Specs:
CPU- i7-13700
HSF - Noctua DH15 Chromax Black
MOBO - MSI Pro Z790P WIFI
RAM - Corsair Vengeance RGB 16gb x2 6400MHz CL36
GPU - MSI 4070Ti RTX
SDD- Samsung 990 Pro NVME M2
PSU - Corsair RM750x (750 w)
OS- Windows 11 Home
- all parts checked with pcpartpicker.com to screen for obvious incompatibilities.
No overclocking; all settings are stock.
Problem:
- random but frequent freezes/crashes during gaming (Path of Exile) over ~8 hours of gaming. Briefly played Cyberpunk 2077 but only for 30 min - no crashes.
- mostly the freezes require a hard reboot; once, everything froze but the audio continued in the background (the audio was not looping); once, my pc spontaneously gradually unfroze and action continued after 30 seconds like nothing happened; twice, instead of a hard freeze, I got a Windows 11 BSOD
- all crashes except one happened inside my game. the one exception was when I got a BSOD when opening File Explorer from the desktop. I did not save the BSOD error codes, but at the time when I googled them, I got nonspecific and vague answers alluding to "improper shutdown" that did not pinpoint the problem. Crashes are random - can go 2-3 hours without one and then have several within 10-15 min of each other.
My attempts at diagnosing/problem solving:
- Flashed BIOS to most recent
- Firmware and drivers all up to date. Originally installed the GPU driver using NVIDIA's GeForce Experience software; later on removed the driver with DDU and re-installed driver only....this seemed to prevent crashes for about 3-4 hours before they started returning - coincidental?
- Checked CPU/GPU temps throughout - no issues
- I know the 4070Ti GPU is OK - I used it for two weeks in my old build without a single crash (Windows 10, i7 6700k cpu) because it shipped way before all the other hardware
- RAM sticks in the appropriate DIMM slots according to MOBO manual
- ***MEMTEST86: 1 RAM stick in the first DIMM slot had 0 errors after 2 of the 4 passes. Adding a 2nd RAM stick in the second DIMM slot showed 650 errors *only* during Test10 - bit fade after 2 of the 4 passes. At this point I took out both RAM sticks and returned them to Amazon - I am awaiting new RAM from Newegg (G Skill Trident Z5 DDR5 2 x 16Gb 7800 MHz).
- I know I didn't do the memtest correctly - I'm supposed to try one stick at a time and also run it all night, but at this point I figured since I had any errors at all and it was within the return window, I would just return it. However, after doing as much research as I could (and with the limited knowledge I have), it seems it could still be a MOBO issue, a CPU issue (the memory controller), or a CPU-MOBO-RAM incompatibility where I'd have to tweak timings and voltages - I've never done this before.
Question:
- Based on the above info, do any of you have a suspicion on what the cause most likely is, or any suggestion on how I can further diagnose the issue? I'm admittedly an amateur pc builder (I built one in 2009, and another 2016 - both were stable and problem free for 7 years!) and short of swapping parts one by one I don't know what else to do. Wondering if there's a more efficient way of identify the faulty hardware to minimize wasted time.
Thanks in advance !
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