So as a bit of a background. I have a system I built last year and ever since it’s had the single weirdest technical issue I’ve ever experienced. Some of them have been worked out but one remains.
Over the course of the year I’ve replaced nearly every part, except for the motherboard. So… Now I’m thinking about replacing the motherboard and would like to know what people would suggest as durable and stable Am4 M-ATX motherboard.
Having 2 NVME slots would be nice, as well as support for 4 ram sticks.
Mind describing them, if you haven’t so already in other posts maybe?
In my experience with AM4 99% of the issues come either from memory/infinity fabric, CPU dying or being on the verge of and AGESA updates.
If you’re on Ryzen 3000 I’d make sure to at least test your current motherboard with a known good, 100% stable in another system, CPU.
If that doesn’t make the issues go away try to update the BIOS, if you haven’t already, BUT don’t go much further than AGESA V2 PI 1.2.0.1 Patch A that fixed most of the USB weirdness on AM4. Past that it’s mostly “seucrity” patches at the cost of stability especially when running custom voltages and XMP profiles (at least in my case).
I’m deliberately going “off topic” because I there isn’t usually much wrong with consumer motherboards 99% of the time. So you might find yourself battling the same issues even after spending 150$ on a new motherboard and having spent the time to pull apart and put back together again your system.
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I’ve had good luck with ASRock mATX boards, and I’m sure plenty others are pretty good. I definitely had issues with the memory controller on older Ryzen processors. My 2400G got to the point it wouldn’t boot any more. If I got it booted up and some sort of load going it was fine, but within a few minutes of zero load it would freeze. My 1700X started to act up in a similar fashion on a similar but slightly different build. Upgraded to a 5600G and it’s been flawless.
The APU has limitations that you wouldn’t want with a dedicated GPU, but the better memory controller and better IPC was a huge jump in performance. I’m hoping those 5700x3d rumors are true since I now have a dedicated GPU (it sucks in Linux, but it games) and the 1700X randomly locking up under no load is really annoying. I had been chasing my tail trying to figure out the processor issue and swapped everything. I was fortunate to have access to 2 different AM4 builds. I eventually saw a video from Tech YES City about older Ryzen processors having issues and that led me to the root of the problem. One ASRock B450MPro4-F and two B450M-HDV builds (R5 1600AF for my mother hasn’t acted up yet) have been great aside from the old Ryzens.
Well in very short… If i watch streamed content that has encryption (so, Disney +, Netflix, Amazon prime etc) The display driver eventually “dies” (ie the entire UI etc stops being refreshed) then the audio dies a bit later and the entire system is locked and needs to be rebooted.
Otherwise its 100% stable.
It did this with the original CPU then the replacement CPU, changed memory, changed video card… hell changed PSU too.
Bios updates let me run my 4 sticks of memory at XMP settings so that was nice but otherwise nothing seems to change the streaming = crashing issue.
It’s either a ghost or an issue with your display. If there’s something wrong with it the DHCP handshake might be flacky and causing these irreversable lockup. Have you tried using a different cable and/or display and see if that happens?
Thats an interesting idea, I never considered something might be off with the display or the cables. Any way i can check for it ?
The other notable thing is, typically these crashes leave no evidence in the event log.
Hook you PC up to the TV, you can also try different cables
Also try different ports on your GPU and monitor
Also make sure virtualization options are enabled in bios
As GB.exe said find anything you can use as a display and go for it. Try to use the same cable at first, if possible, and swap it out eventually with another one.
Also test all the ports on your GPU.
What you could also try is hooking up other devices to your PC monitor and see if they behave the same way somehow.
If none of these changes make a difference turn off XMP. Is a WILD guess by me but it’s worth trying and takes two minutes at no risk. Memory is diabolical sometimes!
Well… I have previously used the monitor in question in my last build for a while with no issues… but I did change the cabling.
As for the issue, it happens XMP on or Off, tho back on older bios’s it would cause it to happen faster with XMP on.
Still thanks for the ideas I’ll give em a try before doing anything more drastic.
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So, hilarious followup.
The audio jack on my motherboard has fallen off 
(well, the solder joint broke) so RMA and replacement. Any suggestions on a good AM4 motherboard to get ?
only need 4 ram slots and 2-3 NVME slots