PC freezes whilst booting

[NoCake]

Hey Folks! 

My partner suggesting posting about my issue here, so.. There we go. 

 

For some reason my PC started being a d.ck in the middle of an Overwatch Match yesterday evening. It's still new'ish (built two months ago), has been used the same way every since then every day and never had a single issue - no changes. 

 

What happened was that it froze mid-game (no sound, nothing), so I restarted it. It booted fine, I logged in, opened Firefox (wanted to resume my video), freeze. Restart, log in, desktop - freeze, restart, booting - freeze. 

 

We tried booting windows from a USB key, changed several settings in the BIOS one by one, checked each RAM stick separately, tested the SSD on my partner's PC, switched the GPU for another one, replaced thermal paste, tried my partner's power supply,.. Nuffin. The furthest we got was by booting with Ubuntu instead - that one at least let us get back to opening Firefox a few times - and then of course freeze again. Yay. 

 

The specs are.. 

 

Zenith Extreme for the MB
AMD Ryzen Threadripper  1900X
2 Corsair x8GB 3200Mhz DDR4
GTX 1060

Corsair RM650x

Running on Windows 10 Professional 64bit

 

BIOS Version 1003x64

 

I hope that's everything you might need! 

[iBabySlapper]

That sounds like a RAM issue to me, if you can, try using your ram in your significant other's PC.

[iBabySlapper]

Additionally, have you been keeping your BIOS up to date?

If you haven't, that might also be something you should consider.

[NoCake]

57 minutes ago, ibabyslapper said:

Additionally, have you been keeping your BIOS up to date?

If you haven't, that might also be something you should consider.

Tried the RAM of my SO and in his PC, same issue (as in his RAM doesn't work in mine, mine works fine in his) 

Performing a BIOS update now - let's see how it goes!

[iBabySlapper]

1 minute ago, NoCake said:

Tried the RAM of my SO and in his PC, same issue (as in his RAM doesn't work in mine, mine works fine in his) 

Performing a BIOS update now - let's see how it goes!

There also might be certain ram slots you need to use to use TR in dual channel mode, so see if you manual says anything about using 2 sticks of RAM

[NoCake]

3 minutes ago, ibabyslapper said:

There also might be certain ram slots you need to use to use TR in dual channel mode, so see if you manual says anything about using 2 sticks of RAM

BIOS is updated successfully, but no change to the freeze, doesn't boot. 

As we have the same MB I put mine in the same slots as my partner is using, but I just checked the manual again and it's the good ones (they're grey'ish and one on each side of the CPU, which is how it's meant to be done according to the page about that topic ) 

 

so yeah.. No update

[iBabySlapper]

Just now, NoCake said:

BIOS is updated successfully, but no change to the freeze, doesn't boot. 

As we have the same MB I put mine in the same slots as my partner is using, but I just checked the manual again and it's the good ones (they're grey'ish and one on each side of the CPU, which is how it's meant to be done according to the page about that topic ) 

 

so yeah.. No update

Try clearing you motherboard BIOS as a next step.

In the case of your motherboard, there should a button on your rear IO (where your USB and ethernet ports are).

[iBabySlapper]

10 minutes ago, NoCake said:

BIOS is updated successfully, but no change to the freeze, doesn't boot. 

As we have the same MB I put mine in the same slots as my partner is using, but I just checked the manual again and it's the good ones (they're grey'ish and one on each side of the CPU, which is how it's meant to be done according to the page about that topic ) 

 

so yeah.. No update

Sorry, I meant clear CMOS.

While clearing the CMOS clears the BIOS (or rather, is the same thing), it could be confusing in the case of your motherboard.

[NoCake]

16 minutes ago, ibabyslapper said:

Sorry, I meant clear CMOS.

While clearing the CMOS clears the BIOS (or rather, is the same thing), it could be confusing in the case of your motherboard.

Done, unfortunately no change either

 

[NoCake]

31 minutes ago, ibabyslapper said:

Sorry, I meant clear CMOS.

While clearing the CMOS clears the BIOS (or rather, is the same thing), it could be confusing in the case of your motherboard.

All it does is this

 

[iBabySlapper]

3 minutes ago, NoCake said:

All it does

I can't play the video, but I have found a post on another website describing something very similar to your current situation.

It may be worth giving this a go: https://www.overclock.net/forum/11-amd-motherboards/1643791-zenith-extreme-1950x-freezing-stock-speeds.html

[NoCake]

40 minutes ago, ibabyslapper said:

I can't play the video, but I have found a post on another website describing something very similar to your current situation.

It may be worth giving this a go: https://www.overclock.net/forum/11-amd-motherboards/1643791-zenith-extreme-1950x-freezing-stock-speeds.html

Did every single step - no improvement. This thing is getting me sad lol

[-rascal-]

Are you able to get into the BIOS at all?

I'd check voltages, and temperatures...and see if everything is being recognized (e.g. GPU, RAM, HDD/SSD, etc).

 

Did you also check your boot drive for any errors?

[NoCake]

47 minutes ago, -rascal- said:

Are you able to get into the BIOS at all?

I'd check voltages, and temperatures...and see if everything is being recognized (e.g. GPU, RAM, HDD/SSD, etc).

 

Did you also check your boot drive for any errors?

BIOS works fine, everything is recognized and temperatures are fine (50 Celsius Max). 

 

We tried an Ubuntu live key, a windows key, a windows drive,.. It doesn't manage to run on any of them. I assume it is was a matter of the drive (as in SSD broken), it would still be able to boot from the stick as there's a fully functioning OS on it - but it doesn't. 

 

BIOS Runs like a charm and does all the things it should. Windows doesn't boot at all (not even up to the login screen or whatever), Ubuntu let's me log in usually and sometimes even open the browser, but generally freezes on the desktop. 

[NoCake]

1 hour ago, ibabyslapper said:

I can't play the video, but I have found a post on another website describing something very similar to your current situation.

It may be worth giving this a go: https://www.overclock.net/forum/11-amd-motherboards/1643791-zenith-extreme-1950x-freezing-stock-speeds.html

 

I uploaded the video to YouTube now I mean there's not much to see there.. But yeah. 

Unless I boot Ubuntu from the stick it only does this.

[iBabySlapper]

8 minutes ago, NoCake said:

 

I uploaded the video to YouTube now I mean there's not much to see there.. But yeah. 

Unless I boot Ubuntu from the stick it only does this.

Huh, it usually at least gets to the log in screen in my experience. Have you inspected the cpu by any chance? By what I can read, I believe its probably the motherboard. The cpu may be seated incorrectly (remember to torque the socket down correctly with the included orange wrench), or there may be a bent pin or debris blocking a pin from making good contact.

If none of these work it, I'm afraid I'm running dry on ideas. It may be worth contacting Asus via facebook messenger to see if they can help you fix the problem, failing that an RMA replacement.

[-rascal-]

14 minutes ago, NoCake said:

I uploaded the video to YouTube now I mean there's not much to see there.. But yeah. 

Unless I boot Ubuntu from the stick it only does this.

 

Is your CPU (slightly) overclocked?

POST screen is showing 3.9 GHz, while the 1900X runs at 3.8 GHz stock.

 

Also noticed the warning (not error) message about the EPS 8-pin.

I don't know how much power the 1900X can suck during boot...not sure if insufficient power being supplied to the CPU / motherboard is causing any issues.

 

This is an interesting one...

I don't know if we need to go into this yet...but checking the motherboard / VRM area / CPU socket area for signs of damaged / burned/ charred components.

Check the CPU socket for any bent / damaged pins...

[NoCake]

On 10/20/2018 at 6:37 PM, -rascal- said:

 

Is your CPU (slightly) overclocked?

POST screen is showing 3.9 GHz, while the 1900X runs at 3.8 GHz stock.

 

Also noticed the warning (not error) message about the EPS 8-pin.

I don't know how much power the 1900X can suck during boot...not sure if insufficient power being supplied to the CPU / motherboard is causing any issues.

 

This is an interesting one...

I don't know if we need to go into this yet...but checking the motherboard / VRM area / CPU socket area for signs of damaged / burned/ charred components.

Check the CPU socket for any bent / damaged pins...

According to the BIOS it's not overclocked and I never did it myself either - don't know why it shows like that. 

I messaged one of the local PC stores asking if I could bring MB and CPU there to get them checked, hoping this will give me some kind of conclusion.  

[NoCake]

The "good" news are.. I found the issue. The CPU died, after only 37 days (used it less than 2 weeks).

 

The bad news - the people from MemoryExpress said that the replacement process from AMD will take 6-8 weeks and none of their stores still has the 1900X (or 1920/1950) cause they already upgraded to 2920X and upwards.. So now the challenge is to find someone in North America, (preferably Canada), that has a spare CPU from the same series - regardless of the exact model - ooor no gaming/computer work for 2 months.