[SOLVED] system suddenly started crashing and boot looping, any ideas?

Dec 30, 2020
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Hello,

I have a boot loop issue which is making me rip my hair out, my system is as followed :

I5-9600k
Aorus Z390 Elite motherboard (replaced today with a Z390 gaming X as i thought this was the problem)
G.Skill DDR4 Trident-Z 2x8GB 3600 MHz CL18 RGB (this is maybe the issue?)
cooler master MWE Gold 750W Full modular
Gigabyte GTX 1080 G1 Gaming
1TB M.2 970 EVO , 256GB Samsung SSD (can't recall which exact one)

All parts except for the SSD (and HDD) are about a year old, and when i bought the i5 / ram / motherboard it already had some issues to begin with, i returned the motherboard to the vendor and they looked at it themself.
I got the answer that there was some bent pins (idk how that would've happened as i handled it with extreme care and have done so plenty of times with other motherboards/cpu's) which they bent back and they returned it to me.
The issue seemed fixed but returned from time to time, being solved when i'd get 1 RAM stick out, reboot, and put it back in.
Now since a week ago the issue has turned into it not wanting to boot with any stick in slot 3 & 4, even a single stick wouldn't boot in either of those slots, whilst it would in slot 1 & 2.
So i figured i'd run single channel (slot 1 & 2) for now, until the new cpu/gpu's are more available which was working fine (playing COD cold war, Tarkov, ...)
Now 2 days ago my pc started crashing whilst i had any kind of load, would crash in loading screen on tarkov, and crash after a round of COD as well. Turning worse and worse (now it even initiated a boot loop when in the rocket league menu, or planet zoo menu).
i bought a new motherboard, thinking the fix they did for this was somehow not working anymore (and i can't return the Elite mobo since the box has gone missing) which made me able to play tarkov etc for about 6 hours, when it suddenly crashed into a boot loop again.
Thinking it might've been a one time thing orso i booted the game, got to play about 10 minutes , and it boot looped ONCE AGAIN.

my question now is, what would be your guess as to what could be causing this? I'm a person that has a low income and can't afford to just buy all new parts right now as i've had quite a bit of medical bills lately.
Would it be the RAM , or something in the bios orso?
i would greatly appreciate any kind of help, as i am genuinly mindblown by this whole scenario

BTW, the RAM says it's supported on both QVL's.
 
Solution
Well here's a checklist of things to do; #6 in particular, I would check voltage through cpuid because the problem seems to be related to your ram, although I guess that could be a red herring. I don't know anything about voltages, so I can't walk you through it. #21, I would reset your cmos, that's easy and takes five minutes and might take care of the ram's timings if that's part of the issue.

I once had a boot loop because my sata cords were smooshed into unnatural right angles, I guess they were pulling on the motherboard too much. So breadboarding is a good thing to try.

Otherwise you'll have to wait for someone more knowledgeable than me to answer your questions. Sorry!
Dec 30, 2020
4
0
10
How do you get out of the boot loop? I thought that was a term for a never-ending process, but it seems you are able to get out of it and then your pc crashes later.
Well, in the beginning when i had this problem i pulled out my 2nd RAM stick (it kept giving me a RAM LED on the motherboard, then going off state, until it reached the RAM led again and kept doing this)
but at some point that started to not work anymore, and my 3rd and 4th memory slot were just unable to have any ram in them(i tried booting every time with even just one ram stick ,slot 3 & 4 would never even get to the bios) so i switched motherboard got like 4 hours of games in and then it happened again.
Now with the new motherboard the few times it's happened all i had to do was click the psu off, wait a few seconds, put it on and it's fine again.

Although it seems the problem is way less severe (where with the old motherboard i would boot loop in the menu of some games, i can now actually get a few minutes of in game again every time but it consistently keeps crashing into a boot loop again)
the reason i call it a boot loop, is because it literally keeps booting and shutting down; until i interfere (read : powering off the PSU/pull out RAM)
 

Viorala

Reputable
May 20, 2019
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Well here's a checklist of things to do; #6 in particular, I would check voltage through cpuid because the problem seems to be related to your ram, although I guess that could be a red herring. I don't know anything about voltages, so I can't walk you through it. #21, I would reset your cmos, that's easy and takes five minutes and might take care of the ram's timings if that's part of the issue.

I once had a boot loop because my sata cords were smooshed into unnatural right angles, I guess they were pulling on the motherboard too much. So breadboarding is a good thing to try.

Otherwise you'll have to wait for someone more knowledgeable than me to answer your questions. Sorry!
 
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Solution
Dec 30, 2020
4
0
10
it ended up being the PSU that (most likely) took the motherboard with it, seemed weird to me as all parts (including the PSU) were about a year old max but i'm just glad i got it fixed :)
ordered a new motherboard, RAM, and PSU , with only the new motherboard it ran stable on heavy load for +- 4 hours, then went back to the boot looping with the new PSU i've not had any trouble anymore