Solved freeze, audio loop while gaming, 0x00000124, requires hard restart

[HazardousMoose]

So first of all: thanks in advance for any help. I'm at the end of my knowledge trying to solve this.

So now to the meat of it: Whenever I play a rather demanding game, e.g. BF4, GTA V, my screen will seemingly at random freeze and the last bit of audio will loop. I can wait and nothing will happen. I have to force a restart by holding the power button for 5 sec. The crash does not show a bsod but creates a dump. It sometimes happens after 5 hours, sometimes after 30 minutes. Subjectively speaking it seems to take longer if I alt-tab and do less demanding stuff or a while and then play again, compared to continues sessions. But I haven't yet written down times to confirm it.

What I've done so far: I ran memtest86 for multiple hours. I got 57 errors, but all during test13 (hammertest), all others passed. By what I've read so far this shouldn't cause issues during normal use. Switched it with another stick from my second pc, didn't help though. Picutes of the result attached.

I ran prime95, had no issues, even though cpu temps seem to get rather high(up to 96 on core 2, measured with core temp). But I haven't yet ran it long time. Max 1 hour long.

I ran IntelBurnTest. Standart seems to run fine. But I'm getting the freeze on high/very high, normally on the second run. This happend with any combination of my 2 dominator ram sticks, as well as a ram stick from my second pc, trying any combination of slots on the mobo.

I ran driver verifier and had it freeze within a minute of startup, but I haven't had the time to find the culprit driver. I'll try to get to this when I find time. But then again I did a clean install of windows since and haven't tested after that.

I turned of SLI and played with both cards one at a time, yet crashed with either one.

Since my CPU is water cooled with two quite powerful 140mm noctua fans, I think the 90+ temps with burntest at 4.4 ghz boost are way too high, yet not out of spec so I shouldn't cause a crash... But I'll probably still renew the thermal paste.

I previously had issues with my ax1200i, it crashed the system with a red light on the psu, not letting me restart, until I disconnected power for about 10 minutes. I sent the PSU into RMA and the system runs on my corsair ax760(5 months old), which should be plenty, especially with sli disabled. After 6 weeks I'm still waiting to get my psu back.

The system it self is about 1 1/2 years old, It ran stable for about the first 8 months, then I had the psu problems, increasingly often. I'm not sure if I had the freeze before the PSU switch, or if all crashes where because of the AX1200i, but by my memory I had freezes before the PSU switch, which now dates 7 weeks back.

I'm currently not home during workdays so I can only work on this on weekends, which is why I haven't had much time to do more elaborate tests and data collection. At this point I guess it's my mobo or a software issue.

EDIT: I added zip-folders with pictures of the memtest86 results, and a picture of a BSOD. Note here: I normally don't get a BSOD but just the freeze, so maybe those are to separate problems, but I'm guessing at this point.

As stated I'd appreciate any help. This is my first post, so I'm sry for any newbie mistakes.

greetings

Jon

System specs:
Asus rog maximus VI extreme
Intel i7-4790k @ stock
Corsair H110
2x Asus STRIX Geforce GTX 970(SLI)
2x8 GB of corsair Dominator
Asus Xonar Essence STX
2x Samsung 840 Evo 500 gb
Seagate Barracuda 1TB
WD Black 4tb
corsair ax760

 

[MrNeeds]

I've had this issue before and this sounds identical to mine, albeit a few years earlier, have you overclocked the RAM at all? my RAM is capable of going to 1066Mhz but my motherboard only supported overclocking while using 4 sticks in dual channel mode, try going back to stock speeds and see if that helps.

If not then have a look at your CPU temps, anything over 60c at idle is generally not good, might need some new thermal paste/cleaning.

 

[HazardousMoose]

I'm running Idle below 40°C, and under normal heavy load around 70-80°C. Only if I run a stress test like IntelBurnTest, that stresses all cores 100%, will I run into temps above 90°C.

RAM runs below stock...

 

[GokAy]

That seems just above ok temps for CPU. Maybe you can reseat cooler, applying a new thermal.

Intel i7 4790k temperatures safe? [Solved] - Intel i7 - CPUs among many others.

How about GPU temps? Try FurMark?

You can also try clean installing the GPU drivers.

 

[Boozad]

Your dump files are all, as you say, 0x124s. These are generic STOP codes that indicate a piece of hardware is failing but, as is the case here, they very rarely give any indication as to what the problem actually is.

WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR (124)
A fatal hardware error has occurred. Parameter 1 identifies the type of error
source that reported the error. Parameter 2 holds the address of the
WHEA_ERROR_RECORD structure that describes the error conditon.
Arguments:
Arg1: 0000000000000000, Machine Check Exception
Arg2: [COLOR=RoyalBlue]fffffa800a423028[/COLOR], Address of the WHEA_ERROR_RECORD structure.
Arg3: 00000000be000000, High order 32-bits of the MCi_STATUS value.
Arg4: 000000000100110a, Low order 32-bits of the MCi_STATUS value.

Debugging Details:
------------------


BUGCHECK_STR:  0x124_GenuineIntel

CUSTOMER_CRASH_COUNT:  1

DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID:  WIN7_DRIVER_FAULT

PROCESS_NAME:  linpack64.exe

CURRENT_IRQL:  f

ANALYSIS_VERSION: 6.3.9600.17336 (debuggers(dbg).150226-1500) amd64fre

5: kd> !errrec [COLOR=RoyalBlue]fffffa800a423028[/COLOR]
===============================================================================
Common Platform Error Record @ fffffa800a423028
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Record Id     : 01d09fc01c1d4d66
Severity      : Fatal (1)
Length        : 928
Creator       : Microsoft
Notify Type   : Machine Check Exception
Timestamp     : 6/5/2015 18:51:20 (UTC)
Flags         : 0x00000000

===============================================================================
Section 0     : Processor Generic
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Descriptor    @ fffffa800a4230a8
Section       @ fffffa800a423180
Offset        : 344
Length        : 192
Flags         : 0x00000001 Primary
Severity      : Fatal

Proc. Type    : x86/x64
Instr. Set    : x64
Error Type    : Cache error
Operation     : Generic
Flags         : 0x00
Level         : 2
CPU Version   : 0x00000000000306c3
Processor ID  : 0x0000000000000005

===============================================================================
Section 1     : x86/x64 Processor Specific
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Descriptor    @ fffffa800a4230f0
Section       @ fffffa800a423240
Offset        : 536
Length        : 128
Flags         : 0x00000000
Severity      : Fatal

Local APIC Id : 0x0000000000000005
CPU Id        : c3 06 03 00 00 08 10 05 - bf fb fa 7f ff fb eb bf
                00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
                00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

Proc. Info 0  @ fffffa800a423240

===============================================================================
Section 2     : x86/x64 MCA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Descriptor    @ fffffa800a423138
Section       @ fffffa800a4232c0
Offset        : 664
Length        : 264
Flags         : 0x00000000
Severity      : Fatal

Error         : GCACHEL2_ERR_ERR (Proc 5 Bank 6)
  Status      : 0xbe0000000100110a
  Address     : 0x00000000a841e840
  Misc.       : 0x000001d080000086

I'm going to list a series of diagnostic and stress tests below, if you could run through them we might be able to start pinpointing the actual problem.
You may have performed some of these already but I'd like you to perform them again please and post the results after each test. Note that MemTest86+ listed below is different to MemTest86 which you ran previously (and is far more reliable, MemTest86 is a pile of turd in my eyes) so read the instructions carefully before proceeding.

If you have any questions feel free to ask.

STOP 0x124 Troubleshooting

Read carefully before proceeding.

   Warning

:warn: If you're overclocking your system, revert back to stock clocks now. :warn:

   Note

Test the system once the overclock is removed before continuing with the steps outlined below.

Part One: CPU Stress Test
Part Two: MemTest86+ RAM Diagnostic
Part Three: Hard Drive Diagnostics
Part Four:GPU Stress Test

ONE

 CPU TEST

:ar: Run Prime95 to stress test your CPU. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/100352-hardware-stress-test-prime95.html

   Warning

Your CPU temperatures will rise quickly while under this stress test. Keep a keen eye on them and abort the test if overheating occurs.

TWO

 RAM TEST

:ar: Run MemTest86+ to analyse your RAM. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/105647-ram-test-memtest86.html

   Note

MemTest86+ needs to be run for at least 8 passes for conclusive results. Set it running before you go to bed and leave it overnight. We're looking for zero errors here. Even a single error will indicate RAM failure.

THREE

 HDD TEST

:ar: Run SeaTools to check the integrity of your HDD. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/313457-seatools-dos-windows-how-use.html

   Note

Do not run SeaTools on an SSD as the results will be invalid.

:ar: Run chkdsk http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/433-disk-check.html

FOUR

 GPU TEST

:ar: Run Furmark to stress test your GPU. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/100356-video-card-stress-test-furmark.html

   Note

Run Furmark for around 30 minutes.

   Warning

Your GPU temperatures will rise quickly while Furmark is running. Keep a keen eye on them and abort the test if overheating occurs.

 

[HazardousMoose]

okay, I used the night to run prime95 and I just finished furMark and chkdisk. I'll run memtest86+ this night. As you can tell prime ran without errors for 13 hours, furmark barely got above 70°C and didn't show any issues and chkdisk all came back without errors including the c: drive...

 

[HazardousMoose]

I ran memtest86+ twice, different results as you can see in the attachements. And I don't know if it has to do with hot ambient temperatures, but I'm at the point where my pc crashes after about 10 mins of bf4 and I normally can't even finish one game...
I might run it again when I have more than 10 hours time but atm that's the longest I can go since I still wanna use this machine. And because of the quite significant amount of crashes lately I decided to upload a more recent collection of the dump files.

 

[Boozad]

If MemTest86+ has shown errors then there's a problem with either your RAM or the DIMM slot/s. Now it would be best to test each stick in each slot to see what fails.

If the output is like this then you have bad RAM so the stick(s) need replacing.

Test|Slot 1|Slot 2
RAM 1| Error | Error
RAM 2|Good|Good

If the output is like this then you should replace the motherboard, however you can leave that DIMM slot empty although it's not advised to use a system with a faulty motherboard.

Test|Slot 1|Slot 2
RAM 1| Error |Good
RAM 2| Error |Good

 

[HazardousMoose]

So quick update: For the memory test: I tested all slots with my two sticks, plus a third 8 gb stick of my second PC, a while ago but not testing it with memtest86 but just running intel burn test to see if it would freeze up, and no matter the combination it did.

But it seems as things have taken a turn for the better:
After over 3 months I FINALLY got my PSU, a Corsair AX1200i, back from RMA. I swapped it out for my AX760 which I ran to replace it and look at that: Crashes be (almost) gone. During the whole weekend with more than 15 hours of play time I only had one crash. Comparing that to the week before where I had over 15, near 20. I hope this isn't just a coincidence, but it seems too extreme a change to be one. But it makes me wonder if the 760 was insufficient under heavy load or if it's faulty...
Because in order to find the root of the issue I also tried running the system with only one GPU and no overclock on the CPU. With that setup I still had crashes but a 760 Watt PSU should by far be sufficient for 1 970 and an i7-4790k both running stock...

So I'll leave this thread open till next weekend, if I still have next to no crashes I'll mark it solved and blame my PSU even though that seriously surprises me...

 

[GokAy]

Good news but can be better: You should have no crashes whatsoever Some extremely rare crash happens everywhere I believe.

When you switch out hardware, try loading defaults in BIOS. The old configuration may be interfering somehow.

Did you memtest with the new setup yet?

 

[HazardousMoose]

As stated in the original post: For the entire last year I was only home on weekends. But that will finally take an end by the end of this month. Then I'll have time testing the system. But just until now I didn't have time to run memtest86+ again. But I suppose I might have had multiple issues and that for now I was able to get rid of the most common. But I can't really see how my PSU would cause memtest errors so I will definitely get back to that...


edit: I loaded bios defaults more than once during the past 3 months. I even reinstalled windows twice trying to get rid of this problem.

 

[HazardousMoose]

So: As previously stated: after I changed my PSU back to my original that came back from RMA I didn't encounter any issues for the entire weekend, and that was amazing. But The crashes came back. But that post about loading default BIOS settings got me thinking, so I decided to check for a BIOS update. I did that when I first bought the mobo and got the newest one. But that was october 2013. So I headed over to ASUS and look at that: new Bios version from 2014, described as "Improves system stability". Yeah well it did. Ran Memtest 4 times, not a single error with 20 passes, ran prime np, furmark np, and played over 100 hours since. had a few games crash but never the entire PC like before. So yeah, learned something: Keep your BIOS up to date...

So thanks for the help, I'm just glad that all is working now and hopefully I don't need to edit this thread ever again