Hey everyone! I'm having a frustrating issue with my PC. Whenever I dive into games like Assassin's Creed Odyssey or AOM: Retold, I get a blue screen of death (BSOD) just a few minutes in. It's strange because lowering the graphical settings seems to help extend the time before it crashes, sometimes preventing it entirely. My specs are solid, featuring an Intel Core i7 12700k, NVIDIA Geforce RTX 3080, and 32GB of RAM from G.Skill. I've already run a memory diagnostic and it showed some errors, which makes me think faulty RAM could be to blame. What are your thoughts? Should I go ahead and replace the RAM? I'm considering upgrading to 2x 16GB sticks but I'm a bit unsure about compatibility and whether that's possible. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
2 Answers
It sounds like your RAM might be the culprit, especially with those memory errors. Before swapping it out, though, it’s a good idea to gather crash dump files. They can provide insights into what's exactly causing the BSOD. If you can boot into Windows or Safe Mode, check the C:WindowsMinidump folder for those files and upload them for analysis. It's super helpful for diagnosing issues! Just follow some guides online to ensure you have the right settings for the dumps.
Have you checked if XMP is enabled in your BIOS? Your CPU supports speeds up to DDR4-3200 without issues. Running it at DDR4-3600 can be considered overclocking, which might be causing system instability and those annoying crashes. The KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED error you mentioned indicates something's off with the CPU's state, but bad RAM can also cause similar problems. Try toggling that XMP and see if it helps!
Good catch! I thought about the XMP settings, and I checked my BIOS—it's actually disabled on mine. Did the HeavyLoad test you mentioned check CPU stability? I wonder if that means the CPU itself is okay.
That's a solid plan. Just make sure to zip the dump files before sharing them—you don’t want to miss out on any helpful info!