I've been experiencing intermittent Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) errors while using my PC, especially when gaming or running stress tests. These crashes often happen under load and seem to vary in frequency from day to day. While most crashes don't generate minidumps, I've managed to capture a few. The stop codes I've encountered include `KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR`, `CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED`, `UNEXPECTED_STORE_EXCEPTION`, `MEMORY_MANAGEMENT`, and `SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION`. Stress testing my setup with Prime95 and FurMark2 almost guarantees a crash within five minutes. Interestingly, I've even experienced kernel panic on Fedora while gaming, although I didn't note the error codes.
I've attempted several fixes without success, such as:
* Replacing RAM and testing one or two sticks in various slots.
* Using a different NVMe boot SSD with a fresh Windows install.
* Performing an in-place reinstall of Windows while keeping apps and data.
* Swapping GPUs, trying out an NVIDIA GTX 1060.
* Cleaning the CPU socket after finding some thermal paste residue.
* Changing the power supply unit (PSU).
Conversely, I've had stability when testing my hardware in a different AM4 system, swapping in a Ryzen 5 1600AF from that system. Also, reseating components occasionally improved stability, but it feels random. Given these issues, I suspect my AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D might be at fault, possibly related to memory or the PCIe controller. I would appreciate any insights before investing in new parts, as there may also be power draw concerns with my motherboard.
Here are my current specs:
* CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D
* Motherboard: MSI B450M PRO-VDH MAX
* RAM: 2x8GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-3200 + 2x8GB Klevv Bolt DDR4-3200
* GPU: Sapphire AMD Radeon RX 6700
* Boot SSD: Kingston Fury Renegade 2TB NVMe
* PSU: Corsair RM550x
I have shared minidumps from two crashes attributed to running Prime95 alongside FurMark2. Thanks for any help!
1 Answer
It sounds like you've tried quite a bit already! One thing to check is if XMP (or docp for AMD systems) is enabled in your BIOS. Sometimes having XMP on with certain RAM can cause instability if the RAM isn’t perfectly compatible or if it’s overclocked too aggressively. If it's on, maybe try disabling it temporarily to see if that helps prevent those crashes. It's a simple fix that could lead to more stability.
I do have XMP enabled, but I haven’t tried running without it yet. I can give that a shot, thanks for the tip!