Question PC seemingly enters protection mode ?

[Noveenia]

My PC randomly enters a mode whereby:

• No peripheral device has power or signal: screens are black / mouse LED is off (those are what I can tell, but I believe the keyboard also has no signal).
• The CPU fan / video card fan / system fan are still running at an average speed.
• The motherboard LED is on.
• I am not able to switch the PC off by long-pressing the power button. Restart button also does not work. The only way to reboot the PC is to switch off the PSU and switch it on again (after a few seconds).

The issue can occur not long after I start up the PC and do nothing. The issue can happen after a long time of usage, like playing games with high GPU occupation. The issue can happen during a game session. The PC performance looks OK. I can play games for a very long time (when I am lucky). The PC can also survive AFK overnight, although sometimes the issue occurred in the night. To me the issue occurs randomly.
I don't smell anything when I use the PC. No obvious heat areas.
I have tried many things, but none of them fixes the problem:

• Upgrade BIOS to the latest version from the official site of the MBD. I also tried other versions.
• Upgrade drivers to the latest version, like video card, chipset, wifi, bluetooth, etc.
• Disk check
• Memory check
• System files check
• OCCT 1-hour tests on CPU / GPU / RAM
• Reinstall Window 10 with or without all files deleted
• Switch off XMP of the RAM; low latency support; high bandwidth support.
• Switch off resize bar
• I checked the Event Viewer of Win10, but I cannot correlate any errors/warnings to the issue. TBH, I don't understand all the messages. However, there are no messages exactly at the moment when the issue happens. After I reboot the PC by toggling the PSU, I do recognize the kernel error of the CPU losing power each time.

My PC specs are:

• AMD Ryzen 5 7600X processor, 6 cores/12 threads
• Gigabyte B650M Gaming X AX motherboard
• 32GB Corsair Vengance 5600Mhz DDR5 (2x 16GB, CL36)
• Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2060 D6 6G rev 2.0
• Be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 - Cooler for processor120 + 135mm fan - PWM - 250W - black
• Cooler Master MWE 850 Gold V2 - Power supply (internal)ATX12V - 80 PLUS Gold - 90-264 Volt AC V
• OCZ Vector 150 120GB (Window 10)

Could anyone give me some hints?

 

[Ralston18]

Is that OCZ drive the boot drive? 120 GB is likely too small for most systems and Windows.

Disk drive(s): make, model, capacity, how full?

= = = =

Event Viewer is not easy to navigate and understand. And you are not alone when it comes to making sense of the error codes etc.. Sometimes the codes can be helpful - or not.

To help with Event Viewer:

http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-3128616/windows-event-viewer.html

What may prove more helpful is Reliability History/lMonitor. Much more user friendly and the timeline format can reveal patterns. And any given entry can be clicked for more details. Again those details may or may not be helpful.

Note that the timeline can be Days or Weeks.

= = = =

Power down, unplug, open the case.

Clean out dust and debris.

Verify by sight and feel that all connectors, cards, RAM, jumpers, and case (front panel) connections are fully and firmly in place. Ensure that there is no debris in slots and ports. No bent pins on plugs.

Use a bright flashlight to inspect for signs of damage: bare conductor showing, melting, kinked or pinched wires, cracks, corrosion, swollen components, browned or blackened areas, missing or loose screws.

Hopefully something is just a bit loose.

The drive may still be an issue.

 

[Noveenia]

Is that OCZ drive the boot drive? 120 GB is likely too small for most systems and Windows.

Disk drive(s): make, model, capacity, how full?

= = = =

Event Viewer is not easy to navigate and understand. And you are not alone when it comes to making sense of the error codes etc.. Sometimes the codes can be helpful - or not.

To help with Event Viewer:

http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-3128616/windows-event-viewer.html

What may prove more helpful is Reliability History/lMonitor. Much more user friendly and the timeline format can reveal patterns. And any given entry can be clicked for more details. Again those details may or may not be helpful.

Note that the timeline can be Days or Weeks.

= = = =

Power down, unplug, open the case.

Clean out dust and debris.

Verify by sight and feel that all connectors, cards, RAM, jumpers, and case (front panel) connections are fully and firmly in place. Ensure that there is no debris in slots and ports. No bent pins on plugs.

Use a bright flashlight to inspect for signs of damage: bare conductor showing, melting, kinked or pinched wires, cracks, corrosion, swollen components, browned or blackened areas, missing or loose screws.

Hopefully something is just a bit loose.

The drive may still be an issue.

Thanks for the reply!

My PC is dust free, because most of the components are new. Only the graphic card and the SSD is from before but I did careful cleaning. Even the case is new.

The link you sent is a dead link. Did you make a typo in the address?

It might be worth disassemble and assemble the PC again. I will find time to do it.

 

[Ralston18]

Copy/pasted the link.

Indeed not found now. Apologies.

I did another search and found the Event Viewer tutorial.

Try this link:

https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/how-to-use-windows-10-event-viewer.2752289/

= = = =

If most of the components are new then I would indeed open up the case again and check everything.

No one wants to force any thing during a new build or component upgrade so what feels to be in place may not really be fully in place.

Carefully unplug/unseat connectors, slotted components and replug/reseat each a few times. You may discover that something suddenly feels smoother and goes cleanly into place.

The result being a good solid connection that hopefully will end any intermittent disconnects/reconnects.