[SOLVED] Unable to install Windows on new build (Ryzen)

[AstroFox]

Hi all.

I'm here for a problem that goes beyond my understanding...
I've recently build a new PC with some high end stuff (Ryzen 5950x, 3090 FE, G.Skill Neo Trident 64 GB @3600, Gigabyte AORUS X570 Master) as it's intended to be both my gaming station and workstation.

But the thing is... I can't even install Windows.
I've made a bootable USB stick from the official Microsoft website, boot from it, takes a time to load, I select the M2 drive when prompted, copying files... Then it restart the computer.
Window tells me it's loading the peripheral, then the points keeps turning and boom.
The computer stops.
I press the power button and I have a message error saying that it must restart to end the installation. Again and again.

So, I have several theory but I accept new one:

• It comes from the BIOS version (F31q) which I didn't know is a beta. So either I wait for the stable one, or I try to go back to the last stable version (not enough brave for that unless I'm "sure" it's not too risky) or I go to the back up BIOS by changing the switch position to see what happens (and I have a bad feeling).
• It comes from the weird temperature gestion of the Ryzen 5000 series. I had 65°C just waiting in the BIOS and 88 after each restart. I'm afraid the system shutdowns itself when reaching high temperature, explaining the Windows defect... I have a Fractal Design Celsius + to cool the CPU.

-It comes directly from the Windows files... Maybe the 20H2 version has an issue with my build.


So here I am.
Be informed that this is not my first time building a PC and I already done it with a Ryzen 3000 series CPU two month ago, everything's smooth.

Thanks a lot.

 

[Darkbreeze]

If you have a 65°C temp in the BIOS, and 88°C after restarting , then you have a cooling problem plain and simple. Your system is likely shutting down or freezing due to thermal issues.

Where is your radiator installed? If it is installed in the front is it installed with the hoses at the top or the bottom of the radiator?

If it's installed in the top of the case or if it is installed in the front with the hoses at the bottom of the radiator, then I'd pull the water block off and make sure everything is mounted correctly. If you did not 100% clean off ALL of the old thermal paste material from the top of the CPU and the bottom of the coldplate before reassembling when you changed CPUs, you need to do that and apply fresh thermal compound as well.

 

[AstroFox]

Hi and thanks for the reply.

So the radiator is mounted at the top of the case.

But don't bother you any further: when I saw your reply, I remembered that I did not tighten entirely the screw on the CPU as a friend of mine told me that the Fractal Design system sucks and it scratched a part of his copper plate.
So I tightened during installation but not that much. Then you came in so I've tightened much more.
Now I'm at 47 idle in the BIOS and around 70 when it restart. And I was able to install Windows, so thanks a lot!

Nevertheless I still don't understand why, and it seems I'm not the only one in this case, the temperature goes crazy even with simple actions in Windows. I can go 47 idle to 80 for installing a driver...

Anyway, one problem down, thanks again!

 

[Darkbreeze]

What version of the Celcius Plus do you have?

 

[AstroFox]

I have the Fractal Design Celsius + S36 Prisma.
I plugged it in the CPU_FAN header and it's in PMW mode to let me control the fan speed through the motherboard.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Where is the pump plugged in and is the pump speed set to between 90-100%?

What case is this in?

Are the fans on the radiator configured for intake or exhaust and are they on the inside side of the radiator or the outward facing side of the radiator?

Are you sure the pump is running? Have you monitored the pump RPMs?

What model was the 3000 series CPU you were running?

 

[AstroFox]

Pump plugged into CPU FAN header as there is only one cable to control everything in this AIO (execpt RGB lightning).

The case is a Phanteks Enthoo 719. It's surrounded by Noctua fans, 3 in front, one at the bottom, one at the back.

The AIO fans (3) are on the inside of the radiator in an exhaust position.

Can't see the pump RPM 'cause (I guess) everything's passing through the CPU FAN header.

And this is a brand new build. I've build another system for a colleague with a 3700x which has no issue.

 

[Darkbreeze]

What is the EXACT model of your power supply?

 

[AstroFox]

A Corsair AX1000.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Ok. So, still sounds like a thermal issue to me, but it's kind of hard to say really. Could be motherboard. Could be faulty USB drive and installation media. Could be faulty M.2 drive. I'd certainly be more concerned about the temperatures than installing Windows though.

I'd roll back to whatever is the most current, but stable, BIOS version, and see if the same problem remains with both temperatures and with installing Windows.

 

[AstroFox]

I'll try tomorrow to put some new thermal paste to see if it changes anything.
Yesterday I tried the Ryzen Master software and applied a stress test of 60 seconds: it was always close to 90 degrees, all core up to 3.9/4.0 GHz. And all the noise that come with it.
Also tried the benchmark in Horizon Zero Dawn to see: first try 90 degrees 153 FPS, second try 70 degrees with v-sync on 120 FPS (in 1920x1080).

And there's some people complaining around about the thermal management of the 5950x on Reddit and AMD forum

So I'm kind of lost.

But thanks a lot for your time! I appreciate.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Ok, so wait a minute. Let me have you clarify something here because maybe I'm not getting the whole picture and that happens sometimes, which results in not being able to offer ACCURATE suggestions or recommendations. That could just be my own fault, but might also be due in some cases to a lack of information or unintentional, but misleading information.

So you said at first that you can't install Windows and that every time you try, even when it seems like it's working, it freezes or restarts or whatever. Bottom line, that you can't successfully complete the installation process, right?

But now you say that you've "tried Ryzen master" which would indicate that you would have to be running Windows in order to do that. So, which is it? I'm confused on that.

Also, while trying to install Windows, are there OTHER drives attached besides the USB flash drive you are installing from and whatever drive you are installing TO? If there are, disconnect them completely from the system by unplugging the SATA cables going to them (With the power off of course) and then try the installation again. It might not be a bad idea also, after doing so, to reset the BIOS prior to trying to install Windows by using the following procedure, and THEN trying to install Windows, keeping all other drives disconnected until after the installation is successful.

BIOS Hard Reset procedure

Power off the unit, switch the PSU off and unplug the PSU cord from either the wall or the power supply.

Remove the motherboard CMOS battery for five minutes. In some cases it may be necessary to remove the graphics card to access the CMOS battery.

During that five minutes, press the power button on the case, continuously, for 30 seconds. After the five minutes is up, reinstall the CMOS battery making sure to insert it with the correct side up just as it came out.

If you had to remove the graphics card you can now reinstall it, but remember to reconnect your power cables if there were any attached to it as well as your display cable.

Now, plug the power supply cable back in, switch the PSU back on and power up the system. It should display the POST screen and the options to enter CMOS/BIOS setup. Enter the bios setup program and reconfigure the boot settings for either the Windows boot manager or for legacy systems, the drive your OS is installed on if necessary.

Save settings and exit. If the system will POST and boot then you can move forward from there including going back into the bios and configuring any other custom settings you may need to configure such as Memory XMP, A-XMP or D.O.C.P profile settings, custom fan profile settings or other specific settings you may have previously had configured that were wiped out by resetting the CMOS.

Before you begin the attempt to install Windows again, it might also be a good idea to first go back into the BIOS and load the Optimal default or Default values and then save settings, to actually get the hardware tables to reset in the boot manager, and THEN proceed with the installation by choosing the boot override option and selecting the USB flash drive as the drive to boot from.

 

[AstroFox]

Hi and sorry for the delay.

So there is a confusion indeed.

At your first reply you told me with such temperature at the start up there should be a problem with cooling which explain why I can't install Windows.
I did not tighten a lot the water cooling as a colleague with a similar set up told me that the attach system was not good and it scratched his copper plate.
So following your message, I tightened up the cooler and boom: I lost about 20 degrees.

I was then able to install Windows (told it at my second message).
Then you started asking question about my setup and at the same time I was doing test with Ryzen Master.
I was at 90 degrees full power for 1 minute @3.8 GHz.
Even if I knew that the 5950x has some issue with cooling (see 5950x temp spikes on Google), it was still very hot to me.

Eventually I unplugged totally the cooler... Just to see that the pre applied thermal paste was touching only half of the CPU.
So I removed it and I did a clean install. Tightening a lot this time.

Now, even if there are still those "temperature spikes" for simple tasks, I'm at 32 in the BIOS, around 38 in Windows and 80 during a stress test with Ryzen Master @4.250 GHz.

So thanks to you I found what was the problem all the time.
And now the PC is operational, just waiting for a potential BIOS update to fix the fluctuating temp.

I hope it's clearer now. =)
Thanks a lot again!

 

[Darkbreeze]

Ok, great. Yes, that makes a lot more sense. So the thermal issue is resolved, at least, as much as it is going to get resolved considering the CPU model and the use of a cooler that maybe prioritizes silence over performance a bit more than I'd like to see.

So, your biggest problem might be that all of these Ryzen systems tend to enable automatic overclocking by default, and with the bigger CPUs (And even the smaller core count models to some degree) that might have a real affect on core temperatures and how long they are able to sustain boost, and how how of a boost they can sustain. This will be relevant to the PBO setting in the BIOS, which is Precision boost overdrive.

Precision boost is the NORMAL, default boost profile that is intended to be used and designed into the CPU by AMD. Precision boost overdrive is an overclocking profile that AMD has engineered and provided for simple one click overclocking of the CPU, and for a lot of users this causes problems. If you have some seriously overkill cooling for whatever CPU model is in use, then it might be fine, or if you tend to run applications or games that primarily stick to one or only a few cores, it might be fine, with very good cooling, but if you are doing things that load up the full package or you have a big very high TDP CPU with a truck load of cores, then using PBO might be problematic if you don't have an expansive custom open loop liquid cooler.

I would try a couple of things here, just to experiment a bit.

First, disable PBO in the BIOS and see how that does. Also, make sure in the BIOS that these configurations settings are all as seen below.

Cool N Quiet - Enabled (If this setting is not present or available in your BIOS, just worry about the rest)

Core CPPC - Enabled

CPPC preferred cores - Enabled

Advanced/Global C-states - Enabled

Precision boost overdrive (PBO/PBO2) - Disabled (Unless you have high end cooling installed, or when troubleshooting thermal issues. Also, standard boost profiles like Precision boost (Non-overdrive) and XFR2 should be left enabled.)


Also, make SURE you have gone specifically to the AMD website and downloaded, and installed, the latest X570 chipset drivers. After you have done so, go into the Windows power options and make sure that the power plan is set to either Ryzen balanced or just the regular balanced power plan. You do not want the Performance power plan enabled unless you also go into the advanced settings for the Performance plan and set the minimum Processor power state to 5%. Leaving the Ryzen balanced power plan enabled is the better plan though.

Then restart the system, and then recheck your thermal performance. Also, in the settings for your AIO cooler, I would not recommend setting the profile to silent if you are using a preset profile. I'd stick with the standard, performance or a custom tailored fan curve configuration.