PC locks up playing certain games after a BIOS Update

[ls612]

So this issue is really weird. My specs are:

 

Intel 12900k (at stock)

ASUS Z690-G mATX mobo

64GB 5200Mhz DDR5 RAM

Samsung 980 Pro 2TB SSD boot drive plus some other assorted SSDs for steam library overflow

EVGA FTW3 3080ti (undervolted to 1830mhz at 850mv)

EVGA G6 1000W PSU

 

Today I updated my BIOS to the latest version, and when now when I play a certain game (Anno 2205) it will crash often. Furthermore these crashes are hard lockups of the system, which is only solved by power cycling. This suggests something deeper is at issue, I ran Memtest on my RAM with the XMP enabled and it passed with no errors. I ran a bunch of GPU stress tests and it was doing fine. I did a little CPU stress testing but I never overclocked it in the first place so it should be stable at stock. The system is about 6 months old and has ran basically fine since I built it until this happened. Normally I wouldn't be to worried about a single game crashing but on modern Windows for a user application to hang the whole system unrecoverably is so unusual that I am worried that something got messed up with my hardware or firmware.

[Robchil]

downgrade bios to last working version and confirm it's a buggy bios. 

[ls612]

20 hours ago, Robchil said:

downgrade bios to last working version and confirm it's a buggy bios. 

So I can’t downgrade the bios (ASUS confirmed that it is not supported for that version). After I disabled all of my GPU undervolt/memory overclocks I ran the game again and it ran longer but then bluescreened with MEMORY_MANAGEMENT stop code. But my RAM had zero errors in memtest as I said.

 

I’m currently running memtest on my ram with XMP off but I expect that will also pass with no errors. I should be able to upload the bugcheck information tomorrow.

[Robchil]

42 minutes ago, ls612 said:

So I can’t downgrade the bios (ASUS confirmed that it is not supported for that version). After I disabled all of my GPU undervolt/memory overclocks I ran the game again and it ran longer but then bluescreened with MEMORY_MANAGEMENT stop code. But my RAM had zero errors in memtest as I said.

 

I’m currently running memtest on my ram with XMP off but I expect that will also pass with no errors. I should be able to upload the bugcheck information tomorrow.

I'm sorry you got to be the betatester for their bios. but atleast it sounds like they are working on it. 

 

[ls612]

I've attached a screenshot of the bugcheck information, the link to the dump file is at https://1drv.ms/u/s!Aj9hRH-1i-VnyT6ywiUMxW7O6-5p?e=puuUBA

 

memtest86 did finish without XMP with no errors after 3 passes, same as with XMP.

 

I ran sfc /scannow and it found and repaired corrupted files, however I think this may be a red herring since the logs showed it was only the bluetooth sysfiles that were replaced, all other files verified successfully. I also ran DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth but that did not find any further problems.

[Robchil]

yeah i think it's a red hearing too.  you'd have to wait for a bios update. 

 

[ls612]

I just tested the problem game and it ran for two hours after the system repair and turning XMP off, so I think I have a good state now (passes memtest, doesn't crash in Windows when it used to consistently). I will try re-enabling XMP, running Memtest again overnight tonight, and run the game again to see if that was the culprit or if the corrupt sysfiles were. I'd really prefer my 5200Mhz 40-40-40-77 instead of the 4000Mhz base speed of my memory lol.

 

I also wonder if that was the reason it would crash in games but not show any errors in memtest86, because that wouldn't care one bit about windows system files. Like bad RAM timings or clocks on a hardware/firmware level will normally show up in a full 8 hour run of memtest right?

[Robchil]

not realy, memtest is more to check that the dimms are stabile.. 

go to mainboard vendors home page and check for update to chipset drivers.. that might help actually. i've seen on some servers system going unstabile when bios and chipset drivers didn't get updated at the same time, usually update chipset drivers first then upgrade bios to have stabile drivers when bios got loaded. 

 

latest for z690 on asus i see is Version 3.0.0.1457  from 2022/09/19 

[ls612]

Yes there was a GNA update (which as far as I can tell the installer for that does nothing, others on the Asus forums also complained about it), and an Intel Management Engine Interface update from 9/19 which I successfully installed. Does the order matter, ie do I need to reinstall the bios now or does it just matter that both bios and chipset are up to date?

[Robchil]

no.. that was just on some hp servers that was finnickey about how you did it.. our systems should work either way.. but i think you'd have to wait for a new bios if it's still not stabile in games. 

 

[ls612]

I wish I had known how finnicky DDR5 is with Alder Lake before I built my rig lol, the fact that a bios update breaks modest XMPs like mine is mind-boggling. I've used XMP on DDR3 and DDR4 in past builds and never had any issues.

 

I'm almost wondering if I should RMA my kit if the next bios doesn't fix it.