Hey everyone! I'm having some issues with my PC and could really use your help. I built this rig a year ago, and it was running fine until about six months ago when it started to crash during gaming sessions. I'm mainly playing games like Elden Ring, and the crashes usually happen about 10-30 minutes in. Sometimes it freezes, sometimes it just shuts down, and occasionally I get a BSOD. When I check the Event Viewer, I see a 'kernel-power' error (event ID 41) and sometimes a stop code like 'IRQL not less or equal' or a memory-related error. I've tried running various stress tests; my GPU passes fine, but the CPU stress test causes the PC to crash after a few minutes. I've tested my RAM with Memtest86, and they passed all tests. I've also updated the BIOS and reset to defaults. My CPU and GPU drivers are installed, and temps seem normal under stress. I'm just trying to figure out what's causing these crashes so I can either fix it or know if something needs replacing. Any advice or troubleshooting tips would be greatly appreciated!
3 Answers
Have you thought about replacing the CMOS battery? Sometimes a weak battery can cause instability during boot. But if your motherboard doesn't have one, you might want to investigate other power supply issues. Try to ensure that your PSU is functioning correctly, especially under load.
How's your RAM speed? Your CPU supports up to DDR5-4800 with just two modules. Running it at DDR5-6000 with XMP enabled could be causing instability. Maybe try turning off XMP and setting the speed to 4800 MHz to see if that helps!
I just turned off XMP, but it still crashed during the CPU stress test. I’ll try again with it at 4800 MHz.
If it still crashes, it might be worth testing each stick of RAM separately to rule out any faulty modules.
First off, you should try getting some dump files from those BSODs for better analysis. If you can boot into Windows, check for any crash logs in C:WindowsMinidump. If you see any, zip the folder and upload it to a file-sharing site like Catbox or Mediafire. Multiple dump files will help a lot in diagnosing the issue!
I actually checked, and there isn’t a battery on this motherboard!