Question PLEASE help me: Replaced all parts - same crashes keep happening for the past 5+ years.

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Apr 17, 2020
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I'm desperate, absolutely desperate and I have no clue what there is left other than buying an completely new system from scratch, which is just madness considering I upgraded 3 days ago.

Note this will be a long post since I'll be describing issues I've for the past 5+ years. But I'm literally on my knees begging for someone to help me finally fix this as I'm completely out of ideas after all this time. I'll put everything in chronological order. All the items that have been in various builds will be in bold since the only crazy explanation I can come up with is that broken parts keep "infecting" each other.


September 2014

In 2011 I built a rig with an i5-2500k, 8gigs of ram and a 560ti. In this rig I put a harddrive from the previous build I had and a new harddrive. In September '14 I decided to buy an EVGA GTX970 on release in the US (I'm from Belgium). I happened to be there on holiday and it was significantly cheaper to get it there than when I'd get back home. Once I got home I installed the GTX970 in my PC and it ran fine as far as I can remember.



January 2015

In January I decided I'd upgrade my entire rig. I'd "recycle" the two hard drives (1 was 4 years old at that point, the other one about 8 years), a DVD player and the EVGA GTX970. I assembled the following system:
  • i7-5820k
  • Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB DD
  • MSI Intel Lga2011-3 X99S Sli Plus 8x DDR4 12x USB 3.0 Gbe Lan Atx Motherboard
  • EVGA GTX970
  • EVGA Supernova 750W G1 Gold Modular Power Supply Unit
  • Kraken X61
  • Samsung EVO 850 256GB
  • 2 recycled HDDs
  • DVD player
  • Cooler Master Stryker tower
This is where my problems began. With this system I've had random crashes from as early as I can remember. I tried to do some basic troubleshooting but since they weren't happening frequently, I didn't pay much attention to them. However precisely how my system crashed is extremely important, as I still have similar crashes today, in a system that has none of the original parts anymore except for the DVD player.
  1. The crashes would only happen while gaming.
  2. My screen goes black. I'd still be able to talk to my teammates over voip during this phase which lasted 3-5 seconds.
  3. Next everything would freeze up, I'd hear the last 0.01 second of audio in extremely fast repeat (not sure how else to describe this).
  4. Lastly my PC would reboot.

October-November-December 2015

My Power Supply died. I temporarily used the one from the 2011 system to power my PC while I tried to get it replaced under warranty. EVGA obviously send me a new one for free but this had a weird rattling problem (
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aAwvonRTPw
) so I send that one back as well. The power supply I have nowadays is this one that I received November 2015.

Shortly after, I decided to make a Micro-ATX build for LANs. In this build, I put my i5-2500k, a new EVGA 550W GS, new HyperX FURY Series 8GB (2x 4GB) DDR3 1600MHz CL10 DIMM Memory Module Kit - Black, ARCTIC Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 - 150 Watt Multicompatible Low Noise CPU Cooler, the only Micro-ATX mobo I could still find from a local store (can't remember the name but it's hardly relevant anyhow, just listing this to be complete about the journey every part has gone through), a new 256GB 850 EVO and my old 560ti. Whenever I'd use this build, I'd take my GTX970 and swap it for the 560ti.



All of 2016 - March 2017

The crashes still happened frequently, at random moments, random amount of times per day and always while gaming. On top of that I also got the occasional BSOD every now and then. I also got a really weird issue every now and then where I'd get a black-checkerlike pattern in the topleft corner of my screen. This sometimes would randomly appear, overlay everything and dissappear after rebooting my PC. I had a picture of this but unfortunately I lost it with the issues when installing my new parts this week. The picture below is a re-creation I did just now.
ETirmzI.png



Things got worse towards the end of the year as my PC started exhibiting weirder and weirder behaviour:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlT_pXjQDzM
. Definitely not the signs of a healthy system. I kept troubleshooting and tinkering with some stuff but couldn't find anything that helped. Towards March 2017 I was getting stuff like this as well:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yV--ieU1lqA
. The crashes were happening more frequently as well alongside and games became pretty much unplayable.
As a last resort, I did another clean install (had done multiple at this point) and updated my BIOS from my motherboard. The BIOS update seemed to have done the trick as this partially fixed these issues. The situation post-BIOS update was as follows:
  1. The issues from the two youtube videos never happened again.
  2. BSODs stopped occuring.
  3. The checkerboard thingy from the screenshot above never happened again.
However the crashes that had been there from day 1 didn't fully dissappear though they happened signifcantly less. Some days I'd have none, most of the days it'd only happen once and very rarely it'd occur more than once a day.


June 2017

The pump on my NZXT Kraken X61 broke:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd16a2_Ldkg
. I got a X62 for free under warranty. While I was waiting for it to be replaced, I was using the "ARCTIC Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 - 150 Watt."
Shortly after I also decided to push my system with the new cooler and OC'd my CPU to 4.5GHz. It remained like this all the way through.

The crash behaviour remained the same.



August 2019

Not much changed uptil early August 2019. Then my GTX970 officially wheezed out its last breath (not sure what happened, it just randomly stopped working completely) and I replaced it with a MSI GeForce RTX 2070 Super Gaming X Trio. I was also getting tired of the old HDDs and bought a Samsung 860 EVO 2TB SSD and plugged both into my system. I took out the two old HDD's and tossed them aside, never to be used again.
The RTX 2070 displayed 1 bit of strange behaviour from the start: If I have my first two display ports, the setup would only work with monitor A in displayport 2 and monitor B in displayport 1. Monitor B did not work in Display port 2, Monitor A worked in both. However since it was something that is easily fixed I never really bothered to check what was up with it.

The crash behaviour changed and actually became consistent. I'd get one crash per day while gaming. The crash still happened in the exact same way as I described in the Jan '15 part. Most of the time, I'd crash in the first game of CSGO I'd play and afterwards I could just play without ever crashing again. The next day this would just repeat itself. It didn't matter if I put my PC in sleep or if I'd shut it off completely. One crash a day, nothing more, nothing less.


March 14-15, 2020

I decided that it was time to do a full upgrade of my system for various reasons (framerate in CSGO becomming too low as I want to get a 240hz monitor on top of trying my hand at VR (HL:A mostly)). So on the 14th of March the following parts arrived:

  • AMD Ryzen 7 3700X WRAITH 3600 AM4 BOX
  • GIGABYTE AORUS X570 AORUS ELITE
  • Corsair 32 GB DDR4-3200 Kit memory
  • Fractal Design Define R6 TG tower
I'd add some parts to this which, in my opinion, didn't warrant upgrading yet:
  • The NZXT Kraken X62 from June 2017.
  • The EVGA PSU that got replaced under warranty November 2015.
  • The Samsung 860EVO as my main SSD from August 2019.
  • The Samsung 850EVO as my work SSD from January 2015.
  • The RTX2070 Super from August 2019.
  • The DVD player from 2011.
I put everything together and hoped that this would also mean the end of my bizarre crashes. Now because I'm lazy I didn't want to go through the hassle of backing up all my photos, videos, games, etc and I checked if I could just plug the SSD without wiping into the new system. I read various posts on various boards (including this one) that it should not be a problem to do so nowadays. On top of that I thought that worst case scenario, I'd just end up having to wipe everything anyhow.

After I assembled the system I tried booting. Everything started whirring but the screen remained black and my displays said "No Signal." I messed around a bit with the display ports and also tried the HDMI port (knowing the issue my RTX 2070 had) but it didn't really change anything. Just to be clear: this also means I never got to the BIOS screen of my new mobo.
Naturally I assumed I <Mod Edit> up being lazy with the SSD. So I took it out of the new system and plugged it back into the old system along with my 560ti, the 550W PSU and the arctic cooler from my Micro ATX build to get it up and running. To my surprise the system wouldn't boot. I got the BIOS screen and afterwards I'd get a black screen saying:

Reboot and Select proper Boot device
or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key
93426593_250918562703495_8650309239337648128_n.jpg

When I checked in the BIOS it correctly found the 860EVO but it would just refuse to boot from it. I couldn't find any way to make it boot so I decided to plug it back into the new system and see if anything changed by now and it did! The new system would now display the same behaviour, meaning that I could access my BIOS however afterwards I received the exact same error message as described/screenshotted above. I also noticed that I made a small <Mod Edit> where I didn't properly connect my pump to my PWM fanhub, which caused the CPU to be 110degrees in the bios for a few seconds, though I instantly turned off the system and fixed that.
At this point I was like, <mod edit - watch the language> it, I'll just bite the bullet and reinstall my stuff. Losing the videos/screenshots would be sad (since it was stuff that I carried over from various hard drives, some stuff dating all the way back to 2005) but I couldn't be bothered since I didn't find anything that changed anything at all. So I inserted the Windows 10 USB and did a clean install. Everything went well, some stuff was even still available in the windows.old folder and aside from a small hick-up trying to verify my Windows 10 Digital License, all seemed good.

March 16, 2020

I fixed the Windows License and just set up the system entirely, ran 3DMark and everything seemed to be working fine.

March 17, 2020
Woke up at 09h00 for work, turned on my pc, made a coffee, went back to my PC to login to windows and noticed it was displaying strange behaviour. I couldn't press enter to put in my pincode. The screen went black, exactly how it was before when I booted it the first time after just assembling it (!) and my display said "no signal." I pressed the reset button, it didn't do anything so I flipped the switch on my PSU. Now I booted the PC again and it booted normal. I thought that maybe it was a small hiccup andI'd have a look at it later.
As I was doing some work and browsing reddit, I noticed that gfycat gifs with sound loaded really choppy, another indicator that something was up.
Next I played some CSGO and Warzone, which all went pretty smooth. I assumed/hoped that the hiccups were a one time thing as I had rebooted my pc already a few times and nothing seemed out of place. Note that I was also monitoring my temperatures constantly and both my CPU and GPU temps were fine.
After the game of CSGO, I decided it was time to finally try my hand at Valorant and played a game of that. And then it all went wrong again. After the match was over and the game went back to the main menu, my PC crashed in a way that seemed eerily familiar. Yes, you guessed it, the screen went black, I could still talk to my mates over VOIP, then everything froze, the last 0.01 Second of audio looped extremely fast for a moment but then there was a twist. Instead of restarting as my old build had done for the past 5+ years, the screen remained black and it said "No signal" on my display while I could STILL talk to my friends on teamspeak somehow.
Nothing what I did changed anything and I had to flip the switch on my PSU once again.

Afterwards I was back to the very first phase of this system once more: everything started up, I didn't get to see the bios and instead the display said "No Signal." Rebooting didn't change anything and thus the system became unusable again.
So my first thought was that the PSU was an issue. The CPU, Mobo and ram are all brand new, the GPU and boot-SSD are both less than a year old, the extra SSD is significantly older but it's just storage, the DVD player is just a DVD player and the X62 was working fine according to the temps I monitored. The PSU was 4.5 years old and I had hesitated to upgrade it as well since it obviously degraded due to intensive usage. In my layman's opinion I thought that maybe it was not supplying enough power for this new setup, which was causing the GPU to stop working which then in turn was causing the No Signal error.
So I started taking my system apart again. "Fun" Sidenote: I took off the glass sidepanel from my new case and for some reason it exploded in my hand, glass shards and cut my hand open, just what I needed on top of all of this :)!!!

  1. First I unplugged the 850EVO and rebooted, no change, still no signal, no bios.
  2. Next I swapped the EVGA 750W PSU with the 550W PSU from my MicroATX build. Even though both were equally old, the 550W PSU was barely ever used at all. It went to 3 LAN's and then my ex used the MicroATX to play sims once a week. I figured that may change something.
And it did, I once again got the "Reboot and Select proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key" error. Again my system was inaccessible. However to try and see what the hell was going on, I decided to not wipe the disk and install windows on the 850EVO (that was only used for work related stuff and was clean anyhow at this point).
This worked out fine and next I hooked up my 860 2TB evo to a SATA to USB cable to see if I could read what was on it that way. Somewhat to my surprise this also worked out fine. I could access everything on it, without any issues. Next steps I took were putting the 860EVO back in the pc and attaching the 750W PSU again. Both of these steps worked out fine.
And that's basically the point where I'm at now.

All the parts are in the PC and running, windows is on the 850EVO and all my data that was on the 860EVO is accessible, the 750W PSU is worknig and I have no idea what on earth is causing these issues. Just booting from the 860EVO isn't working anymore, even though I didn't wipe windows of it yet and it working this morning.
I tried to find any crash report on the 860EVO but I'm failing to do so uptil now.


And that pretty much concludes my story. I'm truely desperate as I have replaced every single part (except from the DVD player, which may be cursed I guess) in the past 5 years, but I keep having huge issues with my system. Whereas some stuff (partially) fixed problems I had (like updating the bios from my old mobo, getting a new GPU made the crashes consistent and once a day), my latest upgrade seems to taken everything to a whole other level. I need to find a solution and I'm completely out of ideas as my system now is incredibly unstable and I absolutely cannot go through this routine on a daily basis.

So some questions:

  1. As I wrote this out, I realized that the DVD player is the only part that I never replaced, along with my main monitor (XL2420T from BenQ). I'll take the DVD player out obviously but could this (or the monitor) really have caused the issue?
  2. Does it sound plausible that the PSU is causing all of this, meaning that the second replacement EVGA send me (after the one from the video) was faulty after all?
  3. Is my theory completely bonkers that a "faulty" part could've "infected" other parts and that, because I keep reusing parts from old systems, this keeps transmitting the problem?
  4. Could something be corrupting my windows installation and is that why I keep getting the "Reboot and Select proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key" error?
  5. Could this perhaps be virus related?
I know some of this may sound retarded/crazy/stupid but again, I'm completely out of ideas and the only solution I can still see is straight up replacing every part without reusing anything. Please help me out someone.
 
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SO, I read SOME of your post, but honestly while providing all of the relevant information is important, there is basically irrelevant old history in there as well.

All that really matters is the hardware in play now.

Please list EXACTLY what hardware is currently in use, all of it, including all model numbers and the approximate age of each component. Exact power supply model. Exactly what drives are still being used and are attached to the system. When the last time a clean install of Windows was done WITH ONLY ONE DRIVE attached to the motherboard.

Exact motherboard model and exact memory kit model. Also, whether all memory in use came from ONLY one kit, or if the memory is from multiple kits/sticks that did not all come together.

Additionally, has the same power outlet been used for this entire history of problems, or have you attempted to use the system on some different, unrelated wall outlet that is branched from a different circuit than the one used primarily? Also, has the outlet been tested using a cheap tester to verify that hot, neutral and ground are all uncompromised and unswitched? These can be purchased for cheap on Amazon and simply plug into the socket.

Is a UPS system in use? A power strip or surge protector?
 
Apr 17, 2020
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Hey Darkbreeze,

First of all, thank you so much for replying.

The reason why I listed the entire history is because I thought that old stuff that broke couldve potentially broken the new hardware. Maybe this sounds crazy/dumb but I'm desperate after 5 years of getting the same error.

Exact hardware currently in use with age. For some parts I unfortunately can't pinpoint the precise date. I'll link the URL of the sites where I purchased to the parts (if this isn't clear enough, let me know and I'll take photos of every part):
And then the reused hardware:

When the last time a clean install of Windows was done WITH ONLY ONE DRIVE attached to the motherboard.
15th of March - everything was installed on only the 860EVO. Afterwards I attached the 850EVO.


Exact motherboard model and exact memory kit model. Also, whether all memory in use came from ONLY one kit, or if the memory is from multiple kits/sticks that did not all come together.

  • I think the exact model numbers are supplied earlier in this post now.
  • All the memory came from a single kit, the only memory in use is the kit I purchased of the URL i linked above. I did NOT reuse my old ram.


Additionally, has the same power outlet been used for this entire history of problems, or have you attempted to use the system on some different, unrelated wall outlet that is branched from a different circuit than the one used primarily? Also, has the outlet been tested using a cheap tester to verify that hot, neutral and ground are all uncompromised and unswitched? These can be purchased for cheap on Amazon and simply plug into the socket.

There have been various power outlets. I had these problems at my old appartment, at my parent's place, at my current appartment and at various LAN's that I attended. All are different locations across Belgium and some of the LAN's I attended were in different countries as well. I had the problems described everywhere.

Is a UPS system in use? A power strip or surge protector?
  • UPS system: never seen one of these before so I guess not.
  • Power strip: most of the time yes, however when I was still living at my parents place not.
  • Surge protector: sometimes built in in the power strip, however I'ver used power strips with and without surge protectors.


Again thank you so much for having a look at this. Please let me know if I need to supply any additional info or clarify something.
 
So, the only thing I see that is "common" is that G1 power supply, which honestly is a very problematic model historically for EVGA. It's not a unit I'd have ever recommended and I've seen a LOT of threads on here since around 2014 that were down to the use of a G1 NEX Supernova power supply being the problem. So does that mean YOUR problem is due to that, obviously I can't say that. What I can say is, you've clearly had issues with two previous units that were replaced, which itself, is and ought to be it's own warning. The G1 is nothing like the G2, G3, B2, P2, T2 or GQ units.

The voltage regulation and ripple suppression on that unit are not particularly good, even when new, and are likely much worse as the unit ages. Since yours are all EVGA replaced units, it's doubtful your current unit was anything more than a used replacement because that is pretty typical for an RMA. Even if they sent you an brand new unopened, shrink wrapped replacement, by now it still could again be having troubles. So anyhow, that unit by sheer fact of historical problems I've seen here with them especially on gaming systems, makes it suspect. Whether it's to blame or not is really just a crapshoot at this point but considering what all else you've done I'd certainly be giving that power supply the stink eye if it were me.

You'll find my recommendations here:



Get rid of the DVD player from 2011. That's another highly suspect device. Just unplug it from the system, both power and SATA connections, and see if there is any change. Old drives are well known for causing all sorts of weird issues. Especially old optical drives.

WHICH Windows version are you running?

Do you have the MOST recent motherboard BIOS version installed?

Parts don't "infect" other parts. There is a concrete reason for the problem, somewhere in there.

Kraken is also suspect, not because of the cooler, but because NZXT CAM is the worst piece of buggy software I've ever had the misfortune of having to use, and I'm not using it anymore I can tell you that. I have a lot I could tell you about CAM but you can read this thread for yourself.

https://support.camwebapp.com/forum...s/19538782-fully-offline-mode-for-cam-privacy
 
Apr 17, 2020
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So, the only thing I see that is "common" is that G1 power supply, which honestly is a very problematic model historically for EVGA. It's not a unit I'd have ever recommended and I've seen a LOT of threads on here since around 2014 that were down to the use of a G1 NEX Supernova power supply being the problem. So does that mean YOUR problem is due to that, obviously I can't say that. What I can say is, you've clearly had issues with two previous units that were replaced, which itself, is and ought to be it's own warning. The G1 is nothing like the G2, G3, B2, P2, T2 or GQ units.

Once again, thank you so much for your continued support with me on this. I was unaware the G1 series had this kind of reputation. The reason why I didn't suspect much after having 2 defect units is because they broke in completely different fashions (first one just straight up stopped working, second one worked fine but made a weird rattling noise). I wrote it off a sheer bad luck though I should've done more research.
I'm now running my PC with the PSU from my microATX (EVGA SuperNOVA 550 GS, 80+ GOLD 550W - https://www.evga.com/products/specs/psu.aspx?pn=bc659663-a68c-4e5d-a924-6b5ab982e194 ) though naturally I'm just going to get a new one regardless.

The voltage regulation and ripple suppression on that unit are not particularly good, even when new, and are likely much worse as the unit ages. Since yours are all EVGA replaced units, it's doubtful your current unit was anything more than a used replacement because that is pretty typical for an RMA. Even if they sent you an brand new unopened, shrink wrapped replacement, by now it still could again be having troubles. So anyhow, that unit by sheer fact of historical problems I've seen here with them especially on gaming systems, makes it suspect. Whether it's to blame or not is really just a crapshoot at this point but considering what all else you've done I'd certainly be giving that power supply the stink eye if it were me.
Can't recall whether it was shrink wrapped or not honestly though the GPU that died (GTX970) was also from EVGA. If anything, my experience with their hardware isn't stellar at all.
I'll get a new one based on the recommendations link you've sent me, thanks for that!

Get rid of the DVD player from 2011. That's another highly suspect device. Just unplug it from the system, both power and SATA connections, and see if there is any change. Old drives are well known for causing all sorts of weird issues. Especially old optical drives.
Ive thrown it out when reassembling my system yesterday.


WHICH Windows version are you running?
Windows 10, Home, Version 1909 (OS Build 18363.778)

Parts don't "infect" other parts. There is a concrete reason for the problem, somewhere in there.
Perhaps my phrasing was a bit weird: what I was suspecting is that for example, my first broken PSU, broke something in my motherboard, which in turn broke something in my SSD.


Kraken is also suspect, not because of the cooler, but because NZXT CAM is the worst piece of buggy software I've ever had the misfortune of having to use, and I'm not using it anymore I can tell you that. I have a lot I could tell you about CAM but you can read this thread for yourself.
I used CAM on and off since I got the x62, guess i'll throw it out once more!


Thanks again for the reply, truely much appreciated.
 
Don't get me wrong, before I address any of your other concerns, let me just say that EVGA has probably the very BEST customer service after the sale and they ABSOLUTELY offer some of the highest quality hardware you can get at any price, HOWEVER, they also sell some real crap right alongside the top shelf stuff.

When it comes to Nvidia based graphics cards, you pretty much can't get anything better than EVGA's XC, Hybrid and FTW products. The SC products and other lower end solutions, not so much, but even so, those products are STILL well supported for what it's worth. So they get the utmost points for customer support and for quality on their better products.

Same goes for their power supplies, HOWEVER, you must understand that much as other companies they have good, mediocre and truly crappy products. The B1, N1, W1 and BR power supplies are some of the crappiest you'll ever find from a major well known name brand, ever. The B2, G2, P2 and T2 units are some of the best commonly available consumer ATX power supplies that have ever been available, with the G3 and GQ units not all that far behind. But then you have the very recent G5 models, not even made by Super Flower like the G2 and G3 models, that are farmed out to a third party, highly questionable manufacturer, that has done extremely poorly in reviews. So it's absolutely a mixed bag and the ONLY way to ever know about the quality of any given EVGA product as compared to other EVGA products or competing products from other manufacturers is to look at PROFESSIONAL reviews. If there are no professional reviews of a given product, whether EVGA or not, then it's either too new for anybody to have done a review yet, or the manufacturer has intentionally refused to send out review samples because they know the feedback and results of said review would reflect poorly on that model OR there has been an unspoken consensus amongst reviewers that the model is not worth buying for review or reviewing in general.

So basically, no professional review in my book means either don't buy the product or don't complain when it turns out to be a turd. Sometimes we are willing to take that chance on fairly new products, but it's a crapshoot for sure. I prefer to buy tried and true products with good professional reviews when possible. Professional meaning, not some unknown schmuck on Youtube, but known, trustworthy reviewers on places like Tom's hardware, Techspot, TechpowerUP, Overclockers, Anandtech, etc. , and even then you might need to be a little bit selective because there are definitely some reviewers on some professional sites that I have serious doubts regarding their efficacy and reliability.
 
Once you have CAM and that old DVD player out of the system, and have a known good quality PSU in place, I would recommend that you do all of the following, or at least check each item, even if you have done so before in the past. Nothing listed here is something you'd want to overlook.

If there are any steps listed here that you have not already done, it would be advisable to do so if for no other reason than to be able to say you've already done it and eliminate that possibility.



First,

make sure your motherboard has the MOST recent BIOS version installed. If it does not, then update. This solves a high number of issues even in cases where the release that is newer than yours makes no mention of improving graphics card or other hardware compatibility. They do not list every change they have made when they post a new BIOS release.


Second,

go to the product page for your motherboard on the manufacturer website. Download and install the latest driver versions for the chipset, storage controllers, audio and network adapters. Do not skip installing a newer driver just because you think it is not relevant to the problem you are having. The drivers for one device can often affect ALL other devices and a questionable driver release can cause instability in the OS itself. They don't release new drivers just for fun. If there is a new driver release for a component, there is a good reason for it. The same goes for BIOS updates.


IF you have other hardware installed or attached to the system that are not a part of the systems covered by the motherboard drivers, then go to the support page for THAT component and check to see if there are newer drivers available for that as well. If there are, install them.


Third,

Make sure your memory is running at the correct advertised speed in the BIOS. This may require that you set the memory to run at the XMP profile settings. Also, make sure you have the memory installed in the correct slots and that they are running in dual channel which you can check by installing CPU-Z and checking the Memory and SPD tabs. For all modern motherboards that are dual channel memory architectures, from the last ten years at least, if you have two sticks installed they should be in the A2 (Called DDR4_1 on some boards) or B2 (Called DDR4_2 on some boards) which are ALWAYS the SECOND and FOURTH slots over from the CPU socket, counting TOWARDS the edge of the motherboard EXCEPT on boards that only have two memory slots total. In that case, if you have two modules it's not rocket science, but if you have only one, then install it in the A1 or DDR4_1 slot.



The last thing we want to look at,

for now anyhow, is the graphics card drivers. Regardless of whether you "already installed the newest drivers" for your graphics card or not, it is OFTEN a good idea to do a CLEAN install of the graphics card drivers. Just installing over the old drivers OR trying to use what Nvidia and AMD consider a clean install is not good enough and does not usually give the same result as using the Display Driver Uninstaller utility. This has a very high success rate and is always worth a shot.


If you have had both Nvidia and AMD cards installed at any point on that operating system then you will want to run the DDU twice. Once for the old card drivers (ie, Nvidia or AMD) and again for the currently installed graphics card drivers (ie, AMD or Nvidia). So if you had an Nvidia card at some point in the past, run it first for Nvidia and then after that is complete, run it again for AMD if you currently have an AMD card installed.

 
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