[SOLVED] I just joined the recent BSOD badwagon. Random BSOD while gaming and/or browsing

[cassetto]

Like some other users, I started experiencing a different range of BSOD while performing various activities. Here's all the details I can provide:

• It started recently (4 days ago), all of a sudden, no recent hardware upgrades, one BSOD every day and then nothing for the rest of the day, except yesterday, got 2.
• different stop codes "every time", I quote that cause I didn't write down the first 2. Here's what I got:
  • PFN_LIST_CORRUPT
  • MEMORY_MANAGEMENT
  • POOL_CORRUPTION_IN_FILE_AREA
• the first one I ever got was while I was playing "The division 2" an online, graphically intense, game. At first I experienced slowness of the network connection (not the graphics or fps performance), with disconnects and such, bringing me to the main game menu. Then after a while, the first BSOD. I restarted, continued playing and got no other issues for the rest of the day.
• After this I got another BSOD, playing the same game, the next day.
• I then got the last 2 playing "World of Warcraft" a definitely not hardware demanding game, Yesterday I got a BSOD after 5 minutes in, then restarted the pc and nothing happened for the following 3 hours. Then another one before going to bed.

Some detail related to what I did to mitigate the issue or solve it:

• Update GPU drivers (I updated the drivers, still got BSOD after)
• checked for windows updates (I was up to date)
• used windows diagnostic tool for faulty RAM (mdsched.exe), no errors found
• checked for hard drive corruption (chkdsk /f), no errors found

Specs of my machine are here: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/vxNLGG

I never experienced this issues in my entire gaming / IT career, so I really don't know where to start. The only thing I did in the past week was installing OBS studio software, nothing else. But in all cases it was not running.

Thanks for the help and I'm here to answer any question.

 

[viveknayyar007]

Hello

Can you please try Running the SFC /SCANNOW Command and see if it helps?

Also, please check if there was any Windows update installed on your PC 4 days ago, i.e. since you started experiencing the issue? If so, please try uninstalling the most recent updates and/or rolling back the recently updated device drivers to their earlier version and see if the issue is resolved.

Since you're an IT person, I believe you're already aware of the fact that most of such issues arise due to obsolete, incompatible, or corrupt graphics driver.

Please report back with the results if you need any further assistance in this.

Cheers!!

 

[cassetto]

Hello

Can you please try Running the SFC /SCANNOW Command and see if it helps?

Also, please check if there was any Windows update installed on your PC 4 days ago, i.e. since you started experiencing the issue? If so, please try uninstalling the most recent updates and/or rolling back the recently updated device drivers to their earlier version and see if the issue is resolved.

Since you're an IT person, I believe you're already aware of the fact that most of such issues arise due to obsolete, incompatible, or corrupt graphics driver.

Please report back with the results if you need any further assistance in this.

Cheers!!

I'll run the scan as soon as I get home tonight and post the results. I'll also check the date of the latest win upgrade and see if that could be the problem.

I'd tend to exclude the gpu drivers cause when the issue came up the first time I had the previous version of those drivers, then I installed the newer and nothing changed. The prior-to-last update was more than a month ago so, again, I'd tend to exclude that. But who knows.
Anyway, I'll keep you posted! and thanks for the reply!

 

[cassetto]

The scannow didn't find any problem. Windows updates are older than 4 days.
Using the machine since 15 minutes, I'll keep it monitored.

 

[cassetto]

So this is still happening. Now all my mods for World of warcraft were reset, and the settings for the game itself after another blue screen yesterday night.
Any tips?

Edit: It's now happening every other minute. always MEMORY_MANAGEMENT.
It just happened during a windows update (while I was on control panel, "installing" status, BSOD.

Computer restarted once again, now I lost my mouse settings and sensitivity settings, all World of Warcraft settings (the game wasn't even running)

I'm trying to run some tests but I feel that the system is getting increasingly more unstable. Any tip would be greatly appreciated

 

[cassetto]

So, I ran some memtests, attached the results, if this can help identifying the issue..

 

[Colif]

the only error count you want in memtest is 0. Since you got 66, it shows you need new ram.

Did you check 1 stick at a time? As the stick with 66 needs to be replaced.

test 13 = Hammer test

Why am I only getting errors during Test 13 Hammer Test?

The Hammer Test is designed to detect RAM modules that are susceptible to disturbance errors caused by charge leakage. This phenomenon is characterized in the research paper Flipping Bits in Memory Without Accessing Them: An Experimental Study of DRAM Disturbance Errors by Yoongu Kim et al. According to the research, a significant number of RAM modules manufactured 2010 or newer are affected by this defect. In simple terms, susceptible RAM modules can be subjected to disturbance errors when repeatedly accessing addresses in the same memory bank but different rows in a short period of time. Errors occur when the repeated access causes charge loss in a memory cell, before the cell contents can be refreshed at the next DRAM refresh interval.

Starting from MemTest86 v6.2, the user may see a warning indicating that the RAM may be vulnerable to high frequency row hammer bit flips. This warning appears when errors are detected during the first pass (maximum hammer rate) but no errors are detected during the second pass (lower hammer rate). See MemTest86 Test Algorithms for a description of the two passes that are performed during the Hammer Test (Test 13). When performing the second pass, address pairs are hammered only at the rate deemed as the maximum allowable by memory vendors (200K accesses per 64ms). Once this rate is exceeded, the integrity of memory contents may no longer be guaranteed. If errors are detected in both passes, errors are reported as normal.

The errors detected during Test 13, albeit exposed only in extreme memory access cases, are most certainly real errors. During typical home PC usage (eg. web browsing, word processing, etc.), it is less likely that the memory usage pattern will fall into the extreme case that make it vulnerable to disturbance errors. It may be of greater concern if you were running highly sensitive equipment such as medical equipment, aircraft control systems, or bank database servers. It is impossible to predict with any accuracy if these errors will occur in real life applications. One would need to do a major scientific study of 1000 of computers and their usage patterns, then do a forensic analysis of each application to study how it makes use of the RAM while it executes. To date, we have only seen 1-bit errors as a result of running the Hammer Test.

There are several actions that can be taken when you discover that your RAM modules are vulnerable to disturbance errors:

• Do nothing
• Replace the RAM modules
• Use RAM modules with error-checking capabilities (eg. ECC)

Depending on your willingness to live with the possibility of these errors manifesting itself as real problems, you may choose to do nothing and accept the risk. For home use you may be willing to live with the errors. In our experience, we have several machines that have been stable for home/office use despite experiencing errors in the Hammer Test.

You may also choose to replace the RAM with modules that have been known to pass the Hammer Test. Choose RAM modules of different brand/model as it is likely that the RAM modules with the same model would still fail the Hammer test.

https://www.memtest86.com/troubleshooting.htm

 

[cassetto]

I don't know if I tested one stick at a time, but I'm afraid you're absolutely right. RAM is gone. I'll get some new today and update this thread if solved. Thanks for replying!!!!