Question PC reboots with Event 18, WHEA Logger error

[RuneB]

I just put together my new PC a few days ago and I am experiencing "semi-random" reboots with Event 18, WHEA error. The error is preceeded by a Event 41, Kernel Power and an Event 6008, Unexpected shutdown.

I can recreate the error quite consistently, but not always, by having Overwatch 2 running and alt-tabbing out of the game. In fact i only experienced this error once while not having OW2 running and attempting to alt-tab. But since it did happen outside of OW2, i suspect it is not just an issue with that game.
I previously ran the Cinebench multicore 10min test without any issues which lead me to believe the CPU should be fine, but i might be wrong?
I am on the newest BIOS version and have used Armory crate and AMD's Adrenalin to get the newest drivers for the MB, CPU and GPU. I have double checked all cable connections and there are no visible issues. I have not done any overclocking other than enabling DOCP in the bios settings to get my ram running at 3600.

I'm not sure about the best way to share the error but i copied the content from the "Event Viewer" in Win 11. and pasted it below.

Any light on the issue would be highly appreciated!

System:
OS: Windows 11
MB: ASUS ROG STRIX B550-F GAMING
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D
GPU: AMD Rx 6950 xt
PCU: Corsair RM850e
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws V DDR4-3600 C16
DeepCool AK500, Kingston NV2 PCI-E 4.0 M.2 NVMe SSD

Error
A fatal hardware error has occurred.

Reported by component: Processor Core
Error Source: Machine Check Exception
Error Type: Cache Hierarchy Error
Processor APIC ID: 4

Error details:

- <Event xmlns="

http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event

">
- <System>
<Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-WHEA-Logger" Guid="{c26c4f3c-3f66-4e99-8f8a-39405cfed220}" />
<EventID>18</EventID>
<Version>0</Version>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x8000000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2023-05-19T00:51:19.3583193Z" />
<EventRecordID>4988</EventRecordID>
<Correlation ActivityID="{92280e94-3f2d-4d40-afaa-fe036ec7c8ce}" />
<Execution ProcessID="4756" ThreadID="5256" />
<Channel>System</Channel>
<Computer>DESKTOP-65T15SU</Computer>
<Security UserID="removed" />
</System>


- <EventData>
<Data Name="ErrorSource">3</Data>
<Data Name="ApicId">4</Data>
<Data Name="MCABank">5</Data>
<Data Name="MciStat">0xbea0000001000108</Data>
<Data Name="MciAddr">0x7ff7a8ef8dcb</Data>
<Data Name="MciMisc">0xd0130fff00000000</Data>
<Data Name="ErrorType">9</Data>
<Data Name="TransactionType">2</Data>
<Data Name="Participation">256</Data>
<Data Name="RequestType">0</Data>
<Data Name="MemorIO">256</Data>
<Data Name="MemHierarchyLvl">0</Data>
<Data Name="Timeout">256</Data>
<Data Name="OperationType">256</Data>
<Data Name="Channel">256</Data>
<Data Name="Length">1163</Data>
<Data Name="RawData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ata>
</EventData>
</Event>

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

Try disabling/uninstalling Armory crate. Also try running sfc /scannow to check for any errors. Make sure to check Windows update to check for any pending installs. Any other programs used in the background while gaming should be disabled one by one to see if it is causing the issue.

 

[RuneB]

Try disabling/uninstalling Armory crate. Also try running sfc /scannow to check for any errors. Make sure to check Windows update to check for any pending installs. Any other programs used in the background while gaming should be disabled one by one to see if it is causing the issue.

Thanks for the suggestions!
Armory crate is now gone. I had also installed the AI Suite from AC mainly for the fan control, which i uninstalled now as well. This alone did not change the situation.
I actually ran the sfc /scannow before posting, but forgot to mention it sorry. I just ran it again after removing AC and testing after a reboot. It did not find any integrity violations.
There are no windows 11 updates pending unfortunately.
I have very little software installed on this PC, but i made sure to close anything i could before testing this time.

I have the game "the last of us p1" installed as well which is more demanding for the GPU at least, but i have not experienced the issue there. I can alt-tab all I want.

Before uninstalling Armory crate i noticed that the chipset driver ASUS suggests as "latest" has a lower version number than the one i got directly from AMD. It might be worth trying the ASUS chipset driver?

EDIT: I tried the 'latest' chipset driver from ASUS, but it did not solve the problem.
EDIT2: Tried disabling DOCP in bios which makes my ram run slow, but that also had no effect
EDIT3: Installed WOW and the issue is present here as well. Reboot with WHEA logger error after alt-tab consistently
EDIT4: reset BIOS and swapped CPU+GPU cables to different PSU sockets, no difference.

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

Try installing the pro drivers for your gpu to see if anything changes. https://www.amd.com/en/support/grap...d-radeon-rx-6900-series/amd-radeon-rx-6950-xt

 

[RuneB]

Try installing the pro drivers for your gpu to see if anything changes. https://www.amd.com/en/support/grap...d-radeon-rx-6900-series/amd-radeon-rx-6950-xt

I tried the PRO drivers now. Full uninstall and reinstall. It gave me hope for a short moment as i was actually able to tab in and out of the game several times over a few minutes (probably random) before it happened again.

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

I tried the PRO drivers now. Full uninstall and reinstall. It gave me hope for a short moment as i was actually able to tab in and out of the game several times over a few minutes (probably random) before it happened again.

You are killing me lol. Ok so commonly this code is produced by a hardware/hardware driver problem. Have you tried using one stick of ram at a time to see if one of them is the problem? Do you have anything (other than the mouse and keyboard) plugged into usb slots? What is your Windows power setting?

 

[RuneB]

You are killing me lol. Ok so commonly this code is produced by a hardware/hardware driver problem. Have you tried using one stick of ram at a time to see if one of them is the problem? Do you have anything (other than the mouse and keyboard) plugged into usb slots? What is your Windows power setting?

Sorry lol. Thanks for your help though!
Yeah im starting to worry it might be a faulty cpu. Googling leads me to quite a few who reached that conclusion with this exact error.
I have not tried with one stick at a time, will do that next.

I do use a Behringer sound card with its own driver, but the error still happens when it is unplugged. I will try removing the driver as well and test again. Thought it would not have an effect when unplugged.
Otherwise there is only a mouse, keyboard and an old aoc monitor connected with displayport. A shot in the dark, but ill try swapping to hdmi.

I have tried both balanced and high performance, swapping several times. Also disabled/enabled fast boot. It doesnt seem to have an effect on this, so i stuck with high performance.

 

[RuneB]

This really is killing me as well lol.

1: There was a second CPU connector cable with the RM850e, tried that, no change.
2: Tried each ram stick on it's own, no change, the error happens with both.
3: DP -> HDMI no change as expected
4: Unplugged the Behringer UMC404HD sound card and uninstalled the driver. No change.

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

You can try to manually raise the vcore voltage a bit to see if this smooths things out in bios. Since the cpu is reporting a problem it may not be getting enough voltage or it is suffering a drop when you are playing games. Also check in bios to see if there are any power saving settings enabled and if so disable them.

 

[RuneB]

You can try to manually raise the vcore voltage a bit to see if this smooths things out in bios. Since the cpu is reporting a problem it may not be getting enough voltage or it is suffering a drop when you are playing games. Also check in bios to see if there are any power saving settings enabled and if so disable them.

I dont know how I missed your reply. Sorry for the late response!

I am inexperienced when it comes to overclocking, but I tried changing the voltage from auto to 1.35v (seems to be recommended by AMD). It didnt change anything.
I also tried using the voltage offset from the asus bios with a very low value (+0.012) which did not change anything, but im a bit afraid to mess around to much with that without knowing if it could lead to exceeding limits or something like that.
I cannot find anything in the bios that directly relates to power saving. There are several setting that relates to power, but only tweakable ones, no on/off.

To my mind it sounds very sensible that a power drop could be happening. To clarify it has never happened while playing, it is only after tabbing out and using a browser (tried both chrome and edge) while the game is still running in the background. It happened very rarely (two times i think) without having any game open and just browsing. It does happen very consistently every time when i tab out of either Overwatch or WOW after 5 seconds to a few minutes.

EDIT: I am trying to get the system to write a small memory dump but nothing is written out. I also unchecked "automatically restart" but it still restarts when the error triggers.

EDIT2: I have just noticed that the ram i use (G.Skill Ripjaws V DDR4-3600 C16) is not listed under supported ram for the ROG STRIX B550-F GAMING mobo. Did i make a critical error in parts selection here that could be the source of the WHEA 18? I did one round of MemTest86 without encountering issues though and can easily run fairly demanding games like The last of us P1 or Hogwarts legacy both on ultra settings