I recently built my first PC, and it was working smoothly until I encountered a blue screen of death (BSOD) while gaming. I didn't see an error code, but the PC shut down almost instantly and now it won't post. When I checked the motherboard, a RAM debug light was on. I reseated the RAM, which turned off the light, but it still won't post. After that, the CPU debug light turned on instead. I attempted to reset the CMOS, but that didn't help either. I'm worried that my CPU might be dead, which is still under warranty. Although I didn't have any prior issues and temperatures were always fine, I'm looking for other troubleshooting methods before I consider replacing the CPU.
3 Answers
Have you run any benchmarks on your system? That could help identify if there are issues with hardware performance.
Make sure to reseat your RAM again. Sometimes you might have to do this a few times or even try mixing the sticks and slots to find the faulty one. I’ve faced similar issues, and switching my RAM sticks around really helped. Good luck!
In hindsight, it’s clear this seems obvious now, but switching the RAM sticks actually worked! The PC turns on, but it still doesn’t post with both sticks installed.
To get a clearer idea of what caused the BSOD, try locating the dump files from that crash. If you can boot into Windows or even Safe Mode, check the C:WindowsMinidump folder for files there. If you find any, zip them up and upload to a file-sharing site. If you only have one or none, no worries! Just make sure to adjust your settings to create small memory dumps in the future for more data on crashes.
I haven't done any benchmarks yet, but I plan to try that next.