Hello. Yesterday my PC decided to just "die" after a bit more than a year in use. So, I'll post everything I did, have and know so maybe somebody can help me out troubleshoot wth happened.
For the beginning, my specs:
OS: Windows 11 Home (with the latest updates)
MOBO: Asus ROG Crosshair X670E Hero
BIOS: Ver. 1516 (24.07.2023) [Updated to Ver. 2403, more on that later]
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (With Arctic MX-6)
AIO: Arctic Liquid Freezer II 420 ARGB
GPU: Asus GeForce GTX 1070 ROG Strix
RAM: G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo RGB, DDR5, 64 GB, 6000MHz, CL30 [Placed in DIMM A2&B2 slots]
PSU: Corsair HX1500i
CASE: Fractal Design Meshify 2 XL
FANS: x4 Arctic P14 PWM PST A-RGB
+ x2 M2 SSD
+ x1 SATA SSD
+ x2 SATA HDD
TL;DR: Final conclusion at the end of the post.
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Some background:
I've built my PC between 24 - 26.07.2023
24.07.23 - Assembly day, went smooth with zero problems.
25.07.23 - OS and programs installation along with the usual customization and setting everything up how I like it. Again, zero problems.
26.07.23 - Playing around BIOS settings and heavy stress testing my new PC, everything passed the first time, once again zero problems.
Final BIOS changes that I did back then and left it like that until now:
AI Overclock Tuner: EXPO Tweaked Profile
PBO Curve: Negative 30 all cores
PBO PPT: 180W limit
Thermal Throttle: 85C limit
PCIEX16_1 Bandwidth: PCIE X16 Mode
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Okay, that's all about the past. Now from 26.07.2023 to 02.12.2024 everything worked just perfect, zero problems whatsoever with booting, crashes or anything really.
02.12.24 - The last day where everything was fine. I turned off my PC at around 11PM and went to sleep.
03.12.24 - The very next day, booted my PC back up at around 11AM.
And now the real issue starts.
But before that, some terminology used by me to make this a bit quicker to read:
> RL - Red Led Light
> YL - Yellow Led Light
> WL - White Led Light
> GL - Green Led Light
> RAM Stick P
> RAM Stick L
> A1/A2/B1/B2 - DIMM slot number
> QC - QCode
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Ok. So, at first after booting it up, PC froze during the BIOS startup screen (that one where u can press DEL key to enter BIOS).
That seemed weird, so I clicked the DEL and the other second key to try to enter the BIOS to see if it really froze, and yep, zero response from the system (and sadly I didn't check the QCodes back then).
So I turned it off via the Power Button, and then back on..
Now it didn't want to POST (also no led light up on the keyboard & mice), the screen was black and the QC was changing from 14 (RL) to 15 (YL), to again 14 (RL), then to 15 (YL) again, etc.
So I turned it off again with the Power Button, unplugged it from the wall, and after turning it back on now the QC was just "00" with the RL.
So again, power button off, unplug from the wall, power on and..
Once again QC 00 (RL), and now the power button doesn't even work.
So I unplugged it from the wall while it was still running..
And after turning it back on not only the power button no longer works, but also the fans stopped spinning. Oh, and the QC 00 (RL) is still there.
Then once again unplug from the wall, CMOS reset..
Power on, and now the fans are again spinning!
For the first few seconds the QC was 15, then it turned to 00 with the YL.
The power button now works as well, so I power the system off via it..
Again power on.. Aaand.. Again QCode 15 (YL), then it turned to a new QCode C5 (YL)
Again restart with power button.
Now from the very beginning the Yellow Led Light is always on, and the QCodes are 46 for a split second to 15.
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Great. Now I've read up online to try different RAM sticks (mono and dual) positions in the DIMM slots.
The original placement is:
Stick L in A2 and Stick P in B2
As for the testing:
Stick P in A1 = QC 46 to 15 with YL
Stick P in A2 = QC 46 to 15 with YL
Stick P in B1 = QC 00 to 46 to 15 to C5 with YL (interesting)
Stick P in B2 = QC 46 to 15 with YL..
And after like a minute it started showing a lot of different QCs and a full range of Led Lights.
And then FINALLY BOOTED to AMI Screen, then to BIOS and Windows for the first time since something broke
So I went and updated the BIOS from Ver. 1516 to Ver. 2403 in hopes that maybe this will fix the issue.
Anyway, I started testing again and:
Stick L in A2 and Stick P in B2 = QC 46 to 15 with YL (original placement)
Stick P in B2 = Boots normally
Stick L in B2 = Boots normally
Alright. So the DIMM_B2 slot is the only one working so far. And now I know that the RAM sticks are not the fault.
Stick L in B2 and Stick P in B1 = QC 46 to 15 with YL..
After like a minute it actually showed me something new! Now it was displaying QC "A0" with RL (still no POST).
I restarted the system, and now again QC 46 to 15 with YL. After two minutes it now booted to AMI Screen with "The system has POSTed in safe mode".
Great! So the DIMM_B1 and DIMM_B2 slots are both still working!
After another reboot now it boots normally into BIOS and Windows , tried it 3 times to be sure and yeah now it just normally boots with no problems.
A bit more tests:
Stick L in B2 and Stick P in A2 = QC 46 to 15 with YL
Stick L in B2 and Stick P in A1 = QC 46 to 15 with YL
Stick L in B1 and Stick P in A1 = QC 46 to 15 with YL
And for now I'm leaving it at:
Stick L in B1 and Stick P in B2 (POSTs, working fine)
I've also tried enabling EXPO Tweaked in this configuration to see what will happen, and it doesn't work.
After turning the PC on with EXPO enabled, it once again went like QC 46 to 15 with YL. After two minutes it booted normally to BIOS with automatically reset settings.
After another reboot it now just boots normally, without having to wait and no QC 46 to 15 with YL.
I left the EXPO at disabled and changed mostly the CPU settings again to:
PBO Curve: Negative 30 all cores
PBO PPT: 180W limit
Thermal Throttle: 85C limit
PCIEX16_1 Bandwidth: PCIE X16 Mode
And it's working fine so far. I had limited time for actual testing, but a quick check in browser or games went all ok.
Windows also reads my RAM at 3600 MHz now btw.
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IN CONCLUSION:
RAM sticks are fine.
Both A1&A2 DIMM slots are not working no matter what, while B1&B2 DIMM slots now started working "normally".
Single stick in B2 works, but a single stick in B1 doesn't (and it shows a different QC at the end).
Soo.. What do you guys think now could be the issue? CPU? MOBO? And what can I do with all of this next?
From what I've read online so far, the most probable outcome is that the CPU Memory Controller somehow fried itself in the span of 12 hours from one power off to power on the very next day, which just sounds bizarre.
And everything else just seem to work. PBO stuff is alright given the limited tests, when I touch anything RAM related the PC starts to give up.
Should I file the CPU RMA? Or is there anything else that I can do now to check if it can be fixed or anything really.
And in advance thank you for your time after reading all of this. And for the replies. Cheers.
