New Build - PC Freezing

Optimus Prime

Hi guys, hoping you can help me out i still have a few things to try myself but just said id post here too. My Son is building a PC, its new to him so he is enjoying putting it together etc. My own background is in IT but ive never built a PC from scratch before but i have a good knowledge of how to do it.. or so i thought!

He has all his parts listed below, but it keeps on "freezing" every ten minutes or so. Once or twice it blue screened, but most of the time the mouse\keyboard etc just freeze and doesnt come back working, have to hard restart. I think myself its the build of windows 10 on it, its build number 10240 I had at home, but i think this is the first release of 10. The Updates feature in it doesnt seem to work. Im going to get a newer version of the OS today and rebuild but just wanted to see if there is anything else we might be doing wrong?

We installed the drivers for the graphics card, chipset etc. everything seems fine there in Device manager. I cant see anything in event log when it happens other than the generic pc crashed message.

These are the parts , maybe you guys will know if something is out of order here.

Motherboard - Aorus B450 Pro ATX
Processor - AMD Ryzen 5 2600x
SSD - Kingston 240g SSD
ram- Corsair 2x8gb DDR4 3000Mhz
PSU - EVGA 600 W1 600w
Graphic Card - XFX Radeon RX 580 GTS xxx Edition 8GB GDDR5

We havent changed anything in the BIOS, just plugged everything in and powered. all seems good to me, picking up everything, 16gb ram etc. Processor fan works, graphics card fans spin. all looks ok to me.

Ill try the new install of Windows later to see if that was the issue, but is there any settings in the BIOS etc i should be changing that could possibly be causing the issue?

Oh one more thing, there are four memory slots on the motherboard but they seem to be in the order of 1,3,2,4 if my memory is correct here in work. We have the memory in 1 and 2, i assume thats right is it?

Thanks a lot!

RAM should be in the 2nd and last slot for a start. ie : 3 and 4 that you've described above.

Optimus Prime

ah ok, ill do that later so thanks a lot! Whats the reason for it being in 3 and 4? Out of curiosity

Skerries

also you should make sure XMP is on in the bios otherwise you are not getting the full speed for your ram

bennyineire

Download the windows update assistant after you switched the ram slots.
The update assistant will get you on the last build, beware though this will take 30-60 minutes to download and update (depending on BB connection)

Also have you checked that the BIOS is the latest addition available for the board ?

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3159635/windows-10-update-assistant

Optimus Prime

Skerries wrote: »

also you should make sure XMP is on in the bios otherwise you are not getting the full speed for your ram

Thank you, ill add that to the list as well! Just googled it there, appreciate it.

Optimus Prime

bennyineire wrote: »

Download the windows update assistant after you switched the ram slots.
The update assistant will get you on the last build, beware though this will take 30-60 minutes to download and update (depending on BB connection)

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3159635/windows-10-update-assistant

Cheers, im going to rebuild, ive a newer version of 10 in my bag now on a USB, when i tried to run update on the one i have installed it just kept giving me an error message. Ill run the updates once i install that later tonight.

Edit, i havent checked the BIOS update yet no, i will also do that too. thanks a lot

phily2002

Install software to check fan speed and temps. Could be the CPU overheating.
Also you can get software to tell you what causes blue screens. That could point you in the right direction

circadian

Yeah I'd be suspecting overheating to cause that, could be anything but worth looking at the thermals.

Optimus Prime

What could cause the CPU to overheat after just 10 minutes sitting in Windows do you think? Is it possible we have it installed wrong?

Ive a few things to try now so hopefully that sorts it out, to be honest im kind of thinking now its probably the memory in the wrong slots! im hoping thats it anyways!

phily2002

Optimus Prime wrote: »

What could cause the CPU to overheat after just 10 minutes sitting in Windows do you think? Is it possible we have it installed wrong?

Ive a few things to try now so hopefully that sorts it out, to be honest im kind of thinking now its probably the memory in the wrong slots! im hoping thats it anyways!

Memory in the wrong slots shouldn't cause crashes, it should still work fine just not to its full extent. Did you use the stock thermal paste or apply your own? Is the fan blowing onto heatsink, just check it's not on backwards

TheBoyConor

CPU will overheat rapidly if it is not actively cooled, even while the computer is just idle and not doing much.

Are you full sure you have the heat sink and fan securely fastened? Sometimes the clips or thumbscrews for securing the heat sink take a significant amount of physical force to get snapped into the right position.

Are you sure you applied the thermal paste?

Check that there are no metallic pieces shorting out anywhere on the motherboard. Be sure to check underneath the board - a lost screw gone astray in the gap the stand offs create between the motherboard and the case could wreck havoc and potentially destroy the system.

if all that checks out fine why don't you try removing the graphics card and just try run it off of the integrated graphics and see if you get the same problem. At least that way you can rule out the graphics card as the source of the problem.

Optimus Prime

Hmm, ill have to check the heat sync and fan later, my son put that on himself, it came in the box with the processor. I asked him about thermal paste and he said there was stuff on it... so yeh.. ill have to check. Its on the right way around alright, its a big yolk that only goes on one way. has 4 screws on it, with springs.

AllForIt

Sounds to me thermal paste isn't done right and/or heat sink isn't sitting properly flush on the CPU.

My laptop was shutting down after 10 mins approx recently- repasted the CPU and problem solved. Make sure to use a good quality paste! Beginners don't realize how important the thermal paste is!

Optimus Prime

Well, while i havent checked, i know he didnt have Thermal paste, so whatever was on the thing is whats on it. Do you recommend any on amazon i can buy? Thanks a lot

Edit: I checked the amazon page and it says it has paste on the cooler, i guess its probably not the best or something?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07B428V2L/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

phily2002

Optimus Prime wrote: »

Well, while i havent checked, i know he didnt have Thermal paste, so whatever was on the thing is whats on it. Do you recommend any on amazon i can buy? Thanks a lot

Edit: I checked the amazon page and it says it has paste on the cooler, i guess its probably not the best or something?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07B428V2L/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

The one that comes with should be fine, that wouldn't cause the issue if connected properly, I'd say it could be heatsink not clicked down correctly, check the temps in the bios, if the CPU keeps going up you'll know that something's wrong there

Optimus Prime

I know when i was checking if he had it on right, the 4 screws have springs on them and i was sure how tight the screws should be. are they to be screwed right down or should the springs be doing the work holding it on?

Cordell

Check the CPU temperature before anything else, although that cooler is not push/click type, it's the screw-in type so quite unlikely to be installed improperly.

TheBoyConor

Its on the right way around alright, its a big yolk that only goes on one way. has 4 screws on it, with springs.

You'd be surprised how much force it can take to get these to snap into the locked position. When i built my PC, I was very apprehensive about putting on so much force as I thought it would not be right to apply such force to such sensitive and delicate electronics. But that is the way it is. I mean this in a general sense, my build was an intel CPU, yours will have different fasteners.

Anyway, something is possibly off with that CPU heat sink set up. Even just to rule it out, dismantle it again. You will now have to remove all traces of the thermal paste and re-apply some fresh paste. Make sure you follow the instructions meticulously.

Then install and run CPU HWmonitor it will tell you the temperatures of the CPU. It should not be above the normal operating ranges quoted for the CPU you are using.

Cordell

Optimus Prime wrote: »

I know when i was checking if he had it on right, the 4 screws have springs on them and i was sure how tight the screws should be. are they to be screwed right down or should the springs be doing the work holding it on?

Right down until they stop, without forcing them; the springs will be doing the work once they are screwed in properly.

bidiots

Take out one Ram module, boot and wait until it freezes, then change and test the other module

Optimus Prime

Ok quick update, I put the RAM in slots 3 and 4. Booted ok

I checked the heat sync and it was NOT fully screwed on. The screws where in the motherboard alright, but on twisting them a bit more a few rotations i noticed that each one then came to a hard stop, which i assume is where they are supposed to be screwed to. Its been on an hour now with no freezing.

So happy days, Im still going to rebuild because the build of windows on it is the first release i think, but so far so good.

Thanks for all the help guys, ill udpate again if it crashes.

TheBoyConor

That's good you got the heat sink in properly.

There shouldn't be any need to reinstall windows once it is working properly.

No matter what version is installed, it should automatically update to the current version of Windows (1909) through Windows update. Provided that you have a decent internet connection.

It's not like old versions of Windows like that and there are no major releases or service packs anymore, there's 6 monthly feature updates.

Optimus Prime

Ah yeh I know that thanks, this was literally the first release of Windows 10 though. It was quicker to just reinstall. Also the check for updates was just returning an error each time. It was grand took five minutes. Updating fine , working fine now.

Only thing is he has it plugged into a Samsung smart tv not a monitor and the resolution , I just can’t get it right. The text looks terrible on it, high res backgrounds look pixely etc. I’m going to try it on a monitor today. All drivers etc are installed.

TheBoyConor

Can you amend the resolution in settings?

Is he using a VGA cable or something better like HDMI or DisplayPort

Optimus Prime

He is using hdmi. I’ve try adjusting the resolution , it can go way up then I can use the increase text size if I put it about 200% it looks ok. I think it’s because it’s a tv and not a monitor. I’ll try the monitor later.

TheBoyConor

Is it a very large screen? If so, the text and icons etc will stay the same absolute size but this has the perception that they look tiny relative to a massive screen.

Could you select one of the lower resolutions that is the same aspect ratio as your TV screenif you want things to appear bigger?

Stay away from that scaling thing. It is a disaster and I never found it to make a situation better.

Optimus Prime

Hi, no its not that they are tiny, that would be fine, its that they are all grainy and weird looking, text too, icons. its like the TV has shrunk the image, no matter the resolution on the PC, to fit the screen. this has cause the picture to go all funny. ive tried different aspect ratios on the tv too, no change. the tv is about 32 inches id say.

TheBoyConor

I don't know what to do so.

Krombopulos Michael

In windows display, check the scaling options for the display, as that may need to be reset back to 100% or so.

ED E

Yeah, its windows scaling. Makes test look like finger painting.

Right click desktop, display settings - scaling 100% then ensure res matches the TV.