Question My friend's computer has all sorts of problem and I can't find the issue

[AlanVW]

Hello everyone,

I come here looking for help as I'm struggling to find the underlying cause of my roommate's computer's problems.

To put it simply, his computer has been having BSOD on a regular basis. On average, he has about 2 to 5 crashes a day. So he's asked me to look into it. I've spent the last four days on it and while I have made progress, it just never seems to work well for very long. I've gotten a bunch of different errors :

- MEMORY_MANAGEMENT (for the most part)
- IRQL_NOT_GREATER_OR_EQUAL
- PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA
- SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
- DRIVER_VERIFIER_DETECTED_VIOLATION
- DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION
- KERNEL_MODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED_M

I've established that one of his sticks of RAM was faulty, as I couldn't get the computer to boot on it at first and when it finally did, it crashed as soon as I opened a tab in firefox. Having then replaced the RAM, I saw major improvement and I haven't been getting BSODs since. However, for some reason the screen sometimes freezes and some things just don't seem to work. I'll open windows parameters and as I click on the different options nothing seems to happen, it just gets "stuck" as if I wasn't done clicking. Here's a (maybe non-exhaustive) list of all the troubleshooting I've attempted :

- Read that MEMORY_MANAGEMENT was usually a faulty RAM issue, so I changed the RAM. I also read some built-up dust might be impacting the ability of the RAM to work properly so I removed the bit of dust that was in the slots.
- Noticed his CPU was sitting at around 80° at idle, which I thought was a lot so I went ahead and changed the thermal paste and it went down 10°.
- I've converted his M2 from MBR to GPT as I noticed his computer was booting in UEFI and it didn't seem to make much sense for the drive to be in MBR, which I assumed might be causing issues. The PC is way faster since then than it was prior to this change (we're talking lightning fast in comparison) so at least there's that.
- After some research, it would seem his GPU is known for causing some crashes. It would seem fine tuning it manually in Adrenalin Software could help, which I did using some suggested parameters some people online suggested in other threads. However, I don't think it was really the problem as I tried replacing the GPU too with one of mine (GTX 1060) that I know to be perfectly fine and I still got crashes at that point.
- I've re-enabled secure boot as I thought it was weird that it was disabled in the first place.
- I've noticed the RAM wasn't working at its actual speed (supposed to be 2400 Mhz with the new sticks but is only 2133 Mhz) so I enabled XMP profile to get it at its actual speed. I unfortunately had to go back and undo the change as I noticed the pc froze even more after that. Tried changing it manually by inserting the values myself but it didn't solve it. As of this moment, I've reverted the settings to Auto in BIOS and it runs at 2133 Mhz.
- I updated the BIOS to its latest version (f67b) hoping it would make a difference, but I don't think it has made any real changes aside from the boot logo resolution actually being nicer to look at since it's now the right resolution.
- I've ran a bunch of diagnostic tools : sfc /scannow, chkdsk, windows memory diagnostics, etc. Pretty much everything came back empty.
- Ran a few different antivirus software looking for rootkits or other forms of malware. Nothing was found.

All the drivers are up to date, there's no awaiting update and Windows is freshly installed. I haven't gotten a BSOD after all these changes so I think part of what I did has helped but as I stated, some things still seem to simply not work for some reason. I'm starting to consider the possibility that the motherboard might be faulty or that worse, he's gotten a rootkit that just wrecked his computer. Which I'm beginning to think might make sense as it would explain why every component/software in his computer seemed to have some sort of issue.

Is there anything that you guys could suggest ?

Here's the specs :
Motherboard : Aorus b450 elite
CPU : AMD Ryzen 5 3600x
RAM : HyperX Fury 8GB x2 (16GB) 2666 Mhz originally, but now replaced with Corsair Vengeance 8GB x 2 (16GB) 2400 Mhz
M2 SSD : LDLC 500GB M2
GPU : Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 5600 xt
PSU : Textorm 500+

 

[kanewolf]

Hello everyone,

I come here looking for help as I'm struggling to find the underlying cause of my roommate's computer's problems.

To put it simply, his computer has been having BSOD on a regular basis. On average, he has about 2 to 5 crashes a day. So he's asked me to look into it. I've spent the last four days on it and while I have made progress, it just never seems to work well for very long. I've gotten a bunch of different errors :

- MEMORY_MANAGEMENT (for the most part)
- IRQL_NOT_GREATER_OR_EQUAL
- PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA
- SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
- DRIVER_VERIFIER_DETECTED_VIOLATION
- DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION
- KERNEL_MODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED_M

I've established that one of his sticks of RAM was faulty, as I couldn't get the computer to boot on it at first and when it finally did, it crashed as soon as I opened a tab in firefox. Having then replaced the RAM, I saw major improvement and I haven't been getting BSODs since. However, for some reason the screen sometimes freezes and some things just don't seem to work. I'll open windows parameters and as I click on the different options nothing seems to happen, it just gets "stuck" as if I wasn't done clicking. Here's a (maybe non-exhaustive) list of all the troubleshooting I've attempted :

- Read that MEMORY_MANAGEMENT was usually a faulty RAM issue, so I changed the RAM. I also read some built-up dust might be impacting the ability of the RAM to work properly so I removed the bit of dust that was in the slots.
- Noticed his CPU was sitting at around 80° at idle, which I thought was a lot so I went ahead and changed the thermal paste and it went down 10°.
- I've converted his M2 from MBR to GPT as I noticed his computer was booting in UEFI and it didn't seem to make much sense for the drive to be in MBR, which I assumed might be causing issues. The PC is way faster since then than it was prior to this change (we're talking lightning fast in comparison) so at least there's that.
- After some research, it would seem his GPU is known for causing some crashes. It would seem fine tuning it manually in Adrenalin Software could help, which I did using some suggested parameters some people online suggested in other threads. However, I don't think it was really the problem as I tried replacing the GPU too with one of mine (GTX 1060) that I know to be perfectly fine and I still got crashes at that point.
- I've re-enabled secure boot as I thought it was weird that it was disabled in the first place.
- I've noticed the RAM wasn't working at its actual speed (supposed to be 2400 Mhz with the new sticks but is only 2133 Mhz) so I enabled XMP profile to get it at its actual speed. I unfortunately had to go back and undo the change as I noticed the pc froze even more after that. Tried changing it manually by inserting the values myself but it didn't solve it. As of this moment, I've reverted the settings to Auto in BIOS and it runs at 2133 Mhz.
- I updated the BIOS to its latest version (f67b) hoping it would make a difference, but I don't think it has made any real changes aside from the boot logo resolution actually being nicer to look at since it's now the right resolution.
- I've ran a bunch of diagnostic tools : sfc /scannow, chkdsk, windows memory diagnostics, etc. Pretty much everything came back empty.
- Ran a few different antivirus software looking for rootkits or other forms of malware. Nothing was found.

All the drivers are up to date, there's no awaiting update and Windows is freshly installed. I haven't gotten a BSOD after all these changes so I think part of what I did has helped but as I stated, some things still seem to simply not work for some reason. I'm starting to consider the possibility that the motherboard might be faulty or that worse, he's gotten a rootkit that just wrecked his computer. Which I'm beginning to think might make sense as it would explain why every component/software in his computer seemed to have some sort of issue.

Is there anything that you guys could suggest ?

Here's the specs :
Motherboard : Aorus b450 elite
CPU : AMD Ryzen 5 3600x
RAM : HyperX Fury 8GB x2 (16GB) 2666 Mhz originally, but now replaced with Corsair Vengeance 8GB x 2 (16GB) 2400 Mhz
M2 SSD : LDLC 500GB M2
GPU : Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 5600 xt
PSU : Textorm 500+

Once you have had bad RAM, there is no easy way to determine what might be corrupt. I would start with a clean Windows install if it were me.
Save the personal files and stream games then wipe it out and start over.

 

[punkncat]

I have often seen Ryzen have issues with Corsair RAM. I am not saying this is the "for sure" cause of this but it may be worth considering finding some G SKill like Ripjaws and would also get a faster speed like 3600. I am not sure what that mobo is going to let you "XMP" at (I know AMD uses a different acronym).

As above, would certainly consider a fresh install of OS. Check BIOS revision as well. This is a bit more tricky because if the PC opts to crash during a BIOS update it will be a bricked motherboard.

I would also consider mentioning to buddy to buy a decent power supply. That thing would be dangerous as a paperweight.

 

[AlanVW]

Once you have had bad RAM, there is no easy way to determine what might be corrupt. I would start with a clean Windows install if it were me.
Save the personal files and stream games then wipe it out and start over.

Wow that was a fast reply, thanks for your help

I've reinstalled Windows a few times already and it didn't seem to help but I suppose another round can't harm the pc. I'll try it again.

 

[AlanVW]

I have often seen Ryzen have issues with Corsair RAM. I am not saying this is the "for sure" cause of this but it may be worth considering finding some G SKill like Ripjaws and would also get a faster speed like 3600. I am not sure what that mobo is going to let you "XMP" at (I know AMD uses a different acronym).

As above, would certainly consider a fresh install of OS. Check BIOS revision as well. This is a bit more tricky because if the PC opts to crash during a BIOS update it will be a bricked motherboard.

I would also consider mentioning to buddy to buy a decent power supply. That thing would be dangerous as a paperweight.

Hey, thanks for your help !

The original RAM was Kingston HyperX Fury and I haven't had crashes since I've installed the Corsair instead. I've updated the BIOS already to its latest version.

Do you believe his Textorm 500 + is a bad power supply ? Why ? Could it be the issue ?

 

[punkncat]

Do you believe his Textorm 500 + is a bad power supply ? Why ? Could it be the issue ?

Mostly due to the measly 3 yr warranty TBH. Even the "housefire" models of the Thermaltake Smart series offer 5 yrs. IMO a mid line Zalman, one of the higher end Thermaltake, maybe a mid-field Corsair?

The pricing on PSU is a bit nutty still. It used to be that you could get a half decent one for under $50. That is mostly a dream at this point.

Something like this, perhaps?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B098ZF39QX/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_9?smid=ADYUHYFQRZHO0&th=1

 

[kanewolf]

Wow that was a fast reply, thanks for your help

I've reinstalled Windows a few times already and it didn't seem to help but I suppose another round can't harm the pc. I'll try it again.

And you mean you have actually started from an install USB and wiped everything? Not just "reset".
Follow this tutorial for a clean install -- https://www.tomshardware.com/news/how-to-do-clean-installation-windows-10,36160.html

 

[AlanVW]

And you mean you have actually started from an install USB and wiped everything? Not just "reset".
Follow this tutorial for a clean install -- https://www.tomshardware.com/news/how-to-do-clean-installation-windows-10,36160.html

Indeed I have. I installed the Windows installer on a USB using the mediacreationtool from microsoft's website, erased everything on the drive and then created an entirely new partition upon which I installed Windows from the USB.

Looking at the page you linked, I'm not sure the BIOS was set to UEFI when I did install it but I've since corrected that. Could it have caused some problems in the meantime that would remain even after changing that setting to UEFI again ?

 

[kanewolf]

Indeed I have. I installed the Windows installer on a USB using the mediacreationtool from microsoft's website, erased everything on the drive and then created an entirely new partition upon which I installed Windows from the USB.

Looking at the page you linked, I'm not sure the BIOS was set to UEFI when I did install it but I've since corrected that. Could it have caused some problems in the meantime that would remain even after changing that setting to UEFI again ?

Probably not.
Does it fail with JUST the OS installed? Or do you have other things installed already when it fails?
Have you run MEMTEST against the new RAM ?
I am kind of in the bad power supply camp now also.

 

[stuff and nonesense]

I run similar:

Motherboard : formerly MSI carbon B450. Now Aorus b550 elite ax
CPU : AMD Ryzen 5 3900x
RAM : formerly Corsair 3200 4x8 GB. Now ADATA 3600 (xmp) 2x 16GB
M2 SSD : Samsung 2TB
GPU : formerly 3070. Now 7900xt
PSU : formerly 650W Corsair. Now 850W Corsair

I kept getting memory errors with the MSI B450 board. I changed memory from Corsair to Adata, there was no difference so I replaced the motherboard.

I was able to run Memtest and get a pass report, the motherboard eventually revealed a bad memory socket. I don’t know if this damaged the corsair memory but…
The old memory was discarded, the rest of the hardware was transferred to the Aorus motherboard and the rig has been stable since.

The gpu and psu were updated afterwards and did not effect stability.

I was able to find the “bad socket” by swapping 1 known good stick through the 4 sockets. A crash was soon apparent.

 

[DSzymborski]

I'd certainly swap out the cheap group-regulated PSU just to head off any incidental issues and future ones.

 

[js2]

Seems a faulty/dusty PSU might be adding to the issues. Not sure about that brand either.

 

[AlanVW]

Probably not.
Does it fail with JUST the OS installed? Or do you have other things installed already when it fails?
Have you run MEMTEST against the new RAM ?
I am kind of in the bad power supply camp now also.

Yes it failed even with nothing installed. I've now run MEMTEST on all 4 sticks of RAM (the two original sticks and the two new ones) and only the one I suspected was broken came back with over 2713 errors. But it's not being used right now.

 

[AlanVW]

Seems a faulty/dusty PSU might be adding to the issues. Not sure about that brand either.

It does have good reviews on LDLC and TopAchat but those are local resellers here in Belgium and France so not really easy to find any information on the manufacturer on the internet unfortunately.

 

[kanewolf]

Yes it failed even with nothing installed. I've now run MEMTEST on all 4 sticks of RAM (the two original sticks and the two new ones) and only the one I suspected was broken came back with over 2713 errors. But it's not being used right now.

Are you trying to use the three others? I would stick to just the two new DIMMs.

 

[AlanVW]

Are you trying to use the three others? I would stick to just the two new DIMMs.

Nope, just using the two new sticks, I discarded the original two even though one still appears functional. I thought it'd be safer that way.

I have attempted a dism /online /cleanup-image /scanhealth then /restorehealth in command prompt and it seems to have fixed some corrupted system files. The PC seems to be in working order right now but I wouldn't be surprised if it crashed again though, it worked for a few hours yesterday too and eventually crashed :/

 

[kanewolf]

Nope, just using the two new sticks, I discarded the original two even though one still appears functional. I thought it'd be safer that way.

I have attempted a dism /online /cleanup-image /scanhealth then /restorehealth in command prompt and it seems to have fixed some corrupted system files. The PC seems to be in working order right now but I wouldn't be surprised if it crashed again though, it worked for a few hours yesterday too and eventually crashed :/

There should be no corrupted files on a new install. That seems like a problem there. Maybe the disk has issues.

 

[beyondlogic]

Hello everyone,

I come here looking for help as I'm struggling to find the underlying cause of my roommate's computer's problems.

To put it simply, his computer has been having BSOD on a regular basis. On average, he has about 2 to 5 crashes a day. So he's asked me to look into it. I've spent the last four days on it and while I have made progress, it just never seems to work well for very long. I've gotten a bunch of different errors :

- MEMORY_MANAGEMENT (for the most part)
- IRQL_NOT_GREATER_OR_EQUAL
- PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA
- SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
- DRIVER_VERIFIER_DETECTED_VIOLATION
- DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION
- KERNEL_MODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED_M

I've established that one of his sticks of RAM was faulty, as I couldn't get the computer to boot on it at first and when it finally did, it crashed as soon as I opened a tab in firefox. Having then replaced the RAM, I saw major improvement and I haven't been getting BSODs since. However, for some reason the screen sometimes freezes and some things just don't seem to work. I'll open windows parameters and as I click on the different options nothing seems to happen, it just gets "stuck" as if I wasn't done clicking. Here's a (maybe non-exhaustive) list of all the troubleshooting I've attempted :

- Read that MEMORY_MANAGEMENT was usually a faulty RAM issue, so I changed the RAM. I also read some built-up dust might be impacting the ability of the RAM to work properly so I removed the bit of dust that was in the slots.
- Noticed his CPU was sitting at around 80° at idle, which I thought was a lot so I went ahead and changed the thermal paste and it went down 10°.
- I've converted his M2 from MBR to GPT as I noticed his computer was booting in UEFI and it didn't seem to make much sense for the drive to be in MBR, which I assumed might be causing issues. The PC is way faster since then than it was prior to this change (we're talking lightning fast in comparison) so at least there's that.
- After some research, it would seem his GPU is known for causing some crashes. It would seem fine tuning it manually in Adrenalin Software could help, which I did using some suggested parameters some people online suggested in other threads. However, I don't think it was really the problem as I tried replacing the GPU too with one of mine (GTX 1060) that I know to be perfectly fine and I still got crashes at that point.
- I've re-enabled secure boot as I thought it was weird that it was disabled in the first place.
- I've noticed the RAM wasn't working at its actual speed (supposed to be 2400 Mhz with the new sticks but is only 2133 Mhz) so I enabled XMP profile to get it at its actual speed. I unfortunately had to go back and undo the change as I noticed the pc froze even more after that. Tried changing it manually by inserting the values myself but it didn't solve it. As of this moment, I've reverted the settings to Auto in BIOS and it runs at 2133 Mhz.
- I updated the BIOS to its latest version (f67b) hoping it would make a difference, but I don't think it has made any real changes aside from the boot logo resolution actually being nicer to look at since it's now the right resolution.
- I've ran a bunch of diagnostic tools : sfc /scannow, chkdsk, windows memory diagnostics, etc. Pretty much everything came back empty.
- Ran a few different antivirus software looking for rootkits or other forms of malware. Nothing was found.

All the drivers are up to date, there's no awaiting update and Windows is freshly installed. I haven't gotten a BSOD after all these changes so I think part of what I did has helped but as I stated, some things still seem to simply not work for some reason. I'm starting to consider the possibility that the motherboard might be faulty or that worse, he's gotten a rootkit that just wrecked his computer. Which I'm beginning to think might make sense as it would explain why every component/software in his computer seemed to have some sort of issue.

Is there anything that you guys could suggest ?

Here's the specs :
Motherboard : Aorus b450 elite
CPU : AMD Ryzen 5 3600x
RAM : HyperX Fury 8GB x2 (16GB) 2666 Mhz originally, but now replaced with Corsair Vengeance 8GB x 2 (16GB) 2400 Mhz
M2 SSD : LDLC 500GB M2
GPU : Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 5600 xt
PSU : Textorm 500+

Power supply is junk. It's not a true 500w unit it's 450w

I would replace that
Also ldlc 500 m.2 isn't telling us brand but I would try another drive with windows 10/11 and see if you get same issues

 

[AlanVW]

Update : even after removing the faulty RAM and replacing it with two functional sticks, the crashes continued to happen but less often and with different error codes. I've established the faulty stick was to blame for most of the crashes and that the continuing crashes eventually caused system file corruptions in the hard drive which explained the remaining crashes even with new RAM. Thus, after replacing the RAM and executing a dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth which fixed the corrupted files, the pc seems to be in working order as I haven't had a crash since.

I would consider it fixed so this thread can be considered resolved. Thanks for all your help

 

[helper800]

Update : even after removing the faulty RAM and replacing it with two functional sticks, the crashes continued to happen but less often and with different error codes. I've established the faulty stick was to blame for most of the crashes and that the continuing crashes eventually caused system file corruptions in the hard drive which explained the remaining crashes even with new RAM. Thus, after replacing the RAM and executing a dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth which fixed the corrupted files, the pc seems to be in working order as I haven't had a crash since.

I would consider it fixed so this thread can be considered resolved. Thanks for all your help

I would still clean install a new version of Windows. DISM does not cause all corruption that can occur because of faulty RAM, though its your choice. Cheers, glad the issues are resolved.