Question Multiple BSODs/crashes the past month

[Dr_Cheesesteak]

Hello,

I have had about 4 BSODs and 1 black screen crash since mid-September. The Event Viewer logs of a few of them are below, along with a Memory Diagnostic for one. And I think the 10/11/24 event was the black screen crash.

Memory Management was the cause of the most recent BSOD, today. Memory Management was also the cause of a at least one other previous BSOD.

https://imgur.com/a/KKpmyIV

My quick google research says it's RAM, but there's a small chance it could secretly be my CPU. I have the dmp files from 4 of the crashes as well, but not sure how to attach them here. I haven't really looked into BSODs in years and years and I thought they could be read in most text document apps, but I guess nowadays you need a special programs to read them? I'm really out of touch with more deep dive hardware/software type of modern troubleshooting.

Any help or input would be appreciated. I'm sure it's just the RAM, but my RAM is relatively new (less than 2 years old), so I'm not sure if that'd be a practical thing to conclude right away w/o testing (especially since it passed one Memory Diagnostic).

My specs are:
OS - Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
Mobo - ASRock AB350 Gaming K4 (AM4)
CPU - AMD Ryzen 5 3600 (Matisse 7nm Tech)
GPU - 4GB GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (MSI)
RAM - 32GB Dual-Channel DDR4 @ 1799MHz
PSU - SeaSonic 100-240VAC M12ii Bronze Evo Edition 620W
BIOS - P7.40 (American Megatrends)

Thanks!

 

[Lutfij]

How are you cooling the processor?

You forgot to mention the make and model of the PSU. Please include the age of the unit as well. BIOS version for your motherboard? Pass on your .dmp files for us to see, possible causes for triggering the BSoD.
not sure how to attach them here.
Host your .dmp file on a file hosting site and then parse on the link for us to see here.

Got a link to the ram kit you're working with?

 

[Dr_Cheesesteak]

Sorry about that. PSU and BIOS updated in the OP to keep things consistent.

My CPU cooling is just the heat sink and 1 tower fan near it (1 other fan is off to the side, more focused on the GPU). Not the best, especially with more and more modern games, with heavy shader usage. My comp runs pretty loud/hot, even tho my fps are fine (60 fps on high) in games like Space Marine 2, Helldivers 2, RoboCop Rogue City, etc. BUT, other modern games like Tekken 8, MK11, Suicide Squad, run quiet w/ the same video settings.

This is the best I could do for now for the dmp files. Google Drive is saying the 3 oldest are unreadable for some reason, but here's 2 from this morning and the others hopefully are fine in a zip file. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VU_ZLlleYIQM9xD0W5vBNwp0NZD5QK9c/view?usp=drive_link

Here is my RAM kit - https://www.amazon.com/G-Skill-PC4-28800-3600MHz-Ripjaws-16-19-19-39/dp/B07Z45XB3G

 

[johnbl]

edit: one bit corruptions are hard to find. In your case there are some bios updates but they are for security fixes.
I would :
reset the bios to defaults to get default memory timings
look to see if there are firmware updates to your boot drive.
(update if you can)
delete the pagefile.sys and make a new one (so that corruptions are not saved to disk and reloaded)

then download and run memtest86 to see if you can find a RAM stick that is causing the corruption.
The problem is the corruption can be timing related (slower default RAM timings can fix this)
I think the most often fixable cause of this problem is using RAM that requires 2n command timing. Most bios will default to 1 N cmd timing. It is one of the reason you want to do a bios update to reset the timing tables. in your case there are only beta versions you can update to. manufactures never bother to tell you they update the timing tables.

memory:
F4-3600C16-16GVKC
looks like a g.skill
Ripjaws V
DDR4-3600 CL16-19-19-39 1.35V

default voltage might be 1.2v (might need to set it)
I did not see the cmd rate setting for the RAM

I only see one ram stick in Bank Locator P0 CHANNEL A
you need to confirm that the system sees all of your RAM.
system sees 1 16GB stick.
Configured Memory Speed 3600
Minimum Voltage 1200
Maximum Voltage 1200
Configured Voltage 1200 (guess this is 1.2 v, you might want to set the memory profile to use 1.35 volts)




=========================
edit: looked at one dump it is
MEMORY_CORRUPTION_ONE_BIT
these are hard to find. not likely to be a driver, not likely to be malware.
I did not see any overclocking driver.
I would check to make sure the cpu fans are working and you do not have a heating problem.
BIOS Version P7.40
BIOS Starting Address Segment f000
BIOS Release Date 10/27/2022
Product Name AB350 Gaming K4
Manufacturer ASRock
Product AB350 Gaming K4
Processor Version AMD Ryzen 5 3600 6-Core Processor
Processor Voltage 8bh - 1.1V
External Clock 100MHz
Max Speed 4200MHz
Current Speed 3600MHz




A corrupted PTE has been detected. Parameter 2 contains the address of the PTE. Parameters 3 and 4 contain the low and high parts of the PTE.

the problem is in your virtual memory. IE pagefile.sys
first fix attempt should be to delete the pagefile.sys and reboot and create another pagefile.sys


another method would to use something like this.
google ClearPageFileAtShutdown or look here:

How to Make Windows Clear Your Page File at Shutdown (and When You Should)

Windows uses a paging file, also known as a page file, as additional virtual memory when your RAM fills up.

www.howtogeek.com

it will delete the pagefile.sys each time you shutdown. it is a work around while you do a normal fix.

normal fix, is to delete the virtual memory to clear any corruptions, then reboot and create a new pagefile.sys
update the motherboard bios, update the motherboard cpu chipset driver, update any storage driver, update the firmware for the actual drive you have used. Then run crystaldiskinfo.exe and look at the smart data for the boot drive and see what the utility indicates for the drive health.

it this does not work, then you run a malware scan to find malware that hacks into the pagefile.sys.

i will take a quick look at the minidumps to see if it is something else.

 

[johnbl]

thinking about it: I would activate your mother xmp profile in bios
and delete any pagefile.sys since it might have saved corruptions from before the voltage increase to the RAM.

then retest.
if you wait for a windows failure it can take weeks before you get a bugcheck. This is due to the fact that each time windows loads it loads key windows data structures into different areas of RAM, it later compresses the RAM data and writes it to the pagefile.sys
later after the system wakes up, it reloads the data from the disk back into RAM. for a one bit corruption to cause a bugcheck it has to corrupt a important piece of data that windows actually checks for corruption. otherwise you don't get a bugcheck

hopefully setting the memory profile in bios will increase the voltage and stop the problem.
running memtest86 just detects the problem faster and can confirm that the fix actually works.
I always apply the fix before I run the test since if the test finds the error you have to apply the fix and retest again anyway.