I installed a new 1440p/144Hz monitor and initially everything seemed fine, including extended gaming in HDR. Later, while updating my Steam library, the system crashed. After rebooting, the display showed severe vertical colored artifacts. The artifacts disappeared when I switched back to my older 1080p monitor, but the computer now frequently crashes whenever Wi‑Fi is active or I do anything network-related, such as browsing or opening Steam. With Wi‑Fi disabled, the system is stable and can run demanding games.
The crashes have included KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED (0x1E), CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED, and KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR (0x7A), sometimes mentioning win32kbase.sys. I have checked the minidump folder but did not find anything useful, run Windows repair tools, checked the SSD with CrystalDisk, and clean-installed the Intel graphics driver with DDU. BIOS settings are at their defaults, and I have not reinstalled Windows yet.
My system uses a Ryzen 5 7600X, Intel Arc B580 12GB, ASRock B650 Steel Legend WiFi, 32GB DDR5-5600, a KingSpec 2TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD, and Windows 11. The onboard wireless adapter is a MediaTek RZ616 Wi‑Fi 6E 160MHz with driver 3.3.0.467 from 2022. The GPU driver is 32.0.101.8991. Could the monitor have exposed a graphics, motherboard, or driver problem, or is the Wi‑Fi adapter more likely responsible? I would prefer to troubleshoot this without immediately doing a clean Windows installation.
4 Answers
Random stop codes such as KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED, CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED, and KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR can also result from memory or motherboard instability. Run a proper overnight memory test, not just the quick Windows check, and temporarily test with one RAM module at a time. Confirm that the RAM is actually running at a safe default speed, and avoid changing several BIOS settings at once. If crashes continue with Wi‑Fi disabled, the next suspects would be RAM, the NVMe drive, motherboard firmware, or the GPU.
The Wi‑Fi driver is the first thing I would address. That 2022 MediaTek driver is several years old, and network activity directly triggering crashes makes it a strong suspect. Download the current RZ616 wireless driver from the motherboard manufacturer's support page, install it, and reboot. Also check for a newer motherboard BIOS and AMD chipset drivers. If the new driver does not help, temporarily disable the onboard Wi‑Fi and test with Ethernet or a different USB Wi‑Fi adapter; that will help separate a wireless-driver problem from a broader Windows or hardware issue.
For useful crash analysis, make sure Windows is configured to create small memory dumps and check C:WindowsMinidump after the next blue screen. If no dump is produced, check the page-file settings, since Windows needs a functioning page file on the boot drive to write crash data. Several dumps from separate crashes are much more useful than a single stop-code screen, especially for identifying a MediaTek, graphics, storage, or kernel driver.
The monitor probably did not directly damage Windows, but the timing could be coincidental or the display change may have exposed an unstable graphics, PCIe, power, or motherboard configuration. The colored vertical lines are concerning for the GPU, cable, monitor, or graphics driver, while crashes only during network activity point more toward the wireless adapter or its interaction with the system. Test the GPU with one monitor and another DisplayPort/HDMI cable, and keep Wi‑Fi disabled while checking whether the visual artifacts return.
I updated the wireless driver, but I am still getting KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED crashes. I will try the BIOS and chipset updates next and test with Wi‑Fi disabled or Ethernet.