WHEA uncorrectable error on windows 10 (and previous issues on win 7 as well)

[barbarakaterina]

So, we've been having issues with the computer crashing for a long time, across two operating systems (win 7 and win 10) and multiple harware components. On win 7 the monitor simply used to go dark and give the message of "no input signal, going to sleep", on win 10 it gives the blue screen with WHEA uncorrectable error. Over time, we've changed our graphic card, our power supply, reinstaled the os a few times, and did a bios flash. Nothing really helped, though the frequency of the crashes changes slightly.

The crashes also occur pretty randomly - with regularity when playing Witcher 3 or Gwent (but not other games, it works fine with SW Battlefront and others), but sometimes it also crashes from normal use, i.e. from watching Netflix etc.

We've sent the computer to diagnostic twice, but it was no use.

Anyone has any ideas? We're getting a little desperate here...

 

[DigitalHamster]

WHEA uncorrectable errors usually occur when a component is unstable and is causing errors to be made.
Examples are overclocking the CPU or RAM, or a failing power supply can sometimes be the cause.

As the changes in GPU and PSU has not changed anything, it is likely the problem is to do with the CPU, RAM or perhaps the motherboard.
I have had friends with faulty RAM and motherboards, so I think it is possible this can be the case.

A first test will be to take out all RAM sticks except for one (if you have multiple RAM sticks), and boot using that.
Work through all the RAM sticks until a certain one causes the crashes. This is the faulty stick and should be replaced.
When replacing RAM, it is best to order a whole new set so the sticks have matching timings and will work best.

The other thing to do is to buy a replacement motherboard and install all the components and new OS on that, but this can be expensive and time consuming.
If the crashes stop, you know the old motherboard is faulty.
A friend of mine with a faulty motherboard had his computer crash every 30 minutes or so, no matter what programs he ran.

 

[barbarakaterina]

So we fonally got around to trying the RAM stick, and no, didn't help. Do you know of any way to find out whether the problem is in the motherboard o the CPU short of trying to buy a new one and changing it? It's rather more complicated than the ram sticks, so we'd like to have some indication if it's possible...
Is it relevant at all that it used to crash every half an hour no matter what we did at one point, and after changing the power supply, it now only crashes in some games?

 

[Colif]

Do you have an Intel processor? If so, run Intel Processor Diagnostic Tool and see what it finds

 

[barbarakaterina]

I got "pass" on everything. So, motherboard, right? Oh, the joy...(also we specifically asked about that when we last had the pc in the diagnostics and they insisted motherboard was fine, but since they laso failed to locate te problem, I'm not inclined to take it too seriously...)

 

[Colif]

WHEA errors can sometimes be fixed with a BIOS upgrade. They can also be other hardware like USB devices and PCI cards if you have any.

WHEA = Windows Hardware error Architecture. Before swapping motherboard, Can you download and run who crashed - it will give us a glimpse of the errors you getting and might help us solve them

Copy/paste summary in here and I see what I can do
I normally don't ask for this on WHEA errors but it might give us a clue...

 

[barbarakaterina]

We did upgrade BIOS, with no result, but the other two we didn't test. so that's still an option...

The last two results from the last run of Who Crashed I did:


On Sun 19.02.2017 13:24:20 GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\021917-8531-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: hal.dll (hal+0x3627F)
Bugcheck code: 0x124 (0x0, 0xFFFF8081309DD028, 0xBA000000, 0x52000402)
Error: WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR
file path: C:\Windows\system32\hal.dll
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: Hardware Abstraction Layer DLL
Bug check description: This bug check indicates that a fatal hardware error has occurred. This bug check uses the error data that is provided by the Windows Hardware Error Architecture (WHEA).
This is likely to be caused by a hardware problem problem. This problem might also be caused because of overheating (thermal issue).
The crash took place in a standard Microsoft module. Your system configuration may be incorrect. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver on your system that cannot be identified at this time.

On Sun 19.02.2017 13:24:20 GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\memory.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: hal.dll (hal!HalBugCheckSystem+0xCF)
Bugcheck code: 0x124 (0x0, 0xFFFF8081309DD028, 0xBA000000, 0x52000402)
Error: WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR
file path: C:\Windows\system32\hal.dll
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: Hardware Abstraction Layer DLL
Bug check description: This bug check indicates that a fatal hardware error has occurred. This bug check uses the error data that is provided by the Windows Hardware Error Architecture (WHEA).
This is likely to be caused by a hardware problem problem. This problem might also be caused because of overheating (thermal issue).
The crash took place in a standard Microsoft module. Your system configuration may be incorrect. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver on your system that cannot be identified at this time.

 

[Colif]

i don't like advising people based on no proof and the whea errors are just showing its an MCE error that means you have an Intel CPU

parameter 1: 0x0 - A machine check exception occurred.
These parameter descriptions apply if the processor is based on the x64 architecture, or the x86 architecture that has the MCA feature available (for example, Intel Pentium Pro, Pentium IV, or Xeon)

I guess it has to be motherboard since CPU checked out, you swapped bios, you have a new PSU and have tried 2 different versions of windows so its not going to be a driver. I just don't have any proof.