[SOLVED] Cant tell if cpu or motherboard is failing

May 14, 2021
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Heya! So about a month ago I started having pc reboots with kernal 41 log issues, after a windows reset with full wipe and disabling reboots on crash I got whea unidentifiable error bluescreens instead and a "cplspcon has stopped working with following error: Unidentifiable error" and both of those are supposedly caused by hardware failure.

And from what I found online cplspcon is related to Intel's integrated GPU which both my cpu and motherboard has built in... I tried memtest, downclocking and resetting Windows etc, I even left it into a pc workshop and they cant even pinpoint the issue, they said it's either the motherboard or cpu since none of the other hardware showed any signs of failue. Anyone know what it might be?

Specs:
Windows 10 64 bit
GPU: Nvidia RTX2070
Motherboard: Asus Prime z370-A
CPU: Intel Core I5 8600k ( Corsair I150H pro cooler)
PSU: Corsair 750W
RAM: Corsair vengeance 3200Mhz 2x 8GB
SSD: Samsung EVO 970 1TB

I apologize if I missed anything important, writing on a phone isnt too convenient and thanks in advance for any help!

Edit: Also, on the day I left the pc at the workshop I tried to play Path of Exile a bit a noticed textures started taking longer to load in and lower fps, could that also point towards CPU issues?
 
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Solution
Kernel 41 errors are not indicative of anything in specific. All they are is your OS saying "the PC shut down when I wasn't expecting it to". You would get the same error if you simply pushed the reset power button on your case.

WHEA is indeed a hardware fault, but doesn't indicate which one it was until you look into the dump files. Do you have these that you can post onto a file sharing site to download?

Power supply issues can equally cause these issues and random shut downs if it isn't delivering power correctly to the rest of your system. It is often more likely to result in random reboots and shut downs, but it can manifest in BSOD at times too.

CPU errors are rarer, but certainly not unheard of. The only way you'll be able to...

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Kernel 41 errors are not indicative of anything in specific. All they are is your OS saying "the PC shut down when I wasn't expecting it to". You would get the same error if you simply pushed the reset power button on your case.

WHEA is indeed a hardware fault, but doesn't indicate which one it was until you look into the dump files. Do you have these that you can post onto a file sharing site to download?

Power supply issues can equally cause these issues and random shut downs if it isn't delivering power correctly to the rest of your system. It is often more likely to result in random reboots and shut downs, but it can manifest in BSOD at times too.

CPU errors are rarer, but certainly not unheard of. The only way you'll be able to tell is by replacing that hardware and retesting.

You could theoretically run Prime95 as per these instructions to see if it can highlight any CPU issues. But this is a less robust way of checking.
 
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Solution
May 14, 2021
9
0
10
Kernel 41 errors are not indicative of anything in specific. All they are is your OS saying "the PC shut down when I wasn't expecting it to". You would get the same error if you simply pushed the reset power button on your case.

WHEA is indeed a hardware fault, but doesn't indicate which one it was until you look into the dump files. Do you have these that you can post onto a file sharing site to download?

Power supply issues can equally cause these issues and random shut downs if it isn't delivering power correctly to the rest of your system. It is often more likely to result in random reboots and shut downs, but it can manifest in BSOD at times too.

CPU errors are rarer, but certainly not unheard of. The only way you'll be able to tell is by replacing that hardware and retesting.

You could theoretically run Prime95 as per these instructions to see if it can highlight any CPU issues. But this is a less robust way of checking.

It seems the PSU wasnt the culprit according to the workshop, and currently I dont have my PC but I'll look into getting those dumpfiles up when I get it back if it'll let me.

And the thing with the computer is that it doesnt always crash at a certain point etc, it's very random, sometimes 3-5 times as I enter windows and sometimes I can play a full day or 2 on it without bluescreening more than 1 time.
 

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And the thing with the computer is that it doesnt always crash at a certain point etc, it's very random, sometimes 3-5 times as I enter windows and sometimes I can play a full day or 2 on it without bluescreening more than 1 time.
To be honest, that's indicative of any hardware failure. Hardware failures can often manifest much more randomly as it's not standard software going through routines and repeated processes.

I would try testing the CPU first and then see.
 
May 14, 2021
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If you can get it to run for any period of time....run HWInfo and check the PSU voltages. The main voltages should remain within 5% of +12,+5 and + 3.3. They are located in the motherboard section of the sensor window. You can also check temps there.
Still waiting for the pc workshop to finish up so I can get the PC, then I'll make sure to check voltages alongside dumpfiles as well, but like I mentioned, they did test the PSU and said it's not really any issue there, but I'll check as well to make sure when I get it back!
 
May 14, 2021
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^^^Agree. I believe it also could be a PSU problem...and I think this more likely than the CPU.
I'd agree but the workshop said they did test the PSU so maybe, maybe not but they said it seems to be either motherboard or CPU but cant pinpoint it so I'm stumped here.
 
May 14, 2021
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If you can get it to run for any period of time....run HWInfo and check the PSU voltages. The main voltages should remain within 5% of +12,+5 and + 3.3. They are located in the motherboard section of the sensor window. You can also check temps there.
QPUbo2g.png


Not exactly sure what to look for here, but this is what I'm getting from HWinfo but the voltages for +12 seems to be fine and same for +5 atleast
 
May 14, 2021
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Checking the eventviewer after their "troubleshooting" Where they did absolutely nothing it seems... They didnt even log anything they tried or what they did at all so I have no idea what they tested and the guy over the counter was clueless, regardless it has 2 new errors that wasnt there before "The Intel(R) Content Protection HDCP Service service terminated with the following error: Unspecified error" which is related to the cplspcon error I think. And also Windows failed fast startup with error status 0xC00000D4 has popped up as well now.

From what I understood from the voltage page on my image I uploaded it seems fine? As for the dumpfiles it's nowhere to be found, changed settings to create a minidump for next time it crashes.

Edit: Voltage for +5 changed from 5.000 to 4.960, dunno if this is bad or not but figured I'd include it.
 
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Software is notoriously inaccurate at monitoring PSU voltages, but it can pick up some obvious issues., but based on that the voltages look fine, the problem is I imagine this was idle? Usually those issues you'll find when the system is put under load.

Also a lot of errors you'll find in event viewer are - contrary to the name - often nothing to really worry about.

Fast startup can also fail for a few reasons and is possibly unrelated.
When you say you reset Windows, did you reset it through it's own troubleshooter or do a full clean reinstall? A full clean install is preferable to rule out any OS issues.

I would still test the CPU if you can first.
 
May 14, 2021
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Software is notoriously inaccurate at monitoring PSU voltages, but it can pick up some obvious issues., but based on that the voltages look fine, the problem is I imagine this was idle? Usually those issues you'll find when the system is put under load.

Also a lot of errors you'll find in event viewer are - contrary to the name - often nothing to really worry about.

Fast startup can also fail for a few reasons and is possibly unrelated.
When you say you reset Windows, did you reset it through it's own troubleshooter or do a full clean reinstall? A full clean install is preferable to rule out any OS issues.

I would still test the CPU if you can first.
I wanted to run a clean install but for some reason it wont accept my windows key so I did a reset from windows itself, although I did the full delete option and yes the image was from idle, currently running prime95 but it all looks about the same.

Edit: Read somewhere prime95 aint that good for testing anymore (probs not true, but recommended asus realbench) which I'm running now, CPU seemed fine in a 15 min p95 run, still havent bluescreened since I hooked the PC up again 2 hours ago, and started a 15 min run for asus realbench.

Edit 2: Stresstest from P95 and asus realbench for 15 min each (I know it's a pretty short duration but I'm not overclocking so I figured I'd see problems fast if the load was the issue) and all seems fine, temps dont go over 76 on CPU and 60 on GPU and voltages seems to be stable when monitoring it.

I'd also like to thank everyone for the help so far, this more help / testing than I got from the workshop for the whole week.
 
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Stresstest from P95 and asus realbench for 15 min each (I know it's a pretty short duration but I'm not overclocking so I figured I'd see problems fast if the load was the issue)
That's not how it works. Let the test do it's thing. How fast it appears will not to relate to how big or obvious a problem it is. I've seen CPUs fault in 5 mins, I've seen some fault after 1 hour. Point being, had they not left it for an hour, they never would have knew. It goes through phases of testing different parts and applications of your components.
 
Is your 8600K overclocked?
Either explicitly, or inadvertently by such a bios option like load optimum settings.

A simple check would be to
Run memtest86 or memtest86+
They boot from a usb stick and do not use windows.
You can download them here:
If you can run a full pass with NO errors, your ram should be ok.

Running several more passes will sometimes uncover an issue, but it takes more time.
Probably not worth it unless you really suspect a ram issue.

About the only way to diagnose hardware issues is by replacing with known good components.

My guess of the failing component would be in this order:
a) PSU
b) Motherboard
c) processor.

Once you replace the motherboard, it is probly better to consider both a motherboard and cpu upgrade.
 
May 14, 2021
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So intrestingly enough, ever since I got my PC back from the workshop I did not have a crash the first day so I decided to just let it stay in sleep mode rather than turning my PC off to continue the same session, and I'm on day 3 with no crashes so far, will continue for a few more days and if it doesnt crash anymore I'll try a shut off again and see what happens, if the issue persists then I'll just have to wait until I get a stable launch and just keep sleep moding the PC instead in the future cause I still have absolutely 0 idea what the issue might be, I'm extremely thankful for all the tips and info shared so far though!