New build unstable, what should I do?

[wchang99]

I have a brand new Ryzen build that locked up once and blue screened once within first ~two hours of finishing Windows installation, with little or no stress, doing simple things in the desktop or even idling in the desktop with only NZXT CAM running (CPU temp probably didn't exceed 40 celsius).

There were three additional earlier crash instances prior to these that were worse, including strange graphical artifacts such as portions of windows GUI disappearing or screen going black, also while doing almost nothing in desktop. I thought these might be due to a newly-bought *used* GPU in the system, so I replaced that with a known GPU I have. Haven't seen the graphical artifacts yet after switching GPU, but saw the two stability issues mentioned in first paragraph so there is still a problem with the system.

No overclocking. Ran Prime95 for 3 hours thus far successfully, with temp not exceeding ~53 celsius. 3 hours isn't a full Prime95 test but it's more than what the system was doing at idle when it locked up/blue screened in first paragraph. But I don't think the lockup/bluescreen problems at idle should ever happen in a clean new system so there could be something wrong nonetheless? (never had such problem with new pre-built systems.)

Haven't tried other tests yet (I know of Prime95 and MemTest86+) and know of nothing else I can do to diagnose.

The store's return period ends April 1 if I want to return parts (CPU and mobo from Microcenter; other parts from Newegg not sure if they'll accept). *How should I approach this in terms of troubleshooting vs returning*? Is it even possible to positively diagnose which component is defective? Or is my choice to either be stuck with an unstable brand new system, or else return all the parts to the store if I can (abandon ship)?

I should say I probably slid (shifted laterally by about 1/32") the CPU cooler relative to the CPU, when I was struggling to fit the mobo to the I/O shield. The cooler is the Ryzen 1700 Wraith Spire cooler with pre-applied paste. Don't know how common it is that someone would do that or how forgiving/unforgiving it would be to do that. I monitored CPU temps (using CAM, CoreTemp) and they look OK, but not sure if that's granular enough to show if there's a gap in the paste created by shifting the cooler.

I'm also not sure I didn't scratch the underside of the mobo against the standoffs in the upper left corner while struggling to fit the mobo to the I/O shield. The only way I'd know to address this would be to take everything out of the case and visually inspect the mobo (don't know if that would tell me anything). Was careful aside from this and shifting the CPU cooler.

A problem is I don't have any thermal paste to re-apply and if I try that, may not able to do so until near or after the store's return date, and if it turns out the cooler mating wasn't the problem and one of the parts being defective was instead the problem, then I'm screwed.

The system is the first one described in my thread here except for GPU. I also have parts for the second system in that thread which also would need to be assembled and tested before April 1, and don't know if I should be scared off from assembling that system and abandon ship, simply try to return *everything*.

All parts are new except for WD Blue HDD in this first system (~10 mos old) and both GPU's mentioned.

What should I do? (First time build in case you didn't guess.) Thanks definitely for any help.

 

[pcgeek11]

Did you read the BSOD Information? That would give you some clues as to why. The information you have provided so far is useless. It could be as simple as a driver issue.

 

[wchang99]

Did you read the BSOD Information? That would give you some clues as to why. The information you have provided so far is useless. It could be as simple as a driver issue.

I don't think I have the info in Event Viewer or in minidumps because I updated to Windows Fall Creators Update in the interim, but of the two BSOD's, I have a screencap of one of them from my phone. It was CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT.

Does that help? I'm reading that it's sometimes due to drivers, like you said. Would definitely like to know what you think.

(There's also a 900MB MEMORY.DMP file that's dated as being created before I updated Windows, might have been present at the time of the BSOD's, but don't know if that would help.)

Thanks pcgeek11.

 

[Hans Gruber]

I don't think I have the info in Event Viewer or in minidumps because I updated to Windows Fall Creators Update in the interim, but of the two BSOD's, I have a screencap of one of them from my phone. It was CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT.

Does that help? I'm reading that it's sometimes due to drivers, like you said. Would definitely like to know what you think.

(There's also a 900MB MEMORY.DMP file that's dated as being created before I updated Windows, might have been present at the time of the BSOD's, but don't know if that would help.)

Thanks pcgeek11.

Please update your signature. We cannot take you seriously with those ancient computers you have listed. You are a long time member so all is forgiven. Now stop being scared with your new hardware and fix it.

 

[wchang99]

Please update your signature. We cannot take you seriously with those ancient computers you have listed. You are a long time member so all is forgiven. Now stop being scared with your new hardware and fix it.

Ahahaha - I did notice my sig was ridiculous but left it because I didn't have anything better (or interesting), and I guess it had that humorous nostalgia value... though I'm sure people have more hardcore old stuff lying around. (In fact, there was a thread about it, right?)

You're right, I shouldn't be scared. If it IS fixable (and maybe I'm not confident in my ability not to do damage to it)... but it seems *maybe* it is fixable, so that would be good. In that case... thanks for the encouragement. (A little ass-kicking can be good sometimes)

Like your nickname.

 

[Hans Gruber]

Ahahaha - I did notice my sig was ridiculous but left it because I didn't have anything better (or interesting), and I guess it had that humorous nostalgia value... though I'm sure people have more hardcore old stuff lying around. (In fact, there was a thread about it, right?)

You're right, I shouldn't be scared. If it IS fixable (and maybe I'm not confident in my ability not to do damage to it)... but it seems *maybe* it is fixable, so that would be good. In that case... thanks for the encouragement. (A little ass-kicking can be good sometimes)

Like your nickname.

There are youngsters here who do not know what nforce is. They do not know that nvidia used to make motherboard chipsets.

 

[Genx87]

Lighten up Francis.

OP, in my experience biggest issues will be drivers, power, and memory. I'd probably see about the PSU and memory first. Then work on drivers.

 

[Markfw]

what is your memory ? and is it on the QVL ? Even so, if you run using the XMP profile, you still may have to lower the memory speed. My 3600 memory will only run at 3466 without rebooting.

 

[wchang99]

There are youngsters here who do not know what nforce is. They do not know that nvidia used to make motherboard chipsets.

Thanks... but I can't take credit for the nforce (because that was part of a pre-built system). I do remember the Riva 128 though, and how everyone had envy for the Glide support of VooDoo I. But they comforted themselves that the Riva was faster and had 16-bit color. (Of course then nVidia bought 3dfx, and isn't anybody's ugly stepchild any more.) I also had a TRS-80 with cassette deck as a kid (but can't claim level of involvement with that as I'm sure some old pros can).

 

[wchang99]

Lighten up Francis.

OP, in my experience biggest issues will be drivers, power, and memory. I'd probably see about the PSU and memory first. Then work on drivers.

Thanks. I think it was in fact drivers. I didn't realize VGA or default video drivers could have such a drastic effect, but it seemed to sort itself out (updating to Windows Fall Creators update also seemed to help).

I ran Prime95 for 6 hours and Memtest86 for 4 passes/4 hours, and all looked good (am assuming the PSU is OK for now).

However, after days of stress-testing with everything looking good, the damn thing BSOD'ed as soon as I brought it to my Dad and turned it on there, and it was something new - "MEMORY_MANAGEMENT" error on powerup. I thought the RAM became unseated, but that makes no sense. Several reboots after that were fine. I'm thinking of running Memtest86 again for a longer time. Any thoughts?

 

[wchang99]

what is your memory ? and is it on the QVL ? Even so, if you run using the XMP profile, you still may have to lower the memory speed. My 3600 memory will only run at 3466 without rebooting.

Thanks Markfw.

My memory is GSkill Ripjaws V 2x4GB F4-3200C16D-8GVKB, and it is on the QVL. I am not running it using the XMP profile (or overclocking it any other way), so it's doing this at everything default.