Computer Crashing

[Clover11]

My computer froze up on me last night and now seems to have something seriously wrong. Seemed to be running well before it suddenly froze. Sound was stuck, frozen screens, unresponsive computer, etc. I had to hold down the power button to force it off. I left it off for a min and then tried to power it back up, but it could not complete the startup and powered itself off within a couple seconds. It did that a few times, cutting power during startup. I would hear the fans come on, see the internal RGB light up, but not signal to monitors or USB devices and it would power itself off within a few seconds and I hear a relay click. After the on and off multiple time, it powered up and I made it to the BIOS. CPU was 54C and MB was 45C. Exited the BIOS and opened Windows and it made it about a minute before suddenly powering off again and cycling the power on and off again. When it cycled, no signal goes to the monitors or the USB devices so I can't even get to the BIOS.

I have never had this happen before and is above my skillset.

I eventually got back to the BIOS and changed the memory DCCP setting to AUTO. I had changed the RAM a month back or so and it seemed to have some problems running at the 4000hz it was rated at first and I updated the BIOS and it seemed to stabilize, but I thought maybe the RAM speed was still and issue. I hoped going back to AUTO would solve my problems, so I restarted after the update. It made it through the startup and I opened iRacing and started another time trial. Everything seemed to be running well again, until it froze again with about the same amount of time left as the first hard freeze. Again everything the sound was stuck, the screens frozen, computer unresponsive and I needed to hold down the power button to power it off. It was late, I figured I would give it some time and ask for advice before I came back to it.

Never had it just cut power suddenly during the startup and it has me worried that something more major is wrong. I did have a little trouble with the RAM upgrade last month and when I tried starting up and was also not getting any signal to the USB or monitors on power up. I ended up pulling each stick out, putting it back in, checking the connections to the GPU and the rest of the plugs to make sure everything was seated, etc. When I fired it back up, everything worked, but maybe something is still a bit lose.

I really don't know where to even look right now. I hope someone can guide me here as I am in over my head.

AMD 5600X
Asus TUF X570 plus wifi
32GB 4000hz RAM
3080i
750W PS

Any advice? I do have a video I recorded on my phone while it was powering on and off and of resetting my BIOS.

 

[NeoGrotesk]

If you've had Ram issues in the past then I'd start there. Take it all out and put just one stick in and see if it boots. If it does then keep adding the other sticks and see if the problem comes back.

 

[Neilski]

If you've had Ram issues in the past then I'd start there. Take it all out and put just one stick in and see if it boots. If it does then keep adding the other sticks and see if the problem comes back.

Agreed. That's an excellent first step.
If that doesn't work, then if you have a spare GPU I'd also consider trying it to see if it makes a difference.

In a sense, having a fault that prevents the machine from completing the POST is a good thing. This is because it lets you eliminate the OS as being the cause, and it also lets you unplug the hard disks entirely (so that you can't corrupt anything) and in fact unplug just about everything else that's plugged in, so you can eliminate it.
I'd say the likely causes of a fault like this would include RAM, CPU, PSU and motherboard. GPU and other cards *might* be the issue but not so likely. Motherboard faults would include corrupted BIOS settings, so a BIOS reset would be worth a try (your board may have a physical button for this?).
Telling your RAM to run too fast will cause a POST failure, for example, and some but not all boards will automagically recover from that.

Just do make sure you have a backup of any data you care about, and if you have a motherboard-based RAID system then be alert to issues if you reset the BIOS.

 

[FredAZ]

Turn your RAM speed down to 2133 until you have 100% stable boot.

 

[Clover11]

Thanks guys. I pulled it back apart and took out and reinserted each stick of RAM, uplugged and replugged the GPU connections and lowered the RAM speed. Seemed to run okay after that. I think I might slowly raise the RAM speeds and see if that was causing the issues.

 

[Bob Gnarley]

The memory controller on your 5600x will run 2133-3600mhz at stock though you could possibly go higher with some tinkering. At 4000 the mem controller probably went to lunch...

Set D.O.C.P. to 3600mhz and all should be well.

 

[Clover11]

Cool, thanks guys. Appreciate the guidance.