HELP! PC Freezing and going unresponsive

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X0th3rm1k

X0th3rm1k

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After finally completing my PC build back in July, everything seemed all well and good until about early-mid August when my PC first started freezing and causing the entire PC to go unresponsive, where even Ctrl+Alt+Del did absolutely nothing, forcing me to restart the PC by holding the power button. At first it was sporadic, happening when I was playing games, but then it started happening while I was browsing normally as well. I've tried rolling back and reinstalling the drivers, reinstalling Windows 10 and even reinstalling the BIOS on my motherboard, but whenever I think that the issue is fixed and I have no such thing happening for a couple of days, the freeze strikes again.

According to Event Viewer, it's always the same critical error that occurs - Kernel-Power Event ID 41 (63). I've reseated the components whenever possible, checked the wiring in the PC as well, but to no avail.

Specs
  • Ryzen 5 3600
  • MSI B550M Pro VDH WiFi
  • Antec Atom V550
  • G.Skill Ripjawz 8GB x 2
  • Adata 120 GB SSD (Win 10 installed here)
  • WD Blue 1TB HDD
  • Antec A40 Pro Air Cooler for CPU
  • RTX 2060
What finally has pushed me to post here in TE is that as of today, I've had the computer freeze on me 5 times, even freezing on me right after I log into the PC after restarting. I suspect it might be the Motherboard at this point, but I'm not entirely sure of it either. Another thing I've noticed is that there was one instance where the CPU light on my motherboard stayed on constantly, and the PC didn't restart at all.

Any and all help would be highly appreciated!
 
Check Ram , CPU temp . . Remove all the components from the MB including the processor . Using an air blower blow air and clean the MB . Reseat everything back . The accumulated dust on the components might create such issues . We used to clean ram using erasers to ensure proper connectivity in the Dimm slots . Cleaning and reseating might do the trick most of the times .
 
There's a few general things you could do to rule out the basics:

  1. Make sure you're on the latest non-beta bios for your motherboard: 7C95v28 dated 2021-06-28: https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/support/B550M-PRO-VDH-WIFI#down-bios

  2. Run a full memtest86 to see if you're having this issue under a non-Windows operating system: https://www.memtest86.com/download.htm

  3. Check power supply voltage levels in the bios. Budget power supplies like the Antec Atom should be avoided with high core count (more than 4 non-hyperthreaded cores) and all builds with a GPU that require additional power through PCIe power cables. They're not able to keep up with the transient spikes demanded by such hardware, they're better suit for lower end builds. I personally would not use such a power supply for anything more than a Celeron or Pentium, and even then, only if money is limited.

    The behavior you're seeing is characteristic of a power supply not being able to meet the demand, so it fails and the system loses power momentarily, resulting in freezes or reboots. The probable reason why you didn't see it earlier on is because you might have had a fresh install with few if any background processes, and as you started to install software, utilities, games, cpu/gpu utilization went up to a threshold that triggered the power supply to fail in this way.

    In any case, you should change the power supply even if the voltage levels are fine, it was just not designed to handle this kind of load.
 
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1) I already have the latest non-beta BIOS (v28) on my Mobo

2) You mention that I'll need to do it on a non-Windows OS. Will I have to get a new OS (like Linux) installed and then run memtest through that, or are there options for that in the application already?

3) At first I thought it was the PSU as well, but the freezing and such started happening even when doing simple tasks such as browsing the web and reading article, which was what led me to believe that something might be wrong with the Mobo and not the PSU, not to mention the system doesn't always freeze when I'm playing games, even intensive games like Cyberpunk on high with RTX on. Does it not matter if it's under intense workload like gaming or not?
 
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X0th3rm1k said:
1) I already have the latest non-beta BIOS (v28) on my Mobo

2) You mention that I'll need to do it on a non-Windows OS. Will I have to get a new OS (like Linux) installed and then run memtest through that, or are there options for that in the application already?

3) At first I thought it was the PSU as well, but the freezing and such started happening even when doing simple tasks such as browsing the web and reading article, which was what led me to believe that something might be wrong with the Mobo and not the PSU. Does it not matter if it's under intense workload like gaming or not?
Click to expand...
The CPU will draw power according to the processing required . For browsing the CPU should be more at an idle state . So PSU problem is ruled out .
 
X0th3rm1k said:
2) You mention that I'll need to do it on a non-Windows OS. Will I have to get a new OS (like Linux) installed and then run memtest through that, or are there options for that in the application already?

3) At first I thought it was the PSU as well, but the freezing and such started happening even when doing simple tasks such as browsing the web and reading article, which was what led me to believe that something might be wrong with the Mobo and not the PSU, not to mention the system doesn't always freeze when I'm playing games, even intensive games like Cyberpunk on high with RTX on. Does it not matter if it's under intense workload like gaming or not?
Click to expand...
2. You can boot memtest from an os mounted on a boot drive most likely.
3. This seems PSU from what you're saying - since it's sporadic and not repeatable, it is possible that over the last few months the PSU's capacitors and other internals have worn down and it can no longer power your system reliably. If it's only under high load then it's most likely psu, however with age/worn down internals it can happen at lighter loads too. Best bet is to check with a friend/local shop with a known good PSU and see if the system exhibits same issues. If yes then it's PSU. If not then it's something else.

Recently I faced a similar issue - PC would shutdown under varying amounts of load - whether it was cpu only (software rendering), gpu only (deep learning), or a mix of both (gaming). Tested CPU, GPU and RAM, so only mobo and PSU were left. Replaced PSU from a Corsair CX550 to a Cooler Master V850 Gold V2, and that fixed it.
 
TheCoolerPlayer said:
2. You can boot memtest from an os mounted on a boot drive most likely.
3. This seems PSU from what you're saying - since it's sporadic and not repeatable, it is possible that over the last few months the PSU's capacitors and other internals have worn down and it can no longer power your system reliably. If it's only under high load then it's most likely psu, however with age/worn down internals it can happen at lighter loads too. Best bet is to check with a friend/local shop with a known good PSU and see if the system exhibits same issues. If yes then it's PSU. If not then it's something else.

Recently I faced a similar issue - PC would shutdown under varying amounts of load - whether it was cpu only (software rendering), gpu only (deep learning), or a mix of both (gaming). Tested CPU, GPU and RAM, so only mobo and PSU were left. Replaced PSU from a Corsair CX550 to a Cooler Master V850 Gold V2, and that fixed it.
Click to expand...
Alright. Thank you for your inputs! I won't be upgrading my PC all that much in the near future, except for maybe adding more RAM to the system. I don't think I'll need more than 650W since I don't want to OC either. Could you recommend a 550W or a 650W PSU? I'd prefer it not be more than 6K. Modular would be great, but not compulsory in any sense.
 
I used to have random freezing with my old ryzen 1700 on asus mobo... changed the bios option called something like "power supply idle control " from low to typical and the freezing went away. Might be called something different on your msi mobo.

Not sure if it was RAM compatible issue or something to do with my really old corsair vx450 psu.
. Oh yes, and +1 to the suggestions to replace the psu
 
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X0th3rm1k said:
Alright. Thank you for your inputs! I won't be upgrading my PC all that much in the near future, except for maybe adding more RAM to the system. I don't think I'll need more than 650W since I don't want to OC either. Could you recommend a 550W or a 650W PSU? I'd prefer it not be more than 6K. Modular would be great, but not compulsory in any sense.
Click to expand...
First get checked, or do further testing, to confirm its PSU (or rule out others with reasonable confidence such that only PSU is left).
Cooler Master MWE 550 or 650 will be good for your budget.
 
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yugaaa said:
Check Ram , CPU temp . . Remove all the components from the MB including the processor . Using an air blower blow air and clean the MB . Reseat everything back . The accumulated dust on the components might create such issues . We used to clean ram using erasers to ensure proper connectivity in the Dimm slots . Cleaning and reseating might do the trick most of the times .
Click to expand...
I have reseated the components before already, and have run the system with individual RAM sticks as well. I use an air blower and anti-static brush to clean the dust in regular intervals (twice a month). Will try the erazer trick though.
 
Do have a look at the below thread. Your CPU is similar.

BSOD whenever I start gaming

Whenever I launch any game and play for 2-3 minutes it crashes the whole PC. This issue only started last month. Also I got my GPU replaced last week, so it can't be GPU. I checked thermals during gaming and it's normal on GPU, CPU & Mobo. PC is little less then 2 years old. CPU : AMD Ryzen 5...
techenclave.com techenclave.com

The OP of that RMAd almost everything and while most of his probs went away the stuttering/freezing remained. Seems like the BIOS setting recommended by Mr. vishalrao, above, might be a good place to start since it's cost free. Good luck
 
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Slayer88 said:
Do have a look at the below thread. Your CPU is similar.

BSOD whenever I start gaming

Whenever I launch any game and play for 2-3 minutes it crashes the whole PC. This issue only started last month. Also I got my GPU replaced last week, so it can't be GPU. I checked thermals during gaming and it's normal on GPU, CPU & Mobo. PC is little less then 2 years old. CPU : AMD Ryzen 5...
techenclave.com techenclave.com

The OP of that RMAd almost everything and while most of his probs went away the stuttering/freezing remained. Seems like the BIOS setting recommended by Mr. vishalrao, above, might be a good place to start since it's cost free. Good luck
Click to expand...
Will definitely check that out in BIOS once I'm back. Thank you for sharing the post as well! I'm not sure if it makes a difference of not, but while the freezing happens, it doesn't actually go into a blue screen; as if the system is just stuck in limbo, with nothing responding throughout the system.
 
X0th3rm1k said:
Will definitely check that out in BIOS once I'm back. Thank you for sharing the post as well! I'm not sure if it makes a difference of not, but while the freezing happens, it doesn't actually go into a blue screen; as if the system is just stuck in limbo, with nothing responding throughout the system.
Click to expand...
Yup, the OP of that thread had BSOD issues which got fixed with a PSU replacement, but then he had freezing just like you are facing.
 
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I do see some Kernel-Power Event 41 errors in event manager at times (about 24 in 1.5 months) but I've not noticed any reboots/freezes (just 1 and that was because of a WHEA due to OC) to interrelate the two, so I'm not sure what causes that error.

Edit:
I think the culprit behind this kernel error for me was Windows Fast Startup, so I've disabled this now to check. Every time I see this critical error it is preceded by two other errors which point to an improper shutdown and failed fast startup.

@X0th3rm1k, sure you don't see any WHEA?
 
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Whats up with ryzen setup having these very issues so common out of nowhere I might have to reconsider and go the stable intel way it seems whenever I might upgrade..
 
roofrider said:
I do see some Kernel-Power Event 41 errors in event manager at times (about 24 in 1.5 months) but I've not noticed any reboots/freezes (just 1 and that was because of a WHEA due to OC) to interrelate the two, so I'm not sure what causes that error.

Edit:
I think the culprit behind this kernel error for me was Windows Fast Startup, so I've disabled this now to check. Every time I see this critical error it is preceded by two other errors which point to an improper shutdown and failed fast startup.

@X0th3rm1k, sure you don't see any WHEA?
Click to expand...
I'm not sure if a WHEA shows something different in the error log, but it's only the Kernel-Power Event ID 41 critical error that shows up. The only errors that accompany the critical error is one that just says that the last shutdown was unexpected, and that the event audit log was reset to 0 or something along those lines.
 
nRiTeCh said:
Whats up with ryzen setup having these very issues so common out of nowhere I might have to reconsider and go the stable intel way it seems whenever I might upgrade..
Click to expand...

Mostly cpu memory controller compatibility issues with some RAM models... should be more stable with newer generations of ryzen cpus
 
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X0th3rm1k said:
I'm not sure if a WHEA shows something different in the error log
Click to expand...
It'll have Event ID 18 (maybe 19 too) and the source will be WHEA-Logger. You can create a custom filter for it but also simply sort by Source and check.
Run Memtest as well like suggested above to rule out RAM.

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