Question PC froze while playing and won't boot anymore

Fire-Wire

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Jul 13, 2017
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Hey, guys! I built this rig about 8 months ago and yesterday, while playing, the screen froze, than a sharp noise hit my headphones, followed by the screen changing into artifact images. I didn't have time to react as the PC turned off automatically few seconds later. Then, my PC turned on automatically but there was no boot, no video. All fans turned normally, but the mobo led went orange (which it does) and never changed to white and green, it stayed orange ad infinitum.

After panicking and crying, I unplugged everything, opened it, took out the gpu and cleaned it. took out the ram sticks and cleaned them. Cleaned the fans. Dusted some surfaces. Plugged all back again (except for the gpu and nothing changed), then plugged the gpu and nothing seemed to change, but as I was ready to begin my crying anew, suddenly the PC booted and has been performing normally ever since, after some stress tests and such.

I don't know what happened, but I worry something may be signaling its impeding death. Any ideas?

Specs:
Asus Prime B560M-A
Corsair CX650M - 650W PSU
RTX 3060 EVGA
I5 11600k
16GB Ram
2 Kingstom SSD's

All 8 months old, except for one of the SDD's
 
Last edited:
Aug 21, 2022
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On the weekend I've opened another thread about a similar issue, here is link. According to your description, my issue seems to be identical to yours - screen freezes, sound goes a bit crazy, screen turns black with random coloured artifacts, but the PC never automatically restarted/turned off for me, and it refused to boot afterwards. And it happens only while playing a game.
Unfortunately, I can't offer much advice as I am struggling with this problem for over a month, but maybe there will be an answer in the thread that could be relevant for you.

Edit: I am not sure about your motherboard, but for mine, orange light signals problem with RAM. Since both are from ASUS, I'd assume it will be same.
 
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Fire-Wire

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Jul 13, 2017
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On the weekend I've opened another thread about a similar issue, here is link. According to your description, my issue seems to be identical to yours - screen freezes, sound goes a bit crazy, screen turns black with random coloured artifacts, but the PC never automatically restarted/turned off for me, and it refused to boot afterwards. And it happens only while playing a game.
Unfortunately, I can't offer much advice as I am struggling with this problem for over a month, but maybe there will be an answer in the thread that could be relevant for you.

Edit: I am not sure about your motherboard, but for mine, orange light signals problem with RAM. Since both are from ASUS, I'd assume it will be same.

Oh, thanks for the insight! I actually cleaned them a bit with a special eraser I have and inserted them again. My PC is actually working fine since - I even played 2 hours of Borderlands 3 in it to test it as soon as I got it to work again (which was the game it froze from in the first place). But, it was a scary experience nonetheless. I just hope my brand-new gpu isn't on the fritz, cause I'll never recover financially from its purchase hahahaha.

Hope you can figure it out on your end, I'll be tracking your thread as well.
 
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Aeacus

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First thought is PSU based on it shutting down and restarting. At this point, just confirm EVERY power cable (from wall to psu to each device) is securely seated, and then cross your fingers.

It actually goes deeper than that;
  • PC freezing, is usually a software issue, or key hardware issue (CPU, RAM, GPU).
  • Seeing artifacts, most of the times, is GPU issue.
  • PC shutting down afterwards, may not be PSU issue. Instead, PSU catched the abnormal issue regarding voltages and kicked in it's own protections, thus shutting off the PC.
If the PC would shut down/reboot, out of the blue, without any preceding symptoms, then it usually is PSU issue. Or it could be CPU/GPU thermal issue.

But, it was a scary experience nonetheless.

What are your system wide temps? Both on idle and under full load?
You can use HWinfo64 for that. It also has nice logging feature.


At best, mediocre quality PSU. Only good for powering office PC, without dedicated GPU. But for any PC with dedicated GPU, especially gaming rig with 170W GPU, which you have, this PSU is inadequate. Sure, it has the wattage range, but it does not have the needed build quality or reliability.

If you want quality PSU, look towards Seasonic Focus/PRIME series or Corsair RM/RMi/RMx series.
(All 3 of my PCs are also powered by Seasonic, full specs with pics in my sig.)

On the weekend I've opened another thread about a similar issue, here is link. According to your description, my issue seems to be identical to yours - screen freezes, sound goes a bit crazy, screen turns black with random coloured artifacts, but the PC never automatically restarted/turned off for me, and it refused to boot afterwards. And it happens only while playing a game.
Unfortunately, I can't offer much advice as I am struggling with this problem for over a month, but maybe there will be an answer in the thread that could be relevant for you.

You have AMD build, OP has Intel build. These two builds are not comparable in any way, shape or form, other than the general term of: "PC".
Moreover, you haven't disclosed your GPU in your topic. A crucial part to run your AMD build, since without GPU, your PC won't work. So, add your GPU specs to your topic as well.

Checked your topic, and what Event Viewer says when freezes happen to you? Namely "Windows Logs -> System".
Post your additional info into your own topic. Posting it here = topic hijack. And you advertising your topic here isn't that favorable either. :non:
 

Fire-Wire

Honorable
Jul 13, 2017
53
2
10,535
It actually goes deeper than that;
  • PC freezing, is usually a software issue, or key hardware issue (CPU, RAM, GPU).
  • Seeing artifacts, most of the times, is GPU issue.
  • PC shutting down afterwards, may not be PSU issue. Instead, PSU catched the abnormal issue regarding voltages and kicked in it's own protections, thus shutting off the PC.
If the PC would shut down/reboot, out of the blue, without any preceding symptoms, then it usually is PSU issue. Or it could be CPU/GPU thermal issue.

What are your system wide temps? Both on idle and under full load?
You can use HWinfo64 for that. It also has nice logging feature.

R: My temps are fine, I make sure of it and am always monitoring them. Almost obsessively so hahahaha. Idle they range from 29 to 34 with random spikes to the 37~38 range. On full load, while playing, they rarely surpass 62ºC (143,6ºF).

At best, mediocre quality PSU. Only good for powering office PC, without dedicated GPU. But for any PC with dedicated GPU, especially gaming rig with 170W GPU, which you have, this PSU is inadequate. Sure, it has the wattage range, but it does not have the needed build quality or reliability. If you want quality PSU, look towards Seasonic Focus/PRIME series or Corsair RM/RMi/RMx series. (All 3 of my PCs are also powered by Seasonic, full specs with pics in my sig.)

R: I understand it may not be a gamer-quality item, but I actually had an identical one (with a less powerful rig) a while ago, and it stuck with us for the good part of some 5~6 years without a hitch. It was also a budgetary choice, so not much I can do on that departament. But, I'll definetely look into those you mentioned, for the long run.

You have AMD build, OP has Intel build. These two builds are not comparable in any way, shape or form, other than the general term of: "PC".
Moreover, you haven't disclosed your GPU in your topic. A crucial part to run your AMD build, since without GPU, your PC won't work. So, add your GPU specs to your topic as well.

Checked your topic, and what Event Viewer says when freezes happen to you? Namely "Windows Logs -> System".
Post your additional info into your own topic. Posting it here = topic hijack. And you advertising your topic here isn't that favorable either. :non:

R: Maybe, because their mobo is also an Asus the LED system is similar, no? In my case, the led goes orange, white, and green in rapid succession and then goes off, and that normally indicates all systems are ok. This time, PC froze and automatically tried a restart, but then it didn't boot and the light went orange forever. I merely unplugged them ram sticks and gpu, cleaned them, and plugged them back again, then the PC booted normally and have been working fine as far as I (and the tests I ran) can tell.

Obs: two or three nights before, I think, windows had an update and it sneaked a GPU driver update with it, which I didn't notice. After I brought my PC back to life, I DDU'd and installed the most recent one, recommended to Ampere users.
 

Aeacus

Titan
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I understand it may not be a gamer-quality item, but I actually had an identical one (with a less powerful rig) a while ago, and it stuck with us for the good part of some 5~6 years without a hitch. It was also a budgetary choice, so not much I can do on that departament. But, I'll definetely look into those you mentioned, for the long run.

When it comes to PSUs, there is no "gamer-quality" PSUs. What there are, from worst to best, are:
  • crap quality
  • low quality
  • mediocre quality
  • good quality
  • great quality
Now, CXm, falls between low and mediocre quality. Seasonic Focus is good quality, Seasonic PRIME is great quality and Corsair RM/RMx/RMi are also good quality.

For different example, perhaps better understood; car tires e.g all season.
Now, with all season car tires, there are cheap tires (e.g CST Medallion Winter) and expensive tires (e.g Continental VikingContact 7). Now, you can not call VikingContact 7 as "race-quality" tires, despite their price, since race tires are completely different ballpark.

With PSUs, there are two classes: consumer grade and industrial grade. Consumer grade is what you and me have, while industrial grade is used in machinery and servers. And anyone telling that their PSU is "gamer quality" is misleading on marketing, whereby it's best to avoid any such claim PSU.

Cheap, no-name PSU can work, but the question is, what happens when it fails? For the most part, when cheap PSU blows up, it also fries everything it is connected to, resulting you loosing your entire PC. And if you're unlucky, this will happen,
news article: https://www.thesundaily.my/archive/...wer-supply-unit-computer-updated-LTARCH461974

Just like you can drive your car with cheap tires. But cheap tires will loose contact on the road at far slower speeds, than quality tires will. Putting you (or your entire family) into a risk, of crashing the car.

I don't know about you, but to me, the value of myself or my family member, is a bit more, than the price difference between cheap and good PSU (or between cheap and good car tires).

Maybe, because their mobo is also an Asus the LED system is similar, no? In my case, the led goes orange, white, and green in rapid succession and then goes off, and that normally indicates all systems are ok. This time, PC froze and automatically tried a restart, but then it didn't boot and the light went orange forever. I merely unplugged them ram sticks and gpu, cleaned them, and plugged them back again, then the PC booted normally and have been working fine as far as I (and the tests I ran) can tell.

Obs: two or three nights before, I think, windows had an update and it sneaked a GPU driver update with it, which I didn't notice. After I brought my PC back to life, I DDU'd and installed the most recent one, recommended to Ampere users.

You can look at PCs as people, even when you have two identical hardware specced PCs, one PC will function a bit differently than another PC. E.g CPU OC is the most obvious part, one i5-11600K can have all cores hold 5.0 Ghz while another i5-11600K isn't stable at 5.0 Ghz, instead is stable on 4.9 Ghz.

Due to that, issues with PCs can't be converted over, from one build to another.

As of what your issue might have been: dust.
Keeping PC components clean is crucial, since dust, besides being heat blocker (it actually sucks in and holds heat), is also electrically conductive, able to produce short circuits.
 
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