Question New build unstable under load

[RogerDorsey]

I've just built a new rig, but am running into problems with crashes and freezes.

The most common problem I've noticed is that Chrome and Firefox tabs are crashing fairly often, with similar 'SIGSEGV' errors and errors around problematic memory access violations. Sometimes I can go for hours without a crash, but then once I get one, I usually get several in succession. It seems like I get more errors when the system is under a greater load. Sometimes this will lead to the second problem, which a complete system freeze.

It typically doesn't just freeze immediately. Usually one program will stop responding, then another will become very sluggish and itself freeze a few seconds later. Within 5-10 seconds, everything is frozen expect sometimes my cursor, and audio tends to keep playing in the background. Sometimes even my wireless hotspot stays up for several minutes.

My first thought was dodgy RAM, but I've tried everything I can think of: memtest86, memtester, reseating RAM, trying individual sticks. Nothing has indicated any problem with the RAM.

I'm running Linux, but I've also gotten a BSOD when I booted up on my windows partition. I'm completely out of ideas on how to diagnose this, short of switching out parts that I don't have replacements for. Here's my system info:

System:
  Kernel: 5.15.0-67-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.3.0
    Desktop: Cinnamon 5.6.7 Distro: Linux Mint 21.1 Vera
    base: Ubuntu 22.04 jammy
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: Micro-Star model: PRO B650M-A WIFI (MS-7D77) v: 1.0
    serial: <superuser required> UEFI: American Megatrends LLC. v: 1.20
    date: 09/08/2022
Memory:
  RAM: total: 30.52 GiB used: 11.1 GiB (36.4%)
  RAM Report:
    permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges required.
CPU:
  Info: 12-core model: AMD Ryzen 9 7900X bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Zen 3
    rev: 2 cache: L1: 768 KiB L2: 12 MiB L3: 64 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 3363 high: 5386 min/max: 3000/5733 boost: enabled
    cores: 1: 3094 2: 5100 3: 3000 4: 2999 5: 2999 6: 2999 7: 2692 8: 4872
    9: 2701 10: 5353 11: 2687 12: 2689 13: 2999 14: 2999 15: 2999 16: 3000
    17: 3000 18: 3000 19: 2682 20: 5386 21: 2699 22: 5382 23: 2697 24: 2691
    bogomips: 225610
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GP104 [GeForce GTX 1070] vendor: ZOTAC driver: nvidia
    v: 525.85.05 bus-ID: 01:00.0
  Device-2: AMD vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: N/A bus-ID: 33:00.0
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.3 driver: X: loaded: nvidia
    unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,nouveau,vesa gpu: nvidia
    resolution: 3840x2160~60Hz
  OpenGL: renderer: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070/PCIe/SSE2
    v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 525.85.05 direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GP104 High Definition Audio vendor: ZOTAC
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 01:00.1
  Device-2: AMD vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
    bus-ID: 33:00.1
  Device-3: AMD Family 17h HD Audio vendor: Micro-Star MSI
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 33:00.6
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.15.0-67-generic running: yes
  Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.99.1 running: yes
  Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.48 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8125 2.5GbE vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: r8169
    v: kernel port: e000 bus-ID: 0b:00.0
  IF: enp11s0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
  Device-2: MEDIATEK driver: mt7921e v: kernel port: N/A bus-ID: 0c:00.0
  IF: wlp12s0 state: down mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-1: virbr0 state: up speed: 10 Mbps duplex: unknown mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-2: vnet0 state: unknown speed: 10 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-3: vnet1 state: unknown speed: 10 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: MediaTek Wireless_Device type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8
    bus-ID: 1-12:3
  Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: down
    bt-service: enabled,running rfk-block: hardware: no software: yes
    address: <filter>
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 2.98 TiB used: 264.42 GiB (8.7%)
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Silicon Power model: SPCC Solid State Disk
    size: 953.87 GiB
  ID-2: /dev/sdb vendor: Toshiba model: HDWD120 size: 1.82 TiB
  ID-3: /dev/sdc vendor: Samsung model: SSD 850 EVO 250GB size: 232.89 GiB
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 937.33 GiB used: 132.21 GiB (14.1%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 511 MiB used: 6.1 MiB (1.2%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/sda1
  ID-3: /home/bill size: 937.33 GiB used: 132.21 GiB (14.1%) fs: ecryptfs
    source: ERR-102
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 2 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) file: /swapfile
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: N/A mobo: N/A gpu: nvidia temp: 48 C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: nvidia fan: 0%
Repos:
  Packages: 2294
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64] https://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
    1: deb [url=http://packages.linuxmint.com]http://packages.linuxmint.com[/url] vera main upstream import backport
    2: deb [url=http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu]http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu[/url] jammy main restricted universe multiverse
    3: deb [url=http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu]http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu[/url] jammy-updates main restricted universe multiverse
    4: deb [url=http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu]http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu[/url] jammy-backports main restricted universe multiverse
    5: deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jammy-security main restricted universe multiverse
Info:
  Processes: 436 Uptime: 14m Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 11.3.0
  Shell: Bash v: 5.1.16 inxi: 3.3.13

 

[Ralston18]

New build:

Power down, unplug, open the case.

Verify by sight and feel that all connectors, cards, RAM, jumpers, and case connections are fully and firmly in place.

No one wants to force anything especially with a new build. So what feels tight and in place may not really be so.

Carefully unplug and replug everything a few times. Hopefully something will go back into place a bit easier and smoother.

Maybe with a nice click indicating a solid connection is being made.

No rush, take your time.

Refer to the motherboard's User Guide/Manual and all other component documentation to ensure that all connections are correct as you work through everything.

 

[RogerDorsey]

Thanks for the suggestion. I have been inside and pushed and pulled just about everything. Unfortunately I still had a freeze after reassembling everything.

I've also tried taking out my graphics card and running with the integrated graphics chip. I didn't get a freeze, but I still had a Chrome tab crash, which indicates the problem was still there. I would have thought a memtest86 pass would indicate the CPU and RAM were functioning OK, so I'm running out of ideas.

 

[RogerDorsey]

Actually one thing I should possibly mention. When I ran memtester a few days ago I did see some errors. But since then I re-seated the RAM, ran a successful memtest86 and have run many more memtester iterations without seeing a failure.

I assumed the problem was fixed, but some sort of intermittent RAM failure would perhaps explain things.

 

[RogerDorsey]

I've run some more tests using one RAM stick at a time. Running memtester, I have seen errors occurring on both sticks individually. I'm now also seeing a lot of errors testing with both sticks together as well, as this time I'm running memtester whilst doing other things, rather than leaving it by itself overnight.

So it seems very unlikely that both of my RAM sticks have problems. Could be a faulty RAM socket? or something else?

 

[RogerDorsey]

Just to confirm, I have tried two completely new sticks of RAM and am still getting memtester errors. Also tried a new motherboard.

Getting a replacement CPU to see if that helps