Need help with your gaming PC? It’s showing a blue screen and can’t be updated.
Need help with your gaming PC? It’s showing a blue screen and can’t be updated.
Hey there, I’m facing some serious trouble with my gaming PC. It keeps showing blue screens randomly, even when I power it on or use it for anything from watching videos to editing photos in Photoshop. Sometimes it works fine, but other times it freezes or just stops completely. When I connect a new USB drive, it doesn’t appear in the system, and I can’t install Windows updates without it showing up or freezing. I tried a clean Windows installation via USB, but it didn’t recognize the drive at all. Also, I had to adjust the performance settings on Intel Extreme Tuning Utility—changing the performance core ratio from 55x to 54x helped some games like Dead by Daylight and FiveM run, but they still crash if I don’t make that change. I’m not very tech-savvy, and after checking with a few people, it seems like no one really knows what to do. It’s been frustrating and a bit costly since I already had three folks looking into it. Any tips or advice would be super helpful.
PC details:
- OS: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro 64 Bit
- CPU: 13th Gen Intel Core i9-13900KF
- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 (24GB)
- PSU: Corsair RM1000x 1000W
- Motherboard: ROG STRIX Z790-E GAMING WIFI
- RAM: 32GB
- Build: 10.0.22631
- Version: 22631
The current BIOS version can be checked by accessing the system settings or manufacturer's support page.
I've had pretty similar problems with my 13900k. Basically your cpu might be dying. For me it was crashing tabs in Firefox and some apps not installing. It's the wide-spread problem with this generation of cpu's. TLDR - your processor is taking to much voltage and probably frying itself. Unfortunately this process is irreversible. Try to contact intel support. Or if you bought this system as a whole (for example from HP, Dell, IBuyPower etc.), contact their support. If there's no luck with the support and warranty, here's what solved it for me: I downclocked my cpu by 20 percent (basically you have clock multiplier in the bios, by default it was set to 100, I set it to 80). You'll loose some performance, but the degradation process would stop or at least slow down. Also, you can check if it's the case by running tests in the Intel Extreme Overclocking Utility. If all of this sounds like scary gibberish to you - don't be afraid, it easily googlable.
The information provided appears outdated. Updating the bios will enforce CPU restrictions that prevent further issues. Currently, these limits seem to control the CPU effectively, but they don’t resolve the underlying factory defect. There’s no assurance it won’t reappear in the future. Regardless, your existing chip is showing signs of wear and should be replaced to maintain warranty coverage.
No worries, thanks to everyone. I’ll reach out tomorrow to check if we can resolve this.
When dealing with the Intel CPU problem, you typically encounter memory-related BSODs that resemble faulty RAM. These memory issues can trigger various BSOD errors and random blame assignments, making it less useful to focus only on two components. It's likely the memory is the main suspect given these symptoms. Adding compilation shader errors further raises concerns about the CPU itself, especially since these are significant problems with Intel chips. If you'd like, I can examine the crash logs to see if anything changes. Dump files contain records of the BSODs. Navigate to C:\Windows\Minidump and verify the presence of any minidump files. If found, return to your Windows directory and move the Minidump folder to the Downloads folder (or use your desktop if OneDrive isn't available). Compress the new folder and attach it to a message. Please follow instructions carefully—Windows doesn’t like changes in certain locations. Updating the BIOS is strongly advised, but it won’t resolve the existing CPU issue; it only helps avoid further damage during replacement. Intel has extended their warranty for these models, so a replacement should be straightforward.