Random restarts, loads of errors in Test 13 (Hammer Test), is this the culprit?

[jellyware]

Hi guys,

I have been having trouble with random restarts - they seem to happen more when I am playing video games (even ones that are very easy to run and don't place much stress on the GPU/CPU) however it also happens when I am watching stuff, just browsing the web, when the PC is idling and so on.

It never shows me a bluescreen and it never leaves minidumps or any error logs that I am aware of, the only thing it shows is Kernel Power 41 Task Category 63 error in the "Event Viewer" program.

My specs are -

i7 4790k
ASUS Gene VII z97 Motherboard
16gb Corsair RAM (4x4gb)
Nvidia 780
Seasonic Platinum 1000w power supply
250gb Samsung SSD

I have a bit of time to really focus on this lately and try to finally fix the issue, so last night I was running memtest while I was asleep and found that my memory had lots (high hundreds, maybe thousands I can't remember) of errors on the Test 13 (Hammer Test) part of memtest.

Today I individually tested each 4gb stick by itself in both the first slot AND the second slot of the motherboard, just running test 13 on memtest and every single test had errors.

This RAM worked perfectly fine in my old computer for 3 years so I find it incredibly unlikely that all 4 sticks have decided to go bad at the same time, so I was thinking it must be the motherboard? But even then, that means that 2 memory slots are faulty at the same time.. this once again, seems very unlikely, does it not?

I was then reading about Test 13 of memtest and a few people advised that it would be very unlikely for my test 13 memory errors to even be responsible for my random restarts - apparently test 13 picks up stuff that RAM would almost never come across in day to day normal use?

So there's the story, if any of you can give me some advice which leads to me finding a solution I will be forever in your debt because at this point I am just at a complete loss at what to do - Is it likely to be my memory? Or is it my motherboard? Or does my memory failing test 13 have no relevance whatsoever to the random restarts I have been having and am I wasting my time, is it likely to be another issue like my GPU?

I have swapped out my PSU with a spare one (One is gold one is platinum, both very highly rated) and the issue still occurred, I have cleared the cmos, tried reinstalling windows, I've tried all sorts of stuff really.

Thanks for any guidance you can offer

[keith]

As you indicated, although the errors in Test 13 row hammer test are real errors, it is unlikely to be causing the random restarts you are seeing. You can try swapping the RAM sticks for known good ones to completely rule out memory as the issue. Then try the following:

- Check for BIOS updates
- Take out the GPU (and use the built-in Intel video adapter)
- If all else fails, look into swapping the motherboard and CPU

[jellyware]

As you indicated, although the errors in Test 13 row hammer test are real errors, it is unlikely to be causing the random restarts you are seeing. You can try swapping the RAM sticks for known good ones to completely rule out memory as the issue. Then try the following:

- Check for BIOS updates
- Take out the GPU (and use the built-in Intel video adapter)
- If all else fails, look into swapping the motherboard and CPU

I have just updated the BIOS again (I did so recently but there has been a new one since then).

I did actually take out the graphics card last night and played a game for a little while however due to the terrible performance I decided to put it back in today, there was no random restarts when the GPU was removed however it was such a small period of time (Maybe 6 hours) and this problem can be so unpredictable and random it is really difficult to tell whether the GPU may be the problem.. sometimes it restarts a dozen times in a day, sometimes it seems like once a week.. so random.

I suppose I will take out the GPU for an extended period of time like a week and see if the crashes stop, if they do then I guess it must be my GPU.

I've also decided I'm going to completely reinstall windows again in a minute just to completely rule out anything software related as well.

Sadly I'm not in a position where I have an available secondary motherboard or memory modules to narrow down the problem further, I live in a remote rural part of Australia and when I rma whatever part is causing my issues (If it is hardware related) it will likely take a couple of months minimum, hence me really wanting to isolate the issue now.

One thing I was wondering - I recently read that driver verifier can sometimes point you in the right direction with these problems so I read a guide on how to enable that and did so, just about an hour ago my PC's screen froze, the audio started breaking up and then it gave me a blue error screen with a sad smiley face that I have never seen before, it told me there was an error and it had to shutdown.

This gave me a minidump file unlike any of the other times I have had straight-to-black-screen restarts, at the bottom of the minidump it says "Probably caused by ntoskrnl.exe (nt +150ca0 )

Do you have any idea if that is useful information in discerning my problem? Thanks.

[David (PassMark)]

Rural Australia isn't that remote. There is no where that it takes months to get to (I live here).

But as already suggested, try swapping the RAM just to rule that out, then try running without the video card to rule that out.

That 1000W power supply is overkill for the hardware.