
• Asus TUF 5070 Ti OC
• 2T Samsung 980 Pro M.2 + 2 T Crucial Sata + Patriot p500 Lite 500G M.2
• Win 11 Education Edition 64 bit (Like Pro but free through school)

The build went without a hitch. I started without the GPU and had no issues installing Windows and downloading games on Thursday. The GPU arrived in the mail yesterday. I installed it, got it working, installed the drivers, and was able to play some Cyberpunk 2077 at Max Settings with RT on - it was fantastic. The only issue I encountered was that Windows would boot to a black screen / no video output after the BIOS splash screen and spinning wheel. I seemed like it was defaulting to the iGPU for some reason, so I disabled it in the BIOS and also turned off Fast Boot in Power Options (because that's a thing, apparently), and the issue was resolved.

 

The only additional BIOS settings I adjusted were enabling Re-Bar, EXPO, and activating Asus's auto OC mode for the CPU.

 

Fast forward to today - I was working on some schoolwork and got a random BSOD (PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA). It seemed to be a memory issue to me, so I dialed back EXPO to EXPO II (I read that it's more reliable when memory is flaky). It was fine, but then Windows started acting strangely, followed by another crash (I missed the reason). I adjusted some more memory settings with different EXPO profiles, thinking that was my problem, so I disabled EXPO entirely; however, I was still having issues. I assumed it was trash RAM (I got it free with the Newegg Memorial Day sale, bundled with something in my cart) - so I bought a kit of Vengeance from my local Best Buy. Slapped that in, and it was immediately acting better. EXPO enabled, no issues at 6400 - all good. 

I finally went to boot up a game to play tonight, but it froze up and the screen went black again, just like it did before with the iGPU conflict issue. I was able to access the BIOS and Windows recovery tools without issue, but as soon as the system booted, I encountered a black screen.

 

I then:

• Re-enabled the iGPU
• Re-Imaged Windows 
• Re-Seated Ram
• Re-Seated GPU Powercords
• Cleared CMOS

None of it worked until I pulled the GPU, and it booted without issue. I got excited and thought it was a seating issue or driver issue with the GPU on my end, so I uninstalled the drivers and reinstalled the GPU. Then I was met with a login screen with flashing artifacts... My temperatures are all fine - the CPU is hovering around 30-32 °C idle. I can still access the BIOS and Windows recovery mode without issues, but that's about it.

 

SO - did I just get Lucy with a bad GPU? I checked the card itself - it's brand new and has only been inserted twice, wasn't dropped, and there's no visible damage on the contacts, PCB, or anything else. Or is it potentially my MOBO PCIE socket? I don't understand how I was just playing a game yesterday, but all of a sudden, it decided to die today? I guess I've been too fortunate with good hardware in the past, and I think it's something I'm doing wrong.

 

Thanks in advance
 

take out the ram and clean its fingers with pure alcohol without any kind of oil in it( hand santizizers usually have some oil and moistrizers inside) do the same with gpu and cpu, after this drop the pcie speed for the gpu to gen 1 to see if the problem still exists, check the cpu pins to see if there is any problem, clean the gold dots under the cpu with alcohol too, these are usually my first actions against any pc with wired syptoms which i cant identify the problem at frist

[Bjoolz]

Go to C:\Windows\Minidump and check if you have any minidump files. If you do, go back to the Windows folder and copy the Minidump folder itself to the Downloads folder (You can use the desktop if you don't have OneDrive syncing files). Zip the copied folder and attach it to a post. Please follow the instructions to the letter as Windows doesn't like you messing with files in this location.

[Mark Kaine]

6 hours ago, Mvard said:

and activating Asus's auto OC mode for the CPU.

Ya, well, that's something you should never ever do...  I guess you reverted that (and confirmed it)? 

 

Oh yeah and revert to your previous patriot ram, as Corsair vengeance is again something you should never ever do (lol)

 

 

Overall I doubt it's a GPU issue, rather some borked settings (and unlucky hardware choices) 

[Mark Kaine]

6 hours ago, Mvard said:

encountered a black screen.

It could also just be drivers..

 

 

Is the latest Chipset installed?

Which Nvidia driver is installed?

[Mvard]

Thanks for the advice, everyone! Ultimately, it turned out to be two separate issues.

 

After re-examining the system, I noticed that the Patriot M.2 SSD had a metal sticker serving as a heat sink, and the end of it was actually touching the exposed PCB, which I think may have also been shorting something. The GPU artifacting stopped as soon as I removed it. So, yay! I then reconnected everything and ensured the contacts were clean and all that, and I now have a current BIOS.

 

The page fault BSODs continued intermittently; it turns out the Patriot Viper RAM kit was no bueno. It initially passed when I ran memtest in Windows, which is why I dismissed it. For giggles, I ran the bootable version and tested it at its rated speed of 6000, as well as at 5400 and 4800, and it consistently produced errors on the first pass.

 

TLDR: Use the bootable version of memtest & always check for potential shorts