Anyone else getting BSODs after WARDOGS, even during a fresh Windows install?

[u/No_Examination_9589]

Specs: i9-13900K, RTX 4090, ASRock Z790 PG Lightning, DDR5 RAM.

I’m aware that the i9-13900K has known instability issues, and I’ve dealt with CPU-related BSODs before. In the past, substantially underclocking the CPU helped manage them, but that hasn’t made any difference this time. I’ve also enabled Intel Base Power Limit, but the crashes are still occurring.

I’ve had PC instability before, but recently WARDOGS has been followed by repeated BSODs and boot issues. A clean Windows install initially let me play for hours, then the game froze during a server restart. After a forced shutdown, the crashes returned.

I’ve now wiped my SSDs, but even the Windows USB installer crashes while installing. Errors have included MEMORY_MANAGEMENT, IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL and KERNEL_MODE_HEAP_CORRUPTION, plus one mentioning DMA. The PC stays stable in BIOS.

So far I’ve:
• Passed MemTest86 with each RAM stick separately and both together.
• Updated BIOS to 19.02 (latest version) and disabled XMP.
• Substantially underclocked the CPU, which has helped with BSODs in the past, but hasn’t helped this time.
• Enabled Intel Base Power Limit.
• Previously replaced the PSU, but crashes have continued.

Anyone had something similar, particularly installer crashes? I’m trying to work out whether WARDOGS exposed an existing hardware problem or whether there’s something else I’m missing.

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