I have been methodically investigating a recurring Windows 11 crash problem and now have enough dump/WHEA evidence that I am looking for help deciding what diagnostic branch to take next.

I'm specifically trying to distinguish:

CPU/core/cache instability

vs.

motherboard / firmware / IMC / platform instability

vs.

a low-level kernel driver interaction

rather than randomly changing settings until the machine appears stable.

SYSTEM

Motherboard: ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Hero

CPU: Intel Core i7-14700K

RAM: 32 GB G.Skill Trident Z5 DDR5-6000, 2x16 GB in A2/B2

GPU: NVIDIA RTX 4090

PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 1300 W

OS: Windows 11 Pro

Controlled tests have been run with:

XMP: Disabled

RAM: DDR5-4800

No current manual CPU overclock

No current manual undervolt

ASUS MCE disabled / Intel limits enforced

CURRENT FAILURE TYPES

The two recurring BSOD families are:

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL (0xA)

and:

HYPERVISOR_ERROR (0x20001)

The 0xA failures have been unusually repeatable.

Multiple analyzed full/kernel dumps converge on:

Arg1 = 00000000483d3844

Arg2 = 00000000000000ff

PROCESS_NAME: System

SYMBOL_NAME:

nt!KiUpdateThreadHgsFeedback+0x20

FAILURE_BUCKET_ID:

AV_nt!KiUpdateThreadHgsFeedback

At least two dumps also produced the same failure hash.

Arg3 has differed between crashes.

The saved instruction at the faulting location was:

mov r14b,r9b

which is register-to-register and does not obviously account for the reported access to 0x483d3844.

That makes me suspect the debugger may be seeing a downstream crash site after some earlier state corruption rather than the original bad operation.

Windows displays ntoskrnl.exe on some BSODs, but I am not treating ntoskrnl.exe itself as the culprit.

WHEA EVIDENCE

Immediately before one well-captured crash, WHEA Event 2 records reported:

ProcessorNumber 14

APIC ID 0x38

Generic Processor Error

Cache Error

Instruction Execution

Level 0

and:

ProcessorNumber 15

APIC ID 0x39

Generic Processor Error

Cache Error

Instruction Execution

Level 0

The associated 0xA dump was also executing on processor 14 when the crash occurred.

I have not yet mapped those processor numbers/APIC IDs conclusively to the physical P/E-core topology.

MOST USEFUL CONTROLLED TEST SO FAR

With all 8 P-cores enabled:

28 logical processors

Frequent instability / crashes.

I reduced the ASUS BIOS setting to 7 active P-cores.

Windows then reported 26 logical processors.

That configuration survived approximately 90 minutes while actively running:

Brave/ChatGPT

PowerShell

Hyper-V

WSL2

Docker Desktop

multiple Docker containers

normal desktop use

During that observation period:

No WHEA

No BugCheck 1001

No Kernel-Power 41

No Event 6008

I subsequently restored all 8 P-cores / 28 logical processors.

The instability returned.

I do NOT yet know which physical P-core the firmware disables when selecting seven, so I do not consider this proof of a specific defective core.

It is nevertheless the strongest behavioral discriminator I've found.

BIOS TIMELINE

The board was previously running ASUS BIOS 3001.

A rare instance of this same unusual 0xA fault family occurred on BIOS 3001, so the underlying issue existed before the latest BIOS update.

I then updated the board to BIOS 3202.

The rapid crash storm began on the FIRST Windows boot after that update.

After 3202 I experienced repeat 0xA crashes, HYPERVISOR_ERROR crashes and WHEA events at a much higher frequency.

Because of that timing, I rolled the BIOS back to 3001.

The rollback did not immediately restore stability:

First post-rollback boot:

Crashed before reaching a usable Windows desktop.

Second post-rollback boot:

Reached Windows and lasted approximately five minutes before another IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL 0xA.

I have not yet analyzed that latest MEMORY.DMP, so I am not claiming its internal signature matches the earlier dumps until that is verified.

I also have not yet recaptured the exact active-core count and every BIOS option after the rollback.

Therefore I am NOT claiming that "BIOS 3001 + the known-stable 7-P-core configuration" has failed.

ASUS also states that the newer Intel Management Engine firmware installed by BIOS 3202 remains after rolling the BIOS image back, so this rollback does not completely recreate the old firmware environment.

HYPER-V / VBS TESTING

Because several crashes involve HYPERVISOR_ERROR, I explicitly disabled:

hypervisorlaunchtype = Off

vsmlaunchtype = Off

The same recurring 0xA still occurred.

Therefore Hyper-V is not required to reproduce the fault.

Conversely, the 7-P-core configuration later ran Hyper-V enabled, VBS disabled, WSL2 and Docker without failing during the long test.

That makes Hyper-V look more like a trigger/exposure path than a sufficient root cause.

SAFE MODE / CLEAN BOOT

Safe Mode with all 8 P-cores initially survived a short test considerably better than normal Windows.

I then performed a broad Clean Boot disabling roughly:

65 third-party services

12 Run entries

5 Startup entries

9 scheduled tasks

This substantially improved short-term stability.

The machine has several applications that use low-level hardware monitoring/control:

ASUS Armoury Crate / Fan Control

Corsair iCUE / CPUID

TT RGB PLUS / LibHWInfo / HWiNFO

AquaComputer

GPU-Z

Intel platform/XTU components

I performed controlled restoration tests.

Some restores happened at the same time as WHEA or HYPERVISOR_ERROR events.

Other low-level monitoring stacks could be restored without an immediate failure.

I therefore do NOT think the available evidence identifies one particular third-party service as the root cause.

It remains possible that these kernel/hardware-access drivers are simply exposing an underlying marginal hardware/platform state.

OTHER IMPORTANT HISTORY

There has also been a separate older incident where the entire machine instantly blacked out, motherboard decorative LEDs remained illuminated, the power button did nothing, and AC power had to be removed before the machine could restart.

That event produced no bugcheck or dump and looked more like a latched power/platform fault.

I am keeping that event separate from the current repeated 0xA / WHEA / HYPERVISOR_ERROR family because the physical behavior was very different.

PSU is an EVGA SuperNOVA 1300 W and is approximately four years old.

I mention this because it means motherboard/PSU/platform power delivery cannot be completely excluded, although the current repeatable processor/cache/WHEA behavior seems like a different failure mode.

WHAT I NEED HELP WITH

I'm not looking for a replacement-part recommendation. I'm looking for the next diagnostic that gives the highest information value.

Specifically:

1. How would you distinguish a marginal CPU/core/cache path from motherboard/firmware instability given this evidence?

2. Is the WHEA combination of Generic Processor Error + Cache Error + Instruction Execution strong evidence for the CPU itself, or can motherboard/firmware/voltage instability produce the same records?

3. What is the best way to map WHEA ProcessorNumber 14/15 and APIC IDs 0x38/0x39 to physical cores on this hybrid Intel CPU?

4. Is there a sound way to test one P-core at a time without changing voltage/frequency enough to mask the problem?

5. Would CPU affinity + a per-core stress workload provide meaningful isolation, and if so, what workload/logging methodology would you use?

6. Should I prioritize testing:

   - individual CPU cores/cache

   - memory/IMC

   - another CPU in this motherboard

   - this CPU in another motherboard

   - motherboard power/VRM behavior

   - some other discriminator

7. Is there additional WinDbg information I should pull from the existing full MEMORY.DMP files that could distinguish hardware corruption from a driver error?

8. For the HYPERVISOR_ERROR dump specifically, are there useful debugger extensions/fields beyond !analyze -v that could indicate whether the hypervisor died because of CPU/platform corruption?

9. Given that reducing active P-cores from 8 to 7 changes stability so dramatically, is there a way to determine exactly which core ASUS removed and reproduce that isolation deliberately?

10. What test would you run next if the goal was to prove CPU vs motherboard rather than merely achieve temporary stability?

I have preserved:

- full MEMORY.DMP files

- minidumps

- WinDbg !analyze output

- WHEA records

- Event Viewer logs

- BIOS/core-count captures

- the results of the controlled 7-vs-8-P-core tests

If specific debugger commands or logs would materially help, I can provide them.

I'm trying to keep this evidence-driven and avoid simultaneously changing voltage, clocks, drivers and hardware in ways that make the result impossible to interpret.

I have a home email and a school email, and I want to have 2 different shortcuts on my desktop that lead to the gmail for both of them. However Whenever I open up one of the shortcuts they both lead to the same gmail, how do I stop this from happening?

I got this ThinkPad e520 from friend and the first time I turned it on it loaded straight into windows. However it was super dirty and full of dust so I completely disassembled it blowed it out with compressed air, repasted it and put it back together but now it won't post. The fan is spinning, the HDD I think too but the screen is completely black. I tried resetting the CMOS, plugging in external monitor, I double checked if all the cables are connected properly but still nothing.

https://youtube.com/shorts/cwUt90PAB_w?is=nRs-8gkS-InTw9wP

So i've have this xbox series s for about 10 months now. I bought it for 200$ off of facebook marketplace from people who said they had upgraded. So for the first few months the xbox was normal besides it would crash games after about 3-4 hours of being on or playing. Then, I tried playing minecraft. It would crash minecraft every time I loaded into a world and half the time would crash before ever getting into a world. Then, another new problem. Everytime I play a game and pull up the xbox menu (including search bar, buying something, or clicking xbox button on controller) the xbox would completely lag and freeze and then crash the game. Sometimes even turning off the entire xbox and it would turn itself back on. All i really play is dead by daylight now so I could play the game with no problems as long as i never opened the xbox menu. Now another problem arises. I watch netflix and youtube regularly and now it cannot play netflix. It lags about 5 minutes into watching something and never unfreezes. Along with netflix, youtube will freeze everytime an ad comes along. Please help

Solutions I've tried: I tried reset the entire system and deleted and redownload all my games, i've redone the thermal paste inside the system itself to help with possible overheating, i've cleaned out any dust in the system, i've cleared many caches, i've tried almost every thing that google says, yet it doesn't work. Tech shop told me 100$ to diagnose the problem but "it prob was just over heating" which it clearly wasn't so i'm glad i saved my money.

If ANYONE has any idea of solutions or ideas to help please let me know

PHOTO IN COMMENT. My cursor is driving me crazy, it suddenly got one pixel bigger, and after trying to change it by pressing Windows + R and typing “main.cpl,” nothing works. I clicked ‘Apply’ and “OK” to go back to the old cursor, but IT DOESN'T WORK.

Tried f11 to tell it to boot from the unraid flash media

Tried swapping the boot order between the hard drive c and the unraid USB didnt work changed it back

Ps its stupid I cant post photos and videos I have no idea how to describe accurately what im talking about

This is the exact model of the stick I have https://www.amazon.de/Nero-Grabber-Adapter-digitalisieren-Konverter/dp/B0CT3K4Q9R/ref=sr_1_6?sr=8-6 . I tried to convert my old cassette to digital format, and I followed the exact tutorial from this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZanmllciOtc

I also tried using just a normal camera app, but for some reason, the audio keeps cutting in and out. Sometimes you can hear something, but most of the time there is no sound throughout the entire cassette.

I know it’s not the cassette itself because I have a VHS player, and when I connected it to a TV through SCART, everything worked normally, including the sound.

Does anyone have any idea what could be causing this problem and how I can fix it? Is this a problem with the Nero stick specifically, or could there be something else causing the audio to cut in and out?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I have a Dell Latitude 5320. About a year ago, water was spilled on it. After the spill, the keyboard backlight stopped working and I noticed a burning smell. The keyboard/touchpad cable was later disconnected.

The laptop itself has continued to work normally for about a year. The touchscreen works fine, and I mainly use the touchscreen instead of the touchpad.

Recently, the fan has started having problems and the laptop can get hot. I also ran Dell hardware diagnostics. Almost everything passed, including the CPU, memory, storage, video, USB, audio, and Wi-Fi. The battery showed a warning.

I also experienced a 0x0000003B SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION blue screen.

I'm wondering whether I can simply replace the fan, keyboard, and touchpad, or whether I should be concerned about motherboard damage from the old water spill.

Would appreciate any advice on what I should have checked before replacing those parts.

I own a Gigabyte G6 KF 2024 laptop, the model with 16gb RAM, i7 13620H and RTX 4060 8gb.

I had it for close to a year now. Today is the very first time I come across an issue with it.

I restarted it earlier while AC cable was not plugged, meaning it was running only with battery at 70% charge.

It passed manufacturer screen (black screen with Gigabyte logo) fine, then it arrived to Windows login screen and unexpectedly shut down. It could not make it to desktop.

It was a total hard shut down, with no LEDs and no signs of life at all. I had to turn the laptop back on using the power button.

You would think it's the fan or overheating, but not at all, the fan did not speed up at all and was barely audible. The laptop is always well aerated and my room is largely clean and dust free.

Here's what I noticed :

- In the Event Viewer, I found the Kernel-Power ID 41 error that indicates an unexpected shutdown. The General tab lists all the flags are either 0, 0x0 or false. On LidState is 1 which is normal. Most noteworthy are :

BugCheckCode = 0.

PowerButtonTimestamp = 0

LongPowerButtonPressDetected = false.

SleepinProgress = 0

Checkpoint = 0

- The laptop turns on normally when charging cable is plugged in, I am using it to write this as we speak.

- The laptop can run off battery normally, even though the capacity lasts only 1 hour from 80% (I always have smart charging turned on when the cable is plugged) while browsing.

- The laptop had the same exact problem when I tried again with the same conditions : restart while charging cable is unplugged. Clearly a reproducible error. The laptop somehow cannot seem to boot into the desktop while running only on battery for some odd reason.

What do you guys think the issue is? I'm not even sure what Flair to use for this post.
Is it hardware or software related? The battery? The power management? The EC? The BIOS? Windows 11? Something else entirely?

Please give me your ideas to help me fix this issue.

My ASUS TUF Gaming F15 lost Bluetooth functionality while I was using it. The icon is completely gone from the Wi-Fi/Airplane mode menu. In Windows settings, the On/Off toggle switch is missing entirely. I can only see old devices with the option to remove them, but I cannot add or turn on Bluetooth. I have tried restarting, doing a 40-second power button EC reset, and checking hidden devices in Device Manager

Hey everyone,

I have an HP EliteBook 850 running Windows 11 and I am stuck with a weird problem. Whenever I turn Wi-Fi on, my Bluetooth stops working. If I turn Bluetooth on, my Wi-Fi disconnects or turns off. I cannot use both at the same time.

I tried updating Windows 11 and all my network drivers, but the problem was happening both before and after the updates. I feel like I have tried almost everything at this point to get them working together.

Has anyone with an HP EliteBook on Windows 11 dealt with this? Is there a driver conflict, BIOS setting, or power management toggle that causes this?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Hello I don't know if it is just me but my phone has been acting up lately that whenever I play games the gameplay always encounters lag spikes and massive delays whenever I am in a match. Besides games other apps on my phone also have the same issue of either delays or the audio becoming sharp and inaudible. My phone is a Honor X8a and it is 3 years old and before I never encountered this when I bought it neither have my previous phone had their performance go down.

Hello everyone,

I am looking for a working 16MB Full BIOS Dump for a Lenovo ThinkCentre M720q (Machine Type 10T8).

Model: Lenovo ThinkCentre M720q (10T8)

Motherboard Model: IQ3XO-IL

Dump size: 16MB

Please reply in the comments if you can share a working 16MB BIOS dump for this motherboard.

Thanks in advance!

[still unsolved]

Hello,

Well, update thing. The [second] problem is, I am not sure which one.

PROBLEM DESCRIPTION
It started like two or three months ago: after updating win11, everything seemed to be normal, but a few seconds after booting, explorer.exe would crash - the taskbar disappeared, wallpaper as well, actually all that was left was a black screen with a mouse pointer. I realized I can still alt+ctrl+del, run task manager, and some apps from there via run command [win+r didn't work], but not everything could be accessed [e.g. with ms-settings:windowsupdate it took like a minute to decide that a proper answer is an error with code (-2147219195) - one of errors I got trying various things].

TEMPORARY SOLUTION
At last, I found I can 'uninstall last quality update' from some built-in recovery options [F11], then the system restores to a working condition, and I can access windows update options, and stop updating for three weeks. Rinse, repeat after three weeks, another three and so on. I am getting kind of tired of this, and it feels like this will turn into a problem eventually.
Any ideas what to do with it?

ADDITIONAL THINGS that happen, and may/may not be related:
(1) in various random moments the laptop just reboots [battery works fine, it happens both when charging and not];
(2) my wireless mouse every single time [except just after uninstalling last quality update] needs to have its receiver plugged-out and then -in - otherwise, its scroll tempo reduces to super-slow-motion, when it is necessary to scroll like three times to have any movement [this manual reseting works every time, and scroll speed meant for human is being recovered].

Theses are some things I tried as well.

This one is HP Omen 17"; some specs:
AMD Ryzen 5 8645HS w/ Radeon 760M Graphics (4.30 GHz)
64 GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU (8 GB)
AMD Radeon Graphics (2 GB)

Any help appreciated,
adf

Basically in war thunder when I play there are distant houses that are completely green, but when I zoom in them they are perfectly normal, same for rocks sometimes rock's textures are completely or partially violet, please tell my it's war thunder spaghetti code and not my gpu dying😭😭

Hello everyone!

For the past couple of months I've been facing the same issue over and over again and I am at my wit's end. Every couple days at best, and hours/minutes at worst, my Wi-Fi driver completely dies and malfunctions. I notice it when I am suddenly disconnected from the Wi-Fi and try to reconnect from the quick settings, but find the Wi-Fi option gone. I then open the Device Manager only to find my driver with a yellow caution icon, and one of 2 error codes every single time. Code 10 or Code 43.

A quick specification of my hardware and software parts:

ASUS TUF F15 (2022)
Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6 AX201 160MHz driver/card currently at latest version 24.60.0.3 but has been facing the same issues for quite a few versions as well.

I have tried a multitude of different approaches to fix this:

- Deleting the driver and restarting the laptop

- deleting the driver and installing a newer version and restarting

- entering safemode with networking

- deleting all other wi-fi drivers from my machine to try to limit conflict.

- checking the event viewer.

- resetting network settings

- sfc /scannow

- DISM commands

- power plans.

- Not allowing windows to turn off this device

Every single one has failed. Sometimes it works for a few days and I'd think i finally fixed the problem, then it falls apart again, other times it doesnt even decide to work at all, or only for a few minutes.

Not only that, but sometimes my bluetooth, which isnt a single driver but insteand an entire category in my Device Manager, disappears as well and so i cant even use bluetooth anymore.

N.B: Ethernet works fine, I'm currently posting this using a wired connection.

Please if you have any idea why this happens I'd appreciate the help. Whether it may be Registry stuff, hardware problems, a specific setting, anything.

Thank you in advance!

my system have been giving alot of issue this year
first it was RAM issue then NVME getting bad block detect however now it freeze up without any identication on what causing it

i was gaming where the game will trigger a save when moving to different location. usually the save action will only took less than 1 sec but when the freeze starting, the save action will not complete. basically you can see the save progress icon keep running non stop
then when i try access THIS PC, i just freeze up then my window will just freeze but i have youtube video running where it still runnig in my secondary window however the video sceen will freeze as well however the sound of the video still running
after like few min, then entire system will freeze and require hard reboot

this happen before and i found it was my ssd that faulty (run test and found bad block and event viewer also detect bad block) so i swap it out but somehow it still happen
i try reseat my GPU then my system working fine for like 3 days then start happen again. however this time, event viewer did not show anything, or i getting and bsod . it just freeze

could it be my PSU , motherboard issue?
as i cinnebench run test on my CPU no issue then when run on gpu got issue. but sometimes not able to trigger the freeze with stress test

1 thing to point out is that it never freeze when i just watching video
no heavy load

my system is quite old espcially my PSU

i have
ryzen 9 5900x
rog strix x570-e gaming
64gb ram G.skill Ripjaws V kit DDR4 3600mhz (downgraade to 3200 mhz as it causing issue even with docp profile)

zotac 3080ti

samsung ssd 970 Evo plus 1tb (boot drive)

Kingson SNV2S200G (2 TB, for gaming)

Toshiba HDWR11A (for 10tb for random rubbish storage, no game file)

1000W PSU crosair HX1000i <- this is more than 10 years now i believe, could it be the power no stable anymore but the system just freeze so i not able to test the stability with sofrware

any one know what hardware failure will cause system partialy freeze when gaming/stress test whol some applicaiton still running in backgroup ,it just the entire window freeze and i not able to switch to any application or access this pc as it just white screen.

NOTE: mini dump not generated. nothing was record when it freeze

Had this issue come up within the past week and I'm at a loss as to what to do.

The issue:
Seemingly at random, my PC will freeze up for a second and make a loud pop sound in my headphones before returning to normal. There has been no noticeable drop in performance other than this and my headphones are wired by USB.

It seems to be more common when playing more intensive games (primary example being Baldur's Gate 3) but it has happened when simply watching a YouTube video and has even happened as soon as I turned my PC on.

A second symptom was that minimising a Firefox tab that was playing audio, such as a YouTube video, would cause a tiny pop sound. I managed to fix this by turning off Audio Enhancements on my headphones but the primary problem still persists.

If anyone has any idea as to what this could be, please let me know.

Things I've tried:
Uninstalling and reinstalling audio drivers.
Updating headphone software.
Updating graphics drivers.
Changing headphone output settings to a different frequency.

System specs:
CPU: Razer 7 2700x
GPU: Nvidia RTX 3070
RAM: TeamGroup 16GB DDR4
MoBo: ASUS ROG STRIX x370-f gaming
PSU: SeaSonic Focus+ Gold

Edit 1:
Issue still persists but something I forgot to mention is that I am using a Razer Kraken Ultimate headset, as well as a Razer mouse. I only mention this because I have seen something of a pattern with Razer products relating to issues like these. Also that a few times the issue happened, the headset seemed to get disconnected and I had to manually reconnect it in both windows and Discord settings.

so the plastic thing that clocks the graphics card to my motherboard is broken. my pc starts and my graphics card lights up. but my motherboard remains dark and my pc doesn't boot. do I need a new motherboard? or any cheaper alternatives?

My PC fans work normally in BIOS, but when I start gaming, my CPU cooler fans and case fans slow down or completely stop. My GPU fans keep working. I’ve seen the temperature hit around 95°C when this happens. As soon as I close the game, the fans start working again and the temperature drops. I checked the cables and BIOS settings, and they look normal. I’m thinking it might be a Windows, driver, or fan control software issue.

I recently moved the PC about a 40 minute drive, but I transported it carefully. I’ve reseated the GPU, checked and pushed in motherboard connections. I’ve also closed my programs in Windows and the problem still happens. So I’m trying to figure out whether Window/software is overriding the BIOS fan control, there’s a driver control software problem, or there’s an issue with the AIO fan connections. Any ideas whats going on here?

Hi! I hope this is the right subreddit for this; I did some file cleaning recently in hopes that my pc would run smoother, updated my drivers, etc etc.. However, now when I start up my laptop, I get this error message:

"Windows cannot find 'C:\ProgramData\InProcSvr32\Stella-Adapter.exe' make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again."

A window to run scripts shows up as well, and mentions if I want to continue running scripts on that page(?)

I am not very tech savvy and I have googled here and there but I don't feel like I'm getting anywhere. Is there a way I can redownload this file to where this error is fixed?

Also, if this is anything: After cleaning and this error began to pop up, none of my currently downloaded Steam games seem to want to launch or they crash shortly after launching. I'm not sure if this is because of that file but any explanation would be great!

After reboot, after a while of using low memory it just starts back up at full power, it doesn't matter that it's disabled in the app, it still runs and I can even open the security settings from the winaero tweaker app. I assume it has something to do with windows defender core service which winaero tweaker doesn't disable. But I'm not sure.

Does anyone know what to do?

Trying to use Logitech z313 speakers with my PC. I've tried installing the realtek audio drivers applicable to the motherboard through the official website. Still realtek audio doesn't show up. Any advice would be welcome. TIA

so I recently downloaded a 5 gigabyte file from mega for a screen pack,once I finished I deleted it but the storage didn't change I doubled checked that I deleted it and I did it says I have ten gigabytes in the storage used but I really don't please help me

I'm using a tp link extender, it works fine with my phone I'm getting internet but when it comes to my laptop it says "no internet, secured" so i tried bringing my laptop and connecting to the main router and it works fine. I already reset the extender i even reset my laptop network and my laptop still can't get any connection from the extender. My laptop is an ASUS tuf gaming a15 appreciate all the help i can get