Forum Discussion
Troubleshooting a **bleep** Windows 10 PC
I need help diagnosing my PC...
Specs:
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 with now stock cooler
Originally an MSI B450 Tomahawk Max mobo, now an MSI A520M Pro (because why not)
G.Skill DDR4 3200MHz Ripjaws V - 2X8Gb
XFX Radeon RX 580 GTS XXX 8Gb GDDR5
Super Flower 750 W 80 Plus Silver Modular PSU
TL;DR - System is unstable and I don't know why.
Transcend NVMe 2.0
2 X storage HDD's
So in December 2022, South Africa (where I live) experienced what we call loadshedding, a system implemented by government which resulted in electricity being cut for up to 4 hours a day.
I was playing Borderlands 3 for about two hours, after experiencing this damned loadshedding, when my PC froze. I had to do a forced shutdown. On the next boot, I got into Windows 10, let it idle for a while with Wallpaper Engine, and the system froze up again. A forced shutdown didn't work, resulting with me having to use the PSU switch to turn the system off.
After a few seconds, I switched it back on and had the Windows repair loop of pain.
After a lot of troubleshooting like swapping out PSU's, running single RAM sticks, trying to reinstall Windows, and re-pasting thermals, breadboarded the heck out of the thing, and then gave up completely.
Kept the PC, bought a laptop, haven't looked back, until about 3 days ago...
I decided to ask Uncle ChatGPT - which suggested it was mobo related so I ordered the MSI A520M Pro. Slapped it into the system, and initially it didn't boot. After a bit of tinkering, I managed to get a clean install of Windows 10 onto my NVMe, but shortly after installing the GPU drivers, I got a BSOD... I've since installed the Windows onto one of my storage HDD's, and managed to get drivers installed before hitting the hay.
Today, when done with work, I want to try and see if I can actually get something to install and play, hoping the mobo swap sorted everything out.
So, what could the culprit be?
I've managed to borrow a GeForce FT 1030 Aero to try and get the system stable if the GPU is the problem. I'm a teacher so I'm poor, trying to cut costs as much as possible.
2 Replies
The board swap (MSI B450 to MSI A520M) was good, but new motherboard might still have issues:
Update BIOS to the latest version.
Inspect for physical damage or bent pins.
Clear CMOS thoroughly before first boot (remove battery, press power button for 10-15s).
The original issues after loadshedding could have damaged the motherboard or the VRMs, causing instability. The new motherboard swap was a good step, but it might still have underlying issues or compatibility problems.
