I recently built a new PC, and everything appears to work normally at first. However, after about 5–10 minutes, it repeatedly crashes with different blue-screen errors, including Memory Management, System Service Exception, and IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL. I installed Windows fresh and have spent several days troubleshooting. The 16 GB of RAM is currently running at its rated maximum of 3200 MHz. Could lowering the RAM speed, disabling its XMP/EXPO profile, or changing another BIOS setting make the system stable? Oddly, the crashes do not seem to happen while downloading large files. What hardware or diagnostic checks should I try next?
3 Answers
It is fine to leave the RAM at a lower speed if that makes the PC reliable. Start with the motherboard's default memory settings instead of manually increasing voltage or memory-controller values. If it remains unstable at default settings, check the CPU and motherboard seating and consider testing or replacing the RAM.
The exact CPU, motherboard model, BIOS version, and full blue-screen details would help narrow this down. Check Event Viewer after a crash and note whether the same driver or hardware component is mentioned. Since Windows was freshly installed, focus first on BIOS, chipset and device drivers, memory testing, and hardware isolation.
Those different stop codes can all point to unstable or defective RAM, but the CPU or motherboard could also be involved. Test each memory stick separately, use the recommended motherboard slots, and run a proper memory diagnostic. If the system is stable with the memory profile disabled, it is likely a configuration or compatibility problem rather than Windows itself.
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