My PC Keeps Crashing PLEASE HELP!

[Giddy]

So I bought a PC from PCSpecialists back in March of 2022. The PC was working fine up until about January of 2023 when it started to crash periodically.
When playing games (Overwatch 2 in particular) the PC tends to freeze, black screen and then reboot. I had a look into the event viewer and found an error that wrote “A fatal hardware error has occurred. A record describing the condition is contained in the data section of this event.”

Which in true Microsoft fashion, is not very informative. I contacted PCS Support and they were quite helpful. I tested the CPU using OCCT, I tested the storage devices using CrystalDiskMark and CrystalDiskInfo. I even did a complete fresh reinstall of Windows. All were confirmed to be fine by PCS but nothing seemed to fix the issue until I was asked to reseat the graphics card. This worked for a long time until the PC started crashing again recently. I ran FurMark on the GPU for about an hour and there were no crashes or errors.

I have absolutely no idea what is causing this computer to crash??? Could it be a faulty graphics card, could it be a bad PCIE slot on the motherboard? Any insight into what could be causing this or how to fix it would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Event Viewer Error Logs

Below are the Specs of the PC, the only addition that I have made is a 3rd M.2; however, the issue has been consistent since before this was installed. I have also included the images of the hardware tests.

PC Specs
Case
CORSAIR 4000D AIRFLOW TEMPERED GLASS GAMING CASE - WHITE To stand in for the 5000X!
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 12-Core Processor i7-12700K (3.6GHz) 25MB Cache As good as it gets, really, for gaming right now
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING Z690-PLUS WIFI D4 (LGA1700, USB 3.2, PCIe 5.0) - ARGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 Ti - HDMI, DP, LHR
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SEAGATE FIRECUDA 530 GEN 4 PCIe NVMe (up to 7000MB/R, 3000MB/W) Super-fast boot drive
2nd M.2 SSD Drive
1TB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3500MB/sR | 2500MB/sW) Games drive
3rd M.2 SSD Drive
Crucial P5 Plus 2TB M.2 PCIe Gen4 NVMe Internal Gaming SSD - Up to 6600MB/s
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H150i ELITE CAPELLIX RGB Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler Awesome cooler (but if you were to get the 4000D case, changet his to the H115i to fit better)
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS

OCCT Test

CrystalDiskInfo Test

CrystalDiskMark Test

 

[ubuysa]

Navigate to the folder C:\Windows\LiveKernelReports and look in there AND in all sub-folders for dump files (.dmp). Upload any that you find to a cloud service with a link to them here. Note: If there are a huge number of dumps then just upload those for March 2024 from each sub-folder.

Can you also please download and run the SysnativeBSODCollectionApp and upload the resulting zip file to a cloud service with a link to it here. The SysnativeBSODCollectionApp collects all the troubleshooting data we're likely to need. It DOES NOT collect any personally identifying data. It's used by several highly respected Windows help forums (including this one). I'm a senior BSOD analyst on the Sysnative forum where this tool came from, so I know it to be safe.

You can of course look at what's in the zip file before you upload it, most of the files are txt files. Please don't change or delete anything though. If you want a description of what each file contains you'll find that here.

 

[Giddy]

Hey Doc,

Thanks for taking the time to help me with this. I've downloaded the diagnostic tool and have added the zip file to a google drive link found here. I've also included the dump files located in the 'LiveKernalReports' folder. There are 2 more folders in that folder called 'USBXHCI' and 'WHEA'.

The WHEA folder was the only one with dump files, and there are only 3, starting from the 3rd of April 2024. I have included them in the google drive also. Please let me know what you can find!

Thanks again!

 

[ubuysa]

Thanks for the uploads.

The first thing that is problematic here is that you have added mismatched RAM. Here's the RAM you have installed...

Corsair    CMW16GX4M2D3600C18    00000000    3600 MHz    8 GB    BANK 0    Controller0-ChannelA-DIMM0    8    64
Corsair    CMWX8GD3600C18W2D    00000000    3600 MHz    8 GB    BANK 0    Controller0-ChannelA-DIMM1    8    64
Corsair    CMW16GX4M2D3600C18    00000000    3600 MHz    8 GB    BANK 0    Controller1-ChannelA-DIMM0    8    64
Corsair    CMWX8GD3600C18W2D    00000000    3600 MHz    8 GB    BANK 0    Controller1-ChannelA-DIMM1    8    64

The specs look identical it's true, but mixing RAM is known to cause issues. Ideally you want all your RAM cut from the same slice of silicon. RAM should always be purchased in a pack of matched sticks. Even buying additional RAM sticks with the same part number has been known to cause issues.

In the first instance then I'd suggest you remove the latest set of RAM sticks (the CMW16GX4M2D3600C18 sticks in slots A1 and B1 I assume?) and see whether the problems cease.

The live kernel dumps are dumps that are taken when a problem occurs but Windows is able to recover. The three dumps you found are all boot errors, but the dumps don't indicate what failed...

12: kd> !errrec ffffd70ed5dcc030
===============================================================================
Common Platform Error Record @ ffffd70ed5dcc030
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Record Id     : 01da85fbc2aca71b
Severity      : Fatal (1)
Length        : 2656
Creator       : Microsoft
Notify Type   : BOOT Error Record
Timestamp     : 4/3/2024 19:18:52 (UTC)
Flags         : 0x00000002 PreviousError

===============================================================================
Section 0     : Firmware Error Record Reference
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Descriptor    @ ffffd70ed5dcc0b0
Section       @ ffffd70ed5dcc2f0
Offset        : 704
Length        : 72
Flags         : 0x00000000
Severity      : Fatal

It's entirely possible that the mismatched RAM caused these errors, however in the full call stack on each of these dumps we can see the disk accesses during boot (the Windows ntfs.sys driver is being called) and then we suddenly get the crash dump. Here's the relevant sippet of the full call stack (you read this from the bottom up)...

ffffaf8a`f550d3e8  fffff801`73e082be nt!WheapReportDeferredLiveDumps+0x7a
ffffaf8a`f550d3f0  ffffcb08`84103000
ffffaf8a`f550d3f8  ffffaf8a`f550daa0
ffffaf8a`f550d400  00000000`00000000
ffffaf8a`f550d408  00000000`00000000
ffffaf8a`f550d410  00000000`00000000
ffffaf8a`f550d418  fffff801`73c5b0a5 nt!WheaCrashDumpInitializationComplete+0x59
ffffaf8a`f550d420  00000000`00000001
ffffaf8a`f550d428  ffffaf8a`f550daa0
ffffaf8a`f550d430  00000000`00000000
ffffaf8a`f550d438  00000000`00000000
ffffaf8a`f550d440  00000000`00000000
ffffaf8a`f550d448  fffff801`73af9911 nt!NtSetSystemInformation+0x971
ffffaf8a`f550d450  00000000`00000000
ffffaf8a`f550d458  00000000`00000000
ffffaf8a`f550d460  00000000`00000001
ffffaf8a`f550d468  fffff801`7947d19c Ntfs!NtfsExtendedCompleteRequestInternal+0x1cc
ffffaf8a`f550d470  ffffcb08`8325c308
ffffaf8a`f550d478  ffffcb08`89389ab8
ffffaf8a`f550d480  00000000`00000000
ffffaf8a`f550d488  00000000`00000000
ffffaf8a`f550d490  00000000`02ec7b00
ffffaf8a`f550d498  ffff8004`023396b8
ffffaf8a`f550d4a0  ffffaf8a`f550d560
ffffaf8a`f550d4a8  fffff801`7947c948 Ntfs!NtfsInitializeIrpContextInternal+0x208
ffffaf8a`f550d4b0  00000000`00000000
ffffaf8a`f550d4b8  00000000`00000000
ffffaf8a`f550d4c0  00000000`00000000
ffffaf8a`f550d4c8  ffff8003`fd299900
ffffaf8a`f550d4d0  00000000`00000000
ffffaf8a`f550d4d8  00000000`00000001
ffffaf8a`f550d4e0  00000000`00000001
ffffaf8a`f550d4e8  00000000`00000000
ffffaf8a`f550d4f0  00000000`00000000
ffffaf8a`f550d4f8  fffff801`7958d388 Ntfs!NtfsFsdClose+0x728
ffffaf8a`f550d500  00000000`00000000

I think it's thus work looking at your boot drive, the Seagate FireCuda 530 I think. It might be wise to download Seagate Seatools and run the maximum diagnostics you can on that drive. Also check for a firmware and/or driver update for that drive.

Personally I think this is most likely down to the mismatched RAM, so do please remove the latest two sticks for several days - long enough to see whether the problems cease.

 

[Giddy]

Interestingly enough, I purchased the computer with only 16GB of RAM and later decided to upgrade to 32GB buying the exact same model and make to match the already installed RAM. This could be a totally reasonable explanation! I'll remove the two sticks from slots A1 and B1 and I'll see how the PC runs without them and will update you if the issue arises again!

I will also download Seagate Seatools and see if anything shows up on the boot drive. I had checked the boot drive with the help of PCS Support and even reinstalled Windows on that drive so I'm leaning more towards the RAM for being the root cause of the crashes. I hope it is because I really don't want to install windows for a 3rd time...

I'll let you know how everything goes in a week. Thanks again for helping me!

 

[ubuysa]

Interestingly enough, I purchased the computer with only 16GB of RAM and later decided to upgrade to 32GB buying the exact same model and make to match the already installed RAM. This could be a totally reasonable explanation! I'll remove the two sticks from slots A1 and B1 and I'll see how the PC runs without them and will update you if the issue arises again!

But it wasn't exactly the same make and model RAM. They're both Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 16GB but they're different part numbers...

• Your original RAM is CMWX8GD3600C18W2D in slots A2 and B2
• Your new RAM is CMW16GX4M2D3600C18 in slots A1 and B1

Note the different part numbers. The timings are the same according to the two specs but they are not the same RAM.

​

 

[Giddy]

But it wasn't exactly the same make and model RAM. They're both Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 16GB but they're different part numbers...

• Your original RAM is CMWX8GD3600C18W2D in slots A2 and B2
• Your new RAM is CMW16GX4M2D3600C18 in slots A1 and B1

Note the different part numbers. The timings are the same according to the two specs but they are not the same RAM.

​

Little update;

I removed the two most recent sticks of memory like you said and ran the Seagate Seatools. I ran all of the tests I could find with Seatools on the Seagate FireCuda 530, all of which passed; however, the PC still crashed.

I have swapped the two RAM sticks with the other two I had taken out previously, and also performed a firmware update on the boot drive. I will keep using the PC as normal and see if it decides to crash again!

Below are the results of the Seatools tests.

 

[Giddy]

So... it's been a while! The firmware update on the boot drive seems to have solved the issue! After the system was working well for a while, I decided to install all 4 RAM sticks to see if the computer would crash again, showing that it was 100% the RAM. The PC has been working fine with no crashes ever since the SSD firmware was updated.

You probably won't see this but thank you for your help!

 

[SpyderTracks]

So... it's been a while! The firmware update on the boot drive seems to have solved the issue! After the system was working well for a while, I decided to install all 4 RAM sticks to see if the computer would crash again, showing that it was 100% the RAM. The PC has been working fine with no crashes ever since the SSD firmware was updated.

You probably won't see this but thank you for your help!

Wow, that’s quite unusual for a SSD firmware to cause that kind of issue but really pleased it’s working 👍