Question New build has random system freezing (monitor image freezes too) requiring power button shutoff ?

[Darkapple]

Is there any specific type of thumbdrive I need to update the bios. Cause I have a 256 gig usb 3.2 and I saw some tutorials saying that 3.2 might not work.

 

[Darkapple]

Never mind my bios was mostly up to date

 

[Darkapple]

Could using an unactivated version of windows 10 be the problem?

 

[helper800]

Could using an unactivated version of windows 10 be the problem?

No. There are millions of PCs running inactivated versions of win10 with no issues.

 

[Darkapple]

I don't want to claim this forum thread, but one more update from me. Bought a brand new MB today, slotted in the CPU and... still freezes. Tried it with 1 stick of RAM - freezes. According to helper800's advice I thought that maybe my OS drive is bad, so I put a Windows 11 installer on a USB drive, started booting into it and... got a freeze. A few days ago I ran a 4 hour memtest on RAM, finished with 0 errors on all four sticks. I'm slowly losing it, frankly. This small CPU upgrade has now cost me $850 in one week. And the issue is still there. Last possible culprit - PSU. Going to spend another $200+ tomorrow on a new, more powerful one.
If the PSU doesn't solve the problem, I think there's only one possible order of things: my PSU have gone bad, took out my first MB when I loaded it with 250W of 13700kf, and after it has gone bad, it took out the second brand new MB. Either that, or I'm totally out of options. Already tried three GPUs, two CPUs, two MBs, two PSUs (the other one was a cheap 500W one, but it had the same freezing, so I'm really scared that it's not the real culprit), with and without PCIe raiser. It's like this system, that I used literally every day, is now holding a huge grudge against me.

Maybe the storage is the problem?

 

[EZGGWP]

I mean, it certainly may help.

@Darkbreeze can you give us a sanity check here? Besides attention to details errors in the building process I cannot think of anything obvious.

My PSU was partially the culprit. With my old PSU I couldn't reliably use my PC even with old CPU, but now I have swapped the PSU for a new one and the system with old CPU works all right. The new CPU, however, is the second part of the problem, it freezes on Windows boot screen on both new and old MB. I'm going to visit a local repair shop to run a quick test on the CPU on a whole different config to be 100% sure that it IS bad after all.

 

[helper800]

My PSU was partially the culprit. With my old PSU I couldn't reliably use my PC even with old CPU, but now I have swapped the PSU for a new one and the system with old CPU works all right. The new CPU, however, is the second part of the problem, it freezes on Windows boot screen on both new and old MB. I'm going to visit a local repair shop to run a quick test on the CPU on a whole different config to be 100% sure that it IS bad after all.

That is the easiest, albeit not free, way of getting something like this sorted. You and others seem to have some fairly unique issues. remember if you have a solution to your problems post back what it was!

 

[EZGGWP]

That is the easiest, albeit not free, way of getting something like this sorted. You and others seem to have some fairly unique issues. remember if you have a solution to your problems post back what it was!

Here with the final update. Turns out the CPU was indeed the main issue. Contacted the seller, he took it for an expertize and they found out that the processor is indeed not working properly. Now, I can't say for sure if it's defective from the factory or my old half dead PSU fried it (although it's unlikely, since my old CPU worked fine with old PSU after all the hassle began), but the seller was nice enough to accept the return. Got a 12900ks now, works like a charm. Big thanks to helper800 for giving a lot of small advices, they will be of great help to people who might come to this thread in the future.

Maybe the storage is the problem?

As I said in the reply, I tried booting from USB, bypassing the storage devices, but that didn't stop the freezing, sadly. And overall, I believe Windows manages bad drives pretty well, I had an ancient HDD with 40% dead sectors and Windows could somehow run, but would BSOD frequently. In the cases from this thread, most people got total freezes, not even BSODs, so I highly doubt that someone here has issues with storage.

 

[helper800]

Here with the final update. Turns out the CPU was indeed the main issue. Contacted the seller, he took it for an expertize and they found out that the processor is indeed not working properly. Now, I can't say for sure if it's defective from the factory or my old half dead PSU fried it (although it's unlikely, since my old CPU worked fine with old PSU after all the hassle began), but the seller was nice enough to accept the return. Got a 12900ks now, works like a charm. Big thanks to helper800 for giving a lot of small advices, they will be of great help to people who might come to this thread in the future.


As I said in the reply, I tried booting from USB, bypassing the storage devices, but that didn't stop the freezing, sadly. And overall, I believe Windows manages bad drives pretty well, I had an ancient HDD with 40% dead sectors and Windows could somehow run, but would BSOD frequently. In the cases from this thread, most people got total freezes, not even BSODs, so I highly doubt that someone here has issues with storage.

Let us know if you have any issues in the future related to the same thing. It was probably a defective CPU to begin with, they do some funky stuff.

 

[Darkapple]

I replaced the cpu and it fixed the issue. Switched to a12700kf.

 

[helper800]

I replaced the cpu and it fixed the issue. Switched to a12700kf.

I had a hunch!

 

[NathanGalvin808]

hahah I just read this and after a 3 week stint of waiting for my pc repair shop to get back to me, it was indeed the CPU as well. I had a 13700k and it was faulty, swapped in two different cpus and stressed test, worked perfect for literally days. Getting a new CPU and praying .

 

[helper800]

hahah I just read this and after a 3 week stint of waiting for my pc repair shop to get back to me, it was indeed the CPU as well. I had a 13700k and it was faulty, swapped in two different cpus and stressed test, worked perfect for literally days. Getting a new CPU and praying .

This has got to be the largest amount of people with faulty CPUs in one place I have ever seen.

 

[NathanGalvin808]

This has got to be the largest amount of people with faulty CPUs in one place I have ever seen.

or we all accidentally destroyed our CPUs and dont wanna admit it

 

[Darkapple]

This has got to be the largest amount of people with faulty CPUs in one place I have ever seen.

We’ll unfortunately it turns out that was not my issue, two weeks after I replaced the cpu it started freezing again. This makes no sense to me and I have no idea what the problem is. Should I take it to an expert?

 

[helper800]

We’ll unfortunately it turns out that was not my issue, two weeks after I replaced the cpu it started freezing again. This makes no sense to me and I have no idea what the problem is. Should I take it to an expert?

I don't understand how it is possible that replacing the CPU fixed the issue for a while. What temps do you have around the time of the problem? How are CPU temps in general?
It may not be exactly your issue, however, if you go through this list it will eliminate a lot of small things that can cause issues;

"No POST", "system won't boot", and "no video output" troubleshooting checklist

"No POST", "system won't boot", and "no video output" troubleshooting checklist This checklist is a compilation of troubleshooting ideas from many forum members. It's very important to actually perform every step in the checklist if you want to effectively troubleshoot your problem. 1.Did you...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[Darkapple]

I don't understand how it is possible that replacing the CPU fixed the issue for a while. What temps do you have around the time of the problem? How are CPU temps in general?
It may not be exactly your issue, however, if you go through this list it will eliminate a lot of small things that can cause issues;

"No POST", "system won't boot", and "no video output" troubleshooting checklist

"No POST", "system won't boot", and "no video output" troubleshooting checklist This checklist is a compilation of troubleshooting ideas from many forum members. It's very important to actually perform every step in the checklist if you want to effectively troubleshoot your problem. 1.Did you...

forums.tomshardware.com

Temperatures so far have always stayed below 60c

Temperatures at the time of crash were around 23c
I went through the list and I’ve tested everything I can so far.
I think I’m going to take it to a professional repair place cause their isn’t much more I could test for on my own.

 

[helper800]

Temperatures so far have always stayed below 60c

Temperatures at the time of crash were around 23c
I went through the list and I’ve tested everything I can so far.
I think I’m going to take it to a professional repair place cause their isn’t much more I could test for on my own.

Agreed, if you have gone through that list, a professional repair shop may be the best bet to figuring out what is going on. I would recommend making your own Question thread on the Systems part of the forum. It may save you from having to go to a repair shop. I relent I am out of ideas for you.