At my wits end with PC issues. HELP!

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Rydawg5143

Supreme [H]ardness
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Apr 22, 2008
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I built this computer in Dec, and everything worked great until about 3 weeks ago when discord stopped working and started to get random freezes while gaming or watching movies. I reset the PC w/files and the system works fine with games and movies, but I was unable to install or play some(some worked) games. I thought it was an issue with hardware so I ran Furmark, memtest, HDtest etc, every test I could think of I ran. Every test (usually at least 2 or 3 runs) came back fine, no issues found. I could play Lost Ark max settings without issues, but Fortnite wouldn't even load and said I would need a new driver. I tried to download and install the most up to date driver, but I get an error every time i do which is 7-ZIP: CRC error. Google tells me that the error is the installer is corrupt. so, I download from a different website and have same result. I then download on my laptop and install on PC and same error; I download on USB at work and bring home and still same error. I then did a 100% clean install of windows from USB but continue to have the same issue, though again the main game I play works amazingly (smoother than before I started having issues TBH)

I am so flustered and lost. Everything I'm seeing is telling me there is a hardware issue, but all tests are coming back 100% ok and by this point I've ran most test 20+ times w/o issue.

Win 10, though have tried 11 and it lags terrible from the start
2TB SK Hynix P41
i7-13700K
RTX 3070
ASUS ROG Strix Z690-E
G.SKill z52 2x16GB DDR5 6400
Seasonic Focus GX-750
 
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Just tried to run userbenchmark and PC crashed.
clock_watchdog_timeout error
 
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Wow! That's a tuff one. i would suggest a BIOS update but I don't think that would be a risk I would take atm will all your system flakiness.
Maybe try a WinPE USB install. Some come with a number of programs (Zip etc..) and see how it behaves. Another option would be to throw on a Linux install and see what works or doesn't.
I would also go bare bones on the system just to see. Unplug absolutely everything not needed. Keyboard, mouse and one system drive should be it. I think you have iGPU so remove your 3070 just for testing sake.
Very curious now so keep us posted.
 
funkydmunky said:
Wow! That's a tuff one. i would suggest a BIOS update but I don't think that would be a risk I would take atm will all your system flakiness.
Maybe try a WinPE USB install. Some come with a number of programs (Zip etc..) and see how it behaves. Another option would be to throw on a Linux install and see what works or doesn't.
I would also go bare bones on the system just to see. Unplug absolutely everything not needed. Keyboard, mouse and one system drive should be it. I think you have iGPU so remove your 3070 just for testing sake.
Very curious now so keep us posted.
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Ya I am so stumped it's crazy. Luckily my kids PC has some parts I can trade out and test. I'm leaning towards GPU/SDD because of the install issue with Geforce/driver. Going to start with the GPU then SDD tomorrow and if those show same results, Try the WinPE you suggested.
 
I perked up when you mentioned Discord. There used to be a bug recently, whereupon DC would tax GPUs unnecessarily. It degraded performance.
Both gaming and hardware acceleration stuff in movies have one thing in common - the power-saving measures kick in very often, both GPU and CPU clocks jump all over the place.
Torture tests/benchmarks keep the hardware running full tilt, it is receiving all the power it needs.
It might be the intermittent power delivery and clock modulation, related to power saving, which is causing a hardware issue to manifest more often - a voltage profile for a given clock is no longer sufficient and stuff breaks.
Can you try disabling as many of the power saving features as you can in the BIOS and try running it like that?
 
Have you tried disabling Hyperthreading?

Also underclocking your mem or overvolting it?

I would try resetting the bios to stock and start from there, updating the bios if there's a newer one might help further.
 
Long shot but if you have a spare PSU I would give it a go... A long time ago I was getting weird Intermittent issues like that and after a PSU swap it was years of smooth sailing!
 
Do you have a spare for each one of your components? I would swap the board first. If not then the CPU. Then the ram. Then the nvme. Then the power supply.
If you don't have spare parts try updating the bios. And rolling back the gpu driver. Or updating the motherboard drivers from the manufacturer website. I'm not sure if this is a software or hardware malfunction at this point.
 
1) I wanted to clarify something in my OP i missed, I stress test the pieces and they all individually passed, BUT sites like userbenchmark show my PC have issues, gives terrible score and doesn't see CPU/SDD
-This leads me to think that the problem is the motherboard? How the hell you test a MOBO?
2) Traded out pieces with no change, PSU, GPU. reseated RAM, checked all connections.
 
Tried to actually play some games and the first one (Fortnite) BSOD with DRIVER_OVERRAN_BUFFER_STACK
 
Rydawg5143 said:
Tried to actually play some games and the first one (Fortnite) BSOD with DRIVER_OVERRAN_BUFFER_STACK
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Unsure if it has to deal with this from Device Manager? Only PCI thing I have is my GPU
 

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Did you install the chipset drivers? Right click, install driver on all of those yellow marks. You missed some drivers on install. Overclocked? Remove it. CPU temps? Memtest?
 
Mega6 said:
Did you install the chipset drivers? Right click, install driver on all of those yellow marks. You missed some drivers on install. Overclocked? Remove it. CPU temps? Memtest?
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They don't auto find drivers and no clue what device they are. I installed all drivers directly from asus
 
Remove the main board from chassis and build on a piece of cardboard on the desktop. See if chipset drivers install properly then. Gets you closer to RMA if necessary as well when diagnosis is complete and sometimes exposes the fault in the process.
 
I would find your missing drivers but it wouldn't cause all those issues. is the ram running XMP or default? CRC and random errors sometimes are stupid things, or memory
 
Possible Hack
BSOD with DRIVER_OVERRAN_BUFFER_STACK

Cause​

A driver overran a stack-based buffer (or local variable) in a way that would have overwritten the function's return address and jumped back to an arbitrary address when the function returned.

This is the classic "buffer overrun" hacking attack. The system has been brought down to prevent a malicious user from gaining complete control of it.
 
If it's not that (Possible Hack BSOD with DRIVER_OVERRAN_BUFFER_STACK), then it's either a CPU that's degrading. Which, while rare, is possible. Or your SSD shit the bed and it's got issues that aren't coming up in testing. I have had at least 4 SSD's that returned no testing errors but were garbage. The processor being borked is in line with the "CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT. BSOD" and you should be able to get that replaced under warranty.
 
Sounds like the SSD is failing. Do you have another drive to test with?
 
There seems to be a common denominator with ALMOST everything, the errors seem to be with things that you download.
One of the hardest things that I ever diagnosed was a Netgear Router that was corrupting everything that it downloaded. Default apps on the laptop worked fine, nothing downloaded would. Used a different router and problem solved. Not sure
 
Puterguru said:
There seems to be a common denominator with ALMOST everything, the errors seem to be with things that you download.
One of the hardest things that I ever diagnosed was a Netgear Router that was corrupting everything that it downloaded. Default apps on the laptop worked fine, nothing downloaded would. Used a different router and problem solved. Not sure
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I agree but that wouldn't account for the crashes.
 
Update: I replaced the SDD and GPU and PSU, no change, still having issues with crashes like before.
How do you test a motherboard?

I'll be on vacation the next 5 days so I wont be able to check. I did order a motherboard to see if thats the issue but will test next friday.
 
Rydawg5143 said:
Update: I replaced the SDD and GPU and PSU, no change, still having issues with crashes like before.
How do you test a motherboard?

I'll be on vacation the next 5 days so I wont be able to check. I did order a motherboard to see if thats the issue but will test next friday.
Click to expand...
By swapping it out with another one.
 
Rydawg5143 said:
I agree but that wouldn't account for the crashes.
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I disagree, this customer had downloaded the Microsoft Suite, important to her business, two other programs that I cant remember. They would start, Outlook not long after would get this program is not responding. Hang and cause an error, populate a crash screen error 08x000 blah blah blah. Just something to think about. Hope you get it resolved.
 
I got my spare mobo a few hours before I had to leave. Installed it and crashes. IRQL bsod this time. I'm going to order some memory to see if that's it. If not, it's the cpu which would be crazy, in all my years never had a bad cpu.
 
Puterguru said:
I disagree, this customer had downloaded the Microsoft Suite, important to her business, two other programs that I cant remember. They would start, Outlook not long after would get this program is not responding. Hang and cause an error, populate a crash screen error 08x000 blah blah blah. Just something to think about. Hope you get it resolved.
Click to expand...
I do have a spare router and will try that when I get home Friday. I appreciate the help
 
Rydawg5143 said:
I do have a spare router and will try that when I get home Friday. I appreciate the help
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Did you try my suggestion of disabling dynamic clock management?
The CPU ones you can adjust in BIOS, while the GPU ones from within Windows.
It shouldn't take too much of your time, and the results might be interesting.
 
Rydawg5143 said:
I got my spare mobo a few hours before I had to leave. Installed it and crashes. IRQL bsod this time. I'm going to order some memory to see if that's it. If not, it's the cpu which would be crazy, in all my years never had a bad cpu.
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It can happen. IRQL is more likely a memory issue iirc.
 
The CRC errors immediately made me think RAM, especially since the same files were downloaded from different locations with different internet connections and different network hardware. Getting the exact same error in that case typically points to RAM instability. It's possible the RAM could be bad or a RAM slot on the motherboard is bad or the memory controller on the CPU is bad but the most likely culprit would be the RAM itself.

The problem may also be the settings used for the RAM. Not all RAM will be stable with all systems/CPUs even when using XMP settings. Even if XMP settings aren't the problem I have seen motherboards not set the correct RAM voltage when XMP was selected. An example is the XMP settings (for hypothetical DDR RAM) should have the RAM at 1.35v but the motherboard doesn't follow that and sets a default 1.2v. That and the timings are something to check. Turning off XMP settings so the RAM runs at official JEDEC specs is the primary way to test this.
 
memtest is not very good at testing stability.

TM5 w/ Anta777 extreme config is really good at testing memory stability.

CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT BSOD is usually due to either RAM or CPU instability.
 
Back from vacation. Put in new memory, same issues. Played with voltage and xmp as suggested and same issue. Traded out router and didn't change anything after I downloaded new file.

Has to be cpu at this point? Userbenchmark is listed my cpu specs but says it's unable to find it 'cpu missing' and since I've tried different for every other component, it's not the Mobo.

Luckily there is a MC about 20 away where I can get a cpu. Will hopefully try that tomorrow.
 
Sounds like you're going to need a new case too...practicality have enough parts for a new system.
 
Where did you get the OS install? Media Creation Tool and ISO?

Do you still hve all the errors in device manager.
 
try cleaning the cpu's contact pads with an eraser. and make sure everything is at stock, even the ram should be at the base jedec speed.
 
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