Question Friend's PC crashing/bsoding

[Macul153]

Hey TH, been a few years. I have a friend who has a really nice computer that he got from his uncle and hes wanting to get more into the hardware side of PCs, having gotten into it myself a lot I wanted to help him. I noticed a while back that his PC wasn't quite "right". (Crashing on minecraft when too many entities are present, and struggling with some games)

Specs (Part of the reason I want to get this PC up to par is because it has great parts lol):
CPU: Intel I9 9900k
GPU: EVGA FTW3 1080Ti
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 2x16GB 3200Mhz (Running at 2000Mhz on XMP II, I will get him to switch to XMP I But I don't think that's the problem, could be wrong)
Mobo: ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ac Mini ITX LGA1151
PSU: EVGA SFX 650 GM
Case: NCase M1

Behavior(s):
Computer crashing entirely (Sometimes restarts and sometimes it doesn't)
BSODs (Only shows for half a second then restarts, checked event viewer and didn't have ANY logs for blue screens)
Games often just crash out

What I've tested:
Initially I thought it was thermals
GPU: Stress tested (86C maxed out after a few minutes and the power maxed at 272W according to HWmonitor) but it does idle at like 60C
CPU: Stress tested (82-85C, 142W according to HWmonitor)
^ Stress tested these both at the same time to see if it was the PSU but it was fine
Plan to test memtest86

 

[Metal Messiah.]

Plan to test memtest86

Yes, also first try doing a MEM test for the modules, and report back with the findings. Could also be a faulty RAM stick, or some RAM configuration as well. Though, I'm just guessing here. You can also test each RAM stick individually with just 1 stick.

Also, first leave the memory settings to default in the BIOS, and then check the system, so that you can be assured there is nothing wrong with the RAM frequency or the XMP config.

Are all the cables and connections on the motherboard OK ? Try to re-seat both the GPU and CPU properly on the mobo, just in case.

Is the PSU's cable plugged properly into the GPU's port ? Where are the games installed ? HDD or SSD ? Maybe try using a fresh SSD/HDD if possible ? Install some of the games on a new drive, after doing a FRESH OS re-install/update.

Which PC games actually crash ? List all the names. Is the system fully up-to-date with the latest BIOS version, and the firmware and all the necessary device drivers/software as well ?

 

[Macul153]

Yes, also first try doing a MEM test for the modules, and report back with the findings. Could also be a faulty RAM stick, or some RAM configuration as well. Though, I'm just guessing here. You can also test each RAM stick individually with just 1 stick.

Also, first leave the memory settings to default in the BIOS, and then check the system, so that you can be assured there is nothing wrong with the RAM frequency or the XMP config.

Are all the cables and connections on the motherboard OK ? Try to re-seat both the GPU and CPU properly on the mobo, just in case.

Is the PSU's cable plugged properly into the GPU's port ? Where are the games installed ? HDD or SSD ? Maybe try using a fresh SSD/HDD if possible ? Install some of the games on a new drive, after doing a FRESH OS re-install/update.

Which PC games actually crash ? List all the names. Is the system fully up-to-date with the latest BIOS version, and the firmware and all the necessary device drivers/software as well ?

Will do, I'll do a mem test and post the results. I tried another XMP profile (the default auto one, his uncle had one preset before) and it bsoded so I'll get him to go back to the one it was on before.

I will also get him to check and reseat everything.

The cables appear to be seated well from what I see, and his games are split between about 4 drives, like 3 ssds and a 4TB harddrive, my next idea was to update bios and worst case, reinstall windows 10. It doesn't matter what drive the game is on, or the game itself, it's every single game, varying from resource intensive to non-intensive at all.

Drivers are up to date but I'm also going to get him to use DDU to do a clean install of them.

Thanks a ton for your time! I will try all this out and if it's fixed report back, otherwise i'll explain in more detail when I have more info.

 

[Macul153]

Yes, also first try doing a MEM test for the modules, and report back with the findings. Could also be a faulty RAM stick, or some RAM configuration as well. Though, I'm just guessing here. You can also test each RAM stick individually with just 1 stick.

Also, first leave the memory settings to default in the BIOS, and then check the system, so that you can be assured there is nothing wrong with the RAM frequency or the XMP config.

Are all the cables and connections on the motherboard OK ? Try to re-seat both the GPU and CPU properly on the mobo, just in case.

Is the PSU's cable plugged properly into the GPU's port ? Where are the games installed ? HDD or SSD ? Maybe try using a fresh SSD/HDD if possible ? Install some of the games on a new drive, after doing a FRESH OS re-install/update.

Which PC games actually crash ? List all the names. Is the system fully up-to-date with the latest BIOS version, and the firmware and all the necessary device drivers/software as well ?

I got him to run a gpu stress test, and prime 95 at the same time (10 minutes before we started the gpu stress test) and it BSODED with a "WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR" thing and stays at 0% (turned off automatic restarts so I could see the error)

Good thing is we could cause it, I will get him to run MEMTEST86 next if we can reproduce the error again with just prime95.

 

[Metal Messiah.]

"WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR"

That definitely sounds like a Hardware error with his system. It could be any of the following.

• Corrupt hardware (Damaged hard drives, GPU, CPU, PSU, corrupt RAM, etc.)
• Driver compatibility issues
• Heat and voltage issues (Overclocking and voltage changes). I think voltage plays a huge role exhibiting this error.
• Corrupt Windows OS system files and/or registry files.