Question After I thought I fixed the PC, I got a random BSOD. Is one too many?

[Minaz]

I have a newly built NZXT PC with Win 11 that BSOD occasionally right after delivery, but because the BSOD was infrequent and at the time my PC was a backup computer, I was unable to completely fix the issue. I called NZXT tech support, they had me update the BIOS, and the BSOD went away long enough that the underlying problem was hidden enough that I no longer caught it for a long time. I did use the PC occasionally but never long enough to BSOD again. Almost a year later, the PC became my main PC and so I used it for my daily work and for gaming, and at this time, I ran into the BSOD issue, and tried various ways to troubleshoot it on the forums and with NZXT tech support. The errors were usually CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT and WhoCrashed reports that fltmgr.sys was often responsible (this varies). After all the usual steps, using SFC and DISM, CHKDSK, various CPU and memory stress tests, updating the BIOS and drivers, etc... I did find a way to reliably reproduce the error. Although it passed every test I ran, and would seldom BSOD even playing games, one way to reliably BSOD the PC was to initiate a large file copy/move. If I copied files to or from one drive to another or to USB the PC would crash within 10 mins or so. This kinda made sense consider fltmgr.sys is a file system driver. Since none of the tips I was given worked, I was ready to take a drastic action and use a clean Win 10 (not Win 11) installation to see if the file transfers would cause this other OS to crash as well, and if it did I would have sent the PC in to tech support. I REALLY did NOT want to do this, but if the PC couldn't work there was no choice.

But just before I created the Win 10 image, Microsoft pushed an update and I thought to wait a while and see what happened. There was no BSOD for 3 weeks of constant use after that update. I tried transferring files, but even after transferring almost 10 TB of data, the PC did not crash. I was wondering, could the Windows update have fixed it? That was until last night, when I was launching a game (not transferring files), the PC BSOD with CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT and fltmgr.sys being the driver listed as the cause.

Needless to say, I am super disappointed, but I then realized even if I had proceeded with my original troubleshooting plan, there is no way I would have caught the issue because I would not have tested for 3 weeks straight of heavy use. Also, now the problem is that I no longer have a reliable way of generating a crash, and it could be a day, three weeks, or who knows even months before another crash.

My question is this: what is the best practice going forward in my case? I have heard the opinion that even one BSOD is too many, and that a working computer should never BSOD and so if your PC ever BSODs then it is imperative to get to the bottom of it. But I am seriously weighing my options. The PC worked for 3 weeks with no errors, and could it have been a "random BSOD" that wouldn't reoccur? If I have to ship it in, I would be without my PC for maybe 2 weeks, the shipping cost is substantial (its a big PC), and they may not find the issue considering it cannot be easily reproduced and even if the fix it, there is a chance they will reinstall the OS which means losing months of work. Of course, I know that I can do a byte-for-byte backup, but there are some risks with that of course. But on the other hand, I don't want to ignore a festering problem and have it worse later on, especially if it is a hardware error.

What is your advice on this?

P.S. Link to the minidump: https://files.catbox.moe/6mg93c.dmp

 

[kaleem104]

You could try to make a fuss with supervisors/management there to replace the PC with a different unit of equal value since it has been behaving like a lemon since the beginning.

 

[Cookiezaddict]

You could try to make a fuss with supervisors/management there to replace the PC with a different unit of equal value since it has been behaving like a lemon since the beginning.

That's not how it works within the industry, the players themselves, stores and manufacturers, are lemon. LOL

But just before I created the Win 10 image, Microsoft pushed an update and I thought to wait a while and see what happened. There was no BSOD for 3 weeks of constant use after that update. I tried transferring files, but even after transferring almost 10 TB of data, the PC did not crash. I was wondering, could the Windows update have fixed it? That was until last night, when I was launching a game (not transferring files), the PC BSOD with CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT and fltmgr.sys being the driver listed as the cause.

First, you got to say your specs, this is the first rule in asking question,

2nd, this is most likely triggered by your Windows and corrupted system, I am noob to PC but I kinda thing this one is obvious.

What caused the system to corrupt? Well, maybe that system you got there had stability issue at the beginning though you mentioned it passed all the test recently. If your OS is already corrupted, nothing is better than FRESH INSTALLING your windows, 11 or 10 doesn't matter.

Stability issue may caused by so many things, drivers, ram, even gpu / cpu overclock.

I got myself into a situation where I believe I corrupted my system files by using 4000mhz ram on 5600x, it was default xpm profile, that I later figured was too fast for my CPU. At the same time, I also encounter driver instability from my GPU if I installed optional from AMD.

I passed all the stability test, but even once my PC got BSOD when launching HWinfo. LOL, all the workaround seemed to work until the BSOD happened again, so I decided to FRESH INSTALL my windows, that's first, boom boom boom, all good and great, and I also used WHQL driver from AMD, for both chipset and GPU, using their installer app, by this, I don't used their last released driver.

It's been about 2 months since I did all that, I believe I got very solid PC now, I can run heavy benchmark like all kind of timespy all kind of furmark all that, prime and stuffs, NEVER EVER BSOD ever again.

So at least try that, try to fresh install your windows, properly reset your pc to new, if possible, change your RAM even without being sure it is the issue. It's more likely, if hardwares, this kind of symptoms cause by RAM or CPU, but most likely RAM, that's why it's important to know your spec