Several concerns exist - is it the motherboard?
Several concerns exist - is it the motherboard?
A few months ago, I started having issues with Windows Update failing to install updates. I would try several times and it would continually fail and give generic error codes. Then in the past month or so I started experiencing an issue where games in fullscreen mode would often crash if I spent more than a minute or two alt-tabbed. I tried updating all drivers and making sure that the games were running at the same refresh rate as the PC and the rest of the computer, it kept happening.
Also about a month ago, around when games started crashing when alt-tabbed, VIsual Studio also refused to update and gave a very odd error message. It kept saying that it had insufficient privelages to execute Powershell scripts. I was running on an Administrator account and I checked that my Powershell security settings were at the lowest possible level, but it didn't help. Ultimately, I just assumed that it was Windows that was causing this to fail as well, but now I'm not so sure. Finally, last week games started crashing while I was playing them as well. So I bit the bullet and decided to finally start running tests to figure out what it could be.
I checked event viewer and there was nothing obvious, just stuff about Windows Update regularly failing. I figured I probably needed to just reinstall Windows. But to be sure I ran every basic test in OCCT before doing so and nothing came up, so I started to reinstall Windows from the same flash drive that I used to install it when I first built this PC ~21 months ago. It failed at random points during the installation several times, but eventually I was finally able to get it to complete and hit 100%. I attributed this to just the flash drive being a bit finicky, which it is.
Now, booting into WIndows, I was annoyed to find that the motherboard's on-board WiFi wasn't working, so I had to hook up a flash drive to give it internet, and the resolution was like 1000x760, when the monitor is 4k, and it wouldn't let me change the resolution in the settings for some reason. I figured it was probably just the drivers that needed to be updated so got to work doing that. I tried to install the Intel support software and Nvidia app to update drivers, but both failed during the install process. For example, when I try to install the Nvidia app I immediately get the error message "Package error. 7-Zip: CRC error". This seemed very odd to me and so I thought at this point that it must be a hardware issue that OCCT did not catch. The GPU also doesn't even show up in task manager right now, just the Intel integrated graphics, even though the display is plugged into the GPU port. It also thinks it's on battery power? It's plugged into a UPS, but it still shouldn't think that.
I rebooted and ran 4 passes of every test of memtest86 and found nothing. I ran crystaldiskinfo and a full surface test of the C: drive with minitool partition wizard and found nothing. Crystaldisk said 98% disk health.
The only things left that I can think of are the motherboard and the CPU, and I can't imagine that CPU issues would manifest like this where things are failing to install repeatedly. I should mention that the PC is sometimes blue screening now as well, with "Kernal-power" error messages in the event viewer from these. I do have a 13th gen Intel CPU so I'm wary of the issues with those that others have had.
I've had some people IRL suggest that I should try to install Linux or some other OS and see if I still have issues, as maybe it's the Windows version I installed from that's broken, but I really just can't imagine that would cause all of this.
Does anyone have any advice or suggestions? My motherboard is still under warranty from MSI, so that is an option, but I'm wary of how annoying a process it will be to dismantle my PC, wait for them to repair or replace it, and then reassemble it.
Could it be Windows? Is there anything else I should try? Is there some better way to test the CPU or motherboard?
Here are my specs so that you have all the information:
CPU: Intel Core i9-13900k (stock settings)
GPU: Gigabyte GAMING OC GeForce RTX 4090 (stock settings)
Storage: Crucial T700 W/Heatsink 4 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 5.0 X4 NVME (This is the C: drive)
Storage: Western Digital Gold 18 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive (Not the C: drive so shouldn't matter)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 96 GB (2 x 48 GB) DDR5-6400 CL32 Memory (Not using XMP)
Motherboard: MSI MAG Z790 TOMAHAWK WIFI ATX LGA1700
PSU: Corsair RM1000x (2021) 1000 W
I doubt these matter but here just in case:
Noctua NH-D15 82.5 CFM CPU Cooler
Corsair 5000D AIRFLOW ATX Mid Tower Case
CyberPower CP1500PFCLCD UPS
Update BIOS to the most recent release.
Raise DDR voltage to 1.25V.
Verify CPU power configurations within BIOS. Ensure they align with Intel guidelines (PL1 125W, PL2 188W, ICCMax 249A).
Intel once more introduces fixes for instability in certain 13th and 14th Gen Core i5/i7 chips via updated microcode.
Intel continues to release additional steps to resolve stability problems in specific Core “Raptor Lake” models, focusing on i5 and i7 variants.
www.guru3d.com
Prolonged operation in overclock mode might lead to CPU wear issues.
I really wish the CPU wouldn't fail.
Navigate to services, disable and then re-enable Windows Updater and Windows Installer. Verify your time and date settings. Try completing the updates.
It seems there are several problems here—clearly more serious than just Windows issues. Driver installations are failing, CRC errors are occurring, and there’s an odd power Wednesday Addams costume behavior. The motherboard appears to be the most likely culprit. Running Linux might help confirm if the OS is corrupted, but hardware instability seems more probable. As it’s still covered under warranty, I’d strongly think about initiating a return or exchange.
The CPU has always been using its default configurations, and the GPU has never been overclocked either. I attempted to apply XMP settings to the RAM for a day before eventually shutting it down because it became unstable.
I recently updated the BIOS about nine months ago, but after updating the chipset driver as well, nothing changed. Even when downloading the GPU driver directly from NVIDIA’s site, the same 7-zip error persists.
Changing the DDR voltage might help, but it has been functioning properly with the stock 1.1V settings for about two decades.
CPU appears to be functioning properly. It successfully passed all OCCT tests before I reinstalled Windows. I'm attempting to upgrade to Windows 11 24H2, as the version on my flash drive is nearly two years old, but it continues to encounter errors during the process. I'll persist with the update.
It looks like you're encountering the same error repeatedly and experiencing intermittent blue screens.
Did you verify the PL1, PL2, and ICCMax configurations in the BIOS? The system could be operating with higher limits already active.