Some of you helped with advice when I put a new machine together last fall. Lightroom GPU requirements forced me to build a new machine.
I have a situation where my machine won't boot once every 31 days. A definite 31 day cycle is apparent. I have been posting at Tom's Hardware and getting help there, but I thought I would reach out here. I had run "dism/sfc/scan" initial and corrected the errors that were present. The event viewer showed things, but nothing that should have an effect according to TH experts. The screen stays black, and there is a red light on the motherboard (cluster of 4) that hangs on the SRAM.
I have been advised to pull the GPU out and test it in another machine. I did, and nothing wrong with it. I can pull it out of my machine every time, and that "resets" it, and it will boot. I reseated the RAM this last time.
Anyway, I wondered if anyone might have thoughts on this. I have built my own since 2014 and never had a problem like this.
Hardware:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9900X 4.4 GHz 12-Core - 24 threads – 120W
CPU cooler: ID-COOLING SE-225-XT Black CPU Cooler 5 Heatpipes CPU Air Cooler 2x120mm – 3W
Motherboard: Gigabyte B650 Gaming X AX Rev 1.0, ATX AM5 - 70W
Ram: Crucial Pro 64GB DDR5 6000 MHz UDIMM Memory Kit (2 x 32GB, Black)
SSD: WD 2TB WD_BLACK SN850X Gaming Internal NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD
GPU: Gigabyte GeForce RTX 5060 Eagle
PSU:Thermaltake GF1 Fully Modular ATX 850W Power Supply - 80 Plus Gold - Ultra Quiet - Zero RPM, PS-TPD-0850FNFAGU-P
Chassis: DARKROCK EC2 Black ATX Mid Tower PC Case with 4x120mm Black Fan,
Monitor: Dell
The most effective, targeted steps to address this specific cycle include:Replace the CMOS Battery: The CR2032 coin battery on your motherboard keeps system time and BIOS settings intact. If it is failing, it can periodically dump your system configurations, causing the machine to halt at the boot screen or refuse to post.Clear the CMOS: Unplug your PC from the wall, remove this coin battery for 5 to 10 minutes, and press the power button a few times to drain residual energy. This forces the motherboard to reset to its fail-safe state, clearing out any minor configuration glitches that accumulate over time.Disable "Fast Startup": Windows frequently holds onto dirty kernel states that prevent clean reboots. You can disable this by navigating to your Windows Control Panel > Power Options > Choose what the power buttons do. Click the prompt to Change settings that are currently unavailable, and uncheck Turn on fast startup.Perform a Power Drain: When the machine refuses to boot, switch off the Power Supply Unit (PSU), unplug the power cable from the wall, and hold the PC’s power button down for 30 seconds. This discharges static buildup from your capacitors, often bringing an unresponsive machine back to life.Could you tell me:What signs of life does the machine show (e.g., fans spinning but black screen, power button unresponsive, diagnostic beep codes)?Does it eventually boot on its own after being left alone for a while?Providing this detail helps to identify whether the issue is a software freeze or a failing power component.
Funny, story. One of the guys at TsH told me to update as mine was real old. He told me not to do the latest so I'm at F40. When I reminded him of this on the last thread, he told me his was simply a suggestion. It wasn't. I will do that. Can this be done within the Gig software that is installed?
As far as the CMOS reset, is that done by the battery change procedure?
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macwest wrote:
The most effective, targeted steps to address this specific cycle include:Replace the CMOS Battery: The CR2032 coin battery on your motherboard keeps system time and BIOS settings intact. If it is failing, it can periodically dump your system configurations, causing the machine to halt at the boot screen or refuse to post.Clear the CMOS: Unplug your PC from the wall, remove this coin battery for 5 to 10 minutes, and press the power button a few times to drain residual energy. This forces the motherboard to reset to its fail-safe state, clearing out any minor configuration glitches that accumulate over time.Disable "Fast Startup": Windows frequently holds onto dirty kernel states that prevent clean reboots. You can disable this by navigating to your Windows Control Panel > Power Options > Choose what the power buttons do. Click the prompt to Change settings that are currently unavailable, and uncheck Turn on fast startup.Perform a Power Drain: When the machine refuses to boot, switch off the Power Supply Unit (PSU), unplug the power cable from the wall, and hold the PC’s power button down for 30 seconds. This discharges static buildup from your capacitors, often bringing an unresponsive machine back to life.Could you tell me:What signs of life does the machine show (e.g., fans spinning but black screen, power button unresponsive, diagnostic beep codes)?Does it eventually boot on its own after being left alone for a while?Providing this detail helps to identify whether the issue is a software freeze or a failing power component.
I don't use Gigabyte boards anymore, but usually you can copy the latest BIOS file to a USB flash drive, boot into the BIOS screen and update it from there. You don't need any OS or even an SSD for that. Some boards can do a BIOS update without a CPU even. Unlike cameras you can normally reflash with an older BIOS also.
Most likely there is a web or app based way to update also. I don't install all that junk.
EB-1 wrote:
I don't use Gigabyte boards anymore, but usually you can copy the latest BIOS file to a USB flash drive, boot into the BIOS screen and update it from there. You don't need any OS or even an SSD for that. Some boards can do a BIOS update without a CPU even. Unlike cameras you can normally reflash with an older BIOS also.
Most likely there is a web or app based way to update also. I don't install all that junk.
EBH
Ok, last time I Q-flashed it when the non-boot event occurred. Took just a minute to do. When I change the battery, I may do the same thing. Appreciate it.
I have always had good luck with Gigabyte products, but have to admit that this one is suspect.
macwest wrote:
Could you tell me:What signs of life does the machine show (e.g., fans spinning but black screen, power button unresponsive, diagnostic beep codes)?Does it eventually boot on its own after being left alone for a while?Providing this detail helps to identify whether the issue is a software freeze or a failing power component.
I failed to answer this part of your post. It will power on with certain fan(s) running and hang with the SDRAM light glowing on the motherboard. When booting normally, it will go from the SDRAM light to the CPU light and boot. The screen is simply black. It will try to boot for a while, shut down, and then try again. It will do this until I stop it. In the beginning of this happening, it would eventually boot on its own, but not for the past two or three months. There are no diagnostic beep codes.
Early on, I somehow got it into a blue Bitlocker screen and got in that way but I haven't been able to repeat that.
I had not cleared the CMOS and was looking today at the motherboard layout. There is a reset switch. Do that, or will replacing the battery do it? I will put a new battery in anyway.
I plan to unhook the machine after my morning routine and work on it. I am currently backing up a bootable copy on a twin M.2 drive that mirrors my C drive.
I plan to
Reset CMOS
Qflash the latest BIOS update
jeffbuzz wrote:
Sounds like a memory issue. Are your UDIMM sticks in the correct slots?
Are you sure the machine is "hung" and not just doing some kind of diagnostic? DDR5 memory calibration can take a long time with 64GB.
The trouble with "gaming" boards is that their BIOS often expose so many tweaking options that it's very easy to cause a conflict.
I have double-checked the memory sticks, and they are good. I'm pretty certain it isn't doing a diagnostic run, but I don't know that for certain. I probably should have chosen a different board, but here I am.
I failed to answer this part of your post. It will power on with certain fan(s) running and hang with the SDRAM light glowing on the motherboard. When booting normally, it will go from the SDRAM light to the CPU light and boot. The screen is simply black. It will try to boot for a while, shut down, and then try again. It will do this until I stop it. In the beginning of this happening, it would eventually boot on its own, but not for the past two or three months. There are no diagnostic beep codes.
Early on, I somehow got it into a blue Bitlocker screen and got in that way but I haven't been able to repeat that.
I had not cleared the CMOS and was looking today at the motherboard layout. There is a reset switch. Do that, or will replacing the battery do it? I will put a new battery in anyway.
I plan to unhook the machine after my morning routine and work on it. I am currently backing up a bootable copy on a twin M.2 drive that mirrors my C drive.
I plan to
Reset CMOS
Qflash the latest BIOS update
You might as well replace the battery if you are in there and then reset and update BIOS one more time. But make sure you note what BIOS settings are not default. Removing the battery will do the same thing as a reset, yet might take a few minutes.
I hate to say it, but most likely you have a bad board if that does not work and it is not the RAM. You can run MemTest or similar to check the latter. I normally have extra parts including a B650M borad, PSU, some RAM etc. and can at least figure out what is a hardware failure. Genrally it will get worse over time until booting is impossible. There are several chipsets that work with the 9900X so plenty of choices and some are relativley low cost.
I ran the memory test, and it showed no problems with the memory. Haven't done that one in many moons and can't remember which old computer. That is where the boot process hangs up. This motherboard carries a 3-year warranty, but that I'm aware of, there is no way to tell for sure if it is bad from my end.
Any motherboards you might recommend? It would really depend on what Gigabyte wants to do I suppose.
I appreciate the responses here, but I regret to say I made a critical error when building this machine.
I had ordered a different motherboard, checked for compatibility, but it ended up getting returned. When I ordered the current board, I failed to check again. The 9900x does not appear to be compatible with the motherboard. When I looked at the Gigabyte link listed above, I looked at CPU support, and the 9900X isn't listed for this motherboard.
It appears I will need another motherboard and practice putting one together again.
I now have the itch myself, it's been a decade at least since I put a machine together. (I have an Intel MoBo in my current desktop, that's how old it is hahaha)
sirimiri wrote:
Looks like you'll build two machines now
I now have the itch myself, it's been a decade at least since I put a machine together. (I have an Intel MoBo in my current desktop, that's how old it is hahaha)
BillinTexas wrote:
I appreciate the responses here, but I regret to say I made a critical error when building this machine.
I had ordered a different motherboard, checked for compatibility, but it ended up getting returned. When I ordered the current board, I failed to check again. The 9900x does not appear to be compatible with the motherboard. When I looked at the Gigabyte link listed above, I looked at CPU support, and the 9900X isn't listed for this motherboard.
It appears I will need another motherboard and practice putting one together again.
Your additional comments are welcome.
It's a B650 so should be compatible with 9900X CPU if the BIOS is late Q3 2024 or later. The B650 is the cheapest chipset for the AM5 socket made for the 7000 series originally. In that era I tended to use 7950X on X670E boards to maximum the PCIe lane usage and higher speed lanes also for SSDs, etc. The 9950X was a drop in. I've used 9700X on B650M with good results also. M indicates micro-ATM form factor and commonly the lesser chipsets are used in them because there are not enough slots/ports to use them on the narrower boards.
Just to be clear any good AM5 socket board will work with 9000 series if an updated BIOS is supporting it. Typically that is a few days or weeks within the CPU release date.
EB-1 wrote:
It's a B650 so should be compatible with 9900X CPU if the BIOS is late Q3 2024 or later. The B650 is the cheapest chipset for the AM5 socket made for the 7000 series originally. In that era I tended to use 7950X on X670E boards to maximum the PCIe lane usage and higher speed lanes also for SSDs, etc. The 9950X was a drop in. I've used 9700X on B650M with good results also. M indicates micro-ATM form factor and commonly the lesser chipsets are used in them because there are not enough slots/ports to use them on the narrower boards.
Just to be clear any good AM5 socket board will work with 9000 series if an updated BIOS is supporting it. Typically that is a few days or weeks within the CPU release date.
Thank you. So it would be worth going ahead as planned? I really have nothing to lose, but a little time, I suppose. It is a pain once a month, but I know what needs to be done at a no boot. I can change if all else fails. I think I may contact Gigabyte for support.
I have entered a support request with Gigabyte to see what my options are.
An interesting twist, I looked back at the B&H invoice for the RAM since Crucial shows that what I have is not compatible with the motherboard as well. I'm sure Gigabyte support will note this. The invoice shows a totally different part no. that was ordered, charged, and shipped. Apparently, no longer available. B&H shows the memory they actually sent to be worth $849.xx while I only paid $150. I plan to wait until I hear back from Gigabyte before I contact B&H and see what we can work out.
I think you are too hung up on HCL. Manufacturers cannot reasonably test all combinations. B650 is a 2022 chipset discontinued in 2025. Many RAM modules have been introduced and discontinued since then. For AMD you want EXPO labeled RAM and then enable EXPO in the BIOS and you are done.
