Series of X116 and x124 and then again x116 after reinstallation.

Hello!

Could you guys, please help me with this mess? :)

This is going to be a long one if I'm to put all the details, so let me start with:

Summary:
I got a series of pc reboots that turned out to be x116 when playing one specific game (it was working just fine with everything else). I cleaned radiators from both GPU and CPU, during next attempt with that game I got x124 and have been getting x124 shortly after system startup ever since (after ~40 sec of painfully slow windows loading in normal mode, and after ~3-5 minutes in safe mode). With monitor plugged into MoBo there were no BSODs.
I was about to post here, but while getting all my ducks in a raw something went wrong with MoBo driver update and I ended up having to reinstall the system this morning. At first I set it up without a video card plugged in. Everything was more or less working ok, till I plugged the video card and installed drivers. Driver installation reboot caused something weird: video card stopped workign entirely (including fans), while CPU was still going. I had to hard reset. Once system loaded screen turned blue for a few seconds only to return back to normal and a popup that nvidia graphic driver stopped working (or somethign like that), but recovered. 3 episodes like that happened withing 20 second window and then screen turned black and system rebooted.
I entered Safe Mode and there was a x116 *.dmp file.


I attatch both new and old dm log archives. Old one is from before fatal driver update. Newer one has timestempts in Windows Logs a bit messed up early on.

In meantime I'll work on much more detailed description of all of that, since I imagine it will be needed.

Thanks in advance!

Detailed account of events and actions:


0. System was working well enough in every aspect including various games.
1. I got a game 'Worlds of Magic" and it turned out that it causes my system to reboot ~30 seconds after loading producing x116 errors. I test the temperature and notice that GPU temperature skyrockets by 1C/second in the game and system reboots once it reaches over 100C.
2. I unplug both video card and CPU's heat sink and remove dust from both heat sinks. It's late and I'm lazy so I don't replace the CPU paste, just align the cracks.
3. System is working fine for few hours after the cleaning, but I was only doing some office work, internet surfing and possibly watched a youtube video.
4. Developers patch the problematic game and tell me to test some other options to see if those problems disappear.
5. When I try to load a save in the game computer suddenly slows to the crawl (word I type takes ~5 seconds to appear on screen) and SpeedFan that I have opened on the second screen shows that CPU is working at 100% (definitely unlike during previous attempts with said game) while GPU temperature is not rising at all, but sitting at 54C.
6. ~10 sec later I get the first x124 of those in older attached archive.
7. When system reboots it's working incredibly slow (see point 5) and ~30-40 seconds later another x124 appears, before system is even fully loaded. And usually it is loaded in 5 sec, due to SSD.
8. I try Safe Mode and it is noticeably slower there as well but is working nonetheless. After few minutes i get another x124 BSOD.
9. I check if GPU and CPU fans are working, if everything is properly plugged in etc, tho I don't have a thermal paste on me so I don't replace it yet. Two next Safe Mode attempts end the same way - x124 BSOD after few minutes.
10. I try normal mode with just one monitor plugged in and this time I get not only slowdowns but also screen flickering, turning partially black, some graphical artifacts and whatnot before it crashes again and produces last of x124 dumps.
11. I unplug auxillary power supplies and last monitor from the video card, plug monitor into MoBo. No additional crashes for the time being.
12. I read the tutorials and similar cases here to ask for help, but in meantime I notice that my MoBo drivers are from 2006.
13. I update BIOS and drivers and end up getting into infinite startup loop that ended up impossible to get out of. Details of that from <this> thread here:

 

1. My windows loaded after I installed that bunch of motherboard drivers/utilities and Asus Suite.
2. Several prompts requesting promison to launch an application appeared. I assumed that's related to those driver installations and ok'ed all of them.
3.Opened that Asus Suite and got annoyed by the fact installed all those drivers manually from their own archives first not knowing about the program.
4. To be sure that I updated everything I ran the update of all the drivers once again through the Suite. Without a restart.
5. Downloaded a proper BIOS file from Asus site and used "Upgrade BIOS from file" feature in Suite.
6. Used change icon option there for no reason and then pressed Flash.
7. Said "yes" to the restart question.
8. After the restart BIOS required me to enter it, so I did. Everything looked fine besides high and jumpy CPU temperature due to not replaced thermal paste. I accepted changes.
9. Startup stopped at BIOS once again due to temperature warning. I turned it of for a sec, then turned back on.
10. First startup restart at Windows animation occurred, but next startup was once again interrupted by temperature warning at BIOS level.
11. I turned it off, bought a new paste, fixed temperature problem.
12. Startup restarts like the first one from point 10 continue.

14. new paste is implemented and in BIOS temperature seem to be around 30-33C.
15. I format my system drive and perform a clean installation
16. I install all the MoBo drivers and system seems to be working fine (tho I later find that they produced some Startup errors in Windows Log).
17. I install basic software, do SSD-related changed following this guide.
18. I do a stress test using Prime95 and realize that my cooling problems aren't yet resolved - temperature reaches almost 100C quite quickly and I stop the test 3 minutes in. Later temperature sits around 55-60C.
19. I put the video card back in, plug a monitor into it, start system, and install Nvidia drivers.
20. When system restarts after driver installation weird thing happens: Video card stops working altogether (including fans - they were always on earlier) while CPU and the rest of the computer seem to be still working. I do a reset.
21. BIOS stops the startup due to high temperature. When I enter setup it shows 80C to later go down to ~55C. I turn the computer off for a few minutes.
22. I start it again, this time system boots without a complain. Few second after Windows loads (working with normal speed, unlike at points 5 and 7 above) screen turns all blue for a second, gets back to normal and a popup about Nvidia driver that stopped working but has recovered shows up in the bottom right corner. 5 seconds later it happens again, then once more and instead of the 4th time screen turns black and reboots.
23. I boot the Safe Mode, ding a x116 dump, look through events, produce that second DM file and write this great story. 1,5h in, there is no BSOD in Safe Mode so far.


I hope that will help to get to the bottom of this. And that the bottom doesn't amount to damaged GPU or CPU...

Now I'll go and apply thermal paste once again since cooling is clearly not working properly. This time I guess I'll take pictures to present here, on an offchance that I'm somehow doing it wrong.

Cheers!