Question Black Screen crashes (and BSODs) after upgrading to new CPU and even switching back

[Xonxt]

May as well ask here. There's a whole bunch of random stuff.

I built a PC, over a year ago, with the following components:

• ASUS ROG Strix X570-E Gaming motherboard
• AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
• ASUS RTX 3080 TUF
• 2 x 8 GB Corsair Vengeance, DDR4-3200 (dual kit)

Sometime later I bought another 2x8GB dual kit of the exact same RAM, for a total of 32 GB.
I also had D.O.C.P. enabled for the RAM in my BIOS.


Recently, I decided to upgrade my CPU, so I bought a Ryzen 5900X (with no overclocks). I also upgraded BIOS to the latest version. (4602 as of now, if I remember correctly) .

That's when the problems started.

When playing intense games (mostly VR games, like "Vertigo 2" and very heavy VRChat worlds), I would get a "black screen" crash, where screen goes dark and not responding.

The temperatures stayed normal (81-82°C on the CPU), power is OK (upgraded to a 1200W PSU), running different stress tests didn't do anything (FurMark, Cinebench, Prime95, MemTest86, etc.). I tried the positive curve optimization, undervolting or underclocking the CPU. The problem would still repeat, but only in games (after couple hours of playing).

Side note: the motherboard has a "8pin + 4pin" power input near the CPU, but my PSU only has 8-pin connectors, so I stuck two of those into the 8+4 ports (leaving 4 pins hanging, but it fits there).​

So, I replaced the old CPU back, thinking it was to blame. But the crash repeated again (in GTA5 of all places). I also sent the 5900X back to the seller, but they contacted me and said their tests (Prime95) didn't show anything wrong with the CPU either.

And another new thing started to happen: when I restart the PC, it would often not post (the LED on the motherboard would be orange, the Q-CODE screen would be dark, or be stuck at F0), so I'd have to forcefully restart it again. And sometimes after that, I would lose one of my NVMe SSD's (it would not show up in BIOS or in Windows). I would restart again, and it would be back.

And once I even got a BSOD with the "PFN_LIST_CORUPT" error.

I tried removing some of the RAM sticks, and ended up removing both new sticks of RAM that I'd added, and this seems to have solved the problem with the reboots (even though MemTest86 before didn't show any problems). But I still got a BSOD once after that (didn't have time to see the error code), with DOCP enabled, which didn't happen again after I disabled DOCP.

I did not try switching to the old PSU yet...

So, I don't know what else to do or what other tests to run. Maybe the motherboard is broken now… Maybe all four sticks of RAM gone bad.

tl;dr upgraded CPU from Ryzen 3700x to 5900x, started getting black screen error, switched back to old CPU, still getting the error, but now getting extra errors with the RAM probably

 

[DelenaСhelsiecain]

Based on what you've described, it's possible the issue could be your motherboard or PSU. With your PSU not being able to fill the 8+4 pin power input fully, it could be underpowering your CPU, especially during heavy gaming.

Also, the issues with NVMe SSDs disappearing might point to a motherboard problem. It might be worth trying an old PSU if you have one lying around. If you're still stuck after that, you might want to look into RMAing your motherboard. Hope this helps, and good luck!

 

[Xonxt]

Based on what you've described, it's possible the issue could be your motherboard or PSU. With your PSU not being able to fill the 8+4 pin power input fully, it could be underpowering your CPU, especially during heavy gaming.

Also, the issues with NVMe SSDs disappearing might point to a motherboard problem. It might be worth trying an old PSU if you have one lying around. If you're still stuck after that, you might want to look into RMAing your motherboard. Hope this helps, and good luck!

Hi, thanks for your reply. Perhaps I wasn't clear. I didn't leave the other 4pin empty, I filled it with another 8 pin.

So one 8pin connector fills an 8pin input, another 8pin connector fills a 4pin input, with the remaining 4pins hanging in the air.

From my googling, that was the recommended solution. Also, both 8pin cables have "CPU" written on them, so they're not the same cables that I plug into the GPU.

See the awesome technical drawing for explanation: