PC Crashing

SPArton

SPArton

SPArton

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Joined
13 Aug 2013
Posts
266
Hi guys,

I have been having major problems with my PC. It has been BSOD'ing with the "notskrnl.exe" supposedly causing the crashes. Running Win10 64bit. Happens at random times, usually when it's idle and I'm not using it. It will just lock and mouse/keyboard won't respond, leading me to need to force reset, or whilst I am using it the PC will crash to a BSOD.

I have replaced the RAM, PSU, GPU to no avail. Running an 840 Evo SSD, 4670k with a Z87-D3HP motherboard. Latest BIOS & SSD firmware.

Any ideas?
Thanks.
 
ntoskrnl BSODs can be somewhat common unfortunately. A lot of things can cause an ntoskrnl.exe BSOD. To list a few:

Corrupted Windows installation
Bad drivers (particularly video drivers)
Faulty RAM

Are you overclocking at all? If you are, reset everything to stock speeds and see if the BSODs persist.

What's your full system spec? If you've changed the RAM, PSU and GPU, it could just be a borked Windows installation - as in somethings corrupted Windows.
 
Hi, I have the same issue with ntoskrnl windows driver, i have been trying to chase this for 6 months now with no luck. i originally started with around 10 different blue screen and now i am just getting two both originating from ntoskrnl+1c2390 which I have not idea what it is relating to tbh.

The two BSOD that i am receiving are Memory_Management and Page Fault in nonpaged area. I do occasionally receive Faulty Hardware corrupted page but that seems to have stopped since i changed my HDDs.

So far I have ran test on the RAM (mem86 & Windows Memory Diagnostic) both have come back with no faults (i even left this running for 24 hours at one point), i have used the Intel software to check my CPU, no errors, i have visually inspected the motherboard for blown components or dodgy solder, upgraded my graphics card (needed a new one anyway), replaced my hard drives, upgraded the case cooling, done a visual check on the RAM, upgraded the powersuply (was needing an upgrade anyway). I have manually checked all drivers to make sure it is up to date, i even tried one of the automated driver tools (which made things worse) and finally I am currently working with a fresh install of windows 10 with nearly nothing on it as a testing bench to solve the issue.

I think i have exhausted nearly everything i can think of and would really appreciate any help.

My system stats are as follows:

CPU: Intel i7-2600k (Sandybridge LGA1155)
MB: Asrock Z68 Extreme 7 Gen 3
RAM: Corsair XMS3 4 X 4gb sticks
Graphics: MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Gaming X 8G

I have no current overclocks in use
 
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In power management do any of you guys let the usb or hard disks sleep? Or have you stopped all advanced power management options? My guess is some sort of power management issue.
 
Vince said:
In power management do any of you guys let the usb or hard disks sleep? Or have you stopped all advanced power management options? My guess is some sort of power management issue.
Click to expand...

I have just checked the settings, my HDD is currently set to turn off after 20 minutes of inactivity. I will not I have never changed this setting on any of my builds and was ot an issue up until 6 months ago. I would be surprised if it was this but i will give it a go.. I have nothing to loose at this point :)
 
Jameswa23 said:
I have just checked the settings, my HDD is currently set to turn off after 20 minutes of inactivity. I will not I have never changed this setting on any of my builds and was ot an issue up until 6 months ago. I would be surprised if it was this but i will give it a go.. I have nothing to loose at this point :)
Click to expand...

Go through all the power management settings and stop everything that wants to turn off after given times. Also stop is going into sleep and give it a see. I just have this feeling it's down to some sort of power management issue. Also stop it disabling usb devices in power management. I think its called selective suspend.
 
Joxeon said:
Do you still get the bsods with just 2 ram sticks fitted?
Click to expand...

I am currently running the system with 2 ram sticks at the moment. Pending results on this. I have a way to force the system into the BSOD scenario that has crashed it multiple times before. It takes a couple of hours to do. hopefully I will be a able to replicate that tonight. I will keep you updated
 
Vince said:
Go through all the power management settings and stop everything that wants to turn off after given times. Also stop is going into sleep and give it a see. I just have this feeling it's down to some sort of power management issue. Also stop it disabling usb devices in power management. I think its called selective suspend.
Click to expand...

I have already turned off USB low powermode through the Bios. Would you include display sleet on this?
 
Joxeon said:
Do you still get the bsods with just 2 ram sticks fitted?
Click to expand...

Joxeon, so I have been testing last night and today with just two ram sticks in place, no crashes so far.

Vince said:
Go through all the power management settings and stop everything that wants to turn off after given times. Also stop is going into sleep and give it a see. I just have this feeling it's down to some sort of power management issue. Also stop it disabling usb devices in power management. I think its called selective suspend.
Click to expand...

Vince, I have left the settings off, left it on overnight and still is running perfectly this morning. I am going to try putting the other two sticks of ram back in an see what happens. This should rule out at lease one for the two suggestions from yourself and Joxeon.

i will report back once i have a result
 
Ok, so an interesting turn of events. I put the 4 sticks back in and loaded into a game, after a couple of minutes my game itself crashed (this was one of the signs that i was having previously which could trigger a blue screen). So i took out the ram i tested the machine. just to try and make that clearer please see below

Board position A1 (first test with 2 sticks)
Board position B1 (Second test with other 2 sticks)
Board position A2 (first test with 2 sticks)
Board position B2 (Second test with other 2 sticks)

The machine seems to run fine when i have either of the two stick configurations running but start to play up once there are 4 sticks. This is now officially wrecking me head.

the ram I am using has always been in the motherboard from day one and was all bought at the same time, specs etc. I am beginning to wonder it it could be the board. possibly something to do with the interface between the A and B ram slots. this is heading into expensive territory.

Any suggestions?
 
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Jameswa23 said:
Ok, so an interesting turn of events. I put the 4 sticks back in and loaded into a game, after a couple of minutes my game itself crashed (this was one of the signs that i was having previously which could trigger a blue screen). So i took out the ram i tested the machine. just to try and make that clearer please see below

Board position A1 (first test with 2 sticks)
Board position B1 (Second test with other 2 sticks)
Board position A2 (first test with 2 sticks)
Board position B2 (Second test with other 2 sticks)

The machine seems to run fine when i have either of the two stick configurations running but start to play up once there are 4 sticks. This is now officially wrecking me head.

the ram I am using has always been in the motherboard from day one and was all bought at the same time, specs etc. I am beginning to wonder it it could be the board. possibly something to do with the interface between the A and B ram slots. this is heading into expensive territory.

Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

More voltage to the ram or the imc is required I recon. These things can just degrade over time and the imc is worked harder with more memory slots populated.
 
Vince said:
More voltage to the ram or the imc is required I recon. These things can just degrade over time and the imc is worked harder with more memory slots populated.
Click to expand...

I think I have it. I have now got all 4 sticks of ram installed and seems to be stable. after a little trial and error i have found the a setup that appears to be stable.

I went into the Bios like you suggested and started plaing around with the timings and voltages on the ram setup. I knew from before that the 9-9-9-24 1333mhz setting was not working properly (this is the default for the ram when not in XMP mode), I also knew that the XMP setting (running at 9-9-9-24 1600mhz) was playing up when all 4 sticks were installed. I managed to narrow it down to 11-11-11-30 1866mhz which the system seemed to like but then had the undesired result of my system locking up after 40 minutes or stressing the system. i have finally settled for 11-11-11-35 1866mhz which seems to be running nicely. it will be interesting to see what this does overtime, hopefully eradicating the BSOD issue. these are all running at 1.65v

If I don't have a blue screen over the course of the next week that will be good.

Thanks for all of your help so far and i will keep you posted on how i get on (hopefully wont hear from me to soon).
 
Jameswa23 said:
I think I have it. I have now got all 4 sticks of ram installed and seems to be stable. after a little trial and error i have found the a setup that appears to be stable.

I went into the Bios like you suggested and started plaing around with the timings and voltages on the ram setup. I knew from before that the 9-9-9-24 1333mhz setting was not working properly (this is the default for the ram when not in XMP mode), I also knew that the XMP setting (running at 9-9-9-24 1600mhz) was playing up when all 4 sticks were installed. I managed to narrow it down to 11-11-11-30 1866mhz which the system seemed to like but then had the undesired result of my system locking up after 40 minutes or stressing the system. i have finally settled for 11-11-11-35 1866mhz which seems to be running nicely. it will be interesting to see what this does overtime, hopefully eradicating the BSOD issue. these are all running at 1.65v

If I don't have a blue screen over the course of the next week that will be good.

Thanks for all of your help so far and i will keep you posted on how i get on (hopefully wont hear from me to soon).
Click to expand...

You will probably be able to get stable at the tighter timings with some adjustment to voltage of the IMC, I think back in the day of haswell that was the VCCA voltage:

Shamelessly stolen from tech power up:

VCCSA: Contains the memory controller, the PCIe controller, and other I/O domains. This is the main System Agent's domain voltage. The stock value sits somewhere between 0.800 V to 0.950 V, with most seen so far sitting between 0.850 V and 0.900 V.
Click to expand...

So a little bump in this voltage will likely see you get the stability at xmp.
 
Hi Vince,

After some testing and a few more BSOD i think i have managed to balance out the ram settings. I tried to overclock the memory as you saw in my last post but this did not last, the computer kept locking up.
I ended up trying to run the fast speeds with a voltage overclock on the VCCSA as you suggested and this did not go well. Finally i reset the settings back to the XMP setup and left the voltage on the VCCSA peaking at 1.016v which seems to have stabilised nicely but still a little glitch. I did trial this with 2 and 4 sticks of ram installed, interestingly it runs better and faster with 2 sticks (i have no idea why).

I am not sure how far i can push the VCCSA on my board and to be honest a little scared to do more in case something breaks. i have done a little research into possibilities but tbh I have not found anything that is really useful.

I have been running some tests with MaxxMem2, I have attached the various results in the links below should you be interested.

https://ibb.co/xGS4J77 - 1.016v 1600mhz
https://ibb.co/pXSBb5M - 1.016v 1863mhz
https://ibb.co/XbTpjWw - 1.016v 1863mhz
https://ibb.co/gFCcZt6 - 0.90v 1333mhz
https://ibb.co/tsy5pL6 - 0.90v 1600mhz
https://ibb.co/CBNnp70 - 0.90v 1863mhz
https://ibb.co/0nz1z4K - 0.90v 1600mhz
https://ibb.co/MPjHcdT - 0.90v 1863mhz
https://ibb.co/vLWy47c - 0.90v 1863mhz
 
So, It has taken 18 days to get my first BSOD. same one as before showing memory management...

I am beginning to think that the voltage increase has not worked as desired.

Any ideas?
 
Joxeon said:
Maybe it just needs a bit more voltage.
Click to expand...

Quick question, I have already bumped the VCCSA as far as it will go (1.200v)... this was the case as of the last BSOD i received. Is there something else I should be adjusting? I debating on adjusting the DRAM voltage but i was not sure how this would effect the XMS3. I know this is rated for 1.65v and I have read that the manufacturers normally allow a little bit more but i don't want to run the risk of blowing the RAM. i have also received a new BSOD which may just be a random issue or the beloved Windows 10 system giving the error of Kernel_Security_check_failure. Interestly it seems to be the same Kernel that is causing the crash (ntoskrnl).

Open to suggestions.

P.S. if you can think of an effect way to run a stability test that would force it to the limit to try and replicate the BSOD i have been receiving, that would be helpful. I have tried the likes of Prime95 and the standard memory tester built into windows plus some PC stressing software and bench marking but they don't seem to replicate the issue.
 
So, 6 Months from my last post I have be able to narrow down the issue I have been experiencing.

After doing further testing, stripping back the PC to basic components only and running some more tests on the system I have found that i do have a faulty RAM module which does not show up in MEMTEST86 but does show up in MEMTEST64.

This took a lot of playing around to identify and by taking out the RAM stick one my one and re running the test and then rotating the RAM sticks though all of the onboard RAM slots. it soon became apparent which RAM stick was affecting the system and as soon as it was removed the entire system behaves as it should.

It was a worth while exercise but it does take an age to check over all of the systems.

I have now submitted a RMA request to Corsair.
 
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