Windows 10 Freezes anytime it wants to

[pgrimes1986]

I have a gaming rig that was originally built about 3 years ago. I was running a Crosshair V Formula-Z mobo with a AMD 4350 CPU. It runs 8gb DDR3 with a SSD for windows and a SATA drive for other apps and games. About 6 months ago it started to just lock up very rarely. Whatever you were doing the mouse would stop, all sound would stop, the HDD led on the tower would stick either on or off, control alt delete had no effect. A full power off and reboot was the only thing that would get it going again.

This PC was being used to stream and needed a stronger CPU anyway so I put a AMD 9590 in it and the freezing issue continued. When I built this machine I also had built another one with almost identical parts. So I started the process of ellimination with the parts of the computer that ran with no issues. We swapped RAM, GPU, power supply. No change. We wiped the SSD and did a fresh install of WIndows 10. No change.

At this point I am thinking oh it must be the motherboard. So I ordered a new mobo and again, no change.

It never give a BSOD. I am not sure if it is making dump files nor do I know how to check those off the top of my head.

Any help would be amazing as being down a machine in our house is quite unfortunate.

Thanks!

 

[pgrimes1986]

QWuick update I have switched the OS over to Ubuntu and that has stopped the crashing. This would be great but it is a gaming rig and most of the games we play don't play on linux. Will be switching back to Windows 10 this weekend to see if the problem recurs.

 

[MeanMachine41]

Hi pgrimes1986

You have the FX-9590 which is an excellent CPU however it is temperamental with stability issues cause of it's 220TDP draw. You have an excellent MB for that CPU beast and MB combo.
Now wait for the crap telling you different.

I have the same combo with excellent results at 5.2GHz 24/7 stable and you have a very comprehensive UEFI Bios. The FX-9590 requires Bios changes for stability especially if you wish to OC.
Please list the PSU, Cooling system, Bios revision and RAM part No.?

 

[pgrimes1986]

Running a 650watt psu, Cooler Master Hyper N520, G-Skill Ripjaws F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL and MSI Gaming 990FXA MoBo now. It was running stable for a long time on a 4350 and the stability started to drop on that CPU as well.

 

[MeanMachine41]

Running a 650watt psu, Cooler Master Hyper N520, G-Skill Ripjaws F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL and MSI Gaming 990FXA MoBo now. It was running stable for a long time on a 4350 and the stability started to drop on that CPU as well.

Unfortunately a 650W PSU is inadequate for the FX-9590.
The Cooler Master Hyper N520 is totally inadequate for the FX-9590.
G-Skill Ripjaws are good.
I have heard the MSI Gaming 990FXA MoBo is not the best MB for OCing however I have no experience with the MSI.

I can't help you without you using your previous CVFZ, Upgrading the PSU and a decent AIO water cooler of H110 or equivalent.

 

[pgrimes1986]

Just to be clear... You are saying the 650 and the N520 are not enough even with no overclocking? I did not notice an issue thermally prior to any of the crashes. No temps over 70c or anything like that. I did not do a ton of research prior to purchasing the CPU. I did run a PSU estimator and it seemed to think with no OC I would be ok with 650 watt.

I just want to make my parameters clear before moving forward.

 

[MeanMachine41]

Just to be clear... You are saying the 650 and the N520 are not enough even with no overclocking? I did not notice an issue thermally prior to any of the crashes. No temps over 70c or anything like that. I did not do a ton of research prior to purchasing the CPU. I did run a PSU estimator and it seemed to think with no OC I would be ok with 650 watt.

I just want to make my parameters clear before moving forward.

Yes you are correct pgrimes1986

With Bios set at default the FX-9590 has turbo mode active and during load demands it would OC to 5.0GHz.
It is then that a TDP draw of 220W that the CPU requires comes into play and if the PSU does not provide it the system would stall.
The CVFZ has a 4pin MB connection for this purpose and should be used if you want to OC. Any Core Voltage droop and you have issues and therefore a decent quality gold certified PSU of min 850W is required for voltage efficiency. Cheeping out on the PSU for a bronze unit is not the way to go.

Yes you may get away with it at stock fixed 4.7GHz or an underclock and lower Core voltage but that's not a satisfactory solution is it.
Believe me when the system is under load or at peak demand, temperatures would exceed it's Thermal Threshhold and shut the system down. Also because the VRMs on the NB get hot so you need a good MB with 8+2 capacitor and good voltage regulation.

If you do a search regarding problems with the FX-9590 you will see heaps of issue regarding stability.
Extreme system builders who chose the FX-9590 did not choose it for gaming as there were 4 core intel processors that have faster single thread performance. The FX-9590 however has 8cores and great for multitasking, video editing and CAD rendering but it's a beast to get stable for the reasons given.
Sorry for the TLDR but it's important to know what you are dealing with pgrimes1986

 

[pgrimes1986]

Can you link to a good guide to underclock this CPU to help achieve stability? I do plan to upgrade to an i7 in the near future but at this time I am stuck with this cpu.

 

[MeanMachine41]

Can you link to a good guide to underclock this CPU to help achieve stability? I do plan to upgrade to an i7 in the near future but at this time I am stuck with this cpu.

Ok first update your Bios to version 1.4 if not already done so from here: https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/support/990FXA-GAMING.html#down-bios
Use the MFlash utility and a USB stick.

Once done, go into your Bios>OC and set CPU Core ratio to 23 (200 x 23= 4.6GHz)
AMD Turbo Core Technology>Disable
Check your XXX Voltage from AUTO and set core voltage to 1.3000V. If system does not boot then up the core voltage in +.010 steps till it boots.
Check your XMP profile for your RAM. This is disabled by default so enable it and set to the RAMs XMP profile.
Save and exit bios and the system will reboot.

Now stress test and report your temperatures.

 

[pgrimes1986]

Just to update this thread after the fact. My MSI motherboard did not support under or overclocking for this CPU at all. I reinstalled the old motherboard and down clocked and did achieve stability.