- Jan 3, 2022
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- 0
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I upgraded my system about a month ago, and while it worked fine for a few days, I have been having issues with system Deadlocks more recently. Everything in the below system specs are upgraded except the SSD, HDD, PSU and GPU.
My system specs are as follows:
OS: Windows 11 Pro
CPU: i5 12600KF
GPU: GTX 970 (Waiting for prices to become more reasonable before I upgrade this)
Mobo: MSI Z690 Force WiFi
RAM: 32 GB (16x2) DDR5
PSU: 650W Platinum Standard
Drive: 1TB M.2
: 250 GB SSD
: 1TB HDD
So firstly, do I believe it is a Deadlock?
Well as stated in the title, my screen freezes, all sound stops and my mouse and keyboard turn off. The computer is completely unresponsive and I need to perform a hard shutdown to get it to turn off.
Moving my USB devices to other slots also does not make them work. I have also waited about 10 minutes to see if something changes but it does not. There is no BSoD or any event in the event viewer or reliability monitor that can explain the why this happened, apart from the generic "windows was not shutdown correctly" error.
The main problem is that this deadlock doesn't create any Memory dump files at all, so it is even more difficult to tract down the cause.
What tests have I run to try and Identify the issues?
Ran Windows Memory Diagnostic with individual RAM sticks and together - No errors.
Ran MemTest86 for 8 hours with individual RAM sticks and together - No Errors.
Ran Intel Processor Diagnostic - No Errors.
Ran CHKDSK - No Errors.
Did SFC scan - No Errors.
Did AntiVirus Scan - No malware or Errors.
Used tools like CPU-Z, HWiNFO and Passmark Performance Test to see if I could find any components that did not perform correctly, but everything performed as expected.
What have I done to try and resolve this issue?
Updated all drives.
Rolled back all drivers.
Uninstalled all drivers and installed them one at a time.
Clean Install Windows on different drives, multiple times.
Remove all drives except the current system drives.
Plugged the drives into different ports.
Used DISM command, even though there was no integrity problems.
Use CC Cleaner to scan for Registry errors and correct/delete them.
Updated BIOS.
Re-seated CPU.
Re-seated GPU.
Moved GPU to another slot.
Tried another GPU (GTX 960) in both slots.
Re-seated RAM and tried different channels.
Tried another PSU.
Conclusion and assumptions.
It is also important to note that the system was not overheating, the CPU ran at 30 C idle and less than 60 C under load and the GPU was about 10 degrees higher, the RAM never went higher than 40 C.
Furthermore, I found that when re-seating the hardware and doing a clean install of Windows, the issue would be resolved for a few days/hours but would then once again return and increase in frequency.
Lastly, I have also been experiencing some intermittent BSoD's during these past few weeks of trying to resolve the issue, but much less frequently than the Deadlocks. All the BSoD's where SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION or IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL, which is why I suspected that the issue might be drivers.
However after all the tests that I ran and the ways in which I tried to resolve the issue, I am fairly certain that the problem is not with faulty drivers but with my Motherboard (I have not ruled out my CPU). My only reservation for this assumption is the fact, that I have started my PC in safe mode and after 6 hours I could not replicate the issue.
The place where I bought the parts was closed over Christmas but they are opening tomorrow. I plan on contacting them and having them replace the motherboard and/or CPU and seeing if that resolves the issue.
The main reason I am making this post is because I wanted to know if anyone has some last minute suggestions of ways I might try to resolve the issue or what they believe the cause of the issue might be?
My system specs are as follows:
OS: Windows 11 Pro
CPU: i5 12600KF
GPU: GTX 970 (Waiting for prices to become more reasonable before I upgrade this)
Mobo: MSI Z690 Force WiFi
RAM: 32 GB (16x2) DDR5
PSU: 650W Platinum Standard
Drive: 1TB M.2
: 250 GB SSD
: 1TB HDD
So firstly, do I believe it is a Deadlock?
Well as stated in the title, my screen freezes, all sound stops and my mouse and keyboard turn off. The computer is completely unresponsive and I need to perform a hard shutdown to get it to turn off.
Moving my USB devices to other slots also does not make them work. I have also waited about 10 minutes to see if something changes but it does not. There is no BSoD or any event in the event viewer or reliability monitor that can explain the why this happened, apart from the generic "windows was not shutdown correctly" error.
The main problem is that this deadlock doesn't create any Memory dump files at all, so it is even more difficult to tract down the cause.
What tests have I run to try and Identify the issues?
Ran Windows Memory Diagnostic with individual RAM sticks and together - No errors.
Ran MemTest86 for 8 hours with individual RAM sticks and together - No Errors.
Ran Intel Processor Diagnostic - No Errors.
Ran CHKDSK - No Errors.
Did SFC scan - No Errors.
Did AntiVirus Scan - No malware or Errors.
Used tools like CPU-Z, HWiNFO and Passmark Performance Test to see if I could find any components that did not perform correctly, but everything performed as expected.
What have I done to try and resolve this issue?
Updated all drives.
Rolled back all drivers.
Uninstalled all drivers and installed them one at a time.
Clean Install Windows on different drives, multiple times.
Remove all drives except the current system drives.
Plugged the drives into different ports.
Used DISM command, even though there was no integrity problems.
Use CC Cleaner to scan for Registry errors and correct/delete them.
Updated BIOS.
Re-seated CPU.
Re-seated GPU.
Moved GPU to another slot.
Tried another GPU (GTX 960) in both slots.
Re-seated RAM and tried different channels.
Tried another PSU.
Conclusion and assumptions.
It is also important to note that the system was not overheating, the CPU ran at 30 C idle and less than 60 C under load and the GPU was about 10 degrees higher, the RAM never went higher than 40 C.
Furthermore, I found that when re-seating the hardware and doing a clean install of Windows, the issue would be resolved for a few days/hours but would then once again return and increase in frequency.
Lastly, I have also been experiencing some intermittent BSoD's during these past few weeks of trying to resolve the issue, but much less frequently than the Deadlocks. All the BSoD's where SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION or IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL, which is why I suspected that the issue might be drivers.
However after all the tests that I ran and the ways in which I tried to resolve the issue, I am fairly certain that the problem is not with faulty drivers but with my Motherboard (I have not ruled out my CPU). My only reservation for this assumption is the fact, that I have started my PC in safe mode and after 6 hours I could not replicate the issue.
The place where I bought the parts was closed over Christmas but they are opening tomorrow. I plan on contacting them and having them replace the motherboard and/or CPU and seeing if that resolves the issue.
The main reason I am making this post is because I wanted to know if anyone has some last minute suggestions of ways I might try to resolve the issue or what they believe the cause of the issue might be?
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