The computer is severely damaged, causing numerous blue screens that are hard to recall.
The computer is severely damaged, causing numerous blue screens that are hard to recall.
Received the machine in December 2022. Operating system: Windows 11. Processor: i7-13700KF. Cooling solution: iBuyPower triple rad. No overheating issues observed. Motherboard model: ASRock Z690-C/D5. RAM setup: DDR5-6000MHz, TEAMGROUP T-Force Delta. Initially purchased two 16GB modules for a total of 32GB, later added a second set shortly after for 64GB across four modules. Updated to additional sticks in January 2023, ensuring compatibility with the previous configuration. Main system: RTX 3070 Ti. Power unit: CORSAIR HX1000. Primary storage: 2TB WD Black SN770 M.2 PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSD. Built by iBuyPower, acquired after positive impressions from a second-hand seller. Warranty remains valid under their standard terms.
What occurred: Recently, the computer began experiencing severe crashes while handling 3D tasks. First signs appeared in Blender during pose mode when moving skeleton nodes, then extended to games with 3D rendering. Frequent freezes followed by restarts or lingering on one screen. Occasionally, both the display and mouse functioned briefly before freezing. Audio continued playing for a short period before stopping. No visual glitches were noticed prior to freezing episodes. Updating graphics drivers didn’t resolve the problem; reinstalling the latest driver multiple times also failed.
Restart attempts proved ineffective—system would freeze during BIOS, requiring a hard reset. Windows auto-start repair triggered repeatedly. A full system reset via USB caused a BSOD. The machine now enters a repair loop, sometimes booting into safe mode or becoming completely unresponsive. It occasionally reaches a frozen state after cold starts.
Accessing the start menu became impossible; most applications failed to load. I attempted a Windows reset, but it failed due to corrupted startup settings and lost changes. Current status: partially functional but severely degraded. The most frequent error codes observed were related to kernel access violations, memory writing issues, and system instability.
Attached are three dump files for further analysis. I’m unsure if the earlier storage configuration still impacts the present condition. I tried retrieving a PERFMON report like in the crash log, but couldn’t open the terminal or launch the executable after locating it manually.
I’m sharing this situation from my Steam Deck, highlighting just how damaged the machine has become after a year of use.
I would run a RAM test using TestMem5 or a complete Memtest86. I’d remove the 32GB module and recheck the system. Have you tried this before? Or if you prefer the 64GB, I’d attempt it at normal speed (like resetting the BIOS). Edited February 1, 2024 by leclod
It seems your RAM might be the issue. Take out the new kit and reset the CMOS to verify.
I've noticed some users struggling with running four DDR5 modules while others are sticking to two for stability. It seems there might be an issue with the motherboard or high-frequency RAM, though it's frustrating not being able to utilize all four slots.
It seems the system mostly uses RAM as indicated by the dump files. After functioning well for nearly a year with four modules, compatibility issues don’t appear to be the problem. If it’s RAM, it likely points to a defective module. The team recommended memory testers, but note that even clean scans can miss faulty DDR4 and newer RAM. I favor running the machine normally with one stick (or two in your case, though having more than one is rare) and checking for crashes. Always ensure the correct slots are used—typically slots 2 and 4 from the CPU socket.
I completed a thorough Memtest86 evaluation and after roughly four hours of testing, everything showed no issues. To be extra sure, I reassembled all four drives and placed two of them back into the system, but loading failed completely. I then replaced the two drives with the remaining two, maintaining their correct positions as originally installed. The setup remained in the proper 2 and 4 slots, just like when the computer was first installed. Even after changing the XMP profile to auto mode, the system still couldn't boot into safe mode.
Did you reinitialize the CMOS after adjusting the RAM configuration? If that doesn’t resolve the issue, inspect your board’s debug LEDs; however, my next likely suspect would be the motherboard or CPU. Please attempt to remove all unnecessary components from POSTs—CPU, power supply, one RAM stick, and since it's an F CPU, also the GPU.
The computer restarts repeatedly without issues, functioning normally in the BIOS. I can access the BIOS without trouble but cannot enter Windows Recovery. I recently disconnected all components from the back and booted with just a single RAM stick, which didn’t resolve anything. Then I replaced the RAM and cleared the CMOS, receiving a confirmation message, though it still didn’t work. It seems the problem lies in software, and I’m unsure how to proceed since previous recovery attempts failed.
Oh, I thought it didn't POST. Reading your comment again that was a bad assumption. Then storage is suspect, but it's weird that it escalated just when you switched the RAM. Windows puts low priority data in RAM into the page file and loads it back in when needed so storage and RAM can look like each other, it will depend on where the corruption is detected. You had one dump file blame storage drivers. Reading your first post again, it freezing in the BIOS and then getting startup repair is also an indicator of it being the storage. There is also the possibility that the crashes has corrupted files which is not uncommon, you just have to be a bit unlucky for a file important enough to prevent boot is corrupted. It's unlikely to be a driver/software issue (Unless you count Windows as software) because the error you are getting is Windows being corrupted.
I installed Windows again, but it crashed with a BSOD. I recalled there was a recovery USB included with the computer, so I used that instead of the official install USB. It functioned properly. Fortunately, I didn’t lose any data since I moved all my old files into a Windows.old folder. Even without that, I regularly copied important data onto a 5TB external drive once a week, and it only stopped working minutes before the system crashed. Still, I’m unsure if calling this a fix makes sense because I don’t know why Blender or other 3D software caused the corruption in the first place. I suspect whatever was crashing just led to a Windows corruption that essentially made the installation fail. If I’m lucky, a fresh Windows install might have resolved it by chance, but I’d rather not rely on that since I don’t have a clear way to prevent it again.