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Desktop computer

  • ASUS TUF Gaming X570-Plus (Wi-Fi), BIOS 4802
  • AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
  • 32GB DDR4 PC4-17000
  • RX6600
  • SSD Samsung 860 EVO 1TB
  • Windows 11 Pro 23H2 Build 22631.3296

Since ten days ago, computer started crashing about twice day, most often when its idle, but a couple times while I was working (blue screen). Time between from booting to crash varies from less than an hour to more than ten hours.

Things I've tried, without any success:

  • Dusted and vaccumed all fans
  • Replaced all RAM
  • Replaced video card
  • Updated drivers
  • Uninstalled latest Windows updates
  • Checked SMART status with CrystalDiskInfo ("all good")
  • Run DISM and SFC, no errors.
  • The Event Viewer shows nothing that I see as relevant. The last activity after each crash is a Distributed COM warning, but there are hundreds of those, and most do not align with the crashes.
  • Checked the crash dumps, and I see no pattern (different modules in different crashes):

enter image description here

I own another computer with the same specs. Checking with HWInfo64, the only difference I noted is that the crashing computer shows a higher CPU Package temp. This temp is at 66C now (with a peak of 85C), while on the healthy computer it shows 56C with a peak of 72C. I don't know if this is relevant at all.

At this state I don't know what else to try. Should I replace the motherboard? The processor? Is there anything else I should check?

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  • The temperature doesn't seem to be a problem: 66C with a peak of 85C is not dangerous. If in all the .dmp files the crash is happening in ntoskrnl.exe which is not frequently called from some driver (set BlueScreenView menu Options to drivers only in crash stack), then the best guess is a RAM problem. Run MemTest86 for many hours, even overnight, to fully check the RAM (but also the general functioning).
    – harrymc
    Commented Apr 6 at 19:01
  • 1) Is there an error code on the blue screen? 2) Have you used Samsung Magician to make sure the drive has up-to-date firmware? 3) If the other computer has the same model of processor, you could swap them to see if the problem follows the processor.
    – Andrew Morton
    Commented Apr 6 at 19:02
  • 4) If you've got another SATA data cable, you could try that. 5) What is the make and model of the PSU?
    – Andrew Morton
    Commented Apr 6 at 19:14
  • @harrymc: I replaced the RAM yesterday, and it didn't make a difference.
    – Martin Argerami
    Commented Apr 6 at 19:31
  • @AndrewMorton: Thanks. 1) No error code in the blue screen, and the drivers vary between crashes. 2) Firmware is up to date. 3) I could try that, not easy because both computers are not in the same location. 4) I'll try that. 5) Rosewill CAPSTONE Series, CAPSTONE-550-M, 550W
    – Martin Argerami
    Commented Apr 6 at 19:34

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

(I'm assuming the problem is solved; I've gone from 2+ crashes a day to 48 hours and counting of no crashes)

As mentioned in the comments, it was the bluetooth driver. Noticing that there were no crashes when I removed the bluetooth dongle, I bought a different dongle. Since the one causing the crashes was a 5.1, I bought a 5.4 with the expectation that it would require a different driver.

Before anything I uninstalled all bluetooth drivers from the device manager. This generated a curious side effect that was that the screensaver would not engage: when the time to engage the screensaver would come, the screen would black out for a second and then come back. The screensaver started working correctly when the new bluetooth driver got installed.

The new dongle made Windows install the Barrot Bluetooth 5.4 Adapter driver, as opposed to the previous Realtek Bluetooth 5.1 Adapter driver, that is possibly the culprit. A 24+hour run of Verifier.exe did not find anything wrong with the old driver, though the driver kept crashing the system regularly.

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