PC freezing/rebooting with no obvious cause.

[Psymonkee]

Hey,

Back in spring 2022 I went and picked up a whole bunch of parts for a new build and over the course of a couple of days I slapped them together:

• Ryzen 7 5800X CPU
• ASUS ROG Strix B550-F Gaming Mobo
• 32GB Corsair Vengeance RAM
• WD Black SN850 1TB NVMe
• Corsair 850W PSU
• AIO cooler/case etc

I moved other hardware from my old PC across (mechanical storage, 1080Ti) and things were running pretty smoothly. Fast forward to perhaps spring of 2025 and I started getting the odd crash when playing some games (notably Derail Valley, runs on Unity) in which the screen would switch off, the system/AIO fans would rev up to maximum but the game/youtube audio would continue to play.

Initial thought was GFX drivers so I updated those and things seemed to be working fine but then it started happening again. More driver updates but it still keeps crashing.

About a month after Windows 10 support ended I decided to finally get around to sorting out the TPM stuff for Windows 11 and went about updating the BIOS on the motherboard and whatnot to prepare for the update. That flashed OK and I held off updating until I had some free time to really look into it. Sadly the crashes started happening more and more frequently which brings us to the current day.

(TLDR; accumulating crashes, updated GFX drivers. Worse crashes after BIOS update?)

Now the PC will sit in BIOS happily which is fine but not very useful or exciting. Booting to windows I can login but ~90 seconds after that the PC will freeze (mouse locks up/keyboard inputs don't work). Not ideal. Used a 2nd PC to make a bootable Windows 11 USB stick and boot from that only for it to either freeze or reboot in the Windows Preinstall Environment.

At this point I've been able to get as far as formatting drive C: (data is safe elsewhere) yet it still freezes/reboots before I can get anywhere. Specifically it's during the windows setup stage where it's 'Getting files ready for installation' stage - it freezes or reboots anywhere from 7% to 85% of this process.

Things I've tried to fix it:

• GFX drivers (worked for a while, now redundant)
• Memtest86, 1 full pass OK (got bored at 2am)
• BIOS update (flashed ok, perhaps faulty? Version 3635 dated 11/11/2025)
• Sacrificed my first born
• Gorged on festive chocolate
• Tried a different PSU (650W Corsiar)

Really not sure what's going on anymore and could do with a little help with ideas/possible solutions if anyone has a good suggestion! I'm thinking it's a CPU/Mobo/RAM issue or perhaps a dodgy BIOS flash?

Whilst my GFX card is creaking and showing it's age I'd kind of like to play some games again as the loaner PC I'm typing this up on has a 1060 which is....struggling. It still plays Stardew Valley though so I can't complain too much!

Any help/ideas would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Firegod]

I started getting the odd crash when playing some games (notably Derail Valley, runs on Unity) in which the screen would switch off, the system/AIO fans would rev up to maximum but the game/youtube audio would continue to play.

That sometimes points to PSU. But you say it still happens on the 650W Corsair PSU so that rules that out.

At this point I've been able to get as far as formatting drive C: (data is safe elsewhere) yet it still freezes/reboots before I can get anywhere. Specifically it's during the windows setup stage where it's 'Getting files ready for installation' stage - it freezes or reboots anywhere from 7% to 85% of this process.

Perhaps the SN850 could be bad?

 

[Psymonkee]

Anyway to confirm that short of swapping it out/not using it? When I was last able to sit in Windows for a time it came back with no errors I could see.

 

[freddie64]

What RAM have you got and is it 2x16 or 4x8 gig sticks?

Memtest one stick of RAM at a time.

Have you tried RAM at stock settings?

Could always try a new CMOS battery.

 

[Psymonkee]

Did the CMOS battery already. Have 2 x 16GB of RAM and cycled them all through different slot combinations in single and pairs.

Memtest 1 stick at a time is worth a shout though - I'll see if I can set that running later.

Everything is at stock settings however.

 

[Rob_B]

Sounds storage related without trouble shooting more. Do you have a SATA SSD or another NVME you can try to install windows on with your current drive removed?
Or pop it in an external NVME enclosure and check the health on another machine?

 

[Psymonkee]

Working on the idea of a different drive but finding one that can be sacrificed amongst the current PC's in the house is taking longer than we'd thought. Throw in a bit of new year illness and well....yeah

 

[mark 11:11]

have you tried the gpu in a different pc? that seems to be the one thing that stands out to me that you havnt mentioned ruling out as of yet

 

[Psymonkee]

Yeah, that's the next thing I've been meaning to try as the GFX card is 8 years old. Not been seeing any artifacting or other graphical issues but it should be a quick test.