Question Random hard crashes/reboots (I'm 80% sure it's a hardware issue)

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MadHatterAsa

MadHatterAsa

Dec 15, 2020
11
1
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I've been experiencing issue with my build for probably over a year now. My current specs are
Motherboard: Asus Prime B360M-A
CPU: Intel I7 8700k 3.20ghz
CPU Cooling: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo
RAM: 2x8gb Vulcan DDR4 2666 15-17-17-35
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 1660 TI SC Ultra Gaming 6GB GDDR6
PSU: EVGA 700 GD 100-GD-0700-V1 700W ATX12V / EPS12V 80 PLUS GOLD

I was given this PC and changed all the parts out except for the motherboard and CPU trying to solve this issue. It originally had a 400W unknown brand PSU, MSI Armor RX580 4gb, 1x8gb Vulcan DDR4 2400 14-16-16-31 and a stock intel CPU cooler. I upgraded the one stick of ram into the two I have now to use the dual channel memory before the crashing started. Upon my first few hard crashes/reboots I looked into the prebuilt I was given and saw that the PSU wasn't enough to power the system and it was the most common solution to random crashes. After I changed the PSU, the crashes/reboots seemed to happen less but still happened nonetheless, so my next step was to look into overheating. I started with replacing the thermal paste on the CPU and on the GPU die and installing the Cooler Master onto the CPU, while this did help with my temps(Moving my CPU from 60c average to 45c and the GPU from 60c to 50c) the crashes still persisted.

However I did get one BSOD at some point that gave me the error code IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL ntoskrnl.exe, this is the only BSOD and .dmp file I've managed to get.

During my many trials and tribulations I've ended up:
Clean Install of windows
Bios Update
Bios CMOS Reset
Video, Audio, and Software driver uninstall and reinstall
SFC commands in command prompt
DDU driver wipes
Memtest86
Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool
and probably others I cannot remember right now.

At this point I'm not sure what's wrong. I thought maybe my cpu is unstable since it's running at stock core voltage (at 1.040v) but I didn't want to mess with any of that since I'm not too knowledgeable. Maybe my CPU or Motherboard are bad? My PC still POSTs and the hard crashes/reboots are completely random. Sometimes it's during google chrome, others it's during Warzone, Battlefront 2 or even Old School Runescape! Any help would be greatly appreciated!
 
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Core voltage fluctuates many times per second with clock speed and number of cores under load; while it may go below .9V at 800-1000 MHz when loafing at the desktop, certainly if it does not ramp up to about 1.25-1.30 V under load (4300 MHz under an all-core load?), it will certainly not be stable under load at 1.04V

Run CPU-Z/bench/stress CPU and then check core voltage and clock speeds with HWMonitor...

Is your CPU voltage controls set at default in BIOS? Or were you perhaps experimenting with undervolting in the past, manually entering in a low core voltage?
 
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I don't have my Vcore undervolted, it's set to auto in the bios. When under benched the Vcore rises to 1.4 sometimes (mainly for a split second) but mainly sticking around the 1.2-1.3 range at 4.3ghz. I never experimented with my voltage, I just saw online that an undervolted CPU can cause hard crashes with no BSOD. The only things I've changed in my bios is my fan speed and PWM functions, nothing else.
 
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MadHatterAsa said:
I've been experiencing issue with my build for probably over a year now. My current specs are
Motherboard: Asus Prime B360M-A
CPU: Intel I7 8700k 3.20ghz
CPU Cooling: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo
RAM: 2x8gb Vulcan DDR4 2666 15-17-17-35
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 1660 TI SC Ultra Gaming 6GB GDDR6
PSU: EVGA 700 GD 100-GD-0700-V1 700W ATX12V / EPS12V 80 PLUS GOLD

I was given this PC and changed all the parts out except for the motherboard and CPU trying to solve this issue. It originally had a 400W unknown brand PSU, MSI Armor RX580 4gb, 1x8gb Vulcan DDR4 2400 14-16-16-31 and a stock intel CPU cooler. I upgraded the one stick of ram into the two I have now to use the dual channel memory before the crashing started. Upon my first few hard crashes/reboots I looked into the prebuilt I was given and saw that the PSU wasn't enough to power the system and it was the most common solution to random crashes. After I changed the PSU, the crashes/reboots seemed to happen less but still happened nonetheless, so my next step was to look into overheating. I started with replacing the thermal paste on the CPU and on the GPU die and installing the Cooler Master onto the CPU, while this did help with my temps(Moving my CPU from 60c average to 45c and the GPU from 60c to 50c) the crashes still persisted.

However I did get one BSOD at some point that gave me the error code IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL ntoskrnl.exe, this is the only BSOD and .dmp file I've managed to get.

During my many trials and tribulations I've ended up:
Clean Install of windows
Bios Update
Bios CMOS Reset
Video, Audio, and Software driver uninstall and reinstall
SFC commands in command prompt
DDU driver wipes
Memtest86
Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool
and probably others I cannot remember right now.

At this point I'm not sure what's wrong. I thought maybe my cpu is unstable since it's running at stock core voltage (at 1.040v) but I didn't want to mess with any of that since I'm not too knowledgeable. Maybe my CPU or Motherboard are bad? My PC still POSTs and the hard crashes/reboots are completely random. Sometimes it's during google chrome, others it's during Warzone, Battlefront 2 or even Old School Runescape! Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...
Did you buy your ram as a kit of 2x8GB? IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL BSOD is often caused by ram instability.
 
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MadHatterAsa said:
I went ahead a moved it from auto to 1.20v (the Voltage on the RAM packaging was 1.20v) the next option was 1.30v so I didn't want to push it and went with the lower option.
Click to expand...
Auto probably was 1.2v so I doubt you changed anything. The performance DDR4 ram is usually 1.35v. I've seen hardware sites test ram OC with 1.45v. 1.375v shouldn't be an issue. Although if you have a budget motherboard it may not have all the tweaking options.
 
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Flayed said:
Auto probably was 1.2v so I doubt you changed anything. The performance DDR4 ram is usually 1.35v. I've seen hardware sites test ram OC with 1.45v. 1.375v shouldn't be an issue. Although if you have a budget motherboard it may not have all the tweaking options.
Click to expand...
After I read this, my pc crashed... So I went back in and I changed it to 1.30v. Since then, I ran a cinebench, no issues and checked both my hdd's with crystaldiskinfo no issues there, running at average speeds. I'm really confused as to what's going on. It's only crashing on chrome now so I also removed my extensions for chrome in hopes that it'll help.

EDIT: When I say crashing only in chrome. It's all I've been using my pc for. No games of any sort or programs other than testing software and benchmarks.
 
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MadHatterAsa said:
After I read this, my pc crashed... So I went back in and I changed it to 1.30v. Since then, I ran a cinebench, no issues and checked both my hdd's with crystaldiskinfo no issues there, running at average speeds. I'm really confused as to what's going on. It's only crashing on chrome now so I also removed my extensions for chrome in hopes that it'll help.

EDIT: When I say crashing only in chrome. It's all I've been using my pc for. No games of any sort or programs other than testing software and benchmarks.
Click to expand...
They say on their website your Vulkan ram is good for between 1.2 and 1.4v. Can you set it to 1.35v?
 
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Flayed said:
You could also try a CPU core offset voltage of +0.1v for stability if your motherboard has that option in the bios.
Click to expand...
I set my ram to 1.35v and my pc has been fine idling at 1.25v and 1.35v so far. Should I try any specific programs or should I let chrome run and see if I crash? Should I change my CPU core offset voltage right now or after my pc has been running a bit?
 
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Flayed said:
Well, see if the ram voltage has fixed the crashing first. You could run prime95 for a bit people use that for stability testing.
Click to expand...
I have the Asus Realbench and I ran two passes of the benchmark option. No crashes yet, running just fine. Should I set it for infinite passes and wait and see if it does crash?
 
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Flayed said:
Run it for an hour or so I guess to see if it crashes.
Click to expand...
Made it through the night (about 6 hours or so) of RealBench, no issues. Restarted it then started using it normally. Nothing insane. Browsing and opening a bunch of tabs, played Runescape with chrome open in another tab and my pc did just fine. However, I was browsing and poof it went off and restarted. Only thing I was doing at the moment was watching Youtube. I was watching my temps all day with Hwinfo64 and I never passed 54c with an average of 33c on the CPU, 23c average on the Mobo and 43c average on the GPU. Should I go ahead and add voltage to my CPU or lower the amount to my RAM?
 
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