Question Blue Screen of Death after gaming. Auto-repair freezes, so does USB recovery drive

[Reven]

Hi folks,

Would love to get your input on how to fix my PC. It's been running fine, then out of nowhere I had a BSOD while gaming. I got the irql_not_less_or_equal error.

When I reboot, it crashes at startup. About 2 seconds into the Windows logo (with the loading dots getting about 50% through, around 11 o'clock). Sometimes it'll say "attempting automatic repair", sometimes not, but it always freezes by the 11 o clock mark.

The weird thing is, one time, after letting it off for a day, it was able to boot up fine! I loaded up my game and it crashed within 5 minutes, this time giving me an "attempted write to readonly memory" error.

I rebooted again, and it crashed as I logged into Windows with the IRQL error. I am now getting the same errors and inability to boot as I was in the beginning.

I tried making a USB recovery disk like this guide recommends: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...da5#bkmk_win11_use_installation_media_restore

The Windows + L button didn't work for me.

In my bios, when I hit F11, I am able to pick which device to boot from. I get my USB stick (and the partition 1 option), but both crash. Choosing the main stick, I get a slightly different Windows screen, but same freeze at the first few seconds of loading bar.

What do I need to fix? THANK YOU

Pics here to help track:

https://imgur.com/a/xpmBwf7

Hardware specs:
Ryzen 7 1700
G.skill Flare X DDR4 2400 2x8gb
Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti
Seasonic M12II 620wt PSU
ASRock X370 Taichi

 

[Shmee]

Sounds like bad RAM. Run memtest86 to check for errors. It could also be CPU or your drive, but since you tried booting from USB and still had issues, it is likely not the drive.

 

[Reven]

Hmm, I tried the Memtest default test and I passed with no errors? Good sign I hope?

Updated image link:

https://imgur.com/a/xpmBwf7

Also sorry about the poor quality images, best I can do given I cant take normal screenshots...

 

[Shmee]

Hmm, I tried the Memtest default test and I passed with no errors? Good sign I hope?

Updated image link:

https://imgur.com/a/xpmBwf7

Also sorry about the poor quality images, best I can do given I cant take normal screenshots...

Looks like memtest did indeed pass, so I would suspect CPU next. I assume you aren't OCing the CPU, but it could still be unstable. You could try resetting the BIOS to defaults if you are. Also, updating the BIOS to a newer BIOS might help, or at very least you could then try an upgrade to a 5700X, or test with another Ryzen CPU.

Beyond that, you could try to check your drives, though I doubt that is the problem. Or start testing by swapping out PSU, other components etc...if you don't have spare parts, you could bring the whole computer to a repair shop to test.

I am leaning towards some problem with the Ryzen 1700, and a 5700X would be a great upgrade anyway.

Lastly, have you checked temperature on the CPU recently? Or checked the cooler?

 

[Reven]

Thanks for this.

I do remember having some system instability a few years back. I was overlocking at the time, and stopped after to help. This was especially a problem when I was cryptocurrency mining.

I stopped OC'ing, did Prime95 tests and had no issues. Ironically the crypto mining still was a bit buggy but everything else was fine.

To be safe, I tried pushing the BIOS back to defaults and rebooted, but still have the same issue.

ONE time I was able to make it past "attempting automatic repair". Windows gave me a generic "detected an error" and recommended starting with a system restore point. However, it was frozen on that page, and I couldn't get it to continue with the restore point.

I havent checked the CPU temperature recently. Cooler looks fine, albeit it dusty. I tried cleaning a bit off to no avail.

 

[C1]

Pretty sure it's an OS software issue (ie, something got dis-combobolated ).

Some things to try:

https://www.tomshardware.com/how-to/fix-irql-not-less-or-equal-errors-windows

Good Luck

PS: Oh ya, you could also try an SFC /scannow repair.
(Try that first.)

Redirecting

 

[igor_kavinski]

Could be some component failing on the mobo.