BSOD when running games

[jose.francisco81788]

Hello! As a first post on Tom's, I was hoping you tech gurus could help me out with a little issue.

I've been having persistent BSODs while running more graphics intensive games. The BlueScreenView and WhoCrashed readouts are constantly as follows:

WhoCrashed:
On Thu 2/1/2018 10:44:37 PM your computer crashed or a problem was reported
crash dump file: C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\020118-5921-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: hal.dll (hal+0x3BF1F)
Bugcheck code: 0x124 (0x0, 0xFFFFB60342D40028, 0xBE000000, 0x800400)
Error: WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR
file path: C:\WINDOWS\system32\hal.dll
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: Hardware Abstraction Layer DLL
Bug check description: This bug check indicates that a fatal hardware error has occurred. This bug check uses the error data that is provided by the Windows Hardware Error Architecture (WHEA).
This is likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver that cannot be identified at this time.

On Thu 2/1/2018 10:44:37 PM your computer crashed or a problem was reported
crash dump file: C:\WINDOWS\MEMORY.DMP
This was probably caused by the following module: hal.dll (hal!HalBugCheckSystem+0xCF)
Bugcheck code: 0x124 (0x0, 0xFFFFB60342D40028, 0xBE000000, 0x800400)
Error: WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR
file path: C:\WINDOWS\system32\hal.dll
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: Hardware Abstraction Layer DLL
Bug check description: This bug check indicates that a fatal hardware error has occurred. This bug check uses the error data that is provided by the Windows Hardware Error Architecture (WHEA).
This is likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver that cannot be identified at this time.

BlueScreenView Link because I'm having issues posting images.

Specs:
Windows 10 Home Single Language

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4770K CPO @ 3.50 GHz
Installed memory (RAM): 16.0 GB (15.9 GB usable)
System type: 64-bit Operating System, x64-based processor

GFX: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070

Hard Drives:
SanDisk SDSSDHII480G
SSD2SC250G1SA754D117-443

View DMP File

 

[Guest]

What's your full spec? What's your OS version?

 

[jr9]

Boot into safe mode using advanced startup options, clean out your display drivers using Display Driver Uninstaller (3rd party program), reboot into normal Windows, install the latest display drivers for your graphics card.

Please post some crash dump files if possible. They are located in C/windows/minidump.

 

[jose.francisco81788]

What's your full spec? What's your OS version?

Posted what I can. Are additional details needed?

 

[jose.francisco81788]

Boot into safe mode using advanced startup options, clean out your display drivers using Display Driver Uninstaller (3rd party program), reboot into normal Windows, install the latest display drivers for your graphics card.

Please post some crash dump files if possible. They are located in C/windows/minidump.

Posted a DMP file link.

 

[jr9]

That dump file appears to indicate a hardware problem. My debugger seems to point towards the CPU. Recommend running a CPU stress test program like Prime95 to see if it crashes.

 

[jose.francisco81788]

That dump file appears to indicate a hardware problem. My debugger seems to point towards the CPU. Recommend running a CPU stress test program like Prime95 to see if it crashes.

So far no problems. Prime95 is consistently taking 56-63% of my CPU and has been for around 22 minutes.
How do I export the results here?

 

[jr9]

The only result that matters is if it crashes during the test or not. This also is a test that you must run for a long period of time like overnight. You also may want to check your CPU temps as well. Some people will run it for a full 12 hours before confirming a CPU is stable.

 

[jose.francisco81788]

The only result that matters is if it crashes during the test or not. This also is a test that you must run for a long period of time like overnight. You also may want to check your CPU temps as well. Some people will run it for a full 12 hours before confirming a CPU is stable.

Well, looks like there was no crash after running this for 10 hours.

 

[jose.francisco81788]

The only result that matters is if it crashes during the test or not. This also is a test that you must run for a long period of time like overnight. You also may want to check your CPU temps as well. Some people will run it for a full 12 hours before confirming a CPU is stable.

It looks like my CPU runs really hot - more than 16% gets it above 90 C. Just cleaned my air cooler rather vigorously but it's still a problem. Maybe I need to actually remove it, rub off the thermal paste, give the heatsink a full cleaning in the sink, dry it thoroughly and then reapply thermal paste and slap it back on.

 

[jose.francisco81788]

The only result that matters is if it crashes during the test or not. This also is a test that you must run for a long period of time like overnight. You also may want to check your CPU temps as well. Some people will run it for a full 12 hours before confirming a CPU is stable.

It looks like my CPU runs really hot - more than 16% gets it above 90 C. Just cleaned my air cooler rather vigorously but it's still a problem. Maybe I need to actually remove it, rub off the thermal paste, give the heatsink a full cleaning in the sink, dry it thoroughly and then reapply thermal paste and slap it back on.

 

[xtcmax]

If I understood you correctly, you CPU gets to 90c ? My dear friend, that is 10c less than water's boiling point. I am not a rocket scientist, but I think that is damn hot.

1. Make sure your PC has adequate air flow. Try removing the side walls to get more cooling if you have restrictive PC case.
2. Update all drivers.
2.a. For clean GPU install use: http://www.guru3d.com/content-page/guru3d-driver-sweeper.html to clean out driver's leftovers.
2.b. I used DriverBooster to find newest drivers for SOME of my PC components. Some people advise to do it manually, some don't. I used that program and was happy, so it is up to you how to update drivers.
3. Change thermal paste on your CPU. As an example: https://www.amazon.com/Arctic-Silver-AS5-3-5G-Thermal-Paste/dp/B078K52KJQ/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1517661461&sr=8-4&keywords=thermal+paste
4. As a test, I am not saying it is going to help, but in Nvidia settings try switching PhysX settings from CPU to GPU.
5. Did you OC ? If yes, remove the OC.

 

[jr9]

If it's a stock cooler then 80-90c in a Prime95 marathon isn't that far fetched. If 90c is normal load temp in gaming for example, then yes reinstall the cooler/paste. If not then don't bother.

 

[jose.francisco81788]

If I understood you correctly, you CPU gets to 90c ? My dear friend, that is 10c less than water's boiling point. I am not a rocket scientist, but I think that is damn hot.

1. Make sure your PC has adequate air flow. Try removing the side walls to get more cooling if you have restrictive PC case.
2. Update all drivers.
2.a. For clean GPU install use: http://www.guru3d.com/content-page/guru3d-driver-sweeper.html to clean out driver's leftovers.
2.b. I used DriverBooster to find newest drivers for SOME of my PC components. Some people advise to do it manually, some don't. I used that program and was happy, so it is up to you how to update drivers.
3. Change thermal paste on your CPU. As an example: https://www.amazon.com/Arctic-Silver-AS5-3-5G-Thermal-Paste/dp/B078K52KJQ/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1517661461&sr=8-4&keywords=thermal+paste
4. As a test, I am not saying it is going to help, but in Nvidia settings try switching PhysX settings from CPU to GPU.
5. Did you OC ? If yes, remove the OC.

Thanks for the outline of possibilities. I actually updated all drivers previously but will attempt the GPU driver clean reinstall.

How do I change the PhysX settings from CPU to GPU? I don't see that option in GeForce Experience.

Also, I was suspecting a Multdown / Spectre case but am not sure how likely that actually is on a private machine like mine.

 

[Sedivy]

I am not sure if your 90C was cause of stress test or if those are your nomal temps.
Get something like hwmonitor and run ....something. A game would be fine and see where your temps in the system are. If the cpu is running very hot, might be time for a third party cooler. Hyper 212 Evo is very cheap and would be quite sufficient for that cpu.
If your temps are ok, then follow further troubleshooting here:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-system/fatal-hardware-error-wheauncorrectableerror/3e090fac-0d85-420a-aed9-774c3cbd057e?auth=1
though I'd do step 3 prior to step 2 so you know if it's drivers or not before you start updating them all.

 

[xtcmax]

Thanks for the outline of possibilities. I actually updated all drivers previously but will attempt the GPU driver clean reinstall.

How do I change the PhysX settings from CPU to GPU? I don't see that option in GeForce Experience.

Also, I was suspecting a Multdown / Spectre case but am not sure how likely that actually is on a private machine like mine.

It is in Nvidia Control Panel

 

[jose.francisco81788]

Thanks for the outline of possibilities. I actually updated all drivers previously but will attempt the GPU driver clean reinstall.

How do I change the PhysX settings from CPU to GPU? I don't see that option in GeForce Experience.

Also, I was suspecting a Multdown / Spectre case but am not sure how likely that actually is on a private machine like mine.

It is in Nvidia Control Panel

Thanks! I did it but it looks like it didn't change my BSOD conditions.

 

[xtcmax]

I just googled the Meltdown and Spectre. If nothing helps, you might be looking at the fresh install of windows. 🙁 3 Days ago I had a virus as well and I did not know how to remove it. I asked here and on another site. I got the solution for my problem from another site. So, you might wanna ask here (on this site in a different section) if there is a way to find be sure that you are affected by Meltdown and Spectre and on the other site.

https://malwaretips.com/forums/malware-removal-assistance-for-windows.10/

The article says it is hard to detect, not sure what would be faster/more efficient wait for help or change thermal paste do temp test and then do clean windows install and do test again.

 

[jr9]

- DDU clean removal of all display drivers in safe mode, reinstallation of fresh nVIDIA drivers.

- Revert any overclocks if there are any. Please state if 90c is your load temperature in graphically intensive tasks. If so then this would cause the BSOD. Even with stock cooler 90c is far too high. 70c even is too high.

 

[johnbl]

wow looks like your system is being throttled.
running a very low underclock.
you really need to update the bios to get proper support for your cpu.
your cpu came out in june of 2013
your bios is dated 2 months before the CPU was released. the bios will not have the correct voltage/clock frequency tables for your cpu. these tables will provide incorrect voltages to the cpu for the given clock rate and result in a bugcheck 0x124 due to overheating because of the excess voltage.
you should also remove the overclock utility until you resolve the other issues(bios update):
C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Intel(R) Extreme Tuning Utility\Drivers\IocDriver\64bit\iocbios2.sys Fri Sep 15 03:22:21 2017



Processor Version Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4770K CPU @ 3.50GHz
Processor Voltage 89h - 0.9V
External Clock 100MHz
Max Speed 7000MHz
Current Speed 1600MHz

BIOS Version F3
BIOS Release Date 04/19/2013
Manufacturer Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
Product Name Z87X-OC

 

[jose.francisco81788]

wow looks like your system is being throttled.
running a very low underclock.
you really need to update the bios to get proper support for your cpu.
your cpu came out in june of 2013
your bios is dated 2 months before the CPU was released. the bios will not have the correct voltage/clock frequency tables for your cpu. these tables will provide incorrect voltages to the cpu for the given clock rate and result in a bugcheck 0x124 due to overheating because of the excess voltage.
you should also remove the overclock utility until you resolve the other issues(bios update):
C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Intel(R) Extreme Tuning Utility\Drivers\IocDriver\64bit\iocbios2.sys Fri Sep 15 03:22:21 2017



Processor Version Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4770K CPU @ 3.50GHz
Processor Voltage 89h - 0.9V
External Clock 100MHz
Max Speed 7000MHz
Current Speed 1600MHz

BIOS Version F3
BIOS Release Date 04/19/2013
Manufacturer Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
Product Name Z87X-OC

Hello! I'm not sure how to remove the overclock utility since the one I have access to isn't being used.
The DDU + GFX driver reinstall worked in that I no longer BSOD. I do still run really hot though so that needs a tweak somewhere.

 

[xtcmax]

Do you have anything displayed in the notification area? I don't know much about OCing, but there is a motherboard section on this forum and there are some pretty darn smart people there. Try asking there how to identify and remove an overclock utility from PC ?

wish u all the best.

 

[jose.francisco81788]

So this has been solved by the following:
- Clean GPU driver installation using: http://www.guru3d.com/content-page/guru3d-driver-sweepe... to clean out driver's leftovers.
- Changed thermal paste on CPU

Thanks for all the help guys!