New components Blue screen boot loop windows 10

[sancezzio]

Sorry in advance for the long post but I feel it is necessary to help diagnose my issue, so bear with and thank you for reading.
I have just upgraded my system from sandy bridge to Skylake. Specs:
Motherboard: asus z170 pro gaming
Cpu: i7 6700k
Ram: corsair dominated platinum 3000mhz 16gb (2x8gb).
Psu: corsair tx650.
I am using an Intel 3 series ssd with Windows 10. This install is from the sandy bridge era. I am also using a 1tb hdd for storage.
Initally on upgrading the pc worked. I mean, I had to do a few bits of troubleshooting but nothing too bad. I had to buy another windows 10 licence because it's a different pc. Thought everything was good. I was using it for gaming and general internetting. A week after the upgrade I was playing Doom (the new one) and my pc bluescreened. The exact blue screen error at this time I can't remember. Now ever since then it is stuck in an infinite blue screen loop. The blue screen errors are all different (IRQL NOT less or EQUAL, kmode exception not handled, kernel security check failure, page fault in non paged area, critical process died and more.)
Very rarely my pc boots just long enough for me to get into safe mode from the desktop. This is maybe once every 20 boots. If I don't go into safe mode it blue screens anyway. I have done the windows ram checker, No errors found. I have run windows disk checking tools to check and fix the file system and health of the disks, No problems found.
Now the interesting thing is that it seems stable in safe mode when I can get there. So I uninstalled all the drivers I could find in case there was a problem there. This has no effect. Another thing of note is that I cannot access the 'security and updates' section of settings in safe mode. It just crashes every time. The Windows opens but then closes instantly. So the next step was to try to reinstall Windows. The system blue screens during the setup phase with the same errors. So next I try just an entirely new ssd with nothing on and windows fails to install with a blue screen.
I have tried ram in different slots and different configurations with my two sticks or just one.
I sent my motherboard back to the vendor (Novatech) and their testing has turned up nothing. So I rebuilt my pc today with a different psu (evga supernova 650 g2) and it has the same problem. While the motherboard was away I reinstalled my sandy bridge mb and used the same hard drives with absolutely no problem. So it can't be a dodgey windows install.
Any more ideas?
I can't see another post with my exact issue, most people seems to be able to reinstall Windows and that's the end of it.

 

[johnbl]

I would update the BIOS or reset it to defaults and do a clean install of windows, then update the drivers from the motherboard vendors website.
I would also test the system memory with memtest86.

IRQL NOT less or EQUAL is either a driver bug or a memory problem. Basically the driver ran will priority over the windows memory manager, then wanted something that was not in memory. This means the driver has to wait for windows memory manager to run but winodws memory manager can not run because the driver is running. Kind of stops the forward progress so a bugcheck is called.
Most common causes will be the driver, overclocking or memory timing errors in bios or memory defects in ram. Now with more and more systems sleeping rather than rebooting you see this error with BIOS bugs related to sleeping, SATA driver bugs that corrupt disk info over time, Firmware bugs in solid state drives. I looked at one BIOS bug that would bugcheck the system every 16 sleep/wake cycles.

I could go into the other bugchecks but most of the fixes would be the same.
with older drives, the bearings wear and the sector alignment changes. IE the read/write heads are controlled by a servo motor and it lays down sector markers. The drive wears and the sector markers don't align up with where the servo motor thinks they are located on disk. You might run crystaldiskinfo.exe to read the smart data from your drive.

windows 8.x and above have methods in place to reduce the effect of this type of error.

anyway, do the updates and see if you still get a bugcheck.

 

[sancezzio]

Thanks for your reply.
Bios reset to defaults did nothing.
So in safe mode I downloaded the newest chipset drivers and bios revision. When trying to install chipset drivers it told me windows installer isn't set up correctly. None of the versions would install at all, even with run as administrator. I have updated the bios to the latest version (1805).
Running in windows recovery environment crashes. I am unable to reinstall windows, even on a brand new and clean drive.
I have run memtest and there are no errors.
Still getting the same problem.
So it turns it the windows installer service is not available in safe mode. Now I have no idea how to update anything.
As I mentioned before I cannot access the security and updates section of windows in safe mode either so I don't know what to try next. If even a new drive alone won't work but it will boot in safe mode on an ssd..
So I just tried booting using a completely separate windows install on a different drive. No other drives connected. It started with 'getting devices ready' and then blue screened.

 

[johnbl]

see if you have memory dumps in c:\windows\minidump directory, if so, place some on a server like microsoft onedrive, share the files for public access and post a link.

so, you are saying a new clean install will not work either?

 

[sancezzio]

Hi John, thanks for your patience in helping me.
Here is the link to the dump files:
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B-CHYQoT3SyNVDA3ZVp5NThDRkE&usp=sharing
And it is correct that windows will not install at all, even on a brand new drive with no others connected. However safe mode still works. I just cannot understand how that makes any sense.
Anyway, I hope you or somebody else finds something in those dump files.
I have now managed to update the chipset and audio drivers in safe mode by starting windows installer through cmd. Blue screen still occurs.
Thank you again.

 

[johnbl]

you need to update the BIOS to the current version, then install all of the drivers (not the utilities)
from here: https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/Z170-PRO-GAMING/HelpDesk_Download/


then see if you can still get a bugcheck.

------------
first bughcheck showed old drivers. microsoft window 10 generic drivers installed, these drivers will get your machine to boot so you can then load the custom drivers that the makers of the motherboard require.

also, after you do a BIOS update, you should run memtest86 to confirm your BIOS memory timings are correct.
I mention this because of the internal error code 0xc0000005 means a bad memory address was given to a driver,
your system reports that it has two banks of
Corsair Part Number CMD16GX4M2B3000C15
Speed 2133MHz

in bank 0 (empty)
bank 1 populated
bank 2 (empty)
bank 3 populated

you might want to select the correct profile for you memory rather than letting the bios use the slowest available setting.

most of your memory dumps show a bugcheck in 1 to 20 seconds or so.
I would check the manual for which memory slots to use, and test
one slot and set the timings and voltage in the BIOS to see if you can get memtest86 to boot on its own image so you can run it to test the settings.

your motherboard memory supports 4 x DIMM, Max. 64GB, DDR4 3400(O.C.)/3333(O.C.)/3200(O.C.)/3100(O.C.)/3000(O.C.)/2933(O.C.)/2800(O.C.)/2666(O.C.)/2600(O.C.)/2400(O.C.)/2133 MHz Non-ECC,

your memory should support this:
http://www.corsair.com/en-us/dominator-platinum-series-16gb-2-x-8gb-ddr4-dram-3000mhz-c15-memory-kit-cmd16gx4m2b3000c15

you might want to set the Intel® Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) and reboot the BIOS. (or confirm the settings are correct in BIOS)
I would also check the voltages in BIOS to make sure they are correct.

 

[sancezzio]

Hello,
I have carried out two passes of memtest86 tests and it found no errors.
I have checked all the RAM timings/voltage, they seem right.
I have loaded XMP, it has made no difference.
The RAM modules are in the recommended slots on the MB.

I loaded optimised defaults again, and this time my PC booted, sat on Windows desktop for longer than before. However windows explorer crashed. First the taskbar, then the entire program, showing only a black screen that I could move the mouse pointer around.

I remembered that I did some overclocking before the system first started bluescreening using the ASUS built in EZ tuning. Nothing too heavy, but maybe that is what has caused the problem - Sometimes when booting now it says "Overclocking failed - press F1 to enter setup" - even after loading optimised defaults and after having updated the BIOS.

Could it be some left over setting causing the problem? If so, what sort of thing should I be looking for in the BIOS?

EDIT: I removed the CMOS battery in order to completely reset the BIOS. This has had no effect.

As an added, I am currently writing this in safe mode, and I left my computer on overnight in safe mode so it is definitely stable in safe mode only.

 

[johnbl]

some of the BIOS have automatic overclocking that you would want to disable.
also, the overclocking utility, can still modify voltages when you are not overclocking, you should remove it until while you are testing.
the BIOS could be overclocking the memory, CPU and PCI/e bus by default, you would want to go in and turn them off.
I think it is in the BIOS under advanced mode, under the AI tweaker. But it has been a long time since I used any overclocking,

Hello,
I have carried out two passes of memtest86 tests and it found no errors.
I have checked all the RAM timings/voltage, they seem right.
I have loaded XMP, it has made no difference.
The RAM modules are in the recommended slots on the MB.

I loaded optimised defaults again, and this time my PC booted, sat on Windows desktop for longer than before. However windows explorer crashed. First the taskbar, then the entire program, showing only a black screen that I could move the mouse pointer around.

I remembered that I did some overclocking before the system first started bluescreening using the ASUS built in EZ tuning. Nothing too heavy, but maybe that is what has caused the problem - Sometimes when booting now it says "Overclocking failed - press F1 to enter setup" - even after loading optimised defaults and after having updated the BIOS.

Could it be some left over setting causing the problem? If so, what sort of thing should I be looking for in the BIOS?

EDIT: I removed the CMOS battery in order to completely reset the BIOS. This has had no effect.

As an added, I am currently writing this in safe mode, and I left my computer on overnight in safe mode so it is definitely stable in safe mode only.

 

[sancezzio]

Hi John,
It looks like I may have found the root cause of my problem. It is contained within this thread: http://www.tenforums.com/bsod-crashes-debugging/41868-bsod-skylake-build-during-startup-installation-windows-10-a.html
I have disabled one of my CPU cores and my PC _appears_ to be running fine with no blue screen of death! Looks like I need to return my CPU.
Thank you so much for your help in this matter, even if it didn't lead to a direct answer I now have much more knowledge on how to troubleshoot a hardware level issue.

 

[johnbl]

cool, let us know that the replaced CPU fixes the problem.
-there are cases that I know of that a driver bug will not bugcheck on one core but will if you have two or more cores active.

Hi John,
It looks like I may have found the root cause of my problem. It is contained within this thread: http://www.tenforums.com/bsod-crashes-debugging/41868-bsod-skylake-build-during-startup-installation-windows-10-a.html
I have disabled one of my CPU cores and my PC _appears_ to be running fine with no blue screen of death! Looks like I need to return my CPU.
Thank you so much for your help in this matter, even if it didn't lead to a direct answer I now have much more knowledge on how to troubleshoot a hardware level issue.

 

[sancezzio]

I have just installed a replacement CPU (i7 6700k), set it to run on all cores and no blue screens yet. I will update if I experience this issue again.

EDIT: Now a couple of weeks in and still no issue with the cores. However I did discover that during CPU boost my motherboard was pushing 1.43 volts to my CPU. Temperatures were reaching 100 degrees and it was throttling. Some searching and it appears that is _way_ too high for a CPU at default settings so I don't know if over-volting caused the issue before but there is no way that a motherboard should be doing that by default. So heads up to any body else with an ASUS Pro Gaming z170 board - check those core voltages when the CPU gets use with a program like CPU-Z
I have manually set my voltage to what appears to be a stable 1.195.

 

[SaundersQ]

Time traveller here. I just created an account to show my gratitude to all of you for having made this post. I had no clue with my bsods. I have an I5 6600k and a Z-170 Pro gaming. Ram was not the problem... Having read all this I am fully sure that my Memory Management, Irql less not equal and pfn list corrupt bsods are due to my cpu that were cooked by my motherboard. When installing from uefi usb... if not getting an straight bsod, installing does not go further than 40%. I will try switching off core by core to see if i can prove that point and then changing the cpu. Obvioulsy i am far beyond rma haha. Quite interesting that these system have endured 9 years.