I built a computer for a friend that worked well for about three months until he decided to add an NVMe SSD (which I used before). After the installation, he started experiencing a series of problems, including freezes, blue screens with kernel errors, system hangs, and issues during the POST process. He took it to a local repair shop, and they determined the motherboard was faulty, so we replaced it. However, the problems continued, leading him to send the PC back to me for testing.
I spent several days running stress tests and playing games with his power supply, RAM, and GPU in my setup without any issues. Eventually, I returned the PC, and the problems resurfaced immediately when he turned it on. We speculated about the wiring in his house, but even after testing in different rooms, the issues persisted.
I'm starting to suspect the power supply but am unsure. We are sending it for warranty claims on Monday, but I also doubt the RAM is to blame since we've tried one at a time with and without XMP. His SSDs have also been tested with no changes. Given that the motherboard has been replaced, we're left with the CPU and the power supply as potential culprits. What do you think?
1 Answer
Have you considered environmental factors at your friend's place? Sometimes peripherals like monitors, keyboards, or even the power bars can introduce issues that don’t show up elsewhere. Also, transient power problems due to other devices can be a real pain. Does he have any unusual devices plugged in or some devices that may be causing spikes?
No air conditioning there, but I did suggest he test the PC on a TV instead of his monitor. As for peripherals, I doubt the keyboard and mouse could be the issue. He also tried it without a power strip, and the freezes still happen with just the essentials connected, so it seems quite erratic.