Freezes and BSOD CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT with R5 1600

[SilverFortyTwo]

I recently (as in a day ago) built this system with the following specs:

Ryzen 5 1600
Asus PRIME B350M-A
AMD Wraith Spire
Corsair Vengeance LPX 3000MHz 16GB
Asus STRIX GTX 980 Ti
Rosewill 750W Gold Semi-Modular
Seagate Barracuda 2TB HDD
Kingston SSDNow 120GB SSD
Windows 10 Pro

I installed Windows 10 Pro and within the first few minutes of getting windows running I encountered the BSOD called CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT. I would encounter this within around 5 mins of logging into a local account, and nearly immediately when moving files around in File Explorer. I would also get it when browsing on Chrome or Edge.

I have read that updating to the Creators' Update using "Windows 10 Upgrade" fixes the problem, however my internet is terribly slow; the download was around 2 hours for me

and I was getting crashes or complete freezes (with the fans still running) every 10 minutes. I would have to restart and resume the download, but when the download was

complete and the utility went onto the next stage, it froze and the download had to be redone. Incredibly frustrating.

I have updated my BIOS, AMD chipset drivers and video drivers. The RAM defaulted to 2133MHz when I set up the system and I haven't touched it because I have heard that the lower speed can help with stability.

So, my first concern is to find a way to install the Windows update without being interrupted by crashes (and hopefully avoiding the 2 hour wait again more than once). I

considered plugging my boot drive into an older machine and installing the update on there, but I suspect that the different hardware, mainly the CPU, could cause some

problems when I move the SSD back again.

I am about to try rolling the BIOS back to the very first version to see if that halts some of the crashes and allows the Windows update to proceed.

 

[thx1138v2]

First check you temperatures and make a note of them. Then power down, pull the side cover of and leave it off, and power back up again and check you temperatures again. If it is running cooler with the side panel off you have either poor heat transfer to your heat sinks or an air flow problem. If the temps are mostly the same, that's not the problem.

If they go down, however, try to do your updates with the side panel off and after the updates check the temperatures again.

 

[SilverFortyTwo]

First check you temperatures and make a note of them. Then power down, pull the side cover of and leave it off, and power back up again and check you temperatures again. If it is running cooler with the side panel off you have either poor heat transfer to your heat sinks or an air flow problem. If the temps are mostly the same, that's not the problem.

If they go down, however, try to do your updates with the side panel off and after the updates check the temperatures again.

I'm almost certain that temperatures are not a concern. Temperatures are cooler with the panel on as I have an intake and exhaust case fan. They are hovering between 35-45 according to the Asus BIOS software, and in the low 30's according to HWiNFO64. I have read that the problem is a Windows problem, not a cooling/hardware. I have found no examples of the issue being related to temperatures elsewhere.

 

[SilverFortyTwo]

I attempted to roll back the Asus B350M-A BIOS on a Cruzer USB drive, but I was told the file was 'not a proper BIOS file'. I used the very same disk to update to the latest BIOS earlier. This is a dead end, unless anyone has any other suggestions.

 

[thx1138v2]

I attempted to roll back the Asus B350M-A BIOS on a Cruzer USB drive, but I was told the file was 'not a proper BIOS file'. I used the very same disk to update to the latest BIOS earlier. This is a dead end, unless anyone has any other suggestions.

I was thinking the heat might rise under load and cause the "freezing" problem due to throttling but that doesn't seem to be the case as you describe it. But leave the side panel off and try the update download/install again and watch the temps while that's running if you can.

It sounds like your BIOS doesn't allow you to install older versions. At least you didn't trash your current BIOS. You might want to download the file again on a different machine and try installing it again. It could have gotten corrupted during the download.