BSODs Z170 Pro4S

I'll be stress testing my GPU with FurMark/FireStrike, the CPU, using Prime95, and Memtest86 as well to see if I can crash my computer on command every time. Hopefully this will help narrow down and pin point the main culprit.

I also monitored the temperatures of my GPU, CPU, and Motherboard. They all seem to be in stable ranges. nothing crazy over 65C on full load. and ~33C idle.

Pandahugs wrote: Okay, so I have good news! I have found the cause of the crashes. It is the motherboard's PCIE1 slot! It always crashes to BSOD, but I placed the GPU onto the other PCIE slot 4, and so far no BSODs or errors. :D So far so good, running WoW for about 1 hour now :)! It's so crazy how troubleshooting this can take so long XD

Glad you found the problem! But I am curious about a few things, if you care to discuss this.

To review, you tested on your previous board, the Z170 Pro4s, correct?

THe Z170 Pro4S board seems to have a defective PCIe x16 slot. Ignoring that possibility for now...

You said it was the PCIE1 slot, when used with your video card, caused the BSODs, and using the PCIE4 slot for the video card resulted in no crashing or BSODs.

Forgive my (ex-) programmer mindset, where everything must be perfection. The first PCIe x16 slot is actually the PCIE2 slot. The PCIE1 slot is a PCIe 3.0 x1 slot, that you did not use with the video card, correct?

You said you used the PCIE4 slot of the Pro4S, without any BSODs. Are you aware that the PCIE4 slot, while it is x16 physically, is an x4 slot electrically. That is, it is only connected to four PCIe 3.0 lanes, instead of the 16 PCIe 3.0 lanes connected to the PCIE2 slot. You could get reduced performance using the PCIE4 slot, although the Pro4S board may not be welcome in your home anymore, or relegated to another task.

You mentioned reorienting the PSU and mother board "... for less heat and better airflow." I don't know how you could reorient a mother board, but did you ever monitor system temperatures while gaming?

That is, the CPU and GPU temperature? Also, the voltage regulator/power supply circuitry for the CPU is not cooled as well (small heat sink, only one heat sink) compared to your new Extreme7+. Depending upon the cooling ability of the fans mounted in your PC case, you might have experienced over heating of the CPU power circuitry.

Video cards can emit much of their waste heat into the PC case. The video card in the PCIE2 slot is very close to the CPU power circuitry, and depending upon the CPU cooler you use, and its fan speed configuration and orientation, over heating of those components is possible. Even when the CPU is not under a full load, which is typical while gaming.

The potential clue about that is, with the video card in the PCIE4 slot, twice as far away from the CPU power circuitry as it was in the PCIE2 slot, the problem seems to no longer exist. That extra space between the video card and that circuitry may have made the difference, plus your recent change for improved cooling. Plus the video card was running at x4, not x16.

That your problem only began recently could be caused by dust accumulation inside the PC, on fans, the CPU cooler, mother board, and in the video card itself. While you were chasing the BSODs with the error messages they gave, the actual cause could have been heat related, including the video card itself over heating.

Just something to consider

I didn't try that yet, but I switch the motherboards, and it's working just fine now. No BSODs for about an hour and a half. Though, I'm not sure what part of the motherboard is causing the BSOD's because the CPU test passed, RAM test passed, and PSU test passed as well.

But I'm going to try putting back the old motherboard and try your suggestion.

The new motherboard is a Asrock Extreme 7.

@Xaltar
I ran the DDU, and I still got the BSOD - Memory Management. I also, reinstalled all the drivers that came with this motherboard just for the heck of it, and it crashed with a BSOD but the error stop code was different; it was IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL.
So, I reinstalled the latest drivers to put it back at the same current state with BSOD - memory management.

Do you also get a windows error "display driver has stopped responding and been recovered"?