bsod Bsod while idle or low usage, never while gaming.

[nathanhayball]

Please help 

 

I've been experiencing bsod's for months now, tried absolutely everything except swapping cpu or motherboard. The bluescreens only seem to happen while the pc is either idle or I'm doing non intensive things like browsing the internet, it has never happened while gaming or stress testing. The bug check codes never seem to be the same but always blame ntkrnlmp.exe, only once or twice blaming afd.sys. It also doesn't happen while the pc is offline or in a clean install with default drivers (will bsod once I start installing drivers and programs even if they're common ones like steam and discord)

 

I've tried:

-Swapping ram

-Swapping gpu

-swapping SSD

-Multiple Clean installs of Windows with different versions

-Disabling XMP

-Used driver verifier (blames random drivers until there's none left and starts blaming microsoft ones)

 

So I'm pretty much convinced it has to be a hardware issue, either the motherboard or cpu. How can I make sure I know which one is the faulty one? I don't want to end up wasting money.

 

My PC:

CPU: Ryzen 5 3600

Motherboard: Gigabyte b450 Aorus Elite

GPU: RTX 2070 super 

RAM: Corsair Vengance RGB PRO 16gb (8x2) CMW16GX4M2C3200C16-TUF

Storage: ADATA SX6000 1TB M.2 SSD, Kingstone 240GB SSD, 1TB HDD 7200RPM

PSU: EVGA 700W GD

 

Dump files:

 https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=1Ewq1aqSxEAZOHuogfPvQlX5ZSu_yTwLS

 

 

 

I would greatly appreciate any help 

[Quickstrike]

Are the RAM sticks in slot #2 and #4?
Your PSU might be the culprit. It might be bad at low power.

[nathanhayball]

1 hour ago, Quickstrike said:

Are the RAM sticks in slot #2 and #4?
Your PSU might be the culprit. It might be bad at low power.

But would the PSU cause a bsod wouldn't it simply shut down the computer?

 

Yes the ram is in slots 2 and 4 (tried 1 and 3 too)

[BiL]

Remove your nvme disk and try a fresh windows installation on your kinston 240GB SSD. Also do you have the latest BIOS on your mobo and GPU?

[nathanhayball]

5 minutes ago, BiL said:

Remove your nvme disk and try a fresh windows installation on your kinston 240GB SSD. Also do you have the latest BIOS on your mobo and GPU?

Already done that and yes the bios is the lastest.

[BiL]

Do you have a spare - bigger wattage PSU to test or maybe borrow one? What about your warranty status for the components?

[nathanhayball]

54 minutes ago, BiL said:

Do you have a spare - bigger wattage PSU to test or maybe borrow one? What about your warranty status for the components?

I have another psu, corsair cx650, I will try that.

 

About warranty, I live in a third world country where you can't buy from brands directly and the store I bought the parts from says they can't replicate my issue, if that's true or not it doesn't matter as they won't replace my parts.

[BiL]

11 minutes ago, nathanhayball said:

I have another psu, corsair cx650, I will try that.

 

About warranty, I live in a third world country where you can't buy from brands directly and the store I bought the parts from says they can't replicate my issue, if that's true or not it doesn't matter as they won't replace my parts.

OK I can feel you about your warranty issues, so let's start with the PSU and move on from there.

[nathanhayball]

10 minutes ago, BiL said:

OK I can feel you about your warranty issues, so let's start with the PSU and move on from there.

I'll swap it and report back tomorrow with if it survived an entire day without bsod. Thanks for your help 

[nathanhayball]

22 hours ago, BiL said:

OK I can feel you about your warranty issues, so let's start with the PSU and move on from there.

Replaced the PSU and got another bsod just now. I was watching a video through vlc while seeding a torrent. This time it blamed afd.sys, which if I'm not mistaken is the LAN driver. 

 

 

 

 

[BiL]

If I was in your position I will begin again from scratch, keeping only the essentials to boot. Clear CMOS, one Ram stick, one SSD, fresh Windows installation with drivers from my motherboard vendor and from Nvidia's site for the GPU. No 3rd party antivirus, no 3rd party video players etc. I will use it for web browsing for start and then I will start adding 3rd party apps on one a time. Small steps until the BSOD appears again, hoping it won't.

If the problem insists then I will start swapping parts in the following order:

Memory, GPU, Motherboard with a B550 or X570. But since it's almost impossible to have spare parts for every new component you're buying I will use for start an old GPU (not top tier, it's only for testing purposes), borrow some RAM sticks from a friend and leave the Mobo at the end since you might need to buy that part. I assume that the CPU is fine since is a bit rare to get a faulty one. One more thing, if you can get in your hands a Ryzen 2xxx series for free give it a try also.

[nathanhayball]

33 minutes ago, BiL said:

If I was in your position I will begin again from scratch, keeping only the essentials to boot. Clear CMOS, one Ram stick, one SSD, fresh Windows installation with drivers from my motherboard vendor and from Nvidia's site for the GPU. No 3rd party antivirus, no 3rd party video players etc. I will use it for web browsing for start and then I will start adding 3rd party apps on one a time. Small steps until the BSOD appears again, hoping it won't.

If the problem insists then I will start swapping parts in the following order:

Memory, GPU, Motherboard with a B550 or X570. But since it's almost impossible to have spare parts for every new component you're buying I will use for start an old GPU (not top tier, it's only for testing purposes), borrow some RAM sticks from a friend and leave the Mobo at the end since you might need to buyvthat part. I assume that the CPU is fine since is a bit rare to get a faulty one. One more thing, if you can get in your hands a Ryzen 2xxx series for free give it a try also.

I've already tried a clean install with no programs, bsod while browsing the internet. Tried a borrowed ram, still happened. Tried a with a different gpu (1060) nothing changed. 

 

The only common denominator I can think of is being connected to the internet, every bsod I can think of has happened either while my pc was idle (not sleeping), browsing the internet or downloading something, in fact, I can't think of a time were I have downloaded or uploaded something for a prolonged amount of time and my pc didn't bsod. Playing games or stress testing seems to make the issue not occur, which leaves me thinking it might the the mobo's internet controller. 

 

I'll leave the computer an entire day without internet to see if it still bsod's, if it still persists then I'll try what your suggesting again, to make sure I didn't miss anything. Anyway if by then I can't pin point what wrong I'll buy or borrow another motherboard and go from there.

 

[BiL]

Also try a Wi-Fi USB dongle before buying a new mobo disconnecting your ethernet cable and see if anything changes.

[nathanhayball]

12 hours ago, BiL said:

Also try a Wi-Fi USB dongle before buying a new mobo disconnecting your ethernet cable and see if anything changes.

I discovered something interesting. I tried leaving the computer on without internet connection and it still crashed in about 2 hours, however, I left ONLY the ethernet cable and video connected and the pc has lasted an entire night on, about 13 hours, without crash. Does this mean the usb ports on my motherboard are faulty? Also I have a razer mouse, how likely is it that synapse (program to control mouse settings) is causing my issue? It is a pretty common program to use and I've used it for years on my previous pc.

 

[BiL]

1 hour ago, nathanhayball said:

I discovered something interesting. I tried leaving the computer on without internet connection and it still crashed in about 2 hours, however, I left ONLY the ethernet cable and video connected and the pc has lasted an entire night on, about 13 hours, without crash. Does this mean the usb ports on my motherboard are faulty? Also I have a razer mouse, how likely is it that synapse (program to control mouse settings) is causing my issue? It is a pretty common program to use and I've used it for years on my previous pc.

 

Try one more thing, prepare a Live Linux USB (Linux Mint Cinnamon) and boot from it. Do not install it on your machine just start using Linux from it. Start browsing and check if you have any of the symptoms like you had on your Windows environment.

[nathanhayball]

1 hour ago, BiL said:

Try one more thing, prepare a Live Linux USB (Linux Mint Cinnamon) and boot from it. Do not install it on your machine just start using Linux from it. Start browsing and check if you have any of the symptoms like you had on your Windows environment.

Okay will do.

 

One question though, what would it mean if it doesn't crash or if it did? I imagine if it did it would be 100% hardware issue, but if it didn't would it indicate that the bsod's are because of software? Because as far as I know it really hard to get linux to crash even with faulty hardware 

[BiL]

7 hours ago, nathanhayball said:

Okay will do.

 

One question though, what would it mean if it doesn't crash or if it did? I imagine if it did it would be 100% hardware issue, but if it didn't would it indicate that the bsod's are because of software? Because as far as I know it really hard to get linux to crash even with faulty hardware 

I agree that is hard to get Linux crash, but if what we have here is a certain hardware failure then yes Linux might crash also. So since you don't have a spare mobo or memory to swap we have to continue testing with what we have.

[nathanhayball]

On 12/22/2020 at 12:17 AM, BiL said:

I agree that is hard to get Linux crash, but if what we have here is a certain hardware failure then yes Linux might crash also. So since you don't have a spare mobo or memory to swap we have to continue testing with what we have.

I tried doing using linux for a while, nothing happened.

 

also after moving my mouse and keyboard to the usb 2.0 ports on the mobo the bsod's seemed to be gone until now, the computer lasted several days turned on without crashing which never was able to do before, it would usually last only a day of overnight idling. Honestly I have no idea what could be causing this issue, at this point i might have a to buy a new pc just to save myself the headache of having to deal with this any longer.

 

anyway, Merry Christmas. 

 

[BiL]

On 12/27/2020 at 2:21 AM, nathanhayball said:

I tried doing using linux for a while, nothing happened.

 

also after moving my mouse and keyboard to the usb 2.0 ports on the mobo the bsod's seemed to be gone until now, the computer lasted several days turned on without crashing which never was able to do before, it would usually last only a day of overnight idling. Honestly I have no idea what could be causing this issue, at this point i might have a to buy a new pc just to save myself the headache of having to deal with this any longer.

 

anyway, Merry Christmas. 

 

Hi mate and sorry for the delay,

 

that's good news, buying a new PC is out of the question for me.

 

Merry Christmas to you also.

[nathanhayball]

7 minutes ago, BiL said:

Hi mate and sorry for the delay,

 

that's good news, buying a new PC is out of the question for me.

 

Merry Christmas to you also.

One last question if you don't mind. At this point I've discarded everything but the motherboard and cpu, if using different usb ports directly affects how frequently I get bluescreens then it would be a pretty safe bet that the motherboard is the faulty component right? 

[BiL]

1 minute ago, nathanhayball said:

One last question if you don't mind. At this point I've discarded everything but the motherboard and cpu, if using different usb ports directly affects how frequently I get bluescreens then it would be a pretty safe bet that the motherboard is the faulty component right? 

What keyboard - mouse are you using?

[nathanhayball]

Just now, BiL said:

What keyboard - mouse are you using?

I'm using a Razer Deathadder and a redragon k552 mechanical keyboard (no drivers). I tried using an old broken logitech mouse but it stilled bsod, so I don't think it matters what I'm using but that something is connected.

[BiL]

2 minutes ago, nathanhayball said:

I'm using a Razer Deathadder and a redragon k552 mechanical keyboard (no drivers). I tried using an old broken logitech mouse but it stilled bsod, so I don't think it matters what I'm using but that something is connected.

Usually the 2 USB ports over the analog PS2/mouse port is mainly for using keyboard and mouse. No need to use USB3 ports for that. So if you problem is solved by using these 2 ports stay like that. You can only swap your Motherboard with a B550 or X570 just in case that your current has some compatibility issues with Ryzens 3xxxx and 5xxx even if with BIOS updates manufacture claims that is supported. I've seen lot of issues with "supported" mark Motherboards.

[SaveYourLifes]

Hi Nathan, if you don't remember me, I'm the guy who posted about the same issue on the forum a little while back.

I contacted my dealer, and after doing every test he asked for ( and not finding anything ) I sent back the cpu and mb for them to test. I don't know what test they performed or even the results, but they sent me back the motherboard along with a new cpu and... well, 3 days in, everything seems to work !!

So I guess my issue was a faulty cpu. I can't be sure if we have the same issue but from what I can tell about what you say about your USB ports, you may also have a faulty cpu ( it's a stretch but it's still possible), but that could also be the mb.

Hope this helps

[nathanhayball]

On 1/6/2021 at 8:00 AM, SaveYourLifes said:

Hi Nathan, if you don't remember me, I'm the guy who posted about the same issue on the forum a little while back.

I contacted my dealer, and after doing every test he asked for ( and not finding anything ) I sent back the cpu and mb for them to test. I don't know what test they performed or even the results, but they sent me back the motherboard along with a new cpu and... well, 3 days in, everything seems to work !!

So I guess my issue was a faulty cpu. I can't be sure if we have the same issue but from what I can tell about what you say about your USB ports, you may also have a faulty cpu ( it's a stretch but it's still possible), but that could also be the mb.

Hope this helps

I've just managed to get the store to replace my motherboard so hopefully that'll fix my issue, if not then it has to be the cpu just like in your case.

 

Anyway I'm glad to hear everything is fixed on your side