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Problem on PC with BSOD

Fouskas7

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Hello everyone,
So I have a BSOD problem with my PC for about 2 years now.
I will try to be very detailed because I am really frustrated and don't know what the issue is, although I am 90% sure it has to be hardware issue at this point.
Starting with my current build:

Motherboard: Z690 AORUS ELITE AX (rev. 1.x)
RAM: KINGSTON FURY BEAST 16GB (2 X 8GB) 5200MHZ DDR5 BLACK KF556C40BBK2-16
CPU: Intel Core i5-13600K 3.5 GHz 14-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 50.5 CFM CPU Cooler
GPU: Gigabyte Vision OC GeForce RTX 3060 Ti 8 GB
PSU: Cooler Master V650 Gold V2 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply
Storage: Samsung 980 Pro 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive, Western Digital Blue 1 TB 3.5" 5400 RPM Internal Hard Drive
Case: NZXT H440 ATX Mid Tower Case
Case Fans: 3 in the front are the ones that came with the case (I think 3xNZXT FN V2 120mm), I added 3 on top: Cooler Master Silencio FP 120 3-Pin Fan and one on back THERMALTAKE CASE FAN LUNA 14 LED BLUE (140MM, 1000 RPM) BOX
Monitors: Main: dell g2724d (display port), Secondary: aoc 24g2u (display port)
Operating System: Windows 11 Pro

Ok, so in case this is a hardware issue I believe it is one of the following components (psu, mobo, cpu, ram) because I changed the ssd (I had the same one with Heatsink bought second hand but sealed) since I thought that it was causing the issue and was the cheapest one I could replace and the rest of the components were used in my previous pc (except the Dell Monitor) which I had for about 7 years and never had any BSOD issue ever (same desk, same case fans, same power outlets/room/building etc, 550W bronze coolermaster psu that I have since ~2009 and still works fine).
I built the PC around November 2022 so I bought the CPU as soon as it came out, it was probably one of the first pieces. I also built it on my own and had to QFlash update the Mobo to the version that supported the CPU. Everything went fine, I also used XMP since ram was on 4800 due to mobo restrictions and made it 5200.
After some use I kept getting crashes and restarts probably when system was pretty stressed if I remember correctly. I checked temperatures of components, they were fine. First thing I tried was to disable XMP and have the ram sticks run at default speed allowed by mobo. At first I thought the problem was fixed but after some time it started all over again. I tried troubleshooting with microsoft support, tried hundreds of suggestions, booting in safe mode, trying to collect dumps because there were not any, at some point I managed to send some dump files and someone suggested it was a driver issue with an app (called droidcam I think). I removed the app but the problem appeared again eventually. The thing is that as soon as it happens it's like the PC gets trapped in a loop of crashes boot after boot until it finally stops at some point and it works fine and the problem might reappear like 2 days or a week later and start the crash loop all over again. To break the loop I had to try many things like many reboots and troubleshooting, or even let it shut for a day or two and then it would boot fine. I formatted windows a lot of times since I thought it was software issue related to drivers but at some point the crash happened even during format process when windows were installing.
So I decided to change the ssd since it was the most suspicious component that I did not buy from an official store and with the new one things were a lot better for a long time, but I would get some crashes from time to time but in much smaller frequencies.
At this point I'd like to add that using software like crystalDiskINFO all my storage drives seems to be in perfect condition.
Last week I upgraded my monitor buying the dell one and since then it has been a mayhem of crashes which make no sense at all. It started with BSOD "unmountable boot volume" almost as soon as I connected the monitor using the display port that came together in the box. I broke out of this BSOD loop by usually running 'sfc /scannow' in troubleshoot or after a lot of restarts and leaving the pc afk for hours randomly, I don't really know. I changed the display port using another one but the crashes eventually reappear. At some point I thought it might be a graphics card driver issue, because I did not format the pc when I plugged the new monitor, I only did a windows update for a dell monitor driver and I think an Nvidia driver update. Eventually I decided to do a clean windows reinstallation hoping it was a software issue but I found out that during the BSOD crashing loop I could not find the SSD drive to select for installing windows. At first I thought it was a irst driver issue but I tried installing all of them from mobo website and driver was still not found. Then I went backwards in the mobo bios versions, I also cleared CMOS by removing battery but nothing. And at some point I broke out of BSOD crash loop randomly again and logged in to windows, I immediately restarted PC to format and the ssd disk was there to select. So I managed to go on with the format and after doing a clean windows reinstallation hoping that all drivers are good (I also used gigabyte's app center for driver installation) the pc was good. I did a lot of restarts and shutting of and reboot to test and no problem. I went out for a coffee and come back 2 hours later, open PC and again BSOD "unmountable boot volume". I tried a lot of restarts and "sfc /scannow" to manage to boot and here I am writing this message. Before the monitor the BSOD crashes were not related to the "unmountable boot volume" error but something like volmgr I don't really remember.
It seems like when the crash loop happens it's like mobo/cpu does not recognise the ssd drive for some reason like it's not there? But what does this have to do with the new monitor?
This is truly frustrating and I know it is very hard to debug and help without logs and stuff but it would be really helpful if anyone had any similar issues or knows something.
Probably it is a hardware issue between one of these (psu, mobo, cpu, ram) but I really have no warranty anymore for anything and I really don't know any store here in my place that can fix any of these or even reproduce the problem and show it to someone since it happens randomly...
My last resort will be to slowly replace these parts (psu, mobo, cpu, ram) and hope I spend the least amount of money possible until it is fixed.
For ram I have used some apps like memtest86 and windows memory diagnostic and results are clean, so probably will be the last I replace starting from the psu? I would also suspect the psu because when I start the PC it does a really loud sound like the fan is scratching something for like a minute or 2, probably to heat up? I think this was not happening from day 1 so it's like it's faulty. Also, when I am in crash loop or not crash loop the reboots are continuous so this sound does not happen. If I leave the PC shut for some time, hence on next boot PSU will need to heat up/make sound for a while, on the next boot the crash loop may reappear like it happened now. But why getting a new monitor would stress PSU? it has its own power supply...
Any help/suggestion would be really appreciated.
Thanks for your time!
 

eidairaman1

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What Error Codes are you getting? Get bluescreen viewer too
 

Fouskas7

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What Error Codes are you getting? Get bluescreen viewer too
If you are talking about BlueScreenView app I don't think it will be of any help since there are no minidump files created from the crashes.
The error codes are usually these:
 

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eidairaman1

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You can go on you tube to find out how to configure windows so it produces a mini dump file

Anyways

Unmountable boot volume


If you are talking about BlueScreenView app I don't think it will be of any help since there are no minidump files created from the crashes.
The error codes are usually these:
 

Fouskas7

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Nothing I haven't tried yet on this article and even in case of hardware error, the article suggest that it is the ssd (impossible because it's the second one I bought thinking the first one was the problem, no way I bought 2 broken ssds in a row) or the ram which from the diagnostics I ran there is no indication of problem but I will search it some more.
 

eidairaman1

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The ssd
Nothing I haven't tried yet on this article and even in case of hardware error, the article suggest that it is the ssd (impossible because it's the second one I bought thinking the first one was the problem, no way I bought 2 broken ssds in a row) or the ram which from the diagnostics I ran there is no indication of problem but I will search it some more.
ssd could have been from the exact same batch, same with ram, worst case is your motherboard and or cpu being fucked
 

Fouskas7

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The ssd

ssd could have been from the exact same batch, same with ram, worst case is your motherboard being fucked
I doubt its the ssd because I bought the first one november 2022 second hand and the second one february 2024 from official store so highly unlikely to be the same batch.
Also from the diagnostics it does not seem to be ram, so I agree I am afraid its the mobo.
I will try to take it all out and rebuild from scratch maybe there is a build error which is also unlikely but you never know and then I will start replacing components.
Thanks for the help anyway
 
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I would also suspect the psu because when I start the PC it does a really loud sound like the fan is scratching something for like a minute or 2, probably to heat up? I think this was not happening from day 1 so it's like it's faulty.

Tried another power supply?
 

Fouskas7

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Not yet probably I will try to change components this way ram -> psu -> mobo -> cpu as long as the problem persists, since it is the cheapest way but I have a feeling its mobo issue...
 

eidairaman1

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Not yet probably I will try to change components this way ram -> psu -> mobo -> cpu as long as the problem persists, since it is the cheapest way but I have a feeling its mobo issue...
For the error produced it will be mobo or cpu after ssd
 
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I doubt its the ssd because I bought the first one november 2022 second hand and the second one february 2024 from official store so highly unlikely to be the same batch.
Also from the diagnostics it does not seem to be ram, so I agree I am afraid its the mobo.
I will try to take it all out and rebuild from scratch maybe there is a build error which is also unlikely but you never know and then I will start replacing components.
Thanks for the help anyway
Your board has 4 m.2 slots. Have you tried switching your SSDs to completely different slots yet?
 
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Just because a RAM test doesn't report any errors, it doesn't mean there aren't any. It just means there probably isn't, this is why I don't bother with them, if one suspects the ram, they should replace it with another brand and try it out, simply as that. From what is posted here smart money is the motherboard and PSU. It could be that the PSU damaged the mobo in some way and now that is causing further issues. so getting a new mobo without a new PSU is imo foolish, considering the system here is ruined. Motherboards are extremely complicated, one small damaged inductor or capacitor or IC could lead to all kinds of weird stuff, a mobo is a network of precisely matched impedances and if something small is damaged or altered it could affect the signals and cause errors and instability.
So Id get a new mobo, PSU, and preferable different brands too.
 

Fouskas7

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I just quickly rebuilt everything, checked psu cables and stuff to see if there is any visible damage, took out and in again ram sticks, gpu, cpu cooler, refreshed paste, only thing I did not take out is cpu and sys fans but they are not connected to mobo, they go to an adapter of the case that takes power directly from psu.
So I connected only, keyboard, mouse, ethernet and only the Dell QHD monitor to gpu through display port for now and there is no crash yet. I will just wait to see if anything happens with the system like this just so I can make sure there is no peripheral issue, or more than one monitor issue and go on from there.
 

eidairaman1

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What did you remove?
 

Fouskas7

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Nothing really important appart from the 2nd monitor (the AOC FHD 144hz display port)
Some peripherals like:
- USB from wireless headset
- TP-Link USB Hub
- Wired keypad (since I use tenkeyless keyboard)
- The antenna of the mobo which I use because without it bluetooth and wifi are trash
- A razer micro usb cable that I leave always on to charge the mouse

If any of this could have an effect it could be the second monitor.
I will keep all of these off and if I don't have any crashes for at least a week of heavy use I will slowly start connecting them back, starting from the monitor, to see if the crashes return.
 

eidairaman1

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Nothing really important appart from the 2nd monitor (the AOC FHD 144hz display port)
Some peripherals like:
- USB from wireless headset
- TP-Link USB Hub
- Wired keypad (since I use tenkeyless keyboard)
- The antenna of the mobo which I use because without it bluetooth and wifi are trash
- A razer micro usb cable that I leave always on to charge the mouse

If any of this could have an effect it could be the second monitor.
I will keep all of these off and if I don't have any crashes for at least a week of heavy use I will slowly start connecting them back, starting from the monitor, to see if the crashes return.
For the kind of error produced dealing with unmountable boot drive, id be very wary of your mobo and cpu, i would still look at the cpu alignment in the lga and make sure pins arent damaged.
 

brutalame

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13600k instability issue. Use your warranty for it, Intel extended it up to 5 years. I would also update the bios to the lastest version.
 

Fouskas7

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But how can I prove that the issue comes from cpu? do you have any more info you can share on this instability issue of the cpu?
 

eidairaman1

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brutalame

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But how can I prove that the issue comes from cpu? do you have any more info you can share on this instability issue of the cpu?
 
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Did you directly copy your old ssd to your new one? If so, try reinstalling windows
 
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