New build, serious issues with windows

[m4tej]

Hi. I just joined this forum therefore I'm really sorry if this post is in wrong forum section.
I just built a new PC running Ryzen 3700x, EVGA RTX 2060 KO ULTRA, MSI TOMAHAWK B450MAX.
I bought new windows, installed it and everything worked ok. At first I was a bit disturbed by GPU constantly revving when running below 35% and the fact how louder Wraith Prism cooler is compared to Dark Rock Pro 3 I used before. Anyway, other than that, everything worked great. I installed Windows updates, AMD chipset drivers, GPU drivers, Realtek drivers etc.

The day after I turned on my PC, windows booted to Login screen but once I entered my password it didn't load past that. The black screen with mouse cursor in the middle appeared and it stayed there. After few unsuccessful boot attempts I tried different solutions found on youtube:

1. Troubleshooting Start Up - didnt work.
2. Booting to Safe Mode - Unsuccessful, I again couldn't get past login screen.
3. Performed system restore to initial configuration (before any updates installed) - Again, could not boot past login screen
4. System repair did absolutely nothing.
5. I noticed GPU fans stopped spinning on login screen, so I decided to replace the GPU with R9 390, to see if GPU is an issue, however the same happened with different GPU.
6. After successful system restore to initial configuration something weird begin to happen: Windows just wouldn't start. It suggested Automatic repair, yet it couldn't even do that. The PC crashed into endless restart loop.
7. After Turning PC OFF and back ON, this is when PC crashed completely. Right after BIOS BIOS booting and before even windows LOGO appeared, BSOD happened stating "CRITICAL PROCESS DIED" without any error code other than STOPCODE.

There was no way back to getting the windows boot up. I had to reinstall my windows even though I just did it a day before.

Now it seems the PC works as it should. My question is what did I do wrong? Is it possible one of the components is failing? If yes, how would I know where the problem may lie? Is it possible that this was only software issue?

I'm trying to understand what has happened. Many thanks in advance.

 

[flmatter]

complete list of system specs please, make model etc... ram psu case..... did you double check all your connections and are fully seated?

 

[m4tej]

complete list of system specs please, make model etc... ram psu case..... did you double check all your connections and are fully seated?

Complete list here:

Case: Fractal Design Meshify C
CPU: Ryzen 7 3700X
Motherboard: MSI B450 Tomahawk MAX
GPU: EVGA RTX 2060 KO ULTRA
DISK: M.2 Samsung EVO 970
RAM: G.SKILL Trident 2x8GB 3600Mhz
CPU cooler: Wraith Prism
PSU: Corsair TS 650W Gold

In addition to that: I have re-seated my GPU and, re-attached 24 PIN connector to Motherboard. Did not re-attach RAM sticks and unfortunately I did not try to boot to Windows by plugging monitor directly to Motherboard's DVI connector (probably should've done that to test for fauly PCI-e slot)

Probably completely unrelated, noticing any problems with PC crashing I have re-connected my Wraith prism USB connector to different USB slot on motherboard.

 

[TheLostSwede]

First of all, have you updated the motherboard UEFI/BIOS to the latest version? There are a lot of AGESA fixes in those. Up until AGESA 1.0.0.4 there were some serious hiccups at times.
Secondly, did you install Windows using GPT or MBR? You should be using GPT on that drive.
This should help you do that https://www.windowscentral.com/how-create-windows-10-usb-bootable-media-uefi-support
Are you running the RAM with XMP enabled? If so, try setting it up manually as some RAM goes a bit nuts using XMP.

That CPU has no built in graphics, so connecting the display to the motherboard will do nothing.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Do you use software like classicshell?

 

[m4tej]

First of all, have you updated the motherboard UEFI/BIOS to the latest version? There are a lot of AGESA fixes in those. Up until AGESA 1.0.0.4 there were some serious hiccups at times.
Secondly, did you install Windows using GPT or MBR? You should be using GPT on that drive.
This should help you do that https://www.windowscentral.com/how-create-windows-10-usb-bootable-media-uefi-support
Are you running the RAM with XMP enabled? If so, try setting it up manually as some RAM goes a bit nuts using XMP.

That CPU has no built in graphics, so connecting the display to the motherboard will do nothing.

1. I have updated motherboard only yesterday (after reinstalling the windows, updated it from v3.40 to v3.50 which apparently does the following: improves boot time, improves pci-e device compatibility) When crashes started to happen, PC ran BIOS v3.40 version.
2. You got me there. No idea to be honest, one thing I did notice is when I tried reinstalling windows on this disk it gave me a message: "Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk is of the GPT partition style". However after reseting BIOS to default, then I could reinstall.
3. When the PC was crashing, the XMP was disabled.

 

[TheLostSwede]

1. I have updated motherboard only yesterday (after reinstalling the windows, updated it from v3.40 to v3.50 which apparently does the following: improves boot time, improves pci-e device compatibility) When crashes started to happen, PC ran BIOS v3.40 version.
2. You got me there. No idea to be honest, one thing I did notice is when I tried reinstalling windows on this disk it gave me a message: "Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk is of the GPT partition style". However after reseting BIOS to default, then I could reinstall.
3. When the PC was crashing, the XMP was disabled.

Follow the instructions for the GPT install, as that's important on NVMe drives, or you don't get the full performance from the drive.

I don't see anything obvious you did wrong.

 

[m4tej]

Follow the instructions for the GPT install, as that's important on NVMe drives, or you don't get the full performance from the drive.

I don't see anything obvious you did wrong.

I was not even aware that m.2 disks should be treated differently. Does that mean I have to reinstall windows, again?

Do you use software like classicshell?

No at all. At that state windows was completely stock.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

No at all. At that state windows was completely stock.

Alright. The reason i ask was because I had a similar experience one time with fresh windows 10 install. Installed classicshell - did windows update, rebooted and ended up in the same black screen as you did which i wasnt able to overcome without reinstalling windows. But it was a fresh install anyway so it wasnt too much hassle.

 

[m4tej]

Alright. The reason i ask was because I had a similar experience one time with fresh windows 10 install. Installed classicshell - did windows update, rebooted and ended up in the same black screen as you did which i wasnt able to overcome without reinstalling windows. But it was a fresh install anyway so it wasnt too much hassle.

Basically that's what's weird to me. If this is not hardware related issue, I can't wrap my head around the fact that windows could become so easily corrupted on fresh install. Unless I'm missing something.

 

[TheLostSwede]

I was not even aware that m.2 disks should be treated differently. Does that mean I have to reinstall windows, again?

Go into the device manager and check. That means it's correct.

 

[m4tej]

Go into the device manager and check. That means it's correct.

I assume this is correct then? As much as I don't want this to happen ever again, on the other hand I wanna re-create the error to see what triggers it.
Do you perhaps have any idea what could be wrong? I assume if there was a faulty part, I wouldn't be able to login to windows now, correct?

 

[TheLostSwede]

View attachment 151028

I assume this is correct then? As much as I don't want this to happen ever again, on the other hand I wanna re-create the error to see what triggers it.
Do you perhaps have any idea what could be wrong? I assume if there was a faulty part, I wouldn't be able to login to windows now, correct?

Looks correct as far as the partition table goes.
No idea what went wrong, but there has been news about some buggy updates from Microsoft, so it's possible it was one of those that borked things.
I honestly have no other suggestions as to what might've gone wrong.

 

[er557]

might be it was some temporary corruption of the data on the drive, or your user profile, sometimes these black screens are network driver related as well, dont dwell on it and continue using pc until something more reproducible or permanent , if ever, happens. might be just fine from now on

 

[m4tej]

Looks correct as far as the partition table goes.
No idea what went wrong, but there has been news about some buggy updates from Microsoft, so it's possible it was one of those that borked things.
I honestly have no other suggestions as to what might've gone wrong.

This is also what I forgot to mention. I reverted last quality update successfully, however still couldnt boot. I'll just continue using PC and see if I notice any other issues with it. Thanks!

might be it was some temporary corruption of the data on the drive, or your user profile, sometimes these black screens are network driver related as well, dont dwell on it and continue using pc until something more reproducible or permanent , if ever, happens. might be just fine from now on

Hopefully it stays at corrupted data. PC seems to work fine, for now. We'll see what time brings. Thanks mate!

 

[tabascosauz]

I want to know what RAM kit you have. I've had my Windows installation borked in this exact way on my 3700X/B450I Aorus/2060 Super build the first time I tried installing the G.Skill RGB lighting control software and drivers. Everything worked fine until just past login screen, black screen with cursor. No response from task manager or Run.

I had to reinstall Windows, but the installer that's always worked before wouldn't let me reinstall to my SX8200 NVMe. Something had corrupted either the Windows installation or partition. I couldn't use the partition, and I couldn't format it either. Even running the clean command in a Command Prompt box ran into an error and failed to wipe the drive.

I can't remember exactly what I did, but following some guide I can't recall, I was able to get around diskpart acting up and run the clean command properly. Something about diskpart being "unable" to clean an active drive, except I was actually in the Windows USB at the time, not the SX8200.

After that, I tried again with a new Windows installation and the G.skill software worked fine, after I decided to restart on my own after installing it instead of using the restart prompt in the installer.

Another time my entire Windows installation was grenaded was when I tried tightening tRCD too much on this DJR kit to 16-18-18-38 at 1.35v. I backed it off to 16-19-19-32 and it's been fine since. Make sure your RAM is 100% stable through 8 runs of Memtest86 booting from a USB, followed by at least 30 minutes of Prime95 in FFT Large config.

I believe this was on F42c BIOS with 1.0.0.3ABBA, but I doubt that had anything to do with the freakish corruption. Nothing wrong with F50/1.0.0.4 in the 6+ months since.