My five-month-old PC has been crashing with BSODs for about two months. It can happen while launching or closing a game, during gameplay, or even while shutting down. The crashes usually point to ntoskrnl.exe. I have already used DDU, updated the chipset drivers, run SFC, and tested the memory with MemTest86 for four passes without errors. BIOS settings are at their defaults, with EXPO disabled. Most components are new, but the graphics card is used. Specs: Ryzen 7 7800X3D, 16 GB Apacer Panther DDR5-4800 in a single stick, ASUS Strix GTX 1080 Ti, ASRock B650M X3D WiFi motherboard, and a 1 TB Kioxia Exceria Pro SSD. I also have crash dumps available for analysis. What should I check next?
1 Answer
A crash naming ntoskrnl.exe usually means Windows detected a failure, not necessarily that the kernel itself is the cause. Hardware instability is still worth investigating. MemTest86 passing four cycles is useful, but it does not completely rule out an intermittent RAM, motherboard, CPU, power, or GPU problem. Try testing with another known-good memory kit or one stick at a time, and check BIOS, CPU/GPU temperatures, power connections, and Windows Event Viewer for errors around the crashes. Since the GTX 1080 Ti is the only older component, testing with another graphics card would also help isolate the problem.
I already ran MemTest86 for four passes and it found no errors. EXPO is off and the BIOS is otherwise using default settings, but I have not yet tested with another GPU or memory kit.