[SOLVED] PC Problems that a shop has not been able to fix

[mypcisalwaysbroken]

Hi all,

I will try to keep this as brief as possible but it is a convoluted chain of events that has led me to where I am currently. To begin: a few weeks ago, I had just installed some new games on Steam & figured I should try and "clean up" some of the annoying items on my PC (fan noise being one of them). I have an Asrock X570 Steel Legend mobo, and I didn't see any good software online that helped modulate fan speed so I figured I could just change it with the built-in fan speed tuning in the BIOS. So I hop into the BIOS, change the fan speeds to my liking (while leaving anything above 60 degrees Celsius as max fan speed), and exited BIOS - and now it wouldn't boot at all. No boot device detected, etc. I tried everything I could think of, and eventually gave up & took it to a shop. They told me that the SSD was completely nonresponsive, no data could be retrieved, recommended replacing & reinstalling Windows. Once that's done, I get it back home, start it up, sign in to Windows & begin setting up my PC with all the usual programs (Discord, Steam, Microsoft Office Suite, Dropbox, etc.). I begin downloading some games (Halo Infinite & Halo MCC) and leave it to download. I come back to a frozen PC - I shut it down & at first glance it starts up correctly, but a few seconds after being logged in to windows it freezes completely again. The mouse will move every 30 seconds or so but nothing can really be done. So I take it back to the shop, thinking there was some other issue. They tell me that there was something wrong w the SATA cables I had connecting my SSD, so they replaced those and said that it had held up to their tests there. I get it back home, do the same thing again, and the identical issue happens once again. This time however I got a BSOD first, with MEMORY_MANAGEMENT as the stop code. I hoped that I could login & run the RAM test through the run program, but it first locked me out completely & now will not boot into windows at all. I'm at a total loss & don't really want to take it back to the repair shop since they seem to have it "fixed" enough when it's there I must be doing something wrong on my end. Any help?? Never been so confused before in my life. I have the PC specs if those are needed, but figured I'd ask in a more general sense first to see if anything jumps out. Currently I cannot even start up the computer, it will "attempt to diagnose problems" and then say that there was a problem & offer to do advanced troubleshooting or shut down.

 

[Karadjgne]

Check the socket/cpu for bent pins or paste residue. Sounds an awful lot like the cpu is goin nuts because the only thing they all have in common is the pcie bus.

An improperly installed cooler can do the same if one side of the cpu is pressed down too hard, shifting pins, especially on Intels. Ryzen are more forgiving since the pins are slotted, but susceptible to bent pins more commonly.

Paste is generally non-conductive, so is really an electrical insulator. Little bit of paste under a cpu can cause havoc.

 

[mypcisalwaysbroken]

Would you expect that to be a potential issue even if I haven’t touched the CPU/cooler or anything since it was built? Like some paste somehow got where it shouldn’t over time? I’ve had the PC a little over a year & haven’t touched those parts since the initial build.

 

[Karadjgne]

Possible. Pre-installed paste is very thin layer, but very thick viscosity, so doesn't go anywhere it isn't supposed to, but aftermarket pastes are sometimes very thin viscosity, like Noctua, and can get a little 'runny' when heated. Combined with cooler pressure squeezing the paste and vibrations from the pump/heatsink fan not helping matters, it's possible that the paste finally ran over the edge and got siphoned by pins. Happens, but very rare.

It's either that, or you are extremely 'ham fisted', a bull in a China shop while doing manual tinkering (or maybe the repair shop dude was) and basically 'knocking things over' while doing things like re-seating Sata cables or drives etc a d causing further issues just by breathing in the general vacinity. Not to say you are, but it's not unknown for ppl to be that way.

It's just very uncommon to keep cycling issues. If something is broke, you get the same error, even if it's the mobo or psu. The issues will be all related. Yours are different with every 'fix'. Which isn't normal patterns of behavior, so I was looking for the abnormal. Can't rule anything out at this point.

 

[mypcisalwaysbroken]

Possible. Pre-installed paste is very thin layer, but very thick viscosity, so doesn't go anywhere it isn't supposed to, but aftermarket pastes are sometimes very thin viscosity, like Noctua, and can get a little 'runny' when heated. Combined with cooler pressure squeezing the paste and vibrations from the pump/heatsink fan not helping matters, it's possible that the paste finally ran over the edge and got siphoned by pins. Happens, but very rare.

It's either that, or you are extremely 'ham fisted', a bull in a China shop while doing manual tinkering (or maybe the repair shop dude was) and basically 'knocking things over' while doing things like re-seating Sata cables or drives etc a d causing further issues just by breathing in the general vacinity. Not to say you are, but it's not unknown for ppl to be that way.

It's just very uncommon to keep cycling issues. If something is broke, you get the same error, even if it's the mobo or psu. The issues will be all related. Yours are different with every 'fix'. Which isn't normal patterns of behavior, so I was looking for the abnormal. Can't rule anything out at this point.

the only thing that’s consistent is after a fresh install of windows, it works until I start downloading things and/or change the fan speed in BIOS. And even then I doubt that’s the case, because the first thing I did was change the fan speed & it worked for an hour or two before having these same problems as it attempts to download things. I’m just at a loss & don’t even know where I could take it for someone to look at since it’s such a strange issue.