Question BSOD Boot Loop—Guidance Needed:

[JRHikerNC]

BSOD Boot Loop—Needing Guidance

I come to you all as a lost soul, begging for guidance in this issue.

The other night, while watching TV, I noticed my office randomly illuminate, and assumed my PC was applying updates and restarting. After about twenty minutes, I noticed the sporadic light in my office had continued. It was at this point, I discovered that my computer was stuck in a BSOD Boot Loop. I turned it off, and rebooted it…and was met with a blue screen. Windows 10 automatically entered “Automatic Repair” at this point…and was greeted with a BSOD. It seems that anything “related” to Windows, ends in a BSOD.

Windows Stop Codes:
These have been varied. I have received MEMORY_DUMP, IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL, SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED, FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA, etc. Additionally, sometimes the text on the BSOD is corrupted/glitched and contains misspellings or incomplete words.

Troubleshooting Completed:
1. I have removed my GPU, additional SSD, unnecessary peripherals, etc. and attempted to boot via the integrated graphics. I was still met with the BSOD Loop.
2. RAM has been replaced with a new set of identical RAM sticks. Additionally, I purchased a separate set of RAM sticks (different brand) that did not alleviate the issue. I have cycled all sticks individually through all slots on the MOBO, and have the same BSOD Boot Loop result.
3. I have replaced my PSU, as an attempt to isolate the issue. During a jumper test with a multimeter, I felt the voltages I was receiving were below the acceptable threshold with my existing PSU, hence the replacement. I was still met with the BSOD Boot Loop.
4. Considering there might have been a corrupted Windows update, or driver, I have wiped my M.2 and attempted a fresh install. The installation USB will go through “Loading Files” and then hit a BSOD upon restart. I also attempted a fresh install on my secondary SSD, but was met with the same fate.

Additional Notes: My Corsair liquid cooler RGB no longer illuminates (only a white LED lights up on the fans, and the unit atop the CPU does not light up at all). This was a development that took place AFTER the BSOD Boot Loop, so it may be related or a separate issue. Additionally, I have flashed my BIOS to the most updated version per the MSI website. Unfortunately, I am not able to provide mini-dump files (due to being unable to access Windows).

Equipment:

CPU: Intel Core i7-9700K 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor

CPU Cooler: Corsair H115i RGB PLATINUM 97 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler

Motherboard: MSI Z390-A PRO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory

Storage: Samsung 970 Evo 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME SSD

Storage: Samsung 870 Evo 2 TB 2.5” SSD

Video Card: Gigabyte WINDFORCE OC 3X GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB

Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G3 750 Watt Gold Certified

I should note this PC was built in 2019 and has been running without issue.

 

[CodeConnoisseur]

Do you overclock at all?

 

[JRHikerNC]

Do you overclock at all?

I do not.

 

[CodeConnoisseur]

I'm thinking this is either a CPU or motherboard issue. This person had some success with tweaking their CPU voltages. I think the fan LED being white may be related to a motherboard issue if it had always been working before all the time and it started happening before your BIOS update. You can try breadboarding the system and physically inspecting everything, though you've already checked pretty much every other component.

Also, if you can get into recovery, you should be able to copy the dump files to a flash drive assuming you have another computer to upload them to a cloud storage provider on. Though, I don't think they'd help us at this point as we're pretty confident it's a hardware issue and have ruled out the majority of components.

 

[JRHikerNC]

I'm thinking this is either a CPU or motherboard issue. This person had some success with tweaking their CPU voltages. I think the fan LED being white may be related to a motherboard issue if it had always been working before all the time and it started happening before your BIOS update. You can try breadboarding the system and physically inspecting everything, though you've already checked pretty much every other component.

Also, if you can get into recovery, you should be able to copy the dump files to a flash drive assuming you have another computer to upload them to a cloud storage provider on. Though, I don't think they'd help us at this point as we're pretty confident it's a hardware issue and have ruled out the majority of components.

It seems likely that it’s the motherboard to me as well, as it would explain the RAM slots possibly going bad (failed memtest with both replacement and new RAM), and the issues with the liquid cooler. I think I just needed to hear that someone else thought the same and that I wasn’t missing anything. LOL

 

[CodeConnoisseur]

It seems likely that it’s the motherboard to me as well, as it would explain the RAM slots possibly going bad (failed memtest with both replacement and new RAM), and the issues with the liquid cooler. I think I just needed to hear that someone else thought the same and that I wasn’t missing anything. LOL

Oh, MemTest failed with new RAM? You mentioned replacing the RAM but not that it was also failing MemTest, just that it didn't resolve the issue. That does nail it down pretty hard to being the CPU or motherboard then, with the motherboard perhaps being a bit more likely.

 

[JRHikerNC]

Oh, MemTest failed with new RAM? You mentioned replacing the RAM but not that it was also failing MemTest, just that it didn't resolve the issue. That does nail it down pretty hard to being the CPU or motherboard then, with the motherboard perhaps being a bit more likely.

Yes! My apologies. I cycled the old RAM, new RAM (same type/model), and other new RAM (different brand) through the slots in an attempt to boot and was still met with a BSOD.

After this, I figured I’d test the RAM with MemTest (as I had originally done with the sticks I removed), and it showed errors across the four new sticks, failing early on in the test as it had originally done for the ones I removed.

I also realize I left out that I performed a CMOS reset. I’ve done so much troubleshooting over the past week and a half that it’s hard to keep track of!

 

[CodeConnoisseur]

Yes! My apologies. I cycled the old RAM, new RAM (same type/model), and other new RAM (different brand) through the slots in an attempt to boot and was still met with a BSOD.

After this, I figured I’d test the RAM with MemTest (as I had originally done with the sticks I removed), and it showed errors across the four new sticks, failing early on in the test as it had originally done for the ones I removed.

I also realize I left out that I performed a CMOS reset. I’ve done so much troubleshooting over the past week and a half that it’s hard to keep track of!

Funny, I was just typing up one last thing to get you to short JBAT1 to clear the CMOS memory. But yeah, it seems pretty clear to me at this point that it's the CPU or motherboard. Motherboards tend to fail more often to my knowledge and there's not a reliable way to test only the CPU aside from dropping it into another computer, so I'd try replacing the motherboard then the CPU if that doesn't work.

 

[JRHikerNC]

Just as an update (because we all hate searching for issues with no resolutions), I ended up purchasing a new Motherboard and CPU (upgrades), which—of course—resolved my issue.

I attempted to purchase a replacement Z390-A PRO, but unfortunately the one that was sent had loose capacitors, which ultimately led to me cutting my losses.

For anyone experiencing a similar issue in the future, I’m sorry I’m unable to provide an easier solution! Thanks @CodeConnoisseur for being a sounding board!