[SOLVED] My computer just displayed a BSOD. I'm out of ideas.

[Wingman77]

So I was playing Doom this morning, and a stop code (complete with a frowny face) displayed for roughly 30 seconds, saying it was going to restart my computer for me. After the 30 seconds, the screen went black and hasn't lit up since. I left it for an hour or so, hoping it was just running slowly. Anyway, more details are below.

The error code was 0x00000101 ("clock watchdog timeout"). I've tried a hard reset multiple times, reseating the CPU, unplugging my headphones/mouse/keyboard, unplugging my WiFi component from the motherboard, unplugging and replugging all the wires on the motherboard, taking out a RAM stick, and restarting with just power/CPU/RAM. My computer will turn on and power the RGB lights in the case and on the GPU, but won't send a signal to the monitor or light up the keyboard/mouse. I don't have a beeper for the motherboard. I've made sure the monitor channel was correct. The wire between my monitor and tower is good. I think that's about it. My build is below:

GPU: RTX 2060 Super
Motherboard: Gigabyte B550 Aorus Pro
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 6-Core, 12-Thread
RAM: OLOy DDR4 RAM 16 GB (2x8GB)
Power supply: Cooler Master Watt 650 80 PLUS Bronze
Storage: Crucial MX500 1TB SSD

I wish I had more information for you, but that's all I know. I just built this computer in March, and everything was new except for the GPU (moderately used at time of purchase, lightly used afterwards). I'm also not a huge computer guy, so please bear with me. 😀

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

CoolerMaster is the brand of the PSU while Watt 650 is the wattage, it doesn't state the model of the unit. Also, how old is the PSU in that build? Might want to see if you can get into BIOS and remain there indefinitely. While there, check to see what BIOS version you're on at the time of writing. Which two slots are the sticks of ram populating? Resetting the OS does no good, you're best option is to reinstall the OS, after fabricating your bootable USB installer using Windows Media Creation Tools.

Your processor lacks an iGPU so you're going to need a discrete GPU in the build.

 

[helper800]

GPU: RTX 2060 Super
Motherboard: Gigabyte B550 Aorus Pro
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 6-Core, 12-Thread
RAM: OLOy DDR4 RAM 16 GB (2x8GB)
Power supply: Cooler Master Watt 650
Storage: Crucial MX500 1TB SSD

Some of your parts selection stand out a bit to me. The OLO Ram is not the best but works the vast majority of the time. The PSU is not great, but usually functions well enough to get you to windows unless something failed within the components. How old is the PSU?

Do you have a separate graphics card to test with? Even a firends borrowed for an hour or so could determine that yours is fine by installing it in your system. Same thing with a PSU do you have any means of getting one to test with? Same goes for the Ram, got a spare DDR4 kit laying around somewhere?

If I had to guess right now with the provided information I would say 50% / 35% / 15% in the order of PSU / GPU / Everything else in order of possibility of the part being the issue.

 

[Wingman77]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

CoolerMaster is the brand of the PSU while Watt 650 is the wattage, it doesn't state the model of the unit. Also, how old is the PSU in that build? Might want to see if you can get into BIOS and remain there indefinitely. While there, check to see what BIOS version you're on at the time of writing. Which two slots are the sticks of ram populating? Resetting the OS does no good, you're best option is to reinstall the OS, after fabricating your bootable USB installer using Windows Media Creation Tools.

Your processor lacks an iGPU so you're going to need a discrete GPU in the build.

I've updated a bit of the writing. I'm unable to get any screen to pop up (just blackness), so I think BIOS is out of the question for now. The RAM sticks are in slots A2 and B2 (should be filled first according to the diagram). I'm not sure what an iGPU is.

 

[Wingman77]

Some of your parts selection stand out a bit to me. The OLO Ram is not the best but works the vast majority of the time. The PSU is not great, but usually functions well enough to get you to windows unless something failed within the components. How old is the PSU?

Do you have a separate graphics card to test with? Even a firends borrowed for an hour or so could determine that yours is fine by installing it in your system. Same thing with a PSU do you have any means of getting one to test with? Same goes for the Ram, got a spare DDR4 kit laying around somewhere?

If I had to guess right now with the provided information I would say 50% / 35% / 15% in the order of PSU / GPU / Everything else in order of possibility of the part being the issue.

All the parts besides the GPU were bought new in March and lightly used since then. I don't have any extra components laying around, and nobody I could borrow them from. As to my selection of parts, it was mainly pulled from an online article about how to build a low-cost tower.

 

[helper800]

As to my selection of parts, it was mainly pulled from an online article about how to build a low-cost tower.

Well I hope this experience does not hamper your curiosity and enthusiasm for building PCs.

An iGPU is an integrated low power GPU that is inside of the CPU. This allows for use of a computer without a discrete graphics card albeit at significantly reduced performance.

 

[Wingman77]

Well I hope this experience does not hamper your curiosity and enthusiasm for building PCs.

An iGPU is an integrated low power GPU that is inside of the CPU. This allows for use of a computer without a discrete graphics card albeit at significantly reduced performance.

So I just noticed something else. I'm not super familiar with PCs, so I overlooked it at first. The red light on my motherboard is on for the VGA. That's the graphics card, correct?

 

[helper800]

So I just noticed something else. I'm not super familiar with PCs, so I overlooked it at first. The red light on my motherboard is on for the VGA. That's the graphics card, correct?

VGA would indicate the graphics card, yes. Do you know anybody with a card you can test in the system?

 

[jmacc21]

My friend i just went through the exact same issue .1 psu 3 mobos and 4 ram sticks later. I fixed the problem. It was 2 sticks of my 4 8gb crucial . Banks 2 and 4 went blitz. I would start with the ram . And just to be safe check with the board manufacturer and see which ram configs are fully supported and go with their recommendations just to get you to a piece of mind. My ram was brand new only had those modules for 9 days , i never would have thought it would have been the issue. Im willing to bet on that is the issue. I was in the middle of a race, playing raceroom when my machine froze i tried everything to get it to catch up. I figured the cpu or gpu was really hot and trying to cool so i just 3 finger salute and waited about three min and nothing i pressed the power button once which normally starts the shutdown sequence and nothing . I gave it another 10 min and finally i did a forced shut down by hold the ower button down for 10 sec. I didnt fool with it anymore until the next morning and when i hit the power button it came to life , but no video. I went through it top to bottom and refused to belive it was my ram . But thats what it was. I purchased 4 new kingston modules that the manufacturer reccomends . Once Installed power on everything works great again. Hope this helps .

ASUS P8H67 M-EVO
INTEL i5 2500k
32Gb kingston 16000 DDR3
NVIDIA TESLA C2050 3GB
1.2TB SEGATE 10K RPM Exos 10E2400
Cooler master liquid cool ML240L