Question I can't for the life of me figure this out..?

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phamiltonn82

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Feb 10, 2013
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Hey Everyone,

I wanted to see if I can pick your brains about an issue I've been having and would be grateful for any help or advice. About two weeks ago we had a power outage where the power in our house quickly shut off then came right back on. I happened to be on my PC and when I went to restart it it would attempt to boot up but ultimately freeze or get into this boot cycle where it kept restarting itself. I built this PC a little over a year ago and these are my specs;

Motherboard: MSI MAG X67E TOMAHAWK WIFI
CPU: AMD RYZEN 7 7800X3D
GPU: NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 4080 SUPER
RAM: GSKILL 2X16 32MB
PSU: MSI MAG 850V
COOLER: DARK ROCK 4
OS: Windows 11

I've tried a few things like swapping out the PSU which was the first thing I tried but same problem. I bought a new SSD and swapped it out and the same problem. I've gotten into BIOS and a lot of times when I click on something in the BIOS it'll freeze up. I tried taking out my GPU and using the onboard graphics and the same problem. I've tried taking out the CMOS battery and leaving it out and trying again and the same problem. It would boot up but at some point during boot up it would either freeze or restart during bootup.

I eventually narrowed it down to what I thought was a bad motherboard or CPU I brought it to Microcenter because I had a warranty and to my shock the rep mentioned that they were able to boot up the board and CPU with no problem so because they were technically working and not broken I couldn't swap them for new ones. Here's the odd part now, I went home and connected the board to the PSU and only attached my original SSD and one memory stick and it booted up and actually got to the desktop which I left on for about 5-10 minutes. I got a little excited so I added the other memory stick and tried booting up again and again it got to the desktop and I left it for about 5-10 minutes. It was running okay so I powered off and attached the cooler, the audio and usb connectors and when I booted up the same thing started happening with it freezing during bootup and restarting and all that. The odd thing is though that every now and then it'll boot up to the desktop screen but would freeze or restart seconds after. I noticed that once everything was connected that the two fans on the front panel weren't working which I figured most likely wasn't the issue but I figured let me add that info also.

At this point I am so confused as to what the issue would be that I've come here to beg for help. My mind is officially boggled. Thanks for any help anyone could offer.
 
LordVile said:
Could be a dead memory channel or the power from your wall being too dirty
Click to expand...
I had it connected to a surge protector and switched to a different one also. I even tried to connect the PSU plug directly into a wall outlet and nothing. Is there a way I can check to see if it's a dead memory channel?
 
phamiltonn82 said:
Hey Everyone,

I wanted to see if I can pick your brains about an issue I've been having and would be grateful for any help or advice. About two weeks ago we had a power outage where the power in our quickly shut off then went right back on. I happened to be on my PC and when I went to restart it it would attempt to boot up but ultimately freeze or get into this boot cycle where it kept restarting itself. I built this PC a little over a year ago and these are my specs;

Motherboard: MSI MAG X67E TOMAHAWK WIFI
CPU: AMD RYZEN 7 7800X 3D
GPU: NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 4080 SUPER
MEMORY: GSKILL 2X16 32MB
PSU: MSI MAG 850V
COOLER: DARK ROCK 4
OS: Windows 11

I've tried a few things like swapping out the PSU which was the first thing I tried but same problem. I bought a new SSD and swapped it out and the same problem. I've gotten into BIOS and a lot of times when I click on something in the BIOS it'll freeze up. I tried taking out my GPU and using the onboard graphics and the same problem. I've tried taking out the CMOS battery and leaving it out and trying again and the same problem. It would boot up but at some point during boot up it would either freeze or restart during bootup.

I eventually narrowed it down to what I thought was a bad motherboard or CPU I brought it to Microcenter because I had a warranty and to my shock the rep mentioned that they were able to boot up the board and CPU with no problem so because they were technically working and not broken I couldn't swap them for new ones. Here's the odd part now, I went home and connected the board to the PSU and only attached my original SSD and one memory stick and it booted up and actually got to the desktop which I left on for about 5-10 minutes. I got a little excited so I added the other memory stick and tried booting up again and again it got to the desktop and I left it for about 5-10 minutes. It was running okay so I powered off and attached the cooler, the audio and usb connectors and when I booted up the same thing started happening with it freezing during bootup and restarting and all that. The odd thing is though that every now and then it'll boot up to the desktop screen but would freeze or restart seconds after. I noticed that once everything was connected that the two fans on the front panel weren't working which I figured most likely wasn't the issue but I figured let me add that info also.

At this point I am so confused as to what the issue would be that I've come here to beg for help. My mind is officially boggled. Thanks for any help anyone could offer.
Click to expand...
Possibly (and likely) some software got corrupted. Might try restoring from a backup or from a system restore point that was created prior to the power failure.
 
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phamiltonn82 said:
There are four memory stick slot and I've tried each stick in each slot separately to no avail. I even ordered new memory which will be here tomorrow to try.
Click to expand...
I remember that being one of the first things I've tried. I'll definitely try it again when my computer is able to get to that point during boot up. The last few times I've tried booting up it'll start then freezes at a black screen.
 
But were the Microcenter reps able to boot it up with your cooler and case fans connected to the same ports you were using? Is it possible that your cooler fan was damaged and is causing a problem? Or is it possible that one of your case fans was damaged in the restart surge and is causing a problem? (Also, not a good idea to boot without the cooler).
 
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dwd999 said:
But were the Microcenter reps able to boot it up with your cooler and case fans connected to the same ports you were using? Is it possible that your cooler fan was damaged and is causing a problem? Or is it possible that one of your case fans was damaged in the restart surge and is causing a problem? (Also, not a good idea to boot without the cooler).
Click to expand...
No they didn't. They did say I can come back with my rig and they'll do a free consultation to find out what the problem is. I just really would like to avoid having to do that. I also purchased a new cooler to see if that's what the issue is which should be coming tomorrow. I really think it's the motherboard or CPU.
 
phamiltonn82 said:
I had it connected to a surge protector and switched to a different one also.
Click to expand...
A surge protector won't protect against power outages. When the mains fails and the charge in the ATX PSU's main bulk capacitor is all used up (typically after 12 to 25ms), the computer stops working. No amount of surge protection can cope with an absence of power.

Unless it's a sophisticated (industrial) design, your surge protectors might not contain anything more sophisticated than an MOV to clamp high voltage spikes and maybe a 400V 0.01uF capacitor. N.B. Don't mess around inside surge protectors, unless you're a "competent" person (engineer, technician).

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzdbHfaTO3A


You'd get far better protection from a UPS, preferably an always online version.

To check your DIMMs, have you tried booting from a USB memory stick with MemTest86? If you get any errors aftera full test (several hours), re-test with each DIMM on its own. If Microcenter used their own DIMMs and/or CPU, then the mobo might still be OK.
https://www.memtest86.com/

As @DaleH said, your drive might be corrupted. Fit a new SSD (even a 120GB SATA drive will do) and install a fresh copy of Windows. There are times when Windows doesn't survive sudden power cuts and critical files get damaged.

Try running SFC and DISM on your Windows drive.
https://www.howtogeek.com/222532/ho...-system-files-with-the-sfc-and-dism-commands/
 
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Misgar said:
A surge protector won't protect against power outages. When the mains fails and the charge in the ATX PSU's main bulk capacitor is all used up (typically after 12 to 25ms), the computer stops working. No amount of surge protection can cope with an absence of power.

Unless it's a sophisticated (industrial) design, your surge protectors might not contain anything more sophisticated than an MOV to clamp high voltage spikes and maybe a 400V 0.01uF capacitor. N.B. Don't mess around inside surge protectors, unless you're a "competent" person (engineer, technician).

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzdbHfaTO3A


You'd get far better protection from a UPS, preferably an always online version.

To check your DIMMs, have you tried booting from a USB memory stick with MemTest86? If you get any errors aftera full test (several hours), re-test with each DIMM on its own. If Microcenter used their own DIMMs and/or CPU, then the mobo might still be OK.
https://www.memtest86.com/

As @DaleH said, your drive might be corrupted. Fit a new SSD (even a 120GB SATA drive will do) and install a fresh copy of Windows. There are times when Windows doesn't survive sudden power cuts and critical files get damaged.

Try running SFC and DISM on your Windows drive.
https://www.howtogeek.com/222532/ho...-system-files-with-the-sfc-and-dism-commands/
Click to expand...
Thank you for this. I can definitely try the MemTest but most of the times the computer freezes during botup where it won't even make it that far. Like for example it was just booting up and got to the automatic recovery repair and just froze during that.
 
phamiltonn82 said:
... Here's the odd part now, I went home and connected the board to the PSU and only attached my original SSD and one memory stick and it booted up and actually got to the desktop which I left on for about 5-10 minutes. I got a little excited so I added the other memory stick and tried booting up again and again it got to the desktop and I left it for about 5-10 minutes. It was running okay so I powered off and attached the cooler, the audio and usb connectors and when I booted up the same thing started happening with it freezing during bootup and restarting and all that...
Click to expand...
You should do what you did here, and use it for more than 10 minutes at a time, and only connect one device then test, to determine what is the issue. It's likely a USB issue, but could be something else. One connection at a time, then test for 10 minutes.
 
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Just wanted to pop back in and thank everyone who helped me out. It turned out to be the CPU. Exchanged it and everything works great now. Thanks again.
 
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