I've been facing a ton of errors while running the OCCT CPU stability test, particularly on a specific core. My setup is fully stock with a Ryzen 5 5500 processor, RTX 2060 graphics card, 32GB DDR4-3200 RAM, and a 550W PSU. I've been encountering BSODs, corrupt game installations, and issues with zip file extractions. I've already reinstalled Windows, double-checked my drivers, and updated the BIOS. Before jumping to conclusions about the CPU being the issue, is there anything else I should check?
3 Answers
This definitely seems like a hardware issue rather than an OS or driver one. Here's a checklist:
1. Reset BIOS to defaults, turn off any overclocking and XMP to see if that helps.
2. Run MemTest86 to isolate any RAM problems. If you find errors, test your RAM sticks individually.
3. Run the OCCT Memory test for a good half hour.
4. Check the Event Viewer for any hardware error logs.
5. Look at the health of your storage drive with CrystalDiskInfo.
6. Finally, test your PSU since it's crucial for stability. If errors persist on the same CPU core after all of that, you might be facing a CPU or motherboard issue.
You might want to run some diagnostic tests to see what's really going on. Testing your RAM with MemTest86 or MemTest86+ is a good idea. Additionally, Prime95 is great for checking your CPU under stress. These tests can help identify if the errors are coming from the CPU, RAM, or something else entirely.
It sounds like a good first step would be to check for crash dump files from your BSODs. You can find these in C:WindowsMinidump. If you can, zip that folder and upload it to a file sharing site like Catbox or MediaFire—those seem to be working well right now. Multiple dump files help a lot in diagnosing the problem accurately.
I've already turned off XMP and ran MemTest86+ for 14 passes without errors, plus my SSD for the OS is brand new and healthy according to DiskInfo. Looks like I might just look into getting a second-hand 5800X instead. Thanks for the insights!