Question PC randomly reboots to BIOS ?

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the Tom's Hardware community: where nearly two million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
L

LordHuffnPuff

Distinguished
Aug 4, 2014
26
4
18,535
So I built a new PC and it runs great, except one problem...

The computer will randomly reboot to BIOS, with the M2 NVMe drive not detected. If the PC is fully powered down and then powered back up, the drive is detected and it boots as normal. This only occurs when the computer is idle (though maybe this is a coincidence). It might happen once every 3-4 days, it's frequent enough to be annoying but not frequent enough to interfere with day to day use. I thought at first it was one of the other drives (and this did help me weed out a dying HDD) but after disconnecting them the problem has not abated.

I have tested the M2 drive with chkdsk, crystalmark, hwinfo and HDDscan and every single one returned perfect health reports.

I have updated the BIOS to the latest version and checked the voltages on the RAM. I'm beginning to run out of ideas about what it could be beyond RMA'ing the Motherboard itself with the suspicion that it might be a bad NVMe slot. Does anybody have any ideas??

Build:
AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D 8-Core Processor
MSI MAG X670E Tomahawk WiFi Gaming Motherboard
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER
SAMSUNG 990 PRO SSD 4TB
G.Skill Trident Z6 RGB Series DDR5 RAM 32GB (2x16GB)
Windows 11 Pro 64x

Some technical stuff:
No abnormal temperatures (HWiNFO)
sfc /scannow - 100% verified, no integrity violations
dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth – completed successfully
chkdsk – no issues on any drives
wmic memorychip get manufacturer, capacity, partnumber, speed, memorytype, devicelocator, formfactor
Capacity DeviceLocator FormFactor Manufacturer MemoryType PartNumber Speed
17179869184 DIMMA2 8 Unknown 0 F5-6000J3636F16G 4800
17179869184 DIMMB2 8 Unknown 0 F5-6000J3636F16G 4800


EDIT: I noticed that this is about a decade exactly since my last build gave me enough trouble to check for help here, which is perversely neat.
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
L

LordHuffnPuff

Distinguished
Aug 4, 2014
26
4
18,535
boju said:
Maybe see what Msi have to say if you contact them about this. Might still be lingering compatibility issues with the latest bios. This board seems to have had compatibility issues with Samsung 990 pro and WD SN850x which later bios updates addressed but maybe not completely.

https://www.reddit.com/r/MSI_Gaming/s/yfIqa65Tbl

https://www.reddit.com/r/MSI_Gaming/s/Mnv3D0YDDp

Click to expand...
Wow, good find. I'm honestly just giving up on the board. Amazon agreed to give me a refund for it, so I'm shipping it back to them and swapping to a Gigabyte X870E Aorus. One of the benefits of this whole thing taking so long is that the new models came out, so that's something right?

If this problem recurs on that board I'll probably lose my hair or something.
 
  • Like
Reactions: boju
Upvote 0 Downvote
L

LordHuffnPuff

Distinguished
Aug 4, 2014
26
4
18,535
New motherboard installed, all systems green (though I learned about "training" a board with RAM... nearly had a heart attack when it refused to start up at first). This post will serve as the time stamp to track interval if/when it crashes to BIOS with this new config.

Hair status: intact.... for now
 
  • Like
Reactions: boju
Upvote 0 Downvote
boju

boju

Titan
Ambassador
Jul 7, 2008
21,302
2,413
85,890
I can only imagine it's something power related now, after everything, the psu could well have been the problem all along.

If you return it, go for Corsair Hxi ATX 3.1, 1000w is fine.

Modular cables aren't interchangeable between power supplies, if you do go ahead with this, cables are also replaced.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
L

LordHuffnPuff

Distinguished
Aug 4, 2014
26
4
18,535
I’m not sure how it could be the power - that would explain random reboots, but how does it cover the M2 not being detected by the motherboard after forced shutdown until a full power cycle?

I’m way outside the return period for this (new) psu annoyingly. I think what might be a good first step is installing Windows to a SATA drive and seeing if having the OS connected that way resolves things - or if the M2 keeps disconnecting under those conditions. Is that unreasonable? At the very least if the SATA-based OS remains stable and the M2 disconnects it won’t result in a shutdown the way I’m currently seeing…
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
boju

boju

Titan
Ambassador
Jul 7, 2008
21,302
2,413
85,890
Not catching it in the act is difficult, always when afk. Hasn't done or hinted at anything while in use. That possibly raises questions about power stability when the system is idling for long periods. Psu could be not sustaining low level power properly.

Could try sata idea. Also powering off when not in use for the time being.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
L

LordHuffnPuff

Distinguished
Aug 4, 2014
26
4
18,535
Yeah, powering off would certainly eliminate the problem - though remember that the issue does not occur when the computer is on but in sleep mode, so if it’s an issue with low-power cycle states one would think that sleep mode would also be impacted… thanks for the sympathy haha, I’ve been building machines my whole life and never run into something as consistently pernicious as this. I almost want to set up a camera to catch it in the act.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
L

LordHuffnPuff

Distinguished
Aug 4, 2014
26
4
18,535
boju said:
Hmm yeah if it's a power issue while sleep would think it would happen with sata too. Guess we'll see. Strange for a different motherboard / Nvme to behave the same. Unless it was Win11 update bug, who knows.
Click to expand...
Sleep isn't an issue - the problem never happens while sleeping. It's only ever happened while idle but awake. That's why I suspect it isn't the PSU - the PSU doesn't care if the OS is asleep or not. If power cuts, power cuts.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
L

LordHuffnPuff

Distinguished
Aug 4, 2014
26
4
18,535
boju said:
Sorry that read like it happens in sleep. So sleep is disabled then? Only idling for long period with monitor turned off/standby?
Click to expand...
Yes, Sleep is disabled. I did test it in Sleep mode during troubleshooting, and it never occurred in Sleep. But because it's a machine which has remote access enabled, I have it in idle instead of Sleep during a normal day.


Unrelated but... here's a weird thing - the new Windows drive doesn't show up in the boot priority in BIOS. Like, it sees that drive exists, but it's not in the boot list. When the PC boots, it goes to a windows screen that asks which windows I want, the one on the M2 or the one on the SSD, and then if I pick the SSD it turns off and boots to that drive... but the BIOS still is oblivious.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
boju

boju

Titan
Ambassador
Jul 7, 2008
21,302
2,413
85,890
LordHuffnPuff said:
Unrelated but... here's a weird thing - the new Windows drive doesn't show up in the boot priority in BIOS. Like, it sees that drive exists, but it's not in the boot list. When the PC boots, it goes to a windows screen that asks which windows I want, the one on the M2 or the one on the SSD, and then if I pick the SSD it turns off and boots to that drive... but the BIOS still is oblivious.
Click to expand...

Did you install Windows on Sata ssd while M2 was installed? I wonder if Windows put boot loader on the M2 drive. Removing Nvme would quickly tell you if it is, if Windows on Sata drive boots on it's own.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
L

LordHuffnPuff

Distinguished
Aug 4, 2014
26
4
18,535
Okay, it is now one week, and we have an update.

The computer has not rebooted. The SATA-OS is stable.

However, when I went to run something that I had installed to the M2, it said the drive was inaccessible (until reboot). So the M2 is in fact still disconnecting, it just isn't crashing the computer because the OS isn't there anymore.

Whyyyy.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom