[SOLVED] MSI B450 Tomahawk MAX struggling to POST

[BangarangDarunia]

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 2700X
Motherboard: MSI B450 Tomahawk Max
Ram: CORSAIR VENGEANCE RGB PRO 2x8GB DDR4 3600
GPU: MSI RADEON RX 580 ARMOR
PSU: Corsair RM750 750w
Chassis: Fractal Design Define C TG ATX Mid
OS: Windows 10 Home

Hi everyone! Going a bit crazy here - any help would be really appreciated.

I've been using the build for a couple of months now (mainly for gaming) without any issue. One day when trying to boot to windows I get several varying BSOD messages, SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED being the most consistent. After a few attempts, the errors disappeared and instead a frozen windows is repairing screen would be the furthest I could get.

Thinking this would be a windows repair situation, I tried to run diagnostics from a USB windows image but whenever I try and boot from the USB I hit another BSOD: windows couldnt be loaded because code integrity failed to initialize. No route through to windows seemingly.

Some Google research suggested this was a driver problem and that flashing the bios could help. Clearing CMOS didn't help via battery or flash button. I tried to update the bios to latest, which seemed to work (gets to 100% and shuts off) but still didn't resolve the issue.

I'm now at a point where neither booting from SSD nor USB gets past repair or BSOD and now starting up the pc seems to sporadically skip between showing nothing and getting to boot.

When the pc won't start up, there's always power to the fans, but the mobos EZ debug lights switch between CPU, ramm and VGA (when on VGA it loads the bios).

I've tried reseating almost everything but seeing as it was working fine for so long, that feels like less of problem than the mobo or BIOS (but I could be waaaay off).

I'm really going crazy here and can't tell if I'm narrowing down to an underlying cause or if I'm just making things worse.

Please let me know if I've left anything off and if you can think of anything that could help more.

Thanks so much everyone!

EDIT
- Pc seems to behave better after leaving powered off for a while. Could be luck but seems like the only repeatable thing so far.

- usb media repair works fine on another pc

- same issue when trying with an old msi n750ti TF graphics card

 

[Crosslhs82x2]

Have you tried lowering the ram speed?

 

[BangarangDarunia]

Have you tried lowering the ram speed?

Hi Crosslhs82x2, thanks so much for the quick response. I hadn't tried, just tried now. The default from auto seems to max at 2133Mhz. I've attempted 1600Mhz and 1866Mhz with the same issues still occuring.

As part of attempting, I ran into several strange situations:

• BSOD on attempt to boot from SSD - KERNEL_SECURITY_CHECK_FAILURE
• Bios menu freezing (no control)
• Pc powering off while in bios

Would that suggest CPU or power problem?
Just feels like one problem after another and really screws up my isolating of the problem

 

[Crosslhs82x2]

Wow not sure where to tell you to begin.
But on your PS note the time of power you said better.
Could try:
Cmos reset and pulling battery and leaving for some time ? 30min to 2hrs upto you.
Myself I would start with unplugging power supply, then press and hold power button for 30 sec.
Then clear cmos by the jumpers touching for 10 sec.
Then pull the battery and leave out for a good while.
Recheck all connections, ram seating, and unplug any other drives not needed to boot.
After it has been a good amout of time replace battery and try reboot.
If you can get into bios and move around
Then load defaults save exit and keep fingers xxxxx.

Hopefully the experts will see this and assist more.

 

[BangarangDarunia]

Wow not sure where to tell you to begin.
But on your PS note the time of power you said better.
Could try:
Cmos reset and pulling battery and leaving for some time ? 30min to 2hrs upto you.
Myself I would start with unplugging power supply, then press and hold power button for 30 sec.
Then clear cmos by the jumpers touching for 10 sec.
Then pull the battery and leave out for a good while.
Recheck all connections, ram seating, and unplug any other drives not needed to boot.
After it has been a good amout of time replace battery and try reboot.
If you can get into bios and move around
Then load defaults save exit and keep fingers xxxxx.

Hopefully the experts will see this and assist more.

Thanks again Crosslhs82x2 - really appreciate your help.

I followed your suggested steps and still no luck, unfortunately. Trying to boot from usb seems to put me back into a cycle of no display, no bios. After leaving the pc alone, I'm able to get back to being able to access bios and try to boot from SSD where the repair fails still.

I reinstalled windows on the SSD through another PC, which booted completely fine, but the same SSD in this build hits BSOD SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED or a windows repair screen which freezes with a cm of failed pixels at the top.

Is there any reason why a fresh bios would stop windows from being able to run?

 

[Crosslhs82x2]

Man talking about frustration!!!!

It certainly could if it's not the right bios for that board. ( like a link to another mobo bios )

Good thing is you have a msi tomahawk max with bios flash back.

Have you tried flashing to a bios that is pre 7/7/19 ????? Seeing how you are running a 2700x

What brand ssd is it I had a crucial mx500 just give me Bsod fits.

Also googling that bsod there is alot of finger pointing towards graphics drivers.

 

[Crosslhs82x2]

Also have you tried booting with no drives hooked up?

 

[BangarangDarunia]

Man talking about frustration!!!!

It certainly could if it's not the right bios for that board. ( like a link to another mobo bios )

Good thing is you have a msi tomahawk max with bios flash back.

Have you tried flashing to a bios that is pre 7/7/19 ????? Seeing how you are running a 2700x

What brand ssd is it I had a crucial mx500 just give me Bsod fits.

Also googling that bsod there is alot of finger pointing towards graphics drivers.

Can't seem to find a bios earlier than 11/7/2019 on msi's website. Would that one do or does it need to be earlier?

SSD is a Kingston 120gb ssdNow 300 v.

With the graphics driver - as it was working fine before, would flashing the bios have removed any incorrect drivers or configuration?

 

[BangarangDarunia]

Also have you tried booting with no drives hooked up?

Yep, bios accessible, boot fails as no bootable media

 

[Crosslhs82x2]

So somewhere around 11/7/19 that mobo came out then and that would be the oldest bios.
Since you said you can get to bios without the drive but that drive works in another system is puzzling.

 

[BangarangDarunia]

So somewhere around 11/7/19 that mobo came out then and that would be the oldest bios.
Since you said you can get to bios without the drive but that drive works in another system is puzzling.

Ah ok - do you reckon I should try flashing back to the oldest then?

 

[Crosslhs82x2]

Flashing it may or may not help.( last resort)

You could also reflash the same 1 you have now just don't interrupt the process during.


Have you tried another sata cable / tried a different sata port.

Do you have access to another drive?

 

[Crosslhs82x2]

Also does that kingston have led or rgb lights on it.

Jayz2cents on youtube did a vid of a ssd that had lights and when they were on it slowed and halted a win 10 install till they cooled it or turned off the lighting.

 

[Crosslhs82x2]

Been searching and came across this.

https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=327683.0

 

[BangarangDarunia]

Flashing it may or may not help.( last resort)

You could also reflash the same 1 you have now just don't interrupt the process during.


Have you tried another sata cable / tried a different sata port.

Do you have access to another drive?

I'll try and repurpose one of my drives this evening. The same drive through a usb converter hits the same problems, as did the usb flash installation.

I'll let you know how I get on! Thanks for all this help

 

[BangarangDarunia]

Also does that kingston have led or rgb lights on it.

Jayz2cents on youtube did a vid of a ssd that had lights and when they were on it slowed and halted a win 10 install till they cooled it or turned off the lighting.

No led unfortunately!

 

[BangarangDarunia]

Been searching and came across this.

https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=327683.0

Ah that's very interesting! V30 is the oldest bios so all roads seem to point that way - I'll have to give that a go

 

[Crosslhs82x2]

If you are going to try another drive get a free tool that has worked very good for me to wipe drives.

https://www.partitionwizard.com/free-partition-manager.html

 

[Crosslhs82x2]

Ya that jayztwocents vid shows his drive with lights slow to a halt on a windows install from the heat till they cooled it down. So ya good thing.

 

[damric]

How old is that RM PSU? The 1st version of those that came out were rubbish. The newer versions are better but not that great. Make sure the fan is always spinning and it is fed cold air.

 

[BangarangDarunia]

Been searching and came across this.

https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=327683.0

No luck with v30!

 

[BangarangDarunia]

Flashing it may or may not help.( last resort)

You could also reflash the same 1 you have now just don't interrupt the process during.


Have you tried another sata cable / tried a different sata port.

Do you have access to another drive?

Same problems with multiple sata cables, and with different sata ports

 

[BangarangDarunia]

How old is that RM PSU? The 1st version of those that came out were rubbish. The newer versions are better but not that great. Make sure the fan is always spinning and it is fed cold air.

Hi damric,

Thanks so much for joining the fray! The PSU was this one:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07S4WS5L4?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

seems to have been released in 2019. It's positioned to get plenty of air and I can hear it spinning consistently

 

[damric]

Hi damric,

Thanks so much for joining the fray! The PSU was this one:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07S4WS5L4?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

seems to have been released in 2019. It's positioned to get plenty of air and I can hear it spinning consistently

Ok that's the much better version of the RM, so that's probably nothing to worry about.

 

[damric]

It looks like slightly unstable RAM corrupted your OS. You will need to put your RAM at default JEDEC speed. Just put the whole BIOS in default settings. Make a bootable version of memtest86 and run it so that you can be sure that you don't have any bad ICs on your RAM sticks. After you figure out everything else then you can try overclocking again.

It's probable that your SSD is dying. Most SATA SSDs have a low tolerance for hard power loss, and I would guess that with all of your lock-ups that you have had to shut it down that way a lot. Freezing/lockups are also a sign that the controller in the SSD is dying. Also check/replace SATA cables.

Get a new SSD as soon as you can. Install a clean image of your OS. Make sure any overclocks are completely stable. Most 2700x cannot stably run faster than 3200MT/s RAM, so I would make that your goal line once you get everything up and running again.