Question BSOD Issues - 3 Day Old Build

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Jan 29, 2020
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Hi everyone, hate to join just to ask for help, but I'm stumped. I just finished building a new computer, had it up and running for day (did all my drivers and Windows updates), it crashed out on me while playing a game for a couple of hours and have not been able to reboot into windows since. I've tried booting in safe mode using the 3 power cycle method as well as trying to boot from a USB which has the Windows 10 installer on it.

Build is as follows:
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Ultra
CPU: i7-9700K
RAM: G.Skill TridentZ DDR4 2x16GB in dual channel (A2/B2)
GPU: EVGA RTX 2070 Super
PSU: Corsair RM750x
SSD: Crucial P1
HDD: WD Black 4TB
OS: Window 10 Pro

I've tried pulling both hard drives individually to see if I could boot from the USB and have had no luck. I have also bypassed the GFX and am running off the integrated graphics. I have checked the RAM voltage in XMP and draw 1.5V. The variety of errors I get are as follows:

Page Fault in Nonpaged Area
System Thread Exception Not Handled
Unexpected Kernel Mode Trap
Attempted Write to Readonly Memory, with a what failed of CI.dll
IRQL Not Less or Equal
Kmode Exception Not Handled, with a what failed of Ndis.sys

I'm completely lost on where to go, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Edit: Forgot to mention that before I pulled the SSD tonight, it was not showing up in the BIOS yesterday under the NVMe manager, so not sure if that is related as I had been booting off it before the crash.
 
A0 is "All Ok".

Obviously, all is not ok though. I'd say that you need to take a very close look again at the socket pin bed, because if the CPU was improperly installed it's pretty much assured that at least one pin will be bent and that is almost certainly going to result in some BSOD problems. The other thing you might want to do is a hard reset of the CMOS/BIOS not that you actually have it able to POST. Might fix the BSOD problem, but I'm doubtful. Always worth a shot though because sometimes faulty settings are retained in the BIOS from when things were not working right, even once they are working "right".

As far as the thermal paste goes, yes, it needs to all be cleaned off and fresh paste applied BUT unless it is currently overheating and that is the source of your BSOD, which is doubtful, then I probably wouldn't worry about it for now until you figure out what the actual problem is. I would double check the seating of the memory and the graphics card, and probably everything else as well, after you go back in with a magnifying glass or high powered reading glasses and triple check that not even one single pin on the motherboard is even slightly bent to an abnormal position. If it is, all bets are off. Replace the board unless you feel that the bend is small enough to be fixed.

The other thing is, if the CPU was installed wrong, it's always possible that electrical damage has occurred to the CPU. I wouldn't rule it out, that's for certain. Especially since I have no idea HOW exactly you had the CPU "seated slightly wrong". Bottom line is, there is only one way for the CPU to be installed, and anything that isn't RIGHT, is WRONG, period.

It is of course possible that your BSOD is something else though. Do you get any errors or problems if you run Memtest or if you try to run a bootable Linux distro from a flash drive?
 
Jan 29, 2020
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0
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A0 is "All Ok".

Obviously, all is not ok though. I'd say that you need to take a very close look again at the socket pin bed, because if the CPU was improperly installed it's pretty much assured that at least one pin will be bent and that is almost certainly going to result in some BSOD problems. The other thing you might want to do is a hard reset of the CMOS/BIOS not that you actually have it able to POST. Might fix the BSOD problem, but I'm doubtful. Always worth a shot though because sometimes faulty settings are retained in the BIOS from when things were not working right, even once they are working "right".

As far as the thermal paste goes, yes, it needs to all be cleaned off and fresh paste applied BUT unless it is currently overheating and that is the source of your BSOD, which is doubtful, then I probably wouldn't worry about it for now until you figure out what the actual problem is. I would double check the seating of the memory and the graphics card, and probably everything else as well, after you go back in with a magnifying glass or high powered reading glasses and triple check that not even one single pin on the motherboard is even slightly bent to an abnormal position. If it is, all bets are off. Replace the board unless you feel that the bend is small enough to be fixed.

The other thing is, if the CPU was installed wrong, it's always possible that electrical damage has occurred to the CPU. I wouldn't rule it out, that's for certain. Especially since I have no idea HOW exactly you had the CPU "seated slightly wrong". Bottom line is, there is only one way for the CPU to be installed, and anything that isn't RIGHT, is WRONG, period.

It is of course possible that your BSOD is something else though. Do you get any errors or problems if you run Memtest or if you try to run a bootable Linux distro from a flash drive?

So I did do a visual inspection of the CPU and socket before reseating and nothing looked bent. As for how it was seated incorrectly, I'm not exactly sure, it was in the correct orientation and the latch was locked in, maybe I didn't tighten the CPU cooler enough?

When I run memtest, it craps out on tests 6 & 7. I also made a USB bootable of Prime95 per a previous post, which has a lot more than Prime95 on it, and a lot of those programs run, the only ones that crap out are any of the CPU tests.

I also remade my windows installation USB last night and I did not change the results.
 
I'll be honest, I still think it's the motherboard, but since you've already tried to RMA the motherboard and had it sent back to you it is probably worth generating an RMA with Intel. Normally they make you run the Intel processor diagnostic tool, but since you can't even get that far then obviously they can't make you do that. As unlikely as it is for a CPU to be bad without having done something to it, it IS possible, because it does, RARELY, happen. There is really no way to verify for certain that it is either the motherboard or the CPU so I guess if you send the CPU to Intel and they test it, which they will, and say it is good, then you can begin your fight with Gigabyte over them not replacing the motherboard in the first place.

I can't imagine it is anything else. It could be memory, but memory problems would usually show up immediately, on ALL Memtest tests, if it was a physical problem with your modules. Usually. There are always exceptions to every rule.
 
Jan 29, 2020
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I'll be honest, I still think it's the motherboard, but since you've already tried to RMA the motherboard and had it sent back to you it is probably worth generating an RMA with Intel. Normally they make you run the Intel processor diagnostic tool, but since you can't even get that far then obviously they can't make you do that. As unlikely as it is for a CPU to be bad without having done something to it, it IS possible, because it does, RARELY, happen. There is really no way to verify for certain that it is either the motherboard or the CPU so I guess if you send the CPU to Intel and they test it, which they will, and say it is good, then you can begin your fight with Gigabyte over them not replacing the motherboard in the first place.

I can't imagine it is anything else. It could be memory, but memory problems would usually show up immediately, on ALL Memtest tests, if it was a physical problem with your modules. Usually. There are always exceptions to every rule.
Thanks, intel actually just approved my RMA, and are going to refund me the cost of the chip since they don't have any in stock. I'm with you though and think its the board, so I'm going to start fighting with gigabyte now sicne they take 4 days between responses.
 
Jan 29, 2020
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Finally received the new MB & CPU and everything seems to be working, thank you all for the help. Really appreciate the continued support and sticking with me through this.