Solved System freezing with no apparent warning within minutes of bootup

Hello brilliant wizards!

My system is freezing up typically within 2-15 minutes of boot.
No visible warning, no BSOD, it just freezes and I have to reboot.

I recently reinstalled Win11 from scratch to have a fresh system.
After I did that I was having this exact issue.
After some days the problem somehow resolved itself… seems like disabling all non-MS services and startup items helped.. But I'm not 100% sure.
It ran flawlessly for some weeks with zero issues. That leads me to believe it probably isn't a hardware issue, but I can't be certain.
I was planning to backup image my system during that time, but kept putting it off to make sure everything was truly stable. DOH
The freezing problem resurfaced after a windows update on 5/1 or 5/2. Could be a coincidence. I tried system restore three times to a time prior to the windows update and this does not fix the issue, however it does give me an hour or two before the freezing starts again. The extended time before freezing after system restore could be a coincidence, but is a pattern that I witnessed three times.

I'm already running the minimal boot, (I forget the name). All non-microsoft servcies are disabled and all startup items disabled. Still freezing.

Thank you in advance for any assistance, much appreciated!!

Is all the hardware recognized by the OS? Seen under Device Manager. After installing the OS did you install the latest AMD Chipset drivers? The ones from AMD directly not the ones provided by Asus!
You might be able to look under Event Viewer --> Windows Logs and see if you notice any suspicious errors being logged at a time when the lockups occur.

It could also be insufficient or improperly applied thermal compound.


@Kaizen777


I gave you ten reaction points for filling out your computer specs and posting your Windows version.

Ghot said:

It could also be insufficient or improperly applied thermal compound.

Click to expand...

I had thought of that as well too and was going to mention overheating CPU. Something else to consider with sudden freeze ups is a video issue. As in video driver issues will many times see a complete freeze up with no warning.

Thank you! @BamaInArk @Ghot
Yes, all the hardware is recognized by the OS. I did install the latest AMD Chipset drivers directly from AMD. I just updated them. I avoided any ASUS bloatware.
Event Viewer - I've been watching that every time it crashes. Rarely a clue, but THIS JUST IN!

I downloaded the program Core Temp to monitor CPU temps since reading your replies.
(peak temp so far at 73c while doing basic stuff, usually hovering in the 38 to 42c range)

What's interesting is that while that program is running it does not freeze, it reboots instead!
And in the event viewer I now find this: (Both APIC ID: 30 and APIC ID: 1)

A fatal hardware error has occurred.

Reported by component: Processor Core
Error Source: Machine Check Exception
Error Type: Cache Hierarchy Error
Processor APIC ID: 30

The details view of this entry contains further information.


And I found this one from days ago I missed:
WHEA-Logger
A fatal hardware error has occurred.

Reported by component: Processor Core
Error Source: Machine Check Exception
Error Type: Bus/Interconnect Error
Processor APIC ID: 0

The details view of this entry contains further information.

Regarding a potential thermal compound issue - perhaps - I did flip the AIO pump block around awhile ago out of necessity to fit all four DIMMs when I installed the 128gb RAM. Pretty sure I did good with the thermal compound but perhaps not?

Although I did have a freeze after updating the chipset drivers, I seem to be having an abnormally long uptime right now.
I'm assuming the issue is not yet fixed.
I'm attempting to image the system, if that works I will restore the image I made after I did a fresh Win11 install with drivers and see if that still freezes or not. That should tell me if it is hardware related or software related, I suppose. Unless you have a better diagnostic path to follow. =D

I could suspect it's my 128gb of RAM... but.. I did have several weeks of zero issues. Windows memory diagnostics had no errors. I did run MemTest86 after installing and had zero errors, though I did only run it one time while I was out of town. It took over three days!

BamaInArk said:

Is all the hardware recognized by the OS? Seen under Device Manager. After installing the OS did you install the latest AMD Chipset drivers? The ones from AMD directly not the ones provided by Asus!
You might be able to look under Event Viewer --> Windows Logs and see if you notice any suspicious errors being logged at a time when the lockups occur.

Click to expand...

On second thought, restoring to that fresh Win11 install isn't going to help -- I realized as mentioned it had freezing issues until they went away on their own... then came back weeks later.

Are you using 4 sticks of RAM? If so try only using 2 and see if the errors still occur.

If the errors occur with two sticks, try one stick.

Please check 'active disk usage' from the task manager ?
I had a similar problem.

I'm actually happy to see that the errors persisted with two and even one stick of RAM.
(Happy because I need my 128gb, lol)

Ghot said:

If the errors occur with two sticks, try one stick.

Click to expand...

BamaInArk said:

Are you using 4 sticks of RAM? If so try only using 2 and see if the errors still occur.

Click to expand...

Thank you, disk usage appears to be low 0 to 1%. Will keep an eye on that, so far no spikes.

cineman195 said:

Please check 'active disk usage' from the task manager ?
I had a similar problem.

Click to expand...

Kaizen777 said:

Thank you, disk usage appears to be low 0 to 1%. Will keep an eye on that, so far no spikes.

Click to expand...

Most often with issues like yours I first check that the hardware is seated properly. First the Ram & GPU and lastly the CPU (because it’s the most annoying to reseat) And often it fixes small annoyances.
Perhaps checking the Ram caused it to seat properly when you put the sticks back in?

Are you using DOCP(XMP) for ram? If so turn that off and let the memory run at default. Just for troubleshooting. If you have a 2nd GPU to test with try that too. You might have to try and run DDU and remove all the video drivers. You could try this and just let the 4090 run using default windows drivers. As in no Nvidia driver. If you do ahead and do this run DDU in Safe Mode then select the setting to shut down afterward. Once it shuts down then power off the power supply completely.

You also might try these 2 commands at a command prompt w/Admin: DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /Restorehealth
followed by SFC /scannow

I also might suggest if you have a spare M.2 drive to troubleshoot with is to remove your boot drive(or both) and use another drive to do a test install of Win11.

Kaizen777 said:

peak temp so far at 73c while doing basic stuff

Click to expand...

That is suspect. At idle, my (slightly older) 3950X is below 40° C, and when playing CPU intensive games, it is not pushing much above 60° C. If you're doing 'basic' things and it climbs to 73° C, then I suspect that your heatsink is not making proper contact.

How is the radiator mounted in your system, and have you watched the GN and / or Jayz Two Cents video on proper mounting? Since you changed the orientation of the cooler on the CPU that might be causing an issue.

Also, double check to see if that model is not known to have issues with problematic gunk inside the pump and cooling fins, I know there were some AIOs that had an issue like that, that you may not have experienced before simply because the (previous) orientation overcame the buildup, but now changing it around *is* causing issues.

This thread has links to both GN and JTC vides regarding orientation:

RAM definitely is seated properly. I just reseated the GPU, still freezing.
I did notice that I was able to screw in one of the four screws holding my AIO pump over the CPU about 5 full turns. Interesting.
Still freezing.
I will try reseating the CPU completely as a last resort.. and I'm coming to that quickly at this point.
Thanks!

antspants said:

Most often with issues like yours I first check that the hardware is seated properly. First the Ram & GPU and lastly the CPU (because it’s the most annoying to reseat) And often it fixes small annoyances.
Perhaps checking the Ram cause it to seat properly when you put the sticks back in?

Click to expand...

Turned off DOCP, still freezing.
I do have some spare GPUs I could try.
Question - if it is locking up in Safe Mode is there any point to trying the DDU approach?
Because ya, it locked up in Safe Mode. =D

I totally forgot I have a 2tb SSD that was main boot drive prior to installing this 4tb SSD. That installation wasn't freezing. I tried popping that back into the secondary M.2 slot and set the bios to boot from that. There is now some windows.efi issue with that and it won't boot. Argh. I was excited to try that.

BamaInArk said:

Are you using DOCP(XMP) for ram? If so turn that off and let the memory run at default. Just for troubleshooting. If you have a 2nd GPU to test with try that too. You might have to try and run DDU and remove all the video drivers. You could try this and just let the 4090 run using default windows drivers. As in no Nvidia driver. If you do ahead and do this run DDU in Safe Mode then select the setting to shut down afterward. Once it shuts down then power off the power supply completely.

You also might try these 2 commands at a command prompt w/Admin: DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /Restorehealth
followed by SFC /scannow

I also might suggest if you have a spare M.2 drive to troubleshoot with is to remove your boot drive(or both) and use another drive to do a test install of Win11.

Click to expand...

Kaizen777 said:

I totally forgot I have a 2tb SSD that was main boot drive prior to installing this 4tb SSD. That installation wasn't freezing. I tried popping that back into the secondary M.2 slot and set the bios to boot from that. There is now some windows.efi issue with that and it won't boot. Argh. I was excited to try that.

Click to expand...

You may need to remove the 4 TB completely so the 2 TB can boot, if you want to continue this line of testing.

Kaizen777 said:

Turned off DOCP, still freezing.
I do have some spare GPUs I could try.
Question - if it is locking up in Safe Mode is there any point to trying the DDU approach?
Because ya, it locked up in Safe Mode. =D

I totally forgot I have a 2tb SSD that was main boot drive prior to installing this 4tb SSD. That installation wasn't freezing. I tried popping that back into the secondary M.2 slot and set the bios to boot from that. There is now some windows.efi issue with that and it won't boot. Argh. I was excited to try that.

Click to expand...

I think if it's locking up in Safe Mode that really tends to point to a hardware issue. Memory or Graphics issue...hardware itself? Hopefully not the CPU. Or as mentioned about overheating too. I would still attempt another clean install using a different M.2 drive.

You need to take your PC to your computer repair shop.

Malfunctioning hardware can't be fixed by reinstalling Windows.

The damaged component has to be replaced! Good luck.

Repair shop? Those words do not compute =D
I would sooner get my hands on an alternate mobo and alternate CPU to test.
Isn't that what a repair shop would do anyway?
I don't think a faulty mobo or cpu can be fixed, just replaced.
But thanks!

NormanF said:

You need to take your PC to your computer repair shop.

Malfunctioning hardware can't be fixed by reinstalling Windows.

The damaged component has to be replaced! Good luck.

Click to expand...