New PC suddenly near bricked

Babaji7 · March 18, 2023

Strap in, this one's a doozy.
At the beginning of this week, my 5 month old PC build started freezing and bluescreening. It happened repeatedly the first night, and I wasn't able to solve it. The next day it acted normally for a few hours, then started bluescreening again. I've been basically unable to use my computer since due to constant blue screens.

The bluescreen codes I've received have included:
IRQL not less or equal
Kernel security check failure
Critical process died
Kmode exception not handled
Page fault in nonpaged area
Wimfsf.sys (bluescreen during windows install)

Troubleshooting steps I have tried include:
Moving/reseating RAM and GPU
Removing all peripherals
DDU for GPU and audio drivers
Memtest86
SFC /scannow
DISM
ScanDisk
Reset BIOS to default
Wipe SSD and clean install windows

I also have BlueScreenViewer and windows set to create mini dumps, which all mentioned "ntoskrnl.exe", but that didn't get me anywhere.

Memtest found errors with one of my two DDR5 sticks, so I've been troubleshooting with only the passing stick, which I tested in multiple slots without errors.

If I fight windows for a bit, I can get it to boot in safe mode, and it's seemingly stable then. The only other time it's stable is while running Memtest. It bluescreens almost immediately on a standard windows boot, or a boot to a recovery USB.

Today I officially wiped my boot drive entirely and tried to reinstall windows from USB. I get a windows bluescreen immediately after the BIOS.

At this point I'm thinking it must be a hardware issue, but im really not sure if I should try to replace the MoBo, CPU, or RAM. I do not have backups of any of the core components as this was my first build since 6th gen intel and ddr4.
I'll take any thoughts, tips, or solutions!! Thanks!

Mobo: ASRock z690 Steel Legend/D5

CPU: i5-13600k

Ram: Corsair Vengeance DDR5 5600 (2x16)

SSD: WD Black SN850x

PSU: EVGA 850G+

OS: Windows 10 Home(cloned from old PC)

Edited March 18, 2023 by Babaji7
Forgot to paste in specs.

Vishera · March 18, 2023

13 minutes ago, Babaji7 said:

Memtest found errors with one of my two DDR5 sticks

Are you still using that stick?,

Pull it out and tell us if that solves the issue.

15 minutes ago, Babaji7 said:

At this point I'm thinking it must be a hardware issue, but im really not sure if I should try to replace the MoBo, CPU, or RAM.

What i recommend:

Try testing the CPU with Prime95 with the Small FFTs option for a hour.

Try testing the RAM with Memtest86 for 3 hours.

Tell us if you get any errors while testing.

Prime95 download page:

https://www.mersenne.org/download/

Memtest86 download page:

https://www.memtest86.com/download.htm

Babaji7 · March 18, 2023

I did pull the bad stick of RAM, and the good stick has now done 4 passes of Memtest in one ram slot and 4 passes in a different slot, no errors. As for CPU testing, at this point I have no OS. I couldn't use windows for more than 10 or 15 seconds without a bluescreen, and it bluescreened while booting from a recovery USB too, so I wiped my hard drive. Problem is it also bluescreens when I try to boot from the windows installer. So at the moment I'm stuck with no OS to test in.