Amd Northbridge (tried everything, even changing mobo)

[iskander1989]

Hey everyone, i'm having this issue with my pc lately and after changing my motherboard, the problem just started to happen again.

Well, i used to have a i3 4510 + h81ma/br, and it was pretty fine until i change to a FX8320e + m5a78l-plus/USB3. I changed it in the last month and in the same week i changed it, the computer starts to restanrt randomly, it does not give me any BSOD, or freezes, it suddenly restarts. No specific reasons. But when i go into the event viewer, it shows this error:

-----------------------

A fatal hardware error has occurred.

Component: AMD Northbridge
Error Source: Machine Check Exception
Error Type: 11
Processor APIC ID: 0

------------------------

I started to search about it and tried several things (i'm using windows 10 with the fall creators update):

- Disabling the fast boot;
- disabling Q-fan
- Windows clean install;
- checking BIOS version;
- changing my mother board to another one, that my neighbor had: m5a78l/USB3 (no "plus").

Changing the mother board apparently solved the problem for 2-3 weeks, but today the problem happened again and it's driving me crazy. I tried to find something to solve it but nothing helped, that's another log that i just saw in the event viewer, it shows before the previous error:

------------------------

The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck. The bugcheck was: 0x00000124 (0x0000000000000000, 0xffff9b07837b2038, 0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000000). A dump was saved in: C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\012318-15390-01.dmp. Report Id: 389dfc5d-060e-4d6d-90f1-1490ca1ed142.

------------------------

I ran Whocrashed and it gave me:

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On Tue 1/23/2018 11:01:28 AM your computer crashed or a problem was reported
crash dump file: C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\012318-15390-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x75DA83)
Bugcheck code: 0x124 (0x0, 0xFFFF9B07837B2038, 0x0, 0x0)
Error: WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR
file path: C:\WINDOWS\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System

------------------------

The thing i'm trying to test now: i turned on my PC directly into a line filter, without nobreaks or any stuff like this. But i honestly don't know what can i do to find the solution for this.

My PC specs:

fx8320e
18gb RAM 1333
m5a78l/usb3
Fonte Corsair tx650
VGA r9 380
Watercooler Corsair h90

+2 hds 500gb sata 5400rpm
+1 hd 1tb sata 7200rpm
+1 SSD 128gb

PS: all the temperatures are OK.

 

[anotherdrew]

Did you reinstall windows? If not, your running an AMD system with an OS laden with Intel drivers. That will definitely make a computer crash.

 

[iskander1989]

Yes, i made a clean install 2 times and updated windows "naturally".

No results.

 

[anotherdrew]

Crap ... you said that. Just so use to people thinking they can take a hard drive from here and stick it there and it works.

So, fresh windows and updated drivers and you still have issues ... I would look at hardware. And when the machine starts throwing different errors that seem unrelated, I think power and memory (or heat, but your temps are fine). Have you pulled all memory sticks except one? Do you have access to a spare PSU ... especially with the 380. That video card is a beast.

 

[iskander1989]

I can't change the PSU right now cause i don't have another one that can supply it;

Well, i changed the memory sticks and tested each one separately. Everything seems OK.

I'm starting to think it's the CPU, but i sent the previous mother board to the support and they didn't said me anything about it. They just allowed me to pick another one or another product. I'm actually using this new mother board and now i'm pretty sure the problem is not the mother board or the memory sticks.

Things that may be the problem are: HD, SSD, VGA, CPU.

But my main suspect is about the CPU now, i don't know if that can be something related to energy (not talking about the PSU), here on Brazil we have the costume to use Nobreaks and stuff like this to stabilize the energy instability. I just removed it and my PC is now directly on the power plug.

It's important to say that the problem seems to be really random, and it happens between long periods.

My CPU is still on guarantee, so i'll keep testing this and if this still happen, i'll go back to an old Phenom X4 i have here that i know it's working perfectly and send this one to the store/support again.

If you have any other suggestion, please lemme know, that's really slowing me down in my works.

 

[iskander1989]

Ok, so it just happened, i changed my Processor last week and then it stopped the issue. But it just happened again.

Just after i sent the FX8320e to Warranty.

Does that can be related to VGA?

 

[anotherdrew]

Normally this error occurs when you are overclocking the CPU. I know you said that temperatures were good, but is it possible that he CPU and heatsink are not making good contact? Too much or too little thermal grease? The heatsink should be so tight that it does not move at all. Are

Could it be VGA ... yes, but it would be low on my list of possibilities. Power would at the top of my list right now.

 

[anotherdrew]

I was reading some other comments on this and many found that disabling fast boot fixed this. In your original post you said you did disable this, but I read one person saying that windows 10 sometimes re enables it ... worth a check.

 

[maxalge]

I can't change the PSU right now cause i don't have another one that can supply it;

Well, i changed the memory sticks and tested each one separately. Everything seems OK.

I'm starting to think it's the CPU, but i sent the previous mother board to the support and they didn't said me anything about it. They just allowed me to pick another one or another product. I'm actually using this new mother board and now i'm pretty sure the problem is not the mother board or the memory sticks.

Things that may be the problem are: HD, SSD, VGA, CPU.

But my main suspect is about the CPU now, i don't know if that can be something related to energy (not talking about the PSU), here on Brazil we have the costume to use Nobreaks and stuff like this to stabilize the energy instability. I just removed it and my PC is now directly on the power plug.

It's important to say that the problem seems to be really random, and it happens between long periods.

My CPU is still on guarantee, so i'll keep testing this and if this still happen, i'll go back to an old Phenom X4 i have here that i know it's working perfectly and send this one to the store/support again.

If you have any other suggestion, please lemme know, that's really slowing me down in my works.

im curious why the downgrade from the i3 setup you had?

 

[iskander1989]

Normally this error occurs when you are overclocking the CPU. I know you said that temperatures were good, but is it possible that he CPU and heatsink are not making good contact? Too much or too little thermal grease? The heatsink should be so tight that it does not move at all. Are

Could it be VGA ... yes, but it would be low on my list of possibilities. Power would at the top of my list right now.

Yeah, my 2 suspects are: VGA or PSU.

Well, regarding to heatsink, i believe that's not the problem, i changed the processor the A Phenom II x4 840 while i don't get back my FX8320e from the warranty (that was pretty frustrating to send it with no problems to the warranty), and i double checked the thermal paste and certified to fix the heatsink very well.

After the shutdown today i removed my VGA and cleaned it, i also changed the thermal paste of it.

I don't honestly know if that's the VGA, i'll make the tests and if this happen again, i'll try to pick another card with my neighbor and put mine on his computer to see if the same problem occurs.

If i detect that's not the VGA, my only alternative will be the PSU (that's harder to me to pick another one to test).

That's freaking me out, i honestly just wanted to know what's causing the problem, does not matter anymore what it is, if i knew it i would just go to the store and buy another. I just want to work without having the sensation that my pc will shutdown at anytime.

Thanks for the responses btw!

 

[iskander1989]

I was reading some other comments on this and many found that disabling fast boot fixed this. In your original post you said you did disable this, but I read one person saying that windows 10 sometimes re enables it ... worth a check.

Nice, i'll make sure to leave it disabled, thanks!

 

[iskander1989]

I can't change the PSU right now cause i don't have another one that can supply it;

Well, i changed the memory sticks and tested each one separately. Everything seems OK.

I'm starting to think it's the CPU, but i sent the previous mother board to the support and they didn't said me anything about it. They just allowed me to pick another one or another product. I'm actually using this new mother board and now i'm pretty sure the problem is not the mother board or the memory sticks.

Things that may be the problem are: HD, SSD, VGA, CPU.

But my main suspect is about the CPU now, i don't know if that can be something related to energy (not talking about the PSU), here on Brazil we have the costume to use Nobreaks and stuff like this to stabilize the energy instability. I just removed it and my PC is now directly on the power plug.

It's important to say that the problem seems to be really random, and it happens between long periods.

My CPU is still on guarantee, so i'll keep testing this and if this still happen, i'll go back to an old Phenom X4 i have here that i know it's working perfectly and send this one to the store/support again.

If you have any other suggestion, please lemme know, that's really slowing me down in my works.

im curious why the downgrade from the i3 setup you had?

To be honest i thought that would be a good deal to change to a processor with more cores. But i didn't used AMD before, it has a better performance when rendering a video in AFX for example, much better than i3 for my needs.

But i need to tell you that wasn't what i thought overall, i can't wait to be able to go back to Intel.

I work with digital arts, so the worse thing here is that this FX8320e isn't good at all with Photoshop as i3 was, but as i said i'm pretty new to AMD stuff. Plus i bought it thinking it was a FX8320, not a FX8320"E".

Here is my website where you can find my works: Tullius Heuer

 

[maxalge]

I can't change the PSU right now cause i don't have another one that can supply it;

Well, i changed the memory sticks and tested each one separately. Everything seems OK.

I'm starting to think it's the CPU, but i sent the previous mother board to the support and they didn't said me anything about it. They just allowed me to pick another one or another product. I'm actually using this new mother board and now i'm pretty sure the problem is not the mother board or the memory sticks.

Things that may be the problem are: HD, SSD, VGA, CPU.

But my main suspect is about the CPU now, i don't know if that can be something related to energy (not talking about the PSU), here on Brazil we have the costume to use Nobreaks and stuff like this to stabilize the energy instability. I just removed it and my PC is now directly on the power plug.

It's important to say that the problem seems to be really random, and it happens between long periods.

My CPU is still on guarantee, so i'll keep testing this and if this still happen, i'll go back to an old Phenom X4 i have here that i know it's working perfectly and send this one to the store/support again.

If you have any other suggestion, please lemme know, that's really slowing me down in my works.

im curious why the downgrade from the i3 setup you had?

To be honest i thought that would be a good deal to change to a processor with more cores. But i didn't used AMD before, it has a better performance when rendering a video in AFX for example, much better than i3 for my needs.

But i need to tell you that wasn't what i thought overall, i can't wait to be able to go back to Intel.

I work with digital arts, so the worse thing here is that this FX8320e isn't good at all with Photoshop as i3 was, but as i said i'm pretty new to AMD stuff. Plus i bought it thinking it was a FX8320, not a FX8320"E".

Here is my website where you can find my works: Tullius Heuer

all you needed to do was drop in an i7 or xeon to your old motherboard XD

 

[iskander1989]

Updating the issue:

It just happened again after cleaning and changing the thermal paste of my VGA, i'll try to ask my neighbor to exchange the VGA's and see if the problem persists.

I also certified that fast book is off.. No result at all.

 

[iskander1989]

So after a few weeks testing, i just discovered that there was a bad memory stick. The first time i've made the test Memtest didn't show any errors, maybe i didn't left it running enough time, but i managed to find the bad stick and then removed it, seems like everything is solved now, i didn't had any restarts anymore.

Thanks for everyone who helped me!