Your new PC is showing a blue screen and running very slowly.
Your new PC is showing a blue screen and running very slowly.
I assembled a PC two days ago and it’s been quite sluggish (slow boot and operations) with occasional blue screens. It even froze completely when I attempted to publish yesterday. My configuration includes: Ryzen 9 7900X, AMD RX 7900XT, MSI MAG B650, Tomahawk WIFI, Corsair Vengeance DDR5 6000MHz (no XMP), NZXT C850 power supply, Crucial P3 Plus (stored in second slot, not first), and Crucial T705 (added later after problems started). The error message consistently reads “WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR.” I’ve updated the BIOS before issues were discovered, reset Windows during installation which froze at 0%, placed RAM in slots 1 & 3 instead of default 2 & 4, and repositioned the GPU. I removed the NVMe drive and realigned it—plastic film remained on the boards for heat sync. The driver installer from MSI was used before I learned about its reputation. If anyone has suggestions or questions, feel free to share—I’ve included as much detail as possible.
Use the boot drive in the initial slot. Check the motherboard near VGA, DRAM, CPU for lights. Note their colors during a blue screen.
This seems like a detailed troubleshooting guide. Have you tried enabling EXPO and seeing if the issue continues? Checked for more details in the Windows Event Viewer (System logs) previously? Looked into temperature readings using HWinfo. Ran the PC without the GPU installed to test performance, and considered using only one RAM stick with Memtest86. You mentioned updating the BIOS before any problems occurred—did that resolve anything, or am I misinterpreting? Please keep us informed!
You're preparing to revert now, but there are no lights detected. I didn't verify the presence of lights during the blue screen episodes.
I’ll compile a list of responses. I haven’t turned on EXPO yet—I’m unsure what it does. I didn’t look into the event viewer further because BSODs occurred on my old PC, and trying that didn’t help me understand anything. Temperatures are normal, so I’m considering testing the onboard GPU. Running with one RAM stick might make a difference. I plan to run MemTest86. I updated the BIOS before any problems, remembering a red light on the CPU and orange on DRAM during setup (I don’t recall it clearly). I updated it thinking that might be the BIOS issue, but it actually was because my RAM was in slots 1 and 3—not 2 and 4, which are the default for this board.
I'll run a memtest now since it's the simplest option. Then I'll proceed with the remaining steps (like changing the boot NVME to slot 1 instead of 2).
I'll run a memory test later since I don't mind formatting my USB drive—I just need some content on it.
Using one RAM stick at a time helps you see how it performs, but memtest86 only checks errors, not the actual capacity or health of the stick. Expo is an overclocking setting that lets your RAM run faster than what’s listed on the packaging.
WHEA refers to a CPU or PCIe hardware problem. It doesn’t check RAM, so testing RAM isn’t useful. WHEA combined with being unable to create a dump file usually points to an NVMe SSD. This could be the SSD or the slot itself; a bad SSD is more likely. Try re-seating it carefully and confirm it’s properly placed. You can right-click → save in the Kernel-Power event in Event Viewer, then upload the .evtx file here. We can also adjust the registry so the BSOD screen shows the details we normally use with a dump file. Look at the crash arguments (sub-errors). If it keeps showing BSOD on the screen, this step isn’t needed, but if it restarts after a few seconds, skip that and follow the guide—remove the automatic restart option. To restart manually, press the power button. To make the BSOD display extra info, add a registry field under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\CrashControl, name it "DisplayParameters", set its value to 1 (hex or decimal), and reboot. The next time you see BSOD, these numbers should appear in the top-left corner. If Arg1 equals 0x0000000000000010, Windows is pointing at the NVMe SSD. Remember, it can’t distinguish between an SSD and a M.2 slot or motherboard. Did it just flash through them and then boot? These lights indicate which part of POST the PC is using. If it fails to start (POST/BIOS), use the lights to identify where it’s stuck—this guides your next steps. These indicators only work for troubleshooting, not for general checking.
WHEA can occur, especially on Ryzen platforms, due to RAM problems... It might not explicitly say it's related to RAM, but it definitely is—this has happened before with the notorious unstable RAM. The advice given that OEMs should test each RAM separately seems quite reasonable. I’d also suggest looking into whether a newer BIOS version exists.