Question PC keeps freezing on boot even on a bootable USB

[WishingCat01]

Hey everyone,

Yesterday while using my PC normally, it suddenly froze like literally frozen in time. The keyboard and mouse became unresponsive and I had to do a hard restart. But the moment it reached Windows startup, it froze again. I repeated it a few more times still the same it freezes after the bios loads. (if you look at the pic its just stuck there)

Also I can access the bios settings smoothly and normally without any freezing or errors and I've also tried to wait for an hour and check if it freezes but BIOS runs normally.

I then thought maybe my SSD got corrupted so I took it out and plugged it into my second PC, I formatted it and installed a new copy of Windows 10, run crystaldiskinfo and chkdsk on it and everything is fine and working, but still when I i put it back again onto my Main PC it still freezes after Boot.

At this point I started troubleshooting even more. Did some research and tried suggestions that I saw but still freezes on Boot

Things I’ve tried:​

• ✅ Booted from a bootable USB(LinuxMint and Windows 10 Installer) (still freezes)
• ✅ Swapped RAM and tested each stick individually on MemTest all passed
• ✅ Removed the GPU and used integrated graphics
• ✅ Disconnected all USB devices and RGB/fan headers
• ✅ Stayed in BIOS for 30+ minutes
• ✅ Set CPU power limit to 65W as I also thought it was overheating but CPU temps on bios we're all on average normal (40c)
• ✅ Inspected motherboard for bent pins or damage all looked fine
• ✅ Reset BIOS to default and even reset the CMOS battery
• ✅ Tried launching CMD or tools during windows recovery startup but it also freezes
• ✅ No debug LEDs or beeps from the motherboard
• ✅ Tried to open it with only 1 stick of ram, integrated graphics on and still freezes

My specs:​

• CPU: Intel i9-13900
• Motherboard: MSI MAG B760 Tomahawk WiFi DDR4 (Latest BIOS)
• RAM: 64GB DDR4 3200MHz (4x16GB)
• SSD: Samsung 980 & WD Black
• PSU: FSP Hydro G 850W Gold
• Cooler: NZXT Kraken Elite 360 AIO

At this point only two things that I can think of the problem will be is the CPU or Motherboard, but without any extra CPU to test at I have no certainty on which one is the real culprit.

If anyone has experienced something similar or has any suggestions at all, please drop a comment. I’d really appreciate any help or insight before I try replacing the CPU.

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

PSU: FSP Hydro G 850W Gold
How old is the PSU in your build?

Motherboard: MSI MAG B760 Tomahawk WiFi DDR4 (Latest BIOS)
For the sake of relevance, please mention the BIOS version instead of saying latest.

You forgot to include your discrete GPU in your specs.

Tried launching CMD or tools during windows recovery startup but it also freezes
It looks to me like, perhaps, you've encountered the dreaded degradation issue for your CPU. if your processor on another motherboard with the right BIOS version exhibits the same issue, then it's your processor.

I noticed you've listed more than one drive in your storage. While on a donor PC, have you tried seeing if both drives are pending any firmware update?

RAM: 64GB DDR4 3200MHz (4x16GB)
Got a link to this ram kit? Have you tried working with just two sticks of ram in slots A2 and B2?

 

[DaleH]

Hey everyone,

Yesterday while using my PC normally, it suddenly froze like literally frozen in time. The keyboard and mouse became unresponsive and I had to do a hard restart. But the moment it reached Windows startup, it froze again. I repeated it a few more times still the same it freezes after the bios loads. (if you look at the pic its just stuck there)

Also I can access the bios settings smoothly and normally without any freezing or errors and I've also tried to wait for an hour and check if it freezes but BIOS runs normally.

I then thought maybe my SSD got corrupted so I took it out and plugged it into my second PC, I formatted it and installed a new copy of Windows 10, run crystaldiskinfo and chkdsk on it and everything is fine and working, but still when I i put it back again onto my Main PC it still freezes after Boot.

At this point I started troubleshooting even more. Did some research and tried suggestions that I saw but still freezes on Boot

Things I’ve tried:​

• ✅ Booted from a bootable USB(LinuxMint and Windows 10 Installer) (still freezes)
• ✅ Swapped RAM and tested each stick individually on MemTest all passed
• ✅ Removed the GPU and used integrated graphics
• ✅ Disconnected all USB devices and RGB/fan headers
• ✅ Stayed in BIOS for 30+ minutes
• ✅ Set CPU power limit to 65W as I also thought it was overheating but CPU temps on bios we're all on average normal (40c)
• ✅ Inspected motherboard for bent pins or damage all looked fine
• ✅ Reset BIOS to default and even reset the CMOS battery
• ✅ Tried launching CMD or tools during windows recovery startup but it also freezes
• ✅ No debug LEDs or beeps from the motherboard
• ✅ Tried to open it with only 1 stick of ram, integrated graphics on and still freezes

My specs:​

• CPU: Intel i9-13900
• Motherboard: MSI MAG B760 Tomahawk WiFi DDR4 (Latest BIOS)
• RAM: 64GB DDR4 3200MHz (4x16GB)
• SSD: Samsung 980 & WD Black
• PSU: FSP Hydro G 850W Gold
• Cooler: NZXT Kraken Elite 360 AIO

At this point only two things that I can think of the problem will be is the CPU or Motherboard, but without any extra CPU to test at I have no certainty on which one is the real culprit.

If anyone has experienced something similar or has any suggestions at all, please drop a comment. I’d really appreciate any help or insight before I try replacing the CPU.

Are you saying that you installed Windows on a disk that was in a different PC and then tried to move the disk to the problem PC?

 

[Hasselblad]

I have a similar setup, SORRY too much to read your post (Autism)

I feel for you geninely.

I had similar problems which turned out to be the Motherboard new from Amazon, they sent a replacement, perfect.

When building did you install only the basic parts first, then check and then install part by part or did you install it all in one go.


Motherboard:
CPU Type 8C+12c Intel Core i7-14700K, 5487 MHz (55 x 100)
Motherboard Name MSI MAG Z790 Tomahawk Max WiFi (MS-7E25)
Motherboard Chipset Intel Raptor Point-S Z790, Intel Raptor Lake-S

System Memory
DIMM2: Corsair CMH32GX5M2E6000C36
DIMM4: Corsair CMH32GX5M2E6000C36


Multimedia:

nVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Video Adapter
nVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 3D Accelerator

 

[WishingCat01]

Are you saying that you installed Windows on a disk that was in a different PC and then tried to move the disk to the problem PC?

Okay, so I have 2 PCs, the Main PC(which is what's having the boot problem) and my 2nd Backup PC,

I took the Main PCs SSD and inserted it to my 2nd backup pc to check if really is the SSD that was having the problem and it turns out it isn't as everythings working smoothly and all but I did still formatted it and installed Windows on it just to be sure then I installed it back onto my Main PC which unfortunately still doesn't boot and still freezes after that.

Just to be clear while I was installing windows on the SSD while it's on my Backup PC I made sure to remove any other SSD beside the current one.

 

[WishingCat01]

I have a similar setup, SORRY too much to read your post (Autism)

I feel for you geninely.

I had similar problems which turned out to be the Motherboard new from Amazon, they sent a replacement, perfect.

When building did you install only the basic parts first, then check and then install part by part or did you install it all in one go.


Motherboard:
CPU Type 8C+12c Intel Core i7-14700K, 5487 MHz (55 x 100)
Motherboard Name MSI MAG Z790 Tomahawk Max WiFi (MS-7E25)
Motherboard Chipset Intel Raptor Point-S Z790, Intel Raptor Lake-S

System Memory
DIMM2: Corsair CMH32GX5M2E6000C36
DIMM4: Corsair CMH32GX5M2E6000C36


Multimedia:

nVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Video Adapter
nVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 3D Accelerator

Thank you for this but what I have right now is not a newly built PC I built this one 2 years ago and have been using it smoothly till this current boot problem that it has right now,