Windows 10: BSOD boot loop in spite of fresh Win 10 install

edit: Some awful grammar


Hi folks,


I did read the "post instructions" thread but I cannot actually boot in to windows presently (typing this from my work computer) so the DM Log collector won't help.


System: i5 6600K @4.5ghz, 16 Kingston Hyper X 2666mmhz RAM, ASUS z170 Pro Gaming mobo, Geforce 970, Windows 10 64bit which has been installed on a 2 month old Samsung 120gb SSD.


I will provide some background as to how the situation came about...


I purchased a new system from PC Specialist UK about 2 months ago. It came with a basic Windows 10 setup framework (i.e I could boot in to Windows but it wasn't yet registered). It let me use my Windows 7 Home 64 bit product key to do the free Windows 10 upgrade and therefore provided me with a fully functional windows 10 setup.


This has all been running nicely for about 2 months.


The following few paragraphs may NOT be anything to do with the BSOD's. I'm just explaining what happened in as much detail as I can.


Yesterday, in an attempt to get a particular game working (Dark Souls 3), I followed a potential fix which recommended increased the size of the virtual memory page file on C:\ to 10-12gb (the SSD is a brand new Samsung 120gb SSD). I restarted the computer as is required and it rebooted fine (although it made no difference to Dark Souls 3 ). Incidentally the game had been running fine for the previous 24 hours.


I decided to reverse the page file as it clearly had no effect, so I set the page file to "let system manage this" (not verbatim). It didn't ask me to restart this time.


I kept trying to run Dark Souls 3 but it kept causing illegal operations and wouldn't even boot to the main menu. Eventually I decided a fresh restart of the computer may help. This is when the BSOD's started...


Following the first BSOD I think the computer started OK'ish but something made me decide to restart it again (Dark Souls 3 might have hard locked the system? Can't remember). The next time the computer rebooted itself Windows 10 didn't load properly. I could see part of the start bar at the bottom of the screen but everything else was black. The keyboard was non-responsive. This was the last time the PC booted in to the OS.


I hard restarted/cold booted the PC and it began to consistently give me different BSOD's and forcing restarts. I'm afraid I can't remember all the BSOD's and sadly I didn't take photos but I think they all related to .sys files. One of them is definitely the KMODE_EXCEPTION BSOD and another is definitely the IRQL_NOT_EQUAL_OR_LESS BSOD. I'm pretty sure I got 2 or 3 others as well.


I was able to boot in to Safe Mode but stupidly didn't take advantage of this. As I'm familiar with clean installations of Windows OS's I decide a clean install was the best bet instead. As such I used the Windows 10 recovery environment to format the Samsung SSD that Windows was installed on, intending to clean install. Whilst in the Win 10 recovery envornment (the blue menus where you can troubleshoot etc) I continued to receive the same BSOD's.


Thinking that the SSD was corrupted, I decided to create a Windows 10 installation media USB using my wifes laptop. I then disabled the "secure boot" feature in the ASUS UEFI BIOS so I could actually run the setup from the USB.


I was able to format the SSD and then get to the point where Windows 10 started to install (where the percentages creep up). At this point the BSOD errors started to occur again... The most common BSOD this time was definitely the KMODE BSOD but it doesn't offer any causes/file names.


That's where I'm up to. I'm hoping that it's just the SSD that has bricked but I'm worried it could be the RAM or even the Mobo itself. The obvious next step is to try installing Windows 10 on one of the other 3 SSD's but I haven't had a chance to do this yet, and frankly I'm concerned that I'll still get the BSOD's during Win 10 installation.


I'm at a complete loss.


Any ideas?

:)

 

BSOD - Fresh Install of Win 10

We're glad that your issue has been resolved. Thank you for sharing how you resolved it, as this can help other community members who may be dealing with the same issue. Don't hesitate to let us know if you will have other queries.

Regards.

 

BSOD - Fresh Install of Win 10

Ok ran memtest86+ last night 10 passes over 12 hours all ok - no errors.

Now going to perform an in-place upgrade.

Also got another bsod this morning.

 

Did you already try to reset the BIOS to default values?

You can test your RAM with Memtest 86+ with a bootable disc/usb etc. without using the operating System.
MemTest86+ - Test RAM

 

Hi lifetec,

Thanks for the reply.

Not yet no. Do I take it that you suspect it's the overclock that might be causing it?

I will try disabling the overclock/reset UEFI/BIOS to default when I get home.

I'll also try memtest if that doesn't work.

 

When troubleshooting a (problematic) system the first thing to do is refert all overclocking etc. to get the system as stable as possible.

 

Hi lifetec, it was the overclock. I've set the clock multiplier to 35x for the time being and all is fine. The system was designed to be heavily overclocked so ill re-attempt it at some point.

Thanks for your help.

 

Oh well, I have a new even worse problem. PC shut down with a BSOD this morning. Wife was using it so I didn't see what the BSOD said.


PC won't even get past the Bios screen (press delete to enter Bios).


No end of restarts has made any difference.
I've tried unseating and reseating the GPU.
I've tried a different GPU
I've unseated both ram sticks, switched them round, tried just one of each.
I've tried unplugging each hard drive one by one.
I've taken the CMOS battery out for 30s.


Any ideas?

 

Maybe it is time to use the warranty and contact PC specialist UK and ask for a RMA.

 

Hi lifetec,

Yes, spent 45mins on the phone to them this morning running through some checks/tests. Conclusion was that it's probably the mobo.

They've raised the RMA and I'll take it in this afternoon. Good service I have to say. It is all under warranty after all which is obviously a bonus!

Thanks for your help.