Crashes every 5-15 minutes

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600X
Mobo: ASRock B450M Pro4
GPU: Radeon R9 290 (Club3D royalKing)
RAM: 2x8GB DDR4 3200MHz (XPG Gammix D10)
PSU: 650W (Thermaltake SPR-065F-R)
Storage: 250GB NVMe SSD (WD Blue SN550)

I'm encountering issues somewhat similar to this guy: [URL=http://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=10819&title=b450m-pro4-ryzen-5-2400g-constantly-crashing]B450m Pro4, Ryzen 5 2400G constantly crashing[/URL]

Windows 10 installs just fine. However, when I do anything that taxes the system even remotely, the computer either fully reboots (i.e. the screen goes black for a couple seconds, fans ramp up, then the BIOS splash screen appears) or will completely freeze (can't even move the mouse) forcing me to power off. No blue screen or anything; reliability monitor only recognizes these events as as "Windows was not properly shut down".

I've tried:

• Swapping the PSU and reseating all power connectors
• Swapping the GPU
• Reapplying thermal paste
• Disabling CPU turbo boost
• Enabling XMP (which set RAM to 3200 MHz)
• Disabling XMP (which set RAM to 2666 MHz)
• Reinstalling Windows
• Running Memtest86 (with and without XMP enabled at 4 passes each; no errors for all 8 passes)
• Booting with 1 stick of RAM at a time
• Reseating the CPU
• Downgrading the BIOS from v4.30 to v3.50 (as v3.60 and above is not recommended for Summit Ridge CPUs)

At this point the only other things I can think of are swapping the CPU or the motherboard, but unfortunately I don't have spares of either. As I mentioned, it tends to crash every 5-15 minutes, but in case it matters, here are some specific events that have caused crashes:

• Idling on the desktop after a fresh install, no programs open
• Installing Radeon drivers
• Unplugging/plugging in a USB device
• Opening a web browser

Other miscellaneous notes:

• This build is a gift for a coworker's 10 year old son, and I let him help me build it. When I started disassembling things to test the components, I noticed he overtightened the CPU heatsink, and the pre-applied paste on the Wraith Spire had spilled out the sides a bit. I've cleaned this up and I checked the CPU for bent pins (there weren't any)
• Initially the CPU temps were fluctating a lot and getting quite high (from 30 up to 60 while idling), but after reapplying the thermal paste it's down to 30-40 on idle
• As mentioned, Windows installations complete without issue (I've done 3 at this point)
• Haven't noticed any crashes when running Windows in safe mode

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Memory in slots A2/B2? .. are you able to get the latest chipset drivers installed? Does it ever crash just sitting in the BIOS? Have you tried a different drive to install windows on? Have you tried the other M.2 slot? Have you checked the drive in another PC or for errors? Was the TIM you used non-conductive?

muziqaz wrote: If memory passes Memtest86, the only things that are left to check is CPU and GPU. Run some tests on CPU only, to see if it crashes once under load. Memtest86 does not load the CPU, i believe

I can try running Prime95, but I can guarantee you it will crash, given that almost everything does.

It seems like ThreeDee was on the right track.

I ran Prime95 (small FFTs) for about 20 minutes before it crashed. Then I booted to Ultimate Boot CD from a USB and ran the Mersenne Prime Test (small FFTs). It was still going 5 hours later.

I swapped out the SSD for an EVO 960 from my main rig (same M.2 slot), and ran Prime95 again. It's only been 30 minutes so far, but that's the longest Windows uptime I've ever had on this machine.

I'm going to let it keep going for another 12 hours just to be sure. But it seems like either the WD Blue SN550 is faulty, or it's somehow incompatible with the board. I'll plug it into my main rig after I'm done running Prime95 and see what happens.

By the way, thank you everyone for the suggestions.

muziqaz wrote: Do any SSD/HDD health checking utilities report any issues with that drive?

I apologize for taking so long to get back to you. The SN550 went on sale last week, so I bought the 500 GB variant and returned the original. Since then, everything has been working flawlessly. I never ended up doing an SSD health check, but I think it's safe to say it was just a defective drive.