Computer Freezes/Crashes in progressively more frequent intervals

nandz

Hi I recently built my first PC in ~20 years and am having some issues tracking down what i believe is a hardware issue. I successfully Installed Windows 10 Pro 64 bit edition initially. It worked fine with no issues for about 3 weeks, then it started crashing with blue screen issues more and more frequently to the point where the computer would not stay on for longer than 4 minutes before crashing again even in safe mode. Windows recovery and repair did not work and would always crash out. Attempted to re-install windows 10 from boot usb but that would not complete before crashing.

To get the machine working again I accessed the windows command terminal through one of the windows repair options and used diskpart to clean the main drive. I was then able to successfully install Pop-Os which ran perfectly fine for about 2 weeks before it started freezing with no recourse but a physical button reboot, usually when using firefox and a second program. The freezing became more frequent over a couple of days and now is freezing after about 4 minutes upon reboot. I am unable to repair or re-install pop-OS as the computer will freeze before finishing. If i leave the frozen screen up long enough, the mouse cursor will start being able to move again, however keyboard input and mouse clicks will not register or do anything.

I have run memtest86 with 4  cycles on mutliple CPU's twice, both times came up with zero errors on the RAM. I even tried running with only 1 memory stick at a time, using each of the two sticks in the A2 slot on separate tests but the computer still crashed. I also turned of SVM AMD virtualization in the BIOS. My questions are, what further steps can i take to determine the cause of this issue? It clearly is not an OS issue as both windows and an ubuntu version had the same slow degradation that led to crashing. 

Build:

Mobo: ASRock B450M Pro4 P3.9

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3400G wj/ Vega 11 graphics

Memory: G.SKill RipJawsV 2x8GB DDR4 3200

Storage: Crucial P1 1TB NVMe M.2 SSD

Other Devices: PowerSpec 550W PS 550BF power supply. Logitech wireless mouse (M310) and keyboard (K520)

JS_MC

Hey, @nandz Welcome to the community!

Do you know what kind of temps you're getting before it crashes? If you have additional thermal paste, I'd recommend rebuilding your computer to ensure that everything is seated properly. The CPU may be engaging a failsafe mechanism to protect it from thermal damage. Since you're able to write to the NVMe, I don't think that this is a data issue, and you mentioned thorough testing of the RAM. All this would lead me to believe it's mostlikely your CPU or Motherboard.

nandz

Thanks LandShark,
I was seeing temps of ~45 deg C on restarts immediately after crashes. I will rebuild the computer to make sure seating is correct as you recommended.  Thanks again

JS_MC

You're welcome! Let us know how everything goes. Hopefully, that will be the fix for your build! Since you've ruled out temps. If reseating does not solve the issue, another possibility could be your hard drive. Since you mentioned you're able to install multiple OS to the drive, I find it unlikely. However, if the drive is not responding, it would cause the system to hang and possibly crash. 

nandz

An update,
I rebuilt everything from scratch and noticed that one of the mobo standoff screws was mis-threaded and crooked. I don't know if that would make a difference but there was some slight scratching right along the hole on the mobo itself due to this. When re-building i just left that screw off, the mobo is still rigid and well connected to the case. After this rebuild the system with all the exact same components is running smoothly after a fresh windows install. It is still early days, as the system worked initially as well for a few weeks, but it's promising so far. I suspect there might have been some sort of unwanted or grounding of the mobo to the case due to the poorly installed screw, but I don't know if that's actually a thing. I will update if the random crashing occurs again.

JS_MC

Interesting. Typically, the holes for the standoffs have metal around them to make contact with the standoff. Definitely keep us posted on this! Hopefully all is resolved!