[SOLVED] Need advice on most likely cause of PC boot-loops and freezing ?

[joshua.man]

My computer is a few moths old now, the issues seem to be getting worse over time. I am sure this is a hardware issue as I have installed a new windows on a new drive and it persisted. All the symptoms are seemingly sporadic which makes it extremely hard to figure out what is causing it.

Here are my symptoms:
The first issue I had from the start was that my CPU fan would shut off during boot for a second and turn back on, sometimes multiple times. It seemed that the more times it shut off the longer it would take to boot. I mostly ignored this as it didn't have much of an impact. Then I started to get freezes where the screen would look like a screenshot static image and nothing I did would change that, so I would have to hard reset. Interestingly, all the fans and led's would be working besides the CPU fan which shut off when this would happen. Then after hard resetting from a freeze I would usually get a boot loop where the fans would spin up and the whole pc would shut down not just the CPU. Sometimes it would make it as far as the windows logo and then shut down and then I would have to perform a system repair because of corrupted files. Important to note that these freezes had absolutely nothing to do with what I was doing, I could be browsing or playing games or actually nothing at all.

Here is what I have tried/suspected:
First I want to say I live in a place where it is very hard to get a hold on pc parts so I haven't done much swapping. The first thing I did was take it to a technician to stress test and help me diagnose the issue. He stress tested it for two days straight and had no problem at all. Returned everything with a sticker saying it worked fine. Important to note that he used an external drive with windows and a different power chord. So I basically changed all the things that differentiated my setup to his. I got a new power chord a new drive and installed a fresh windows. I even bought a ups that could regulate the wall power just in case that was the cause. It actually worked for a few weeks. Then I had a power outage while the pc was on where the ups did its job and I shut down safely. But after booting up again I had another freeze which caused a boot loop which corrupted windows. Once booted up I tested my ram with memtest64 for a whole day and got no issues. Then I tested them each individually for a few hours each with no issues. I tried checking the windows event viewer for errors when the freeze occurs and all it says is: "The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly."

So now I have to decide what to replace. I am at a loss for what component is most likely the culprit and I have googled my symptoms for hours. I suspect either motherboard or power supply? Could my CPU or GPU be causing this? Or could it be my CPU fan..

System specs:
CPU: intel i7-9700f
RAM: oloy 16gb (2 x 8gb) 288-pin ddr4 sdram ddr4 3600
GPU: RTX 3070
PSU: Gigabyte B700H
Motherboard: B365M DS3H WIFI
CPU fan: Thermaltake UX100

 

[joshua.man]

Replaced my PSU and CPU-fan, still same issue. Now trying just one stick of ram and seeing if it freezes, will try the other stick if it does freeze. If it freezes with both RAM sticks I will buy a new motherboard and try that. If that's not the issue I will cry myself to sleep.

 

[joshua.man]

Ok so this post was clearly tl;dr for anyone but if someone happens to have similar issues and find this. The problem was my motherboard. I suspect faulty power-delivery to the CPU. The pc was pre-built, so who knows where that old motherboard came from honestly.

Here is a condensed list of symptoms:
-Freezing display and sound stopping entirely, requiring hard reset. Everything still looks on in the case, except the CPU fan would stop.
-On rare occasions immediate shutdowns
-Difficulty booting. It would take a couple tries to boot, sometimes 2 sometimes up to 6. Occasionally it would make it as far as the windows logo before shutting off and booting up again. Worst booting issues came after a freeze usually
-Every time it froze I would sfc /scannow and corrupted files would be found. But even before it started freezing I got occasional corruption. Like a corrupted graphics driver which made me believe the issue was the GPU, the corruption made trippy maze patterns on certain apps like warframe launcher. Not sure if it's related but I suspect it was.

Since the new motherboard I can tell the issue is gone. It has been a couple weeks now, never an issue booting like there was every single time before and not a freeze in sight.