Hey everyone, I'm dealing with some really annoying issues on my MSI Katana 15 HX laptop, which has an Intel i9-14900HX processor and 32GB of RAM. I've had it for about five months, and for the last couple of months, I've been experiencing a variety of problems that mostly happen when the charger is plugged in. Some of the errors include browser crashes with STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATION, STATUS_BREAKPOINT messages, random reboots, and occasional BSODs like WATCHDOG VIOLATION. I've already tried a bunch of fixes like running MemTest (no issues there), updating the BIOS, running malware scans (system is clean), and clearing browser data. But none of that has helped. However, when I run the laptop on battery, everything seems stable, no crashes or errors. I'm starting to think it could be related to power delivery or perhaps a CPU voltage issue. Has anyone encountered something similar, or do you have any troubleshooting steps I might have missed?
3 Answers
You may want to analyze the dump files from your BSODs for better insight. If you can boot into Windows, navigate to C:WindowsMinidump and see if there are any crash logs there. If you find them, zip the folder and upload it to a file-sharing site. More dump files would be beneficial for troubleshooting; you can change the dump settings to ensure you get small memory dumps in future crashes for easier analysis.
If the laptop is new and you can return it, I'd suggest you do that. But if returning it isn't an option, make sure you’ve updated all the drivers after the BIOS update. Typically, watchdog violations are linked to driver issues, so it’s crucial to have everything current. Unfortunately, since you’ve done that already and the problem persists, you might be looking at a bigger issue.
It could be a power delivery issue, but that's less likely. More possibly, the higher power it pulls while plugged in is revealing an existing fault. Also, you might check if anyone else has had similar issues with this model. Just for peace of mind, if you haven’t already, try running the laptop with one RAM stick at a time. Sometimes RAM tests don’t catch it all, and this could help identify a faulty stick.
I appreciate the tip! So, to clarify, I should just take out one of the RAM sticks and see how it goes with the remaining 16GB, right?
Thanks for your response! It’s been updated, but the issues are still there. Guess I might need to dive deeper into the hardware.