- May 28, 2013
- 31
- 0
- 18,540
Edit: Read my third post first (it's much shorter too)
Hello. First I'd like to say that the issue is urgent because I only have until tuesday to return my motherboard if that's needed. On friday I made a new build. It's the 2nd build I've assembled by myself and the 3rd I've picked all parts for. It's also the first I've had issues with. Here are the specs:
New parts I bought:
CPU: Ryzen 1600
GPU: Gigabyte Radeon RX 5700 Gaming OC
RAM: G. skill aegis 1x16GB DDR4 3000MHz CL-16-18-18-38 1.35V F4-3000C16S-16GISB
Mobo: AsRock b450m-hdv r4.0
SSD: M.2 NVMe PCIe 512GB ADATA XPG Gammix s11 Pro
Old parts I kept from the previous build:
PSU: 600W FSP aka Fortron
Storage: 1tb HDD and 120GB SSD Sata III 2.5"
Case and DVD ROM
The freezes:
When I first powered on the new build, it booted succesfully into the Windows 7 64 bit I had on my old SSD. And that's pretty much the end of the good news. Mouse and keyboard didn't work, I guess the motherboard is incompatible with Windows 7 so I installed Windows 10 64bit pro on my new SSD. I did not format my old SSD because I wanted to recover some data first. So I had windows 7 and windows 10, but I don't think that had anything to do with the issues that ensued. After I booted Windows 10 the mouse and keyboard were working and things seemed fine for about 5 or 10 minutes when the PC just froze. No blue screen, no black screen, no restart. The screen was just showing the frame from the time of the freeze, the mouse wouldn't move and the keyboard did nothing. The only thing I could do was hit the reset button.
The PC restarted successfully but these freezes keep happening consistently every few minutes. The longest I had it running without a freeze was about 30 minutes. I successfully installed drivers between freezes, and I never had a freeze during driver installation. Never had a freeze while in BIOS or while installing Windows either. The freezes seemed unaffected by what drivers were installed. I even had freezes during times when I had no graphics driver installed. Once I had a blue screen with no error message. A couple of times I had a BSOD with the message CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT. The rest were just freezes like I described above. I checked Event Viewer - Windows - System for any clues about the freezes but didn't find any, although I'm no expert on that. However, I did get a couple of minidumps after the rare blue screens I mentioned. If you need the minidumps, please tell me how to share them.
Things I've tried:
-I replaced the AMD GPU with my old Nvidia, used DDU to install GTX drivers, I think I even tried the GTX on a fresh Windows install. The same freezes would happen. So I guess it's not the GPU.
-I disconnected my new M.2 SSD and reinstalled Windows 10 on my old SSD. That didn't help either. It actually made things worse because I no longer had access to my 1TB HDD. But I guess we can exclude the new SSD too.
-CPU and GPU temps were fine, so it's not an overheating issue. I even changed the thermal paste of the CPU (stock cooler, no overclocking).
-I reconnected the power and data connectors and made sure everything is properly connected.
-I formatted the old SSD where I had my old Windows 7 installed, as I was doing a fresh Windows 10 install. Note that a second Windows boot option still appears every time the PC boots up, even though I have only 1 Windows now.
-I checked my BIOS version. It's pretty recent. There is only 1 more recent version, which AsRock specifically states that is not recommended for Summit Ridge processors like mine. Here is the description of that newest BIOS that I skipped: "Update AMD AGESA Combo-AM4 1.0.0.4 Patch B
*ASRock do NOT recommend updating this BIOS if Pinnacle, Raven, Summit or Bristol Ridge CPU is being used on your system."
-I went to Device Manager and made sure all drivers were up to date. Big clue here: There are 4 devices that have no driver. Two are PCIe devices, which is weird because the only ones I have are my graphics card and my m.2 SSD and BOTH of them are recognized under graphics adapters and disk drives respectively. These 4 driverless deviced still appeared even after I disconnected my m.2 SSD. I am attaching a screenshot at the end of my post.
-I tested all I/O slots on the motherboard, didn't find any issues. Tried the other RAM slot too, no difference (mobo has 2 RAM slots, I have 1x16GB stick). Not sure what to think about the motherboard. Like I said, I have until tuesday to return it for a refund, after that I'd have to use warranty service which wouldn't be as good as getting it refunded if I have to.
-I don't want to bias your oppinion on what might be causing these freezes but my main suspect is a RAM compatibility issue. I ran the memory diagnostic tool, as well as memtest86 for 5 hours. No faults detected. Like I said, I tried all slots. I should mention that the RAM I got is not on my motherboard, QVL list. The mobo is not on the RAM's QVL list either. However, the mobo's QVL list had RAMs with similar specs and voltage. Also, pcpartspicker listed my ram and mobo as compatible, plus G.Skill is a good brand and RAM rarely causes issues, so I went with it. Now I do regret it. The RAM is labeled as 3000 MHz. I know that might be too high for my CPU/mobo, but I figured it would clock down. After the first freeze I checked the RAM profile in BIOS (UEFI) and it had indeed clocked down to 2133. I tried different profiles. Tried 2133 Mhz and 2400 Mhz at 1.20V. I also tweaked the timings (only the primary, not the secondary ones). Also tried the XMP profile 1, which was at 3000 Mhz and 1.35V. I hope that doesn't mean I won't be able to get a refund.
I'd like to mention some additional issues. I don't want them to distract from my main issue, but some of them might serve as clues for the cause of the freeses, so here they are:
-Gigabyte Aorus engine won't work. If I install it after I install the Radeon driver, Aorus engine won't even start. If I run it before I install the Radeon driver, it starts but I can't do anything with it and if I click on "professional mode" it crashes. My graphics card fans won't spin. I know modern card fans don't spin until the card gets hot while gaming. I haven't done any gaming on the new build yet, for obvious reasons. But I did test the card with some gaming on my old build and the fans wouldn't spin until I installed aorus engine, which did work on that old Windows 7 build. This issue is probably not related but if you think I should refund the graphics card because of it, please tell me.
- The four driverless devices that appear in Device manager are a big concern for me. I think they may even be connected to the freezes. See screenshot below.
What kind of help I'm looking for:
Ideal case scenario, a way to fix the freezes but I think it's more realistic to hope to narrow down the possible causes. Hopefully the way the freezes occur - regularly and without automatic restart - will be a good clue. It's important for me to decide which components to return. Because some parts arrived late, I only have until tuesday to return the motherboard. So please tell me what you think I should keep and what to return. Do you think I should borrow some RAM and see if the crashes stop? Even if the crashes stop, do you think I have reasons to return any components anyway? Thanks in advance.
Hello. First I'd like to say that the issue is urgent because I only have until tuesday to return my motherboard if that's needed. On friday I made a new build. It's the 2nd build I've assembled by myself and the 3rd I've picked all parts for. It's also the first I've had issues with. Here are the specs:
New parts I bought:
CPU: Ryzen 1600
GPU: Gigabyte Radeon RX 5700 Gaming OC
RAM: G. skill aegis 1x16GB DDR4 3000MHz CL-16-18-18-38 1.35V F4-3000C16S-16GISB
Mobo: AsRock b450m-hdv r4.0
SSD: M.2 NVMe PCIe 512GB ADATA XPG Gammix s11 Pro
Old parts I kept from the previous build:
PSU: 600W FSP aka Fortron
Storage: 1tb HDD and 120GB SSD Sata III 2.5"
Case and DVD ROM
The freezes:
When I first powered on the new build, it booted succesfully into the Windows 7 64 bit I had on my old SSD. And that's pretty much the end of the good news. Mouse and keyboard didn't work, I guess the motherboard is incompatible with Windows 7 so I installed Windows 10 64bit pro on my new SSD. I did not format my old SSD because I wanted to recover some data first. So I had windows 7 and windows 10, but I don't think that had anything to do with the issues that ensued. After I booted Windows 10 the mouse and keyboard were working and things seemed fine for about 5 or 10 minutes when the PC just froze. No blue screen, no black screen, no restart. The screen was just showing the frame from the time of the freeze, the mouse wouldn't move and the keyboard did nothing. The only thing I could do was hit the reset button.
The PC restarted successfully but these freezes keep happening consistently every few minutes. The longest I had it running without a freeze was about 30 minutes. I successfully installed drivers between freezes, and I never had a freeze during driver installation. Never had a freeze while in BIOS or while installing Windows either. The freezes seemed unaffected by what drivers were installed. I even had freezes during times when I had no graphics driver installed. Once I had a blue screen with no error message. A couple of times I had a BSOD with the message CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT. The rest were just freezes like I described above. I checked Event Viewer - Windows - System for any clues about the freezes but didn't find any, although I'm no expert on that. However, I did get a couple of minidumps after the rare blue screens I mentioned. If you need the minidumps, please tell me how to share them.
Things I've tried:
-I replaced the AMD GPU with my old Nvidia, used DDU to install GTX drivers, I think I even tried the GTX on a fresh Windows install. The same freezes would happen. So I guess it's not the GPU.
-I disconnected my new M.2 SSD and reinstalled Windows 10 on my old SSD. That didn't help either. It actually made things worse because I no longer had access to my 1TB HDD. But I guess we can exclude the new SSD too.
-CPU and GPU temps were fine, so it's not an overheating issue. I even changed the thermal paste of the CPU (stock cooler, no overclocking).
-I reconnected the power and data connectors and made sure everything is properly connected.
-I formatted the old SSD where I had my old Windows 7 installed, as I was doing a fresh Windows 10 install. Note that a second Windows boot option still appears every time the PC boots up, even though I have only 1 Windows now.
-I checked my BIOS version. It's pretty recent. There is only 1 more recent version, which AsRock specifically states that is not recommended for Summit Ridge processors like mine. Here is the description of that newest BIOS that I skipped: "Update AMD AGESA Combo-AM4 1.0.0.4 Patch B
*ASRock do NOT recommend updating this BIOS if Pinnacle, Raven, Summit or Bristol Ridge CPU is being used on your system."
-I went to Device Manager and made sure all drivers were up to date. Big clue here: There are 4 devices that have no driver. Two are PCIe devices, which is weird because the only ones I have are my graphics card and my m.2 SSD and BOTH of them are recognized under graphics adapters and disk drives respectively. These 4 driverless deviced still appeared even after I disconnected my m.2 SSD. I am attaching a screenshot at the end of my post.
-I tested all I/O slots on the motherboard, didn't find any issues. Tried the other RAM slot too, no difference (mobo has 2 RAM slots, I have 1x16GB stick). Not sure what to think about the motherboard. Like I said, I have until tuesday to return it for a refund, after that I'd have to use warranty service which wouldn't be as good as getting it refunded if I have to.
-I don't want to bias your oppinion on what might be causing these freezes but my main suspect is a RAM compatibility issue. I ran the memory diagnostic tool, as well as memtest86 for 5 hours. No faults detected. Like I said, I tried all slots. I should mention that the RAM I got is not on my motherboard, QVL list. The mobo is not on the RAM's QVL list either. However, the mobo's QVL list had RAMs with similar specs and voltage. Also, pcpartspicker listed my ram and mobo as compatible, plus G.Skill is a good brand and RAM rarely causes issues, so I went with it. Now I do regret it. The RAM is labeled as 3000 MHz. I know that might be too high for my CPU/mobo, but I figured it would clock down. After the first freeze I checked the RAM profile in BIOS (UEFI) and it had indeed clocked down to 2133. I tried different profiles. Tried 2133 Mhz and 2400 Mhz at 1.20V. I also tweaked the timings (only the primary, not the secondary ones). Also tried the XMP profile 1, which was at 3000 Mhz and 1.35V. I hope that doesn't mean I won't be able to get a refund.
I'd like to mention some additional issues. I don't want them to distract from my main issue, but some of them might serve as clues for the cause of the freeses, so here they are:
- The motherboard's Realtek audio driver won't install. I do have sound, I think it's from drivers installed by windows or by the graphics drivers. But please tell me if you think this alone would be a reason the return the motherboard.
- Windows seems to have trouble installing updates. When I check for updates, I get a message that there was a problem installing updates.
- It's weird that I have 2 windows boot options on startup, even though I formatted the drive with the other windows copy.
- I can't find a chipset driver. Neither on the motherboard's web page, nor in device manager. Don't modern motherboards need a chipset driver?
-Gigabyte Aorus engine won't work. If I install it after I install the Radeon driver, Aorus engine won't even start. If I run it before I install the Radeon driver, it starts but I can't do anything with it and if I click on "professional mode" it crashes. My graphics card fans won't spin. I know modern card fans don't spin until the card gets hot while gaming. I haven't done any gaming on the new build yet, for obvious reasons. But I did test the card with some gaming on my old build and the fans wouldn't spin until I installed aorus engine, which did work on that old Windows 7 build. This issue is probably not related but if you think I should refund the graphics card because of it, please tell me.
- The four driverless devices that appear in Device manager are a big concern for me. I think they may even be connected to the freezes. See screenshot below.
What kind of help I'm looking for:
Ideal case scenario, a way to fix the freezes but I think it's more realistic to hope to narrow down the possible causes. Hopefully the way the freezes occur - regularly and without automatic restart - will be a good clue. It's important for me to decide which components to return. Because some parts arrived late, I only have until tuesday to return the motherboard. So please tell me what you think I should keep and what to return. Do you think I should borrow some RAM and see if the crashes stop? Even if the crashes stop, do you think I have reasons to return any components anyway? Thanks in advance.
Last edited:
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