Hey everyone! I'm hoping you can help me figure out an issue I'm experiencing with my new AM5 system that's been giving me random BSODs. These crashes mainly happen while I'm gaming, but I've even experienced one while watching YouTube. I haven't done any overclocking; the only thing I changed was enabling default EXPO and later disabling it to troubleshoot. Initially, I thought the issue was resolved after I took out one of the RAM sticks, but unfortunately, the crashes returned. I've run Memtest with four passes, and everything checked out fine memory-wise. One key thing is that I'm not getting any memory dump files because of some errors during their creation.
Here's a breakdown of the hardware I'm using:
- **CPU:** AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D
- **GPU:** RTX 5080 Gaming OC 16G
- **Motherboard:** MSI MAG X870E Tomahawk WiFi
- **RAM:** 32GB (2x16GB) G.Skill Trident Z5 Royal Neo
- **Drive 1:** WD Black SN850 2TB
- **Drive 2:** Samsung 970 EVO Plus 1TB
- **PSU:** Corsair RM850x (2020)
- **Cooling:** H115i RGB Platinum
I also have some event logs that might be useful. There are multiple errors related to a controller issue and dump file creation failures, among others. I'm running a smart test now, but I'd love your insights on what else I should check. Do you think the issue stems from an SSD, M.2 slot, motherboard, or something else entirely?
2 Answers
To really get to the bottom of those BSODs, you'll want to grab any dump files if possible. Have you tried checking in C:WindowsMinidump for any crash logs? Those files are super useful for diagnosing what's going wrong. If you happen to find any, you can zip them and share them through something like mediafire.com or catbox.moe, since some file hosts are blocked in certain places. If you're not getting any dump files, there's a guide online that can help you set it up to ensure those files are created for next time. Also, don't forget to look into your BIOS settings and ensure everything's updated to the latest version. That helps a lot too!
Have you double-checked your BIOS version? It’s worth making sure it’s the latest, even if it’s a beta. Also, what motherboard drivers are you running? Knowing your RAM specifics could help too. And speaking of power, given that your PSU is six years old, I’d maybe consider an upgrade to a newer, higher-capacity unit like 1000W to ensure power stability, even though the crashes are happening at lighter loads. Keep an eye on your CPU temperatures too; they sound fine, but it's always good to monitor those while under load.
I actually updated the BIOS to the latest version but still faced crashes. It’s strange, because when I updated the chipset drivers, it triggered a different crash altogether. It was originally supposed to install several new AMD drivers, but I ended up installing them one by one to see if that worked better. It didn’t crash immediately after, but then it did again out of the blue. The RAM I’m using is linked here: [G.Skill Trident Z5](https://www.gskill.com/product/165/425/1723009556/F5-6000J2836G16GX2-TR5NS). As for temps, they stay around 85 under load, about 50 when idle.