Restarting and BSOD: WHEA uncorrectable error

Sam I Am Not · October 29, 2020

I just built a new PC and it's super fast compared to my old PC. However, I've been experiencing restarts and BSOD with the stop code "WHEA uncorrectable error".

After I built the PC I started benchmarking. Puget, Unigen Heaven, 3D Mark TimeSpy, and Cinebench R15 and R20 passed with flying colors. Then I went to AIDA64 to stress test and the PC restarted within 1 minute or less. I tried a few times with the same result. Then I tried doing a 15-minute run of Cinebench R20 the PC would always crash before it'd reach 2-minutes in. I also get random BSOD crashes even when I'm idle or under light load.

After fresh Windows installs and much troubleshooting, I just swapped out the 256GB G.SKILL kit with a cheap 64GB Crucial kit that doesn't even have heatsinks on it and I've just passed a 15-minute Cinebench R20 run and I'm currently 30 minutes into an AIDA64 stress test with the Stress CPU, Stress FPU, Stress cache, and Stress system memory boxes checked without a crash or BSOD. Could it have just been bad RAM that has been plaguing me this whole time? I'm going to let the AIDA64 hit 45 minutes, restart the PC and then try another 15-minute Cinebench R20 run and then AIDA64 stress test again to see if I'm still stable after a restart. If I pass again I'll try re-installing the 256GB kit and see if the crashing and BSOD comes back. I'd really like to get to the bottom of the BSOD and restarts and have a fully stable PC.

*SIDE NOTE: Just about 1-minute into the AIDA64 test, my screen went black and I thought I crashed. Then a few seconds later the screen came back on and the timer was still ticking away at 1:14. Is that something that happens with AIDA64 sometimes?

PC Specs:

CPU: 3970x (stock)

Motherboard: ASUS Zenith II Extreme Alpha

RAM: G.SKILL 256GB Trident Z Neo 3600 (I tried the bios default 2666 and DOCP 3600)

Storage: 2x 1TB 970 Evo Plus m.2 (one for OS, one for scratch drive)

PSU: Corsair HX1000i

Cooling: Custom EKWB Loop

Idle Temp: 32C

Under Load: Currently 63C (25:13 and counting into an AIDA64 stress test; CPU, FPU, cache, system memory). I've never seen the temp go above 64C.