I've got a Ryzen 9 5950x paired with an Asus Crosshair VIII motherboard and 64GB of RAM, and everything was running smoothly for about three years. Since I installed Windows 11, the system has been freezing intermittently—sometimes during boot, other times after I've logged in or even after a full day of use. The system runs fine in safe mode, though. I've updated the motherboard BIOS and checked the temperatures; they look good. I ran MemTest86 without errors and chkdsk came back clear too.
When trying to restore from a Macrium Reflect USB, it locks up while trying to find the image on my external drive. I attempted a clean install of Windows 11 on a new NVMe SSD, but it either freezes early on or crashes to a black screen when copying files. I'm starting to wonder if it's a motherboard failure or a flaky power supply. Any suggestions on what to try next?
3 Answers
It sounds frustrating! If you haven't already, check the voltage in your BIOS, especially the 3.3v rail. It should be over 3. If it's dropping below 3, it might cause those freezes. Also, you mentioned losing USB devices sometimes, so this could indicate a failing storage drive or power issue.
Yeah, getting into a barebones setup could really help isolate the issue! Just boot with the essentials like one stick of RAM, the CPU, and the GPU. If it freezes even then, it could likely point to a motherboard or CPU defect. If you’re still within any warranty or RMA window, you might want to consider sending them back.
Have you encountered any BSOD errors? If so, the codes can be quite telling. Since you’ve run your PC fine in safe mode, that suggests the issue might be driver-related or possibly due to another malfunctioning component. If you have other storage drives, try disconnecting them as well to see if it helps. You could also try using a live USB with a Linux distro to test if your system freezes there too; that might pinpoint whether it's a Windows issue or hardware.
Right! I’d also consider the possibility of a dead storage drive disconnecting intermittently, which can lead to freezes. Make sure all cables are secure and that your PSU is delivering enough power.