New I3 8100 Coffee Lake system crashing

Hi All,

parsec wrote: CJ133 wrote: Hi All, Just put together a new system and it's behaving pretty bad. All seemed to go well, other than an odd "on, off, back on" behavior when you first start the system but I'm assuming it's normal for this motherboard, but don't know for sure. I've pulled everything I can to get down to the bare minimum and it's still failing.  Last thing I pulled was the M2 hard drive in hopes maybe that was the cause, but still no luck.   I've also pulled one DIMM out, and when it still crashed swapped that with the other one and same result. The last attempt using only the slow 4TB Blue HDD I finally got Windows to install, and when it restarted off of the HDD it crashed.  Never had a problem in UEFI setup, and Memtest86 ran 3 loops off of a thumb drive with zero errors. I also tried to install Ubunutu and it too crashed and restarted while installing. Had the bios check for updates and it says it's up to date.  The Windows 10 installer blue screens appear to be one of two errors depending on when it happens.  If it happens early on it's MACHINE CHECK EXCEPTION.  If it happens later, such as while partitioning the disk it's always WHEA UNCORRECTABLE ERROR. I've tried disabling everything i can think of such as Bluetooth and wifi.  I've also tried underclocking the ram, no luck.  Reset the bios to stock, no luck. ASRock Fatal1ty Z370 Gaming-ITX/ac G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3000 (PC4 24000) Intel Z170 Platform Memory Kit Model F4-3000C15D-16GVKB EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 SC GAMING, ACX 2.0 (Single Fan), 06G-P4-6163-KR, 6GB GDDR5 SAMSUNG 850 EVO M.2 2280 500GB SATA III 3D NAND Internal SSD Seasonic FOCUS Plus Series SSR-650FX 650W 80+ Gold ATX12V & EPS12V Full Modular Intel Core i3-8100 Coffee Lake Quad-Core 3.6 GHz LGA 1151 (300 Series) 65W BX80684I38100  4TB WD Blue drive which I don't have the exact info handy. I'm using the OEM heatsink with the processor.  Like I said though, at this point all I'm running is the motherboard, 8100 processor, ram and the mechanical HDD.   I feel like I'm up a river right now.  Not sure what to do. If you can run the UEFI UI indefinitely without a problem, then it does not seem like the board is the problem. Are you installing Windows 10, etc, from a USB flash drive? Did you have both the M.2 SSD and the HDD in the PC at the same time when installing Windows? I would try either removing the HDD, inserting the M.2 SSD only, and try installing Windows 10. When you boot the USB flash drive, be sure to check the boot order, and select the entry that is "UEFI: <flash drive name>". You should only have one drive in the PC when you install Windows, since if more than one drive is active in the PC during the installation, then Windows will put the boot/system partition on another drive besides the target OS drive, which you don't want to happen. If you're used the HDD in another PC, it may have a boot partition on it that is causing the BSOD. Or it could simply be a bad SATA data cable. I would replace the SATA data cable regardless of any success installing Windows on the M.2 SSD.

Edited by CJ133 - 13 Nov 2017 at 9:17am

"Improves as it warms up"

I would try some RAM that is on the QVL. 

I highly doubt your memory is the problem, your model of G.SKILL memory includes several ASRock Z370 boards in the list. The board is not the major factor determining memory compatibility, it is first the processor, since it contains the memory controller.

Check the QVL list on G.SKILL's page:

https://www.gskill.com/en/product/f4-3000c15d-16gvkb

Your new memory has the same compatibility as the other model you have, but at a lower rated speed. Higher amounts of memory are more difficult to OC, but the new memory is not an over clocking model, so should work fine at its rated speed. If the BSODs stop with the new memory, that would seem to indicate your processor is simply not the greatest for memory over clocks.

https://www.gskill.com/en/product/f4-2400c15d-32gvr

Given the symptoms, IMO you have a driver problem causing the BSODs. Do you have Windows 10 configured to allow automatic driver updates? That is one of the FIRST things I disable in Windows 10, since it has caused nothing but problems in my experience.

When I install Windows 10, I never have the PC connected to the Internet. Once it is installed, I manually install all the drivers (INF files, IME software, storage, LAN, video, audio, etc, drivers and software. Only after that do I connect the PC to the Internet, and never allow Windows to install drivers.

I've had the worst problems when Windows 10 installs video drivers for video cards. For Nvidia based cards, running the driver installer manually prompts you for input at several points during the installation. We get none of that when Windows installs the driver. That alone is not good.

How do you install drivers and basic software for the board?

Your 850 EVO is an M.2 SSD? If so, which M.2 slot are you using? The M2_1, just above the first PCIe slot? Have you ever checked the temperature of that SSD?

Your focus has been only on hardware problems, but we know it's not the first board that was the issue. I've also never had a bad processor, and also never had a bad board. Given your symptoms, I would consider driver or software problems as being more likely the cause of the BSODs.

What is the source of your Windows 10 installation? An optical disk or ISO download from MSoft?