BSODs when gaming

doodah

doodah

doodah

Caporegime
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
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Location
London
Keep getting them, in my previous W10 install and in my current W11 install. They don't seem to happen when I've previously tried running the likes of 3DMark or Heaven but definitely with gaming including VR.

Sometimes it can happen frequently (e.g. CS Go) and there have been times where it doesn't happen for multiple sessions. I have gone through driver reinstalls and updates, my temps seem fine. I was undervolting but reset my 3070 to default and it still happens.

I never get them when doing anything else on my computer. Have just generated a custom view in Event Viewer but unsure what any of it means. chkdsk - no errors. Any ideas?


  • 5800X3D
  • Asus CH6
  • 3070 FE
  • W11
  • Silicon Power PCIe M.2 NVMe SSD 1TB Gen3x4
 
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Tetras said:
Has the PC ever not BSOD, or it did this since built?

Do the BSODs display the same errors, or different ones?
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Evolving build, mobo and nVME have remained the same for a while. CPU, GPU and memory have been upgraded over time. I think the issue has been lingering for about a year but I can go months without gaming, and for either the CPU or GPU upgrades - benchmarks haven't caused any.

Always the same BSOD - the simplified version without any codes. Most result in the game freezing quickly followed by a BSOD, the last one froze for a good few seconds before the BSOD. Playing Arkham Knight which worked fine for the first few hours of the game (think I played that a few months ago), now it BSODs almost at the same point. With CS Go (weeks to months ago), it would do it like clockwork after a few mins.

My current suspect is the nVME, will be 4 years old in August - it's happened over two operating systems and multiple GFX drivers updates.
 
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doodah said:
My current suspect is the nVME, will be 4 years old in August - it's happened over two operating systems and multiple GFX drivers updates.
Click to expand...

That would be my suspicion too, based on what you have described. If you have had to verify game files with Steam or launchers has it ever had to replace files? Do you have any integrity/ECC errors showing in something like CrystalDiskInfo?
 
Tetras said:
That would be my suspicion too, based on what you have described. If you have had to verify game files with Steam or launchers has it ever had to replace files? Do you have any integrity/ECC errors showing in something like CrystalDiskInfo?
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Just doing the verify game files for Batman AA and HL Alyx, followed by CrystalDiskInfo.

 
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Tetras said:
I think in function, you can change the format of the raw values so that you can read them, but I forgot how, from a quick google: function, advanced, 10 DEC.
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Thanks, updated the picture now. HL Alyx - all files validated. Batman AA - "1 file failed to validate and will be reacquired".

Edit - ran Silicon Power's toolbox and everything looks fine from their end. Waiting for results from a full scan.
 
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doodah said:
Thanks, updated the picture now. HL Alyx - all files validated. Batman AA - "1 file failed to validate and will be reacquired".

Edit - ran Silicon Power's toolbox and everything looks fine from their end. Waiting for results from a full scan.
Click to expand...

All looks good on CrystalDiskInfo, you have zero errors, though that's a lot of power cuts :o

Have you ever analysed the crash dumps? (there's a guide here)
 
Tetras said:
All looks good on CrystalDiskInfo, you have zero errors, though that's a lot of power cuts :o

Have you ever analysed the crash dumps? (there's a guide here)
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Hhhmmm not sure why that is, for days I use this PC - it's just left on most of the day/until I finish work. I don't have any sleep or hibernation turned one.

Thank you for the guide, will report back :).

Edit - you can repeat this particular BSOD quite well, always does it at the same cut scene (within a few second range of the same part). Off to read the logs.

Edit - the BSOD hung around much longer this time for me to take a pic, the completion progression is taking a significant amount of time (perhaps because this is the nth time it's happened?). POST and booting took a lot longer after that BSOD and my mouse also wasn't working/powered, plugged it into another USB port - same again. The next port brought it back to life. Now wondering if it's the mobo and/or PSU?



Edit - dump file info below

Debugging Details:
------------------


KEY_VALUES_STRING: 1

Key : Analysis.CPU.mSec
Value: 4155

Key : Analysis.DebugAnalysisManager
Value: Create

Key : Analysis.Elapsed.mSec
Value: 12491

Key : Analysis.IO.Other.Mb
Value: 11

Key : Analysis.IO.Read.Mb
Value: 2

Key : Analysis.IO.Write.Mb
Value: 44

Key : Analysis.Init.CPU.mSec
Value: 187

Key : Analysis.Init.Elapsed.mSec
Value: 17607

Key : Analysis.Memory.CommitPeak.Mb
Value: 165

Key : Bugcheck.Code.DumpHeader
Value: 0xef

Key : Bugcheck.Code.KiBugCheckData
Value: 0xef

Key : Bugcheck.Code.Register
Value: 0xef

Key : CriticalProcessDied.ExceptionCode
Value: a95d0080

Key : CriticalProcessDied.Process
Value: csrss.exe

Key : WER.OS.Branch
Value: ni_release

Key : WER.OS.Timestamp
Value: 2022-05-06T12:50:00Z

Key : WER.OS.Version
Value: 10.0.22621.1


FILE_IN_CAB: MEMORY.DMP

BUGCHECK_CODE: ef

BUGCHECK_P1: ffff8006a4314140

BUGCHECK_P2: 0

BUGCHECK_P3: ffff8006a4314140

BUGCHECK_P4: 0

PROCESS_NAME: csrss.exe

CRITICAL_PROCESS: csrss.exe

ERROR_CODE: (NTSTATUS) 0xa95d0080 - <Unable to get error code text>

BLACKBOXBSD: 1 (!blackboxbsd)


BLACKBOXNTFS: 1 (!blackboxntfs)


BLACKBOXPNP: 1 (!blackboxpnp)


BLACKBOXWINLOGON: 1

SYMBOL_NAME: ntdll!RtlLookupFunctionEntry+82

MODULE_NAME: ntdll

IMAGE_NAME: ntdll.dll

STACK_COMMAND: .cxr; .ecxr ; kb

BUCKET_ID_FUNC_OFFSET: 82

FAILURE_BUCKET_ID: 0xEF_csrss.exe_BUGCHECK_CRITICAL_PROCESS_a95d0080_ntdll!RtlLookupFunctionEntry

OS_VERSION: 10.0.22621.1

BUILDLAB_STR: ni_release

OSPLATFORM_TYPE: x64

OSNAME: Windows 10

FAILURE_ID_HASH: {5e6305e4-6cee-e712-ef3b-837a6f876337}

Followup: MachineOwner
---------
 
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doodah said:
Edit - you can repeat this particular BSOD quite well, always does it at the same cut scene (within a few second range of the same part). Off to read the logs.

Edit - the BSOD hung around much longer this time for me to take a pic, the completion progression is taking a significant amount of time (perhaps because this is the nth time it's happened?). POST and booting took a lot longer after that BSOD and my mouse also wasn't working/powered, plugged it into another USB port - same again. The next port brought it back to life. Now wondering if it's the mobo and/or PSU?
Click to expand...

When you do the analyze -v thing, it should come up with a "probably caused by" and the module name can also be significant. In your case, it is ntdll.dll. I can't find anything related to it, but this happening at the exact same cut scene is very suspicious.

I wonder if you might have a malfunctioning driver, or an instability issue that is created when your hardware switches power states. Have you tried googling people getting BSODs at the same point as you?

CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED, this sounds like it can be due to file corruption or outdated drivers (presumably that aren't fully compatible with the OS build).

What peripheral devices (including USB) and third party apps do you have running while you game?

The SSD is still seeming suspect at this point, too, despite showing no errors.
 
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Tetras said:
When you do the analyze -v thing, it should come up with a "probably caused by" and the module name can also be significant. In your case, it is ntdll.dll. I can't find anything related to it, but this happening at the exact same cut scene is very suspicious.

I wonder if you might have a malfunctioning driver, or an instability issue that is created when your hardware switches power states. Have you tried googling people getting BSODs at the same point as you?

CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED, this sounds like it can be due to file corruption or outdated drivers (presumably that aren't fully compatible with the OS build).

What peripheral devices (including USB) and third party apps do you have running while you game?

The SSD is still seeming suspect at this point, too, despite showing no errors.
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Thanks again, I'll do some Googling as you suggest. As for apps and peripheral devices.....
  • Aging Anker gaming mouse
  • Corsair mechanical keyboard
  • Bog standard memory card reader
  • USB cable for my monitor's USB hub
  • As for third party apps - Flux, Dropbox, AnyDesk, Riva Tuner, MSI Afterburner and Fan Control
 
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Nearly 40 minutes passed, 0 errors. I'll let it go on for a while more.

Edit - first full pass completed, 0 errors.
 
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doodah said:
Thanks again, I'll do some Googling as you suggest. As for apps and peripheral devices.....
  • Aging Anker gaming mouse
  • Corsair mechanical keyboard
  • Bog standard memory card reader
  • USB cable for my monitor's USB hub
  • As for third party apps - Flux, Dropbox, AnyDesk, Riva Tuner, MSI Afterburner and Fan Control
Click to expand...

Hmm, that's quite a bit, none of which stands out as an obvious problem, but you could try uninstalling them for awhile, you never know. Primarily I'd remove Riva Tuner, MSI Afterburner and Fan Control, but if the mouse and keyboard have custom software, I'd try using a regular mouse and keyboard that doesn't have any. The USB cable and card reader should be fine, but I guess you could try disabling the card reader in device manager while you game.
 
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Thanks, that's next on my list. Neither my keyboard or mouse were running their own software. I've since found the Anker mouse app (on Reddit lol) and stopped downloading the Corsair software when I saw it was 1GB - for a blumin keyboard.
 
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mrk said:
What PSU do you have?
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Thermaltake Toughpower XT 1275W ' 80 Plus GOLD' Modular Power Supply, initially bought in my mining days, was used for that but not for a great deal of time. Tried Batman with all third party apps closed (except for Fan Control), it managed to play the whole cut scene but BSOD shortly after. Peripherals next.
 
Thought I'd just try uninstalling everything from the drive in question (forgot to add, it's a 1TB nVME but I've partitioned into 250/750 for boot/games), so got rid of games, platforms and formatted the drive. Installed Steam and just Batman AA, BSOD on the title screen with a different error.

 
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I think it's your RAM, you can test this theory by simply turning off XMP and letting the RAM run at the base JEDEC speeds, probably 2100MHz or something like that and the timings will be mega slack. If you can then run the same games etc without issue, then there lies your problem.

I had loads of stability issues with my RAM when I did the build upgrade to 12th gen last year and had to run my RAM at lower bandwidth in order to sort stability along with manual voltages etc. It took Gigabyte the good part of a year to finally release a BIOS that had fully sorted the issues and now I am playing with my RAM at XMP and stock volts with no issues.
 
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