Blue Screen issue

nickr1125

So ever since I upgraded my system I have been getting blue screens. It first started when I had my old hard drive in and I went to test the new build with playing a game. It would blue screen and I would be fine playing for 20 minutes until it happened. I got annoyed and went out and bought an NVME SSD and put that in and did a fresh install of Windows 11. After this I got all the drivers and played watchdogs 2 for a half hour before I blue screened to the code "WATCHDOG" which was confusing at first. So come to now I am able to play fh5 on high/ ultra settings perfectly fine for about 30 minutes to an hour and a half. And then I get a lag spike and a crash. The last time it happened I was able to be on my desktop with no lag right after and then I got a blue screen saying NTOSKRNL.EXE. So I did some research and did the sfc file checker. and it found and repaired 2 files. but after that I still blue screened after a while of playing games. So I did the windows ram tester. It failed the first time. So I took the second stick of ram out and then it passed. I kept the first one in but swapped spots. It still passed. Then I took that stick out and put the other one in and it passed in both spots. So I put them both back in and it passed. And I am still struggling with the random blue screens. I don't know what it is. Can anyone help?

nickr1125

current specs

Ryzen 9 7950x

X670 E-PRO WIFI

RX480 8GB

32 GB GSKILL DDR5 6000

PowerSpec_MikeW

@nickr1125

You failed once, that indicates it is a memory issue, though it's close to stable. You could run it a dozen time and fail half or less, the Windows Memory Diagnostics is a short test. Memtest86 is a better test: https://www.memtest86.com/

Main reason being it throws 13 different tests at the RAM over a much longer period, and the tests that failed can tell you more about why you're unstable. Based on what you mentioned so far, it doesn't sound like a bad module, just that you're unstable running in dual channel mode. What's the model of the GSkill RAM and did you load the XMP/Expo profile?

nickr1125

https://community.microcenter.com/discussion/comment/49470#Comment_49470

I can't fine the expo setting in bios. I also just went in today and traded the ram sticks in for new ones. Still having the issue but noticed it got a lot worse when I manually adjusted the bios ram settings to 6000mhz

PowerSpec_MikeW

@nickr1125

It would be under AI Tweaker - AI Tuner Overclock Tuner. It'll either be DOCP or EXPO. Recommend II rather than I. Are you just setting the speed up to 6000?

nickr1125

https://community.microcenter.com/discussion/comment/49516#Comment_49516

Yes that's what I did and I blue screened twice in just five minutes of gaming after that.

but I also saw the latest bios update was in beta and I saw something about high speed ram in it. not sure how to update bios though. and I need to go out and buy a bigger flash drive.

PowerSpec_MikeW

@nickr1125

You loaded the DOCP/EXPO and it still crashed? Worth trying the latest BIOS, has the newest 1.0.0.6 AGESA firmware. It's going to be a very small file, less than 32MB. Just throw the file on a flash drive, go to Tools - EZ flash and select the file.

nickr1125

https://community.microcenter.com/discussion/comment/49518#Comment_49518

Ok so I enabled expo and omg I have never blue screened that much. it was almost impossible to get the bios update. But I got it and it's done. now I'm scared to enable expo but have not blue screened yet with new bios.

PowerSpec_MikeW

@nickr1125

Might be stable on the JEDEC then. Try it, if you BSOD you can just clear CMOS. It's likely that 6000 is pushing it. If it BSOD's, I'd try load EXPO then drop your frequency to say 5600 and see if it stabilizes.

nickr1125

https://community.microcenter.com/discussion/comment/49521#Comment_49521

alright expo II is enabled and so far so good. ill update in a few days if I have no issues

nickr1125

Alright so with expo enabled I got a blue screen after 40 minutes. With expo disabled and running at 4800 I ran into no issues. So i guess you can call it partially fixed. Ill just take the hit and run with slower ram.

PowerSpec_MikeW

@nickr1125

You can do better, you can probably hit 6000. EXPO/XMP/DOCP are overclocks, they're never guaranteed. If they're not stable on your platform then you have to tweak it manually. Going EXPO then lowering the frequency so it sets the primary timings and voltage for you should work. 5600 or 5200 are likely to be fine there. Pushing it further is going to involve diving into secondary/tertiary timings and various voltage and impedance values. It can get a little tedious given how long it can take to verify you're stable when you're on the edge.

JMez

My Lenovo V14-ADA (S/N: pf35aebp) is experiencing the same "clock watchdog timeout" blue screen. I purchased the laptop in January 2022 from another business. Shannon, at the St. Davids PA location, ran the diagnostics. Prior to taking the laptop to the MC Service Center in St. Davids, I reformatted the "C" partition twice after selecting the "Advanced Options" under "Recovery", then reinstalled Windows 11 Home twice, with the problem worsening to where it won't boot into Windows. Any thoughts on whether the problem is related to corrupted files or hardware instability (SSD or other)?

PowerSpec_MikeW

@JMez

Should be able to boot to the Lenovo diagnostics with F10, if the partition is still there. Gradual crashing and OS corruption could be a drive. Generally I'd lean towards RAM, but if that's the case you usually get random BSOD's rather than the same one every time. It's useful to have the memory dump. If you've reinstalled windows and it's crashing, you can pull those with bluescreenview: https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/bluescreenview-x64.zip

That would tell us more. If you're stuck and have to reinstall windows. You can't access built in diagnostics, I'd start with memory. Memtestx86 is free, you can boot into it and test without an OS.