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So, I never really came back and updated what was going on with my build... I posted over at build a pc reddit (so i could have somewhere to easily post things)https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/dccqfd/please_help_me_figure_out_whats_going_on_with_my/

Its NOT good. not good at all. Just got another BSOD without a video card installed and only 1 of my 2 ram chips.

km:0x9c_genuineintel_stackptr_error_intelppm!mwaitidle

no idea where to go from here. the Motherboard was RMAed, and the new one has the same issues. seems like it's the CPU or RAM, but the ram passed 16 passes of memtest 86 full test suite with 0 errors.

Check for an updated BIOS? Maybe your RMA board came from old stock, and didn't have the latest version.

Bad CPUs are a rare thing in my experience. They're usually either completely fine, or completely dead.

My guess is that the RAM is failing in a way that memtest isn't detecting. You said this was with one of the DIMMs installed... have you tried running with just the other one? Is everything running at stock clocks and voltages?

Yeah, defective CPUs are rare, but it's not impossible.

It has been many months since you last posted; has it been unstable that whole time? If so, how frequently has it been crashing?

It's been crashing off and on. I'd tweak something and the crashes would seem to go away for a week/month then come back again. It's never really been stable. I guess I'll RMA the Ram, and see what happens afterwards.

Redocbew wrote:

Check for an updated BIOS? Maybe your RMA board came from old stock, and didn't have the latest version.

Bad CPUs are a rare thing in my experience. They're usually either completely fine, or completely dead.

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. It'd be really strange for it to be the CPU. I'm also checking for new BIOS almost daily so i'm always on the most recent build

Flashed my BIOS back a version and now, no more temp spikes leading to crashes, and stable idling and idling in games with the built in GPU and only 1 stick of ram... going to attempt to add second chip and do the same tests.

I think they either posted the wrong BIOS file, or something very strange happened during the download/install...

gcrosier wrote:

Flashed my BIOS back a version and now, no more temp spikes leading to crashes, and stable idling and idling in games with the built in GPU and only 1 stick of ram... going to attempt to add second chip and do the same tests.

I think they either posted the wrong BIOS file, or something very strange happened during the download/install...

Did you reset to defaults after installing the new BIOS? Sometimes new BIOSes aren't 100% compatible with the settings from the previous version.

so with this BIOS install, it always resets to default automatically. I have to go back in and set XMP and Overclocking settings (if i'm using it) whenever I change the BIOS.

It's still a good idea to do a manual reset anyway. It's the only way to be sure!

I'll do that when I get home actually.