[SOLVED] PC froze during gameplay and now it's stuck in a restart loop ?

[xDeltoZ]

PC froze during gameplay, now it is stuck in a loop of restarting.

I was playing the new Spider-Man game on my 3 year old PC, I had played it yesterday as well without any freezing. I did have to update my graphics driver to prevent the program from crashing however.
Today I was playing the game while listening to YouTube in the background, and suddenly my computer froze entirely. I could not access Task Manager so I held down the Power button to force it to shut down. When I then tried to turn it back on, it was not able to. I can see my GPU light up, CPU fans spin, Case fans spin, PSU fans spin. I have a MSI zs90-a pro motherboard, and the EZ Debug LEDs go in this order (the LEDs turn off before the next one lights up): RAM, VGA, then for a split second CPU before the PC tries to restart again. I can also hear a single beep before the restart.

I have had my PC freeze like this on occasion before, where I could not even access Task Manager. However in those cases there wouldn't be any issues after shutting down the computer with the Power button and turning it back on.

As I mentioned, I've had this computer for a decent amount of time, however I don't believe any of the 3 year old components should have failed during this amount of time. I did bring over an old SSD from my old system, which could be a culprit. I have windows installed there. I reckon the SSD is at least 5 years old, but I don't remember exactly when I got it.

I have my old system (which also ended up dying without me finding out what the culprit was, though I believe it was the GPU).
I tried all combinations of adding my old PSU, current PSU, old GPU and current GPU, and there was no success. (Keep in mind I am not sure if the old PSU and GPU are faulty or not).

So my question is what do you think are the likely culprits in this situation? I'm not sure what it would look like if a PSU were to fail vs if a GPU/SSD were to fail, so I'm hoping you have any ideas for what I could try. I appreciate any ideas, thank you. 🙂

PC Specs (Self-built):
CPU: Intel i5 9600k
GPU: RTX 2080
Motherboard: MSI ZS90-A PRO
PSU: Corsair RM 850x
SSD with OS: OCZ Agility 4 (From my old system)

Edit: I forgot to make it clear, I am not able to access the BIOS or anything.

 

[helpstar]

Remove the ssd and try getting into bios


The ocz might have died

 

[xDeltoZ]

Remove the ssd and try getting into bios


The ocz might have died

It seems it wasn't the SSD, I disconnected it and nothing seemed to have changed.
I also tried the current PSU with my old system (old motherboard, old CPU, old GPU) I got an error screen saying something about a POST error, but at least the PC turned on with the display working. I also tried my current PSU and my current GPU in my old system, however it won't turn on for some reason. The Power LED flashes on for a split second then turns off immediately.

I feel there is some issue with either the motherboard or the CPU, but if that was the case I'm not sure why there is an issue when I use my current GPU and current PSU in my old system with my old motherboard and CPU. Any ideas?

 

[helpstar]

Use a minimum setup
Motherboard, psu, CPU, Monitor, one RAM in proper slot (see manual)

 

[xDeltoZ]

Use a minimum setup
Motherboard, psu, CPU, Monitor, one RAM in proper slot (see manual)

Alright I've set it up like you said. I managed to get an error show on the screen saying that the memory or cpu had changed. However the PC restarted again before I could interact with it in any way. Now it doesn't show anything again. So no change from before.

I also tried going to another room in my house to use the outlet there, however there was no change there. What does puzzle me is that the issue with my old system seems very similar to the issue with my current system. However with my old system, the power LED only flashes for a split second and nothing else happens, no restart loop.

So I wonder if there would be some issue with the electrical supply to my house. If I recall correctly, I think the issue with my old system was originally something about the GPU (though I didn't verify this 100%), so it's strange if also the CPU/Motherboard was at fault there too.

I'm not sure how exactly the EZ Debug LEDs work on my MSI motherboard, but the last LED that flashes is the CPU one right before a restart occurs. I assume that does point to the CPU being the issue.

Do you think it is certain that it must be either the CPU or motherboard, or might there be something else? Do you think there is anything I could try before ordering a new CPU/Motherboard?

 

[xDeltoZ]

I have set up my old system with my current GPU and a working HDD and it was working for about 15 mins. The screen was showing that the PC was making some changes to windows, however while that was going on, the PC suddenly shut off again. I tried different power cables, different outlets, no change. At this point I don't really know what to try. It seems all the components in the old system were working perfectly, so I'm feeling hesitant about simply buying a new CPU and Motherboard for my current system when it seems my old system is having pretty much the same problem.

I also tried connecting a 1500W space heater to the same outlet, and it was working fine. My father tells me there can't be anything wrong with the electricity.

Also another clue, my old system would always trip the circuit breakers in my old room when I connect the power supply. It seems to happen in outlets where the outlet isn't grounded. However whenever this used to happen, once I switched back the circuit breakers everything would be fine and the old system would run fine. In my current room the outlets are grounded so this doesn't happen.

Do you guys have any ideas about what the issue(s) could be?

To summarise:

Old system specs:
CPU: Intel i5 2500 (if i remember correctly)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P67A-D3-B3
PSU: Cooler Master GX Lite 700W
RAM: Kingston HyperX DDR3 2x 4GB
GPU: Nvidia GeForce 780 EVGA (It's almost certainly faulty), I used the GPU from the current system in order to succesfully boot for about 15mins.
+Old HDD taken from an old laptop, windows already installed

Current system specs:
CPU: Intel i5 9600k
GPU: Nvidia RTX 2080
Motherboard: MSI ZS90-A PRO
RAM: HyperX Fury DDR4 4x 8GB
PSU: Corsair RM 850x 850W
SSD with OS: OCZ Agility 4 (From my old system)
+2x HDDs
+1x M.2 NVME drive

I've tested pretty much every compatible part with each other between the two systems.

Possible outcomes:
1. With the current system's motherboard+CPU+RAM, no matter what else is connected, no matter where in the house it is connected:
- System tries to boot up, LEDs/Fans light up. PC turns off when the CPU Debug LED on the motherboard lights up. PC tries to reboot, and loops like this indefinitely.

2. With the old system's motherboard+CPU+RAM, with the current system's GPU, no matter what else is connected, no matter where in the house it is connected.
- System tries to boot up, Power LED lights up and fans spin for a split second. Then it turns off and doesnt try to reboot. Nothing happens if I try to turn it on within a few minutes. If I wait a few minutes, I can press the power button again and the same routine happens.

3. (Has only happened rarely), with the old system's motherboard+CPU+RAM, it can boot successfully for up to about 15 mins. With the old system's GPU, it would have an error, probably because it is faulty. With the current system's GPU, it seemed to work perfectly until it suddenly shut down after those 15 mins.

 

[cpplukas]

I had a similar issue a day ago, what solved it for me was removing the bios battery and waitin for like 10-20 seconds and then everything was back to normal.

 

[xDeltoZ]

I decided to send my PC to a repair service, I will post an update when they figure out what the issue is in case others stumble upon this thread. 👍

 

[xDeltoZ]

Update for anyone else with a similar problem: Apparently the BIOS had become suddenly corrupted, the repairer said he managed to fix it by shorting the CMOS Jumper and resetting the BIOS.😁