I'm experiencing a frustrating problem with my system that crashes whenever I try to launch games like CS2. Here's the lowdown on my setup: I've got an ASUS TUF GAMING B760 WIFI D4 motherboard, an Intel i7-12700K CPU, and I'm running Windows 10. The SSD in question is a ST1000LM024_HN-M2BA3, and I recently RMA'd another SSD, the MSI M480 PRO 1TB, which initially showed similar issues.
The main issue is that when I launch games, the disk usage jumps to 100% in Task Manager, but both read and write speeds drop to zero, causing the game to crash. After a crash, the disk becomes completely inaccessible, requiring a system restart to regain functionality. This has been happening without any Blue Screens of Death, just system hangs or crashes.
I've tried reseating the SSD, changing M.2 ports, performing a fresh install of Windows 10, and checking the drive's health, which is reported as 100%. Event Viewer shows warnings about disk read/write failures but doesn't provide a clear cause. After sending the MSI SSD for RMA, the problem got worse on my primary SSD. I've also run MemTest86 and checked for other system errors.
I'm at a loss and would really appreciate any insights or troubleshooting steps anyone can suggest!
2 Answers
It sounds like your motherboard might be the culprit here. I can't think of any tests short of swapping the motherboard or testing both SSDs on another system to see if the issues follow. It might be a hassle, but it could provide clarity on where the problem lies. Have you tried just using one SSD at a time to see if the issues only appear with one of them?
Interestingly, after using DDU to reinstall my graphics drivers, things have been stable for now. I’ll keep testing to be absolutely certain, but it seems promising.
Have you checked for dump files? If you can boot into Windows normally or even in Safe Mode, go to C:WindowsMinidump. If you see any dump files there, zip them up and upload them for analysis. They can help pinpoint what’s causing the crashes. Also, think about changing the dump settings to ensure you’re capturing useful logs. If you're unfamiliar with the process, there are guides online to help you set up small memory dumps properly. That way, you’ll have better insight into what’s going wrong!
I don't have the MSI SSD anymore, since it was replaced due to the issues. But at this point, I’m leaning toward the motherboard being the issue. Still not totally sure, though.