I'm trying to help my sibling troubleshoot their computer, which has been experiencing frequent and seemingly random blue screens of death (BSOD). This started happening during a game of Marvel Rivals when the system crashed while loading into a match. Since then, the issue has occurred in other games like Valorant, often when closing them. Interestingly, not every BSOD creates a dump file, which complicates things. Their PC has some solid specs—a MSI MAG X670E motherboard, AMD Ryzen 9 7900X CPU, NVidia RTX 4070 Ti Super GPU, and 64GB of G.SKILL Flare X5 memory. They haven't enabled EXPO on the RAM. Their storage includes a 2TB SK-Hynix P41 SSD for the OS and a 4TB Crucial P3 drive. I'm starting to suspect their C drive might be failing since the build is just about four months old. We also have BSOD dump files from several dates pointing to **ntoskrnl.exe** and **FLTMGR.SYS** as potential culprits. We've tried checking for corrupted files, monitoring drive health, and uninstalling some games, but the issue persists. Any advice on further diagnostics or solutions would be greatly appreciated!
3 Answers
The BSODs you're experiencing could definitely point to issues with memory. This doesn’t just mean the RAM; it could also involve how the system handles low-priority data through the page file. Since half of the dump files indicated a storage or storage driver issue, I'd bet that the SSD is suspect. If it's NVMe, those self-diagnostics can be misleading. Make sure to remove any overclocks or undervolts too. To test the RAM, try using just one stick at a time during regular use and see if the crashes continue. If you still experience BSODs with both sticks, it might be the CPU or storage issue. Good luck!
It seems like the BSODs are happening during resource-heavy tasks. I'd recommend running a stress test on your sibling's PC using AIDA64 (it's free), which can help isolate the problem. The screenshot you shared suggests the SSD might be to blame, but it could also be a faulty RAM stick. If you can replicate the BSOD with the stress test, try removing each RAM module one at a time to see if that resolves the issue. I've had similar problems where the PSU was the culprit, so keep that in mind too. Also, consider updating the BIOS and reinstalling the GPU drivers using DDU for a clean slate. It's definitely a frustrating issue, but you'll learn a lot through troubleshooting!
To accurately analyze the BSODs, you'll need the dump files. If possible, boot into Windows normally or in Safe Mode and check for any files in C:WindowsMinidump. If you find them, zip the folder and upload it to a file-sharing site like catbox.moe. Multiple dump files can provide a clearer picture of the root cause. If you're only seeing one, you can follow some guides to adjust the dump type to Small Memory Dump for future crashes. The more data, the easier it is to pinpoint the issue!
Thanks for the tips! We're going to run AIDA64 and check the RAM first. Hopefully, we can figure this out without needing to replace parts!