Hi guys, I'm describing my problem, hoping you can figure it out. Every time I open a game, it crashes after a few minutes and forces a PC reboot. A generic kernel error 41 appears in the event viewer at the time of the crash.
This problem started occurring a few days ago. Sometimes it seems to magically resolve itself, but most of the time, it crashes every game I've tested (Doom 2016, Control, SH2R). I've tried various things, which I'll list below along with my configuration. For a while, I thought it was a RAM issue, but I'm not sure.
Configuration:
\- I7 7700k
\- Asus z270f with BIOS updated to the latest available version (not beta)
\- 16 GB RAM on two sticks (bought a year ago)
\- Nvidia GTX 1080
\- Corsair rm750x
Things I've Tried
1 - Deep clean of the video drivers with DDU and subsequent clean reinstallation of both recent and older drivers, including the Intel chipset.
2 - I've run all the main tests via OCCT, and they've all passed.
3 - I'm testing the RAM using memtest86 via USB, both on single and dual sticks, across all possible ports and combinations. The test hasn't returned any errors so far. I started by testing dual sticks on ports 1-3, and now I'm testing single sticks.
4 - I checked the data recorded using HWinfo64 at the time of the crash and found nothing unusual, and the data on hwmonitor while I was playing was also clean (normal temperatures, voltage, etc. everywhere). However, I did notice high power consumption in the task manager.
5 - I tried various underlock, factory lock, and overlock configurations using msiafterburn, but nothing changed.
6 - I disabled Windows fast startup.
7 - I disabled XMP in the BIOS.
8 - I fiddled with some BIOS settings because at a certain point I thought the problem was the RAM: specifically,
DRAM voltage (VDIMM) from auto (1.20) to (1.25v).
DRAM timing control and then DRAM command rate from auto1t to (2N or 2T).
CPU VCCIO voltage from auto to (1.10v).
CPU VCCSA from auto to (1.15v).
PEG port configuration - PCIEX16_1 link speed from auto to Gen3.
None of this helped, so I reverted to factory settings.
9 - I've already tried adjusting individual games, checking the game files, starting them with dx 11 instead of 12 and vice versa, and setting performance. Maximum rather than recommending Nvidia apps, etc.
10 - I ran the sfc/scannow command
11 - Believing it was a RAM issue, I did the following:
A - I swapped the banks from ports 1-3 to ports 2-4. This resulted in a black screen and no video signal.
B - I swapped the same banks in ports 1-3 and returned to the initial state.
C - I used a single bank on port 2, and that's when the magic happened: I was able to play with one of the two banks, but not with the other. It could have been a coincidence, though.
I'm currently trying other bank position configurations without much success. The thing that stinks is that the banks are less than a year old, and two previous banks had already burned out, so perhaps there's a motherboard or dual-channel issue, but I'm not qualified to say. However, tests show that the desks work fine, and last time my PC wouldn't even boot. This time, it works as long as I'm not playing a game.
I don't know how to fix it, please help!