I'm trying to setup an old PC for basic usage.  It has a fresh install of Windows 10 Pro.  It will go into BIOS ok but about 10 seconds after booting into Windows desktop, it freezes, and then blue screens with a couple of different errors such as:

watchdog timeout

unrecoverable error

These errors also appeared prior to me formatting the drive (done this morning followed by a fresh install of Win10).

While I was in BIOS earlier today, I saw the CPU temp spike to 88C.  That's too high imo but I've been in bios before on this PC about 10 times and it's never been that high.  So I cleaned the thermal paste and added a thermal pad.  Now the temps are reasonable (40s).  

At any rate, I'm really quite stumped as to why its still freezing.  Memtest doesn't show any errors with the ram (using the bootable usb version).  The case (Corsair 650D) and power supply (Seasonic X-750)  is original from 2011, the motherboard is a Asus Z97 Pro AC, a GTX 970 and 2x8 GB 2400mhz corsair dominator ram.  The cpu is a 4790K (I've removed ALL OC settings and am running default BIOS settings).  What do you guys think?

Did the CPU temp spike cause damage?

Would something on the motherboard be causing Win10 to fail on startup?

Would the GPU be a concern?  Sometimes using HDMI the screen is a little fuzzy like my pic here (other times, even this morning it loaded clear)

How to tell of the power supply is a factor?

At this point it's not really worth spending hours upon hours to get it working (mostly just fun lol - but it's really starting to not become fun).

If anyone is looking to get rid of an older PC (at least with a basic dedicated GPU) let me know...  I'd be okay spending a few hundred on one.

 

 

I'm not at all an expert.  I imagine you googled about your watchdog error, as did I, and saw that the problem is of the needle in the haystack variety as to where the problem can be.  My gut reaction is that the temp spike isn't the problem since the CPU is made to protect itself from such harm.  Since you can fully boot into windows it might be a driver issue (bet you already looked into this).  Is your new image build a plain vanilla Windows 10 build?  At least that can be a starting point, though maybe not all that helpful in the long (or even short) run ☹️.  Good luck and best wishes on getting this resolved.

Edited March 31, 20251 yr by TheFamilyMan

Does the CPU have integrated graphics? If so, try running off that, to eliminate the card as an issue.

You say BIOS defaults, but motherboard manufacturers often cheat with defaults, so make sure volage is at CPU manufacturers setting.

Also make sure XMP is off.

Try one RAM stick at a time to determine if you have a naughty stick. 

PSU testers are cheap. You can use one to test the PSU. won't be under load though but if it's really dodgy it will show up with volts out of spec.

Have you updated BIOS?

Is your Windows 10 corrupted? Try reinstalling.

It won't be the temp spike, 88 degrees is nothing. And it would have thermal throttled if too hot.

 

 

Edited April 9, 20251 yr by martin-w