Greetings. Recently I had some random BSODs on my new gaming rig. What really concerns me, that it can be hardware issue, cause it's latest Intel's "special edition" CPU - 9900KS, so I am really worried that I had a bad luck and something wrong with my chip.
Below is tl;dr version with dumps attached + long version of whats happening.
OS - Windows 10, 1909 (Build 18363.592)
· 64bit
· Was originally pre-installed by gaming rig-building company; OEM edition of home version
· The rig is 2 months old
· Never reinstalled OS since
· Desktop PC
· i9-9900KS
· 2080Ti FE (founder's edition from NVIDIA)
· Asus ROG Maximus Hero XI
· Corsair RMX 850W
· HyperX Predator 2x16 RGB DDR4
· M.2 Evo 970 Plus 250GB (for system) + M.2 Evo 970 Plus 1TB (for everything else) (No RAID)
· CPU Cooled by Noctua NH-D14 (really massive air cooler), no water-cooling, stock cooling on GPU
· Everything runs at default, no overclocking on GPU, CPU, RAM
tl;dr: First time since 2 months of smooth sailing encountered different BSODs while playing particular game: Escape from Tarkov (EFT). Before BSOD windows event manager logs some WHEA-Logger Cache Hierarchy errors, but BSOD itself never was with WHEA-Logger which is strange for me. For the first time I thought that must be software related (game itself is in deep beta very far from release), tho it still concerned me, that the game can crash with BSOD, but the latest BSOD was after playing the game (maybe it still was running in processes somehow, I can't really remember or check). I check temps on every game I play on this rig with HWMonitor, and they are always fine even in this case. I play different "heavy" games like Rainbow Six: Siege, Elder Scrolls Online etc. - never had any problems, temps are OK (never above 68-70-ish C under heavy load like R6 on very high settings), but something wrong happening while\after playing EFT.
Long story with some notes:
Rig was build by specialized company there in Russia, everything brand new (literally 2 months old, was build around mid November 2019), it's under warranty, so I can ask them for support\change in parts, but I don't really want right now, cause I am not sure if it is software related, or I really have something wrong with my hardware.
What I noted from the start - as this company provides different builds with different parts (you can choose with builder your CPU, you mobo etc) - they use OEM version of Windows with different pre-installed tools for everything, what I mean is - I don't have EVGA parts, or MSI, but I noticed, that some MSI and EVGA related programs (with RGB tuning and such) were pre-installed nonetheless. I even had to remove them, because EVGA RGB program was still running it's services which were messing with my Corsair RGBs and I believe some "traces" of these programs may still be loading at startup, because I always see some Asus related services stop in Event manager after booting up.
I already noticed WHEA-logger errors before (no BSODs) while playing different game (don't remember which one) - the first time got really unhappy and worried, even read up that Meltdown\Spectre protection from this exploits maybe causing this on new Intel CPUs, so I disabled Spectre protection with inSpectre program - can't really tell if that was the case, or I stopped playing that particular game - never saw WHEA-logger error's since - switched to playing R6, Path of Exile, Mortal Kombat 11 and ESO - never saw any of them during that time, log was really clean, no problems at all.
Then, like 1 week ago, picked up EFT. Temps are fine as always, FPS are good, everything working as intended, but then random BSOD occurs - IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL and Event manager logged multiple WHEA-Logger errors with cache hierarchy error.
I don't have tools for debugging full dump, so I went with BlueScrenView - noticed that there was xusb22.sys with ntoskrnl.exe - quick google said that xusb22.sys is driver for wireless x-box type controller, and I always have mine connected, just in case I want to play MK11. Also people on reddit reported that some of them have experienced BSOD and odd behavior while playing EFT with controller connected, so I unplugged it.
WHEA-Logger got me concerned again and I went ahead and successfully updated BIOS to the latest version from official ASUS website. BIOS settings were default, not even a sign of overclocking, even rig manufacturer never changed anything in there, and after BIOS update it's for sure went to defaults, because I disabled RGBs and USB charging in state-off after updating (they are enabled by default). XMP is off (I don't know for what it is and do I need to enable it).
2 days later again same BSOD - IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL, xusb22.sys is not the case, cause I unplugged my controller.
At this point I thought it's definitely something with the game, everything was fine while playing other games.
Today, after EFT servers went down and had to ALT+F4 from the game (mentioning this because it could possibly was still in the processes after that) I was surfing with chrome, waiting for them to back up and suddenly a BSOD - different this time - SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION.
I always keep windows up to date with NVIDIA drivers.
Did a CinebenchR20 and CPU-Z test to see if it is something to do with CPU being under heavy load - nothing, no WHEA-errors, no BSODs, temps are fine during the tests.
Windows memory test - no errors
Windows integrity test - no errors
Device manager shows no problems with any of the listed devices, tho, I have to mention, my keyboard is pretty old, and I have to unplug it when shutting down and I need to plug it again after boot - otherwise it won't work after full shut down, POST will warn that there is no keyboard attached and device manager will show controller error or something like that, on reset it is fine - I think cause it's old usb 2.0 keyboard, but this never bothered me.
Below I will attach collector files.
Sorry for any grammar or spelling mistakes, English is not my native language.
Below is tl;dr version with dumps attached + long version of whats happening.
OS - Windows 10, 1909 (Build 18363.592)
· 64bit
· Was originally pre-installed by gaming rig-building company; OEM edition of home version
· The rig is 2 months old
· Never reinstalled OS since
· Desktop PC
· i9-9900KS
· 2080Ti FE (founder's edition from NVIDIA)
· Asus ROG Maximus Hero XI
· Corsair RMX 850W
· HyperX Predator 2x16 RGB DDR4
· M.2 Evo 970 Plus 250GB (for system) + M.2 Evo 970 Plus 1TB (for everything else) (No RAID)
· CPU Cooled by Noctua NH-D14 (really massive air cooler), no water-cooling, stock cooling on GPU
· Everything runs at default, no overclocking on GPU, CPU, RAM
tl;dr: First time since 2 months of smooth sailing encountered different BSODs while playing particular game: Escape from Tarkov (EFT). Before BSOD windows event manager logs some WHEA-Logger Cache Hierarchy errors, but BSOD itself never was with WHEA-Logger which is strange for me. For the first time I thought that must be software related (game itself is in deep beta very far from release), tho it still concerned me, that the game can crash with BSOD, but the latest BSOD was after playing the game (maybe it still was running in processes somehow, I can't really remember or check). I check temps on every game I play on this rig with HWMonitor, and they are always fine even in this case. I play different "heavy" games like Rainbow Six: Siege, Elder Scrolls Online etc. - never had any problems, temps are OK (never above 68-70-ish C under heavy load like R6 on very high settings), but something wrong happening while\after playing EFT.
Long story with some notes:
Rig was build by specialized company there in Russia, everything brand new (literally 2 months old, was build around mid November 2019), it's under warranty, so I can ask them for support\change in parts, but I don't really want right now, cause I am not sure if it is software related, or I really have something wrong with my hardware.
What I noted from the start - as this company provides different builds with different parts (you can choose with builder your CPU, you mobo etc) - they use OEM version of Windows with different pre-installed tools for everything, what I mean is - I don't have EVGA parts, or MSI, but I noticed, that some MSI and EVGA related programs (with RGB tuning and such) were pre-installed nonetheless. I even had to remove them, because EVGA RGB program was still running it's services which were messing with my Corsair RGBs and I believe some "traces" of these programs may still be loading at startup, because I always see some Asus related services stop in Event manager after booting up.
I already noticed WHEA-logger errors before (no BSODs) while playing different game (don't remember which one) - the first time got really unhappy and worried, even read up that Meltdown\Spectre protection from this exploits maybe causing this on new Intel CPUs, so I disabled Spectre protection with inSpectre program - can't really tell if that was the case, or I stopped playing that particular game - never saw WHEA-logger error's since - switched to playing R6, Path of Exile, Mortal Kombat 11 and ESO - never saw any of them during that time, log was really clean, no problems at all.
Then, like 1 week ago, picked up EFT. Temps are fine as always, FPS are good, everything working as intended, but then random BSOD occurs - IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL and Event manager logged multiple WHEA-Logger errors with cache hierarchy error.
I don't have tools for debugging full dump, so I went with BlueScrenView - noticed that there was xusb22.sys with ntoskrnl.exe - quick google said that xusb22.sys is driver for wireless x-box type controller, and I always have mine connected, just in case I want to play MK11. Also people on reddit reported that some of them have experienced BSOD and odd behavior while playing EFT with controller connected, so I unplugged it.
WHEA-Logger got me concerned again and I went ahead and successfully updated BIOS to the latest version from official ASUS website. BIOS settings were default, not even a sign of overclocking, even rig manufacturer never changed anything in there, and after BIOS update it's for sure went to defaults, because I disabled RGBs and USB charging in state-off after updating (they are enabled by default). XMP is off (I don't know for what it is and do I need to enable it).
2 days later again same BSOD - IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL, xusb22.sys is not the case, cause I unplugged my controller.
At this point I thought it's definitely something with the game, everything was fine while playing other games.
Today, after EFT servers went down and had to ALT+F4 from the game (mentioning this because it could possibly was still in the processes after that) I was surfing with chrome, waiting for them to back up and suddenly a BSOD - different this time - SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION.
I always keep windows up to date with NVIDIA drivers.
Did a CinebenchR20 and CPU-Z test to see if it is something to do with CPU being under heavy load - nothing, no WHEA-errors, no BSODs, temps are fine during the tests.
Windows memory test - no errors
Windows integrity test - no errors
Device manager shows no problems with any of the listed devices, tho, I have to mention, my keyboard is pretty old, and I have to unplug it when shutting down and I need to plug it again after boot - otherwise it won't work after full shut down, POST will warn that there is no keyboard attached and device manager will show controller error or something like that, on reset it is fine - I think cause it's old usb 2.0 keyboard, but this never bothered me.
Below I will attach collector files.
Sorry for any grammar or spelling mistakes, English is not my native language.
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