Potential motherboard issue, Kernel Power 41

[sehcure]

Hey all, sorry if this is the wrong section. I wasn't sure whether to put it in motherboards, as I'm really not sure if that is the actual problem.

I recently upgraded to a 5600 from a 3100. It was fine for 1 month or so, then I began to experience high temps and random restarts with the event viewer saying Kernel Power 41. WhoCrashed gave no info.

I figured it was a temp issue as I was still using the tiny stock cooler from the 3100.. got a new ThermalRight cooler and idling at 35-40, load 60-70. Great..but it is still restarting with the error

I posted on a forum and was told the PSU was the likely suspect, as my old one was a D tier seasonic. so got a new 750w gold+..same issue.

I put the old 3100 in to see if it was the 5600 breaking and i am still getting the error with the 3100.

This leads me to believe the mobo is not pushing enough power, or consistent power. I have tried many things, different PBO settings, DDU gfx drivers, reseat all cables and cooler, etc.

The only thing that seems to make a difference is PBO/eco mode. It lasts longer before a restart with no PBO and eco mode enabled but not much longer..

Specs:

5600/3100.

B550 Pro VDH Wifi.

1660 Súper.

2x16gb

ThermalRight king assassin 120 SE cooler

Any help appreciated. Have already replaced the PSU and cooler and am a bit annoyed that it isn’t solved yet haha

 

[sehcure]

It's not uncommon with Ryzen that CPUs are unstable at idle, due to not pushing enough voltage, which you can change yourself. To test that, you can disable all the idle states and if it doesn't restart then you know it is fixed. If that's the problem, then it won't restart, or will restart more rarely when under load (e.g. gaming).

How would one go about disabling idle states?

What memory speed and voltage, is it using XMP/DOCP? Have you tested it?



Did you change anything else on (or connected to) the PC at this time?

Have you done any testing of the SSD?



I assume you used the new cables?

Ram is 3200mhz, using XMP. I have tried one stick, then two. Also ran a memtest and it said it was fine.

Did not change anything connected. No testing of SSD, unsure which tool/how to.

Yes I used the new cables. Old one was non-modular, so I had to [it was garbage].


Thanks for the response!

 

[sehcure]

First thing I always try to rule out
Is it a windows problem
Rather do that first than go change hardware

As tetras said amd can crash at idle/light loads
But I only get that if I mess around with curve optimiser
And even then its a total shutdown
No bluescreen or error message

I have just tried a fresh windows install, keeps restarting during the process so I guess it is hardware related.

Now it seems to have got worse, can't even get to desktop before it restarts. Oh man

 

[sehcure]

Set bios to defaults?
Tried clear cmos?

Was struggling to get into windows, so I entered bios and - turned XMP off, it somehow was turned on again.. and got into Windows.

No drivers, no windows update. It is W11 22H2 from microsoft. The CPU stress test has been going now for 12 mins with NO RESTART. It is:

XMP off [2400mhz]
No drivers/windows update installed
Eco mode [45w]
PBO OFF

What should my next steps be? I am just happy it's working..Bad RAM? Bad drivers?

Not sure if I should turn XMP on to test, or first install drivers to test.

 

[sehcure]

I would leave xmp off
Install drivers etc
Retest see what happens
Also check your board is on latest bios

Updated drivers using MSI Driver and it instantly restarted.

Not 100% sure what it installed, but it was only 3-4 drivers.

Realtek something
Network driver
AMD chipset

 

[sehcure]

Amd chipset would be the one
I would be looking at
I would manually get the drivers
Rather than use a motherboard software to fetch them
If that's what msi driver means

Yes, it is MSI Driver Utility. It automatically was installed, somehow, perhaps via windows update? and it installed them.

Will try to uninstall the chipset drivers and reinstall from amd's site.

 

[sehcure]

yeah from amd i think the installer checks
for compatibility
plus if its like asus their chipset drivers are
quite a bit older version
than what i got off amd site

I am confused.

I was going to reinstall the chipset drivers, but it seemed stable so I started to install a few other items [Discord, Jagex Launcher for a game] and i think windows update started.

It then restarted.

This is all after doing 10/20 min runs of CPU/GPU/power [cpu + gpu] tests.

Is it a driver issue? A windows update issue? Maybe i'll try windows 10..

 

[sehcure]

Yeah, best to avoid this.



When does the PC normally restart? Any time? Gaming? Desktop?

The timing of these restarts might be a red herring and the system is still unstable.

Is XMP still off?

Have you disabled the C states?

XMP off
C States disabled
Tried other PBO settings [Auto/enabled/disabled/eco mode/ect]

I initially thought the PC restarts were when I was doing intensive things [gaming, stress test cpu/power] but now it has happened more it might just be random - sometimes I will login to desktop, do something for 5 mins and it restarts. Sometimes it will restart at the login screen pre-desktop. Seems random.

I have also tried windows 10, with drivers from AMD's site. Still restarts..

Pretty frustrated.

Edit: It also does not turn off when in BIOS or in the windows recovery boot [when it fails to boot a few times and goes to the advanced repair options thing]. If that helps..

Edit 2: Found a spare set of ram [2x8gb] and same issue occurs. Also did a CMOS reset and set default values. No change

Edit 3: Upon startup I now get the following lights lit up briefly on the mobo debug - CPU, then VGA, then BOOT. They are only on one at a time, CPU then VGA then BOOT. They then turn off and the PC starts up loading into windows. Not sure if they were there before ahhh

 

[sehcure]

Sounds like it’s the motherboard. Try with a minimal system config. 1 stick of RAM in the first slot, pull unneeded USB, networking etc.

I have to agree with jigger at this point, you've tried:

- Turning most things off/on, XMP, C-States, PBO, etc
- Two different sets of memory
- Two different CPUs
- Two different PSUs
- fresh Windows install

I picked up a new B550 board, and so far it seems stable with the 5600. Haven't changed any default BIOS settings yet [XMP, PBO, etc] but it seems stable so far. Have installed chipset drivers, some windows updates [not all, on w10].

When I'm home later I'll turn on XMP, do the windows updates, but may stay on w10 for now. I'll let you guys know! Seems like it was a MB issue

 

[sehcure]

Have you updated the motherboard bios to the latest version? Aside from the fact that the 5600 will need a newer bios version than the 3100 there are updates to the Agesa all of the time along with cpu performance improvements and compatibility fixes.

Yes, I did. Tried 3-4 different BIOS versions.

All were newer versions that support the 5000 series.