F5F Stay Refreshed Hardware Desktop PC starts acting strange and stops working properly.

PC starts acting strange and stops working properly.

PC starts acting strange and stops working properly.

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Sertero28
Senior Member
589
10-21-2022, 04:09 PM
#1
Prepare yourself, this situation is quite intense. At the start of the week, my five-month-old PC began freezing and displaying blue screens repeatedly. The issue occurred consistently on the first night, and I couldn't resolve it. The following day it functioned normally for a while before restarting again with the same problem. For most of the time, using the computer has been impossible because of these persistent blue screens. The error messages I've received are: IRQL not less or equal Kernel security check failure Critical process died Kmode exception not handled Page fault in nonpaged area Wimfsf.sys (blue screen during Windows install). I've attempted several fixes, such as relocating or replacing RAM and the GPU, removing all peripherals, updating DDU for GPU and audio drivers, running Memtest86, performing SFC/scannow, DISM scans, resetting BIOS to defaults, wiping the SSD, and even doing a clean Windows install. I've also used BlueScreenViewer with mini dumps enabled, which consistently pointed to "ntoskrnl.exe". Memtest detected issues with one of my two DDR5 memory modules, so I've been testing only the working stick across different slots without problems. If I give Windows a chance, it boots into safe mode and works fine then. The only stable moments are during Memtest runs or when using Windows 10 Home from a recovery USB. Today I completely wiped the boot drive and attempted a fresh Windows install via USB, but I immediately saw a blue screen after the BIOS. At this stage, I suspect a hardware fault, though I'm unsure whether to replace the motherboard, CPU, or RAM. Since I don't have backups of any core parts—this was my first build since the 6th generation Intel and DDR4—I'm open to any advice or solutions. Thanks! Mobo: ASRock Z690 Steel Legend/D5 CPU: i5-13600k RAM: Corsair Vengeance DDR5 5600 (2x16) SSD: WD Black SN850x PSU: EVGA 850G+ OS: Windows 10 Home (cloned from old PC) Edited March 18, 2023 by Babaji7
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Sertero28
10-21-2022, 04:09 PM #1

Prepare yourself, this situation is quite intense. At the start of the week, my five-month-old PC began freezing and displaying blue screens repeatedly. The issue occurred consistently on the first night, and I couldn't resolve it. The following day it functioned normally for a while before restarting again with the same problem. For most of the time, using the computer has been impossible because of these persistent blue screens. The error messages I've received are: IRQL not less or equal Kernel security check failure Critical process died Kmode exception not handled Page fault in nonpaged area Wimfsf.sys (blue screen during Windows install). I've attempted several fixes, such as relocating or replacing RAM and the GPU, removing all peripherals, updating DDU for GPU and audio drivers, running Memtest86, performing SFC/scannow, DISM scans, resetting BIOS to defaults, wiping the SSD, and even doing a clean Windows install. I've also used BlueScreenViewer with mini dumps enabled, which consistently pointed to "ntoskrnl.exe". Memtest detected issues with one of my two DDR5 memory modules, so I've been testing only the working stick across different slots without problems. If I give Windows a chance, it boots into safe mode and works fine then. The only stable moments are during Memtest runs or when using Windows 10 Home from a recovery USB. Today I completely wiped the boot drive and attempted a fresh Windows install via USB, but I immediately saw a blue screen after the BIOS. At this stage, I suspect a hardware fault, though I'm unsure whether to replace the motherboard, CPU, or RAM. Since I don't have backups of any core parts—this was my first build since the 6th generation Intel and DDR4—I'm open to any advice or solutions. Thanks! Mobo: ASRock Z690 Steel Legend/D5 CPU: i5-13600k RAM: Corsair Vengeance DDR5 5600 (2x16) SSD: WD Black SN850x PSU: EVGA 850G+ OS: Windows 10 Home (cloned from old PC) Edited March 18, 2023 by Babaji7

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SchnoopDougle
Junior Member
39
10-22-2022, 01:45 AM
#2
Are you still using that tool? Take it out and let us know if it fixes the problem. Suggested approach: Run Prime95 with Small FFTs for an hour to check CPU, then use Memtest86 for three hours on RAM. Please inform us of any errors encountered during testing. Download links: Prime95 – https://www.mersenne.org/download/, Memtest86 – https://www.memtest86.com/download.htm
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SchnoopDougle
10-22-2022, 01:45 AM #2

Are you still using that tool? Take it out and let us know if it fixes the problem. Suggested approach: Run Prime95 with Small FFTs for an hour to check CPU, then use Memtest86 for three hours on RAM. Please inform us of any errors encountered during testing. Download links: Prime95 – https://www.mersenne.org/download/, Memtest86 – https://www.memtest86.com/download.htm

9
905xA
Senior Member
667
11-08-2022, 11:55 PM
#3
I removed the faulty RAM module and the remaining slot has completed four Memtest cycles without any issues. For the CPU, I haven’t installed any operating system yet. I couldn’t run Windows for more than ten to fifteen seconds without a blue screen, and it also froze during boot from a recovery USB, which led me to wipe my hard drive. The challenge now is that I still don’t have an OS to test on.
9
905xA
11-08-2022, 11:55 PM #3

I removed the faulty RAM module and the remaining slot has completed four Memtest cycles without any issues. For the CPU, I haven’t installed any operating system yet. I couldn’t run Windows for more than ten to fifteen seconds without a blue screen, and it also froze during boot from a recovery USB, which led me to wipe my hard drive. The challenge now is that I still don’t have an OS to test on.