PC Freezes trying to install windows. Will post.

[MaKo82]

My PC boots into the BIOS just fine. All my drives, cpu and memory seem to be running fine. Currently running memtest and so far no errors. I have a boot disk (USB) to install windows and the farthest i've gotten is inputting the Key. then the PC locks up and is frozen.

BIOS has not been updated, its a brand new out of box MB Strix Z790E, i9 13900K, Corsair 7200 Vengence.

This is the second USB That i have tried and I'm getting the same result. Any ideas?

[tomersa]

JohnAb thanks for your answer.
Yes it was funny that safe mode with networking was working without a problem all day. OK, I didnt put any stress to the system, cause you cant, but I watched videos on youtube, browsing, copying files for backup, etc.
I've tried everything. RAM sticks to every slots, one stick, second stick, second SSD in other m.2 slot, all cables reinserting, case cables (audio, usb, rgb, case fans) disconnected, second monitor, 2nd keyboard, 2nd mouse, really just everything I can. I've taken external graphics card out the first time it began freezing. I really dont know what else can I remove for minimizing the number of devices. Just recently I have noticed that when computer freezes, quiet hissing sound starts coming from PSU. OK, so I've changed PSU from my old computer. It's the same thing. Moving on, just now I've tried to install windows on my old SATA disk. PC froze during disk format.
It seems it freezes only when there is some workload for the system. Because it can sit without freezing on startup Windows Setup (language, time and keyboard input) or where you choose your disk destination without a problem for a longer period of time. I dont know exactly, how long yet, but I will try and leave it for couple of hours.

[JohnAb]

Problems like this are so frustrating. I'd be tempted to remove the CPU next and check very carefully for any dust/dirt or bent pins in the socket and if the base of the CPU is clean. When you re-apply paste and assemble the cooler, don't overtighten.

If that doesn't work, then I think it would be an idea to see if you beg/borrow another CPU, even if it's a lower spec one. Maybe you can find a local shop that could do that. Swap them out and see if it's better. I don't think CPU problems are common at all, but that was MaKo82's issue, so perhaps. Your symptoms seem very similar. Failing that, maybe the motherboard has developed a fault. Again, only a swap will confirm it. Sorry, but I can't see an easy answer and the approach you've taken so far seems very thorough. Keep us posted and best of luck...

[tomersa]

Yes it is really frustrating and I've never had that kind of problems. I can easly say that I know something about computers hardware and software, because I deal with computers problems on a daily basis in our company, but never had something like this. Anyway, system was still running fine sitting on windows setup for few hours when i came home, but when I clicked next, it froze again in a second. I've already checked CPU yesterday, cleaned it, reapplied the paste and reassembled all together, but no luck. CPU is watercooled and not overclocked at current time. Yes i'm thinking to borrow/find another CPU somewhere or take mine to someone with a same LGA motherboard, but this is hard to find. Will keep you posted.

[tomersa]

OK, so we probably didn't bought our CPU's from the same batch, because I bought it from Germany from https://www.caseking.de/. Yes, that is why i wrote here cause i noticed that you had similar problems as me and we have similar system parts. My case is that every try to install is different. Sometimes it freezes before the windows setup, sometimes at 1%, 50%, even 100%. Tomorrow i will call an acquaintance who is servicing computers and will ask him if maybe he has some MB with the same socket so we can test the CPU.

[tomersa]

So, I'm still testing the whole system with different methods. I've reinstalled the cpu with checking for dust and re-applying the paste again. Right now I'm doing MemTest from BIOS for the 3rd time and CPU has some hard workload also with memtest, because CPU fans RPM's are quite high. The test was finished in 1 hour and 10 minutes and it passed normal with no errors. So how come this kind of "stress" test is working fine, but some simple copying windows files doesnt? This system really behaves very strange. :cool:

[MaKo82]

tomersa wrote:
So how come this kind of "stress" test is working fine, but some simple copying windows files doesn't? This system really behaves very strange. :cool:

I asked a PC repair place I took it to the exact same question, "Why would the everything run fine in the BIOS, even run thru a full MemTest if there was something wrong?." He said the BIOS uses very little resources and if the CPU were bad it really wouldn't show (in my case), but the second you start throwing more complicated calculations at it, that's when the faults show. My CPU was running within normal temps during Memtest. 40-50c, the bad one.

[tomersa]

MaKo82 wrote:
I asked a PC repair place I took it to the exact same question, "Why would the everything run fine in the BIOS, even run thru a full MemTest if there was something wrong?." He said the BIOS uses very little resources and if the CPU were bad it really wouldn't show (in my case), but the second you start throwing more complicated calculations at it, that's when the faults show. My CPU was running within normal temps during Memtest. 40-50c, the bad one.

Thank you very much for this kind of an answer. It helps a lot.

[JohnAb]

Sounds promising and good progress. Have a look at HWInfo - are you getting any WHEA errors? If you are, there are some power saving settings that might help. I've had problems before that were related to file transfers....

[tomersa]

I can't get to HWInfo because i cant install windows. 🙂 Anyway, now i am trying to install Ubuntu, and on the first start of the setup i did get the message CPU hardware error something, but i cant replicate that anymore.

[MaKo82]

Keep us updated. Very curious what the issue ends up being.