My PC completely locks up after roughly 15–60 minutes in demanding games such as Helldivers 2, Space Marine 2, and Deadlock. The display freezes, audio stops, and the mouse and keyboard do nothing, so I have to shut the system down with the power button or switch off the power. After restarting, Event Viewer shows a WHEA-Logger Event ID 1 error followed by Kernel-Power 41 from the forced shutdown.
My hardware is an ASUS PRIME H610M-R D4 motherboard, Intel Core i5-13400F, RTX 4060, 32GB DDR4, and a RAIDMAX RX-650XTB 650W power supply. Temperatures look normal, and I have already updated the BIOS to version 4004, reinstalled Windows several times, updated or rolled back drivers, reseated and cleaned the GPU, replaced the thermal paste, tried CPU underclocking and undervolting, and run Intel's processor diagnostic and Windows diagnostics successfully. I also ran OCCT stress tests on the major components for about an hour.
The crashes only happen in certain demanding games. Is this likely to be the known 13th-generation Intel instability issue, faulty RAM or CPU, a graphics-card problem, or possibly the power supply? What should I test or replace next?
3 Answers
WHEA-Logger Event 1 points to a hardware-level problem, but it does not identify the exact part by itself. The 13th-generation Intel instability issue is worth taking seriously, so make sure the BIOS is current and load the board's Intel-default settings rather than using aggressive motherboard auto-voltage settings. If the crashes continue at completely stock settings, the CPU could need an RMA or replacement. A short diagnostic pass can still miss an intermittent failure, especially one that appears only during a particular gaming workload.
Test the memory separately as well. Disable XMP, run one stick at a time, and use a bootable memory test for several passes rather than relying only on Windows diagnostics. If one module or one slot produces errors, that gives you a much clearer answer. If memory is clean, test with another graphics card or use a clean graphics-driver installation, since a GPU or its power delivery can also cause game-only lockups.
I would test the power supply before buying a CPU. That RAIDMAX unit would not be my first choice for troubleshooting a system that hard-locks under combined CPU and GPU load. OCCT's individual tests can pass while the power supply fails during a simultaneous load. Try the CPU, memory, 3D/GPU, and power tests together, while watching for another freeze. Even better, temporarily use a known-good, reputable 650W or 750W unit with the proper GPU power cable. Do not keep forcing shutdowns repeatedly if the system is unstable.
The BIOS is already updated and I have tried running the processor both normally and with reduced voltage and clocks. I may need to test it again with every setting returned to default before pursuing an RMA.