Question Help - Blue screen boot loop

[gregor_00]

Hi everyone,

I've had a problem with blue screening that just got dramatically worse yesterday.

So, for the past couple of weeks everytime I booted up I would blue screen then it would restart and boot fine second time round. I'll admit, stupidly, I didn't act fast enough and the problem started happening more frequently and now it wont boot at all. It is stuck in a boot loop with a mix of stop codes such as "IRQL_not_less_or_equal, KERNEL SECURITY CHECK FAILURE & CRITICAL PROCESS DIED"

I swapped from a HDD to SSD for my windows boot months ago with no problem so I'm thinking this could be Software/ Driver/ BIOS related? The SSD could still be at fault however. The only other thing I could think of was maybe the motherboard being faulty, it's not the best and quite dated now ( Gigabyte Z97x - Gaming 5 - Socket LGA1150) this motherboard failed on me when I first bought it back in 2014/15 and I had it replaced once if not twice (so maybe this is the most likely?) or it could be the CPU an i7 4790k, I noticed this was higher temp than normal when the problem started getting worse but I have replaced the thermal paste last night as this hadn't been done in a few years - to rule out overheating. The rest of my system consists of a Nvidia 3050, 2 x 8gb Corsair Vegeance DDR3 RAM an M.2 SSD, 2 HDD's. Power Supply is a EVGA 750W G2 Supernova. All Components bought around 2014/15 with exception of SSD's and GPU.

I have tried a system restore to 2 weeks before which didn't help, it wont let me use any further back than that now as they disappeared. I tried resetting CMOS which stopped my computer from even POSTing until I took out one stick of RAM (this is still the case if i put other stick back in). I have tried command prompts such as chkdsk etc. Swapping SATA and Power Cables to boot drive, Booting into Safe Mode, and I even went to "Reset my PC' and it said it wasn't able to. I hadn't done a Windows Update in a long time (more than 6 months probably) which may have been a part of the problem, it told me I could upgrade to windows 11 which I am obviously yet to do however when I tried to do it through Installation Media, it said my PC wasn't compatible, I'm guessing this is due to older CPU.

Please help, I am stumped!

 

[gregor_00]

I should also add there is a slight overclock on the CPU, its at 4.4 rather than 4 and I do seem to remember when I got the "this computer failed to boot message" and I picked Boot with Optimized Defaults the Boot Loop became impenetrable whereas before I pressed that it would randomly boot every 10th time or so. This may be me speculating based off of that one JayzTwoCents video where his boot loop was caused by him removing the overclock from his CPU and he then fixed it by overclocking it again lol.

 

[Bob.B]

Hi everyone,

I've had a problem with blue screening that just got dramatically worse yesterday.

So, for the past couple of weeks everytime I booted up I would blue screen then it would restart and boot fine second time round. I'll admit, stupidly, I didn't act fast enough and the problem started happening more frequently and now it wont boot at all. It is stuck in a boot loop with a mix of stop codes such as "IRQL_not_less_or_equal, KERNEL SECURITY CHECK FAILURE & CRITICAL PROCESS DIED"

I swapped from a HDD to SSD for my windows boot months ago with no problem so I'm thinking this could be Software/ Driver/ BIOS related? The SSD could still be at fault however. The only other thing I could think of was maybe the motherboard being faulty, it's not the best and quite dated now ( Gigabyte Z97x - Gaming 5 - Socket LGA1150) this motherboard failed on me when I first bought it back in 2014/15 and I had it replaced once if not twice (so maybe this is the most likely?) or it could be the CPU an i7 4790k, I noticed this was higher temp than normal when the problem started getting worse but I have replaced the thermal paste last night as this hadn't been done in a few years - to rule out overheating. The rest of my system consists of a Nvidia 3050, 2 x 8gb Corsair Vegeance DDR3 RAM an M.2 SSD, 2 HDD's. Power Supply is a EVGA 750W G2 Supernova. All Components bought around 2014/15 with exception of SSD's and GPU.

I have tried a system restore to 2 weeks before which didn't help, it wont let me use any further back than that now as they disappeared. I tried resetting CMOS which stopped my computer from even POSTing until I took out one stick of RAM (this is still the case if i put other stick back in). I have tried command prompts such as chkdsk etc. Swapping SATA and Power Cables to boot drive, Booting into Safe Mode, and I even went to "Reset my PC' and it said it wasn't able to. I hadn't done a Windows Update in a long time (more than 6 months probably) which may have been a part of the problem, it told me I could upgrade to windows 11 which I am obviously yet to do however when I tried to do it through Installation Media, it said my PC wasn't compatible, I'm guessing this is due to older CPU.

Please help, I am stumped!

Put a copy of memtest86 on a flash stick.

See if it will boot.

If it does let it run no errors allowed.

 

[gregor_00]

Put a copy of memtest86 on a flash stick.

See if it will boot.

If it does let it run no errors allowed.

Thanks!

It has passed with zero errors.

What else would you recommend?

 

[Bob.B]

Thanks!

It has passed with zero errors.

What else would you recommend?

A lot of the machine has to function for memtest to run.

Unplug the hdd's and see if windows will boot.

 

[gregor_00]

A lot of the machine has to function for memtest to run.

Unplug the hdd's and see if windows will boot.

That's somewhat promising. I've kept the HDD's unplugged for the last couple of days, would taking out the M.2 SSD be a useful next step? This is giving me the feeling it may be a problem with Windows, I've ordered a SATA to USB cable to test the boot drive is still working on my laptop and to make an emergency back up as well. The only other thing I can think of is a virus...

 

[Bob.B]

That's somewhat promising. I've kept the HDD's unplugged for the last couple of days, would taking out the M.2 SSD be a useful next step? This is giving me the feeling it may be a problem with Windows, I've ordered a SATA to USB cable to test the boot drive is still working on my laptop and to make an emergency back up as well. The only other thing I can think of is a virus...

If it still won't boot without the hdd's connected perhaps remove the gpu and connect the monitor to the mobo....test.

Making the suspect list smaller.

 

[gregor_00]

If it still won't boot without the hdd's connected perhaps remove the gpu and connect the monitor to the mobo....test.

Making the suspect list smaller.

Hi,

Sorry about the lack of updates, I've been away from my PC for quite some time.

I did a clean install of Windows on my Boot SSD and it now boots thankfully but then after a minute or 2 on internet browser etc it will blue screen. I'm going to try your suggestion of ruling out GPU tomorrow.

Thanks!

 

[gregor_00]

If it still won't boot without the hdd's connected perhaps remove the gpu and connect the monitor to the mobo....test.

Making the suspect list smaller.

An Update on ruling out GPU - I have done as you said and removed the GPU and booted with HDMI through Motherboard, on top of what I mentioned above, it now does the same, boots, I get onto internet browser for 30 seconds but now it is just freezing completely. No blue screen. The computer just locks up and I can't use my mouse or keyboard, not even CTRL ALT DEL. I have to shut down using power on button on case.

 

[ubuysa]

This is a long shot, but I have seen other people have similar issues that were resolved by removing and re-seating the M.2 SSD. It's worth a try.

 

[gregor_00]

This is a long shot, but I have seen other people have similar issues that were resolved by removing and re-seating the M.2 SSD. It's worth a try.

Will definitely try this, thanks, another update IT NOW DOESN'T BLUE SCREEN IN SAFE MODE, even with networking on. So now I'm even more confused!

 

[gregor_00]

This is a long shot, but I have seen other people have similar issues that were resolved by removing and re-seating the M.2 SSD. It's worth a try.

Just removed the M.2 entirely there, still blue screen however this time it was DPC WATCHDOG VIOLATION which I dont believe I have had yet. I'm starting to believe it might be a driver since its booting in safe mode?

 

[Colif]

try unplugging the internet connections before start and see if you get same error

Will definitely try this, thanks, another update IT NOW DOESN'T BLUE SCREEN IN SAFE MODE, even with networking on. So now I'm even more confused!

it uses Microsoft drivers in safe mode, its possible the cause is your LAN drivers
I wonder what its got installed
BigFoot LAN driver is what MB site says, i don't know that one.
Bigfoot = Killer NIC E2100 - Ah, I know that... not exactly easy to get drivers for them since Intel bought Killer

The only sites that offer drivers for it are sites I wouldn't trust to give you newer or correct drivers
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-Z97X-Gaming-5-rev-10/support#support-dl-driver-lan
unless you use WIFI and its a dongle as its not on the motherboard.

 

[gregor_00]

try unplugging the internet connections before start and see if you get same error


it uses Microsoft drivers in safe mode, its possible the cause is your LAN drivers
I wonder what its got installed
BigFoot LAN driver is what MB site says, i don't know that one.
Bigfoot = Killer NIC E2100 - Ah, I know that... not exactly easy to get drivers for them since Intel bought Killer

The only sites that offer drivers for it are sites I wouldn't trust to give you newer or correct drivers
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-Z97X-Gaming-5-rev-10/support#support-dl-driver-lan
unless you use WIFI and its a dongle as its not on the motherboard.

So I tried booting without ethernet plugged in and it continued to freeze without BSOD as it has done before, sometimes I get a stop code like the WHEA one but majority of boots it freezes with no blue screen at all and I have to manually shut down. I then thought installing those drivers was worth a shot, but it wouldnt let me install in safe mode, it would just fail. But then I managed to race the install before the BSOD on normal boot but after installing it, same problems as before. Can't think what other drivers it could be. Especially since its a clean install.

 

[Colif]

Safe mode doesn't put as much stress on parts as normal mode does so that could also be the reason it works in safe mode
If you getting WHEA and freezing, its hardware most likely.

remove the overclock

CPU: I7 4790K
MB: Gigabyte Z97x - Gaming 5
GPU: Nvidia 3050
Ram: 2 x 8gb Corsair Vengeance DDR3
Storage: M.2 SSD, 2 HDD'
Power Supply is a EVGA 750W G2 Supernova.

so it passes memtest
I would run this:
Prime 95 Bootable - https://www.infopackets.com/news/10113/how-fix-bootable-prime95-stress-test-hardware

Prime 95 Instructions - https://appuals.com/how-to-run-a-cpu-stress-test-using-prime95/
it will check CPU, RAM & PSU

Also takes about 17 hours to run so its not going to be fast.

Its probably not the Storage as it would freeze in safe mode too. What make/models are the drives?
could be drivers but without being able to load normal mode its hard to get a list of them.

CPU & MB are main reason that PC can't get win 11 without messing with install files, and really, you not missing anything. Win 11 is just 10 with a different look. I would get it with next PC.