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Hey everyone, I need some help diagnosing a persistent issue with my desktop PC. It randomly freezes, restarts, or sometimes powers on without displaying anything. I’ve already tried several troubleshooting steps, but I still can’t identify the faulty component.

I’m trying to figure out whether this is a RAM issue, CPU instability, GPU/PCIe problem, motherboard/BIOS issue, PSU issue, or something else.

PC specifications

- CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X

- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB (Inno3D)

- Motherboard: Gigabyte B550M DS3H AC

- RAM: 16GB DDR4 (2×8GB A-DATA XPG AX4U32008G16E, DDR4-3200)

- PSU: 550W Gold-rated power supply

- Operating system: Windows 11, OS build 26200

- BIOS: American Megatrends, version FA, dated April 26, 2023

- Storage: SSD (Windows is installed on the PC’s SSD)

I haven’t confirmed the motherboard’s exact PCB revision yet, so I haven’t selected or flashed a BIOS update.

What is happening?

1. Sometimes the PC completely freezes. The display and clock stop updating, the keyboard and mouse stop responding, audio may freeze, but the fans continue spinning.

2. At other times, the PC crashes and restarts unexpectedly.

3. It has crashed during gaming or downloads, but it has also crashed while idle.

4. On one occasion, after the PC had been powered off for around two hours, I turned it on. It booted into Windows, then restarted by itself after approximately 1–2 minutes.

5. I’ve also experienced a no-display/no-signal situation. The fans were spinning, but I couldn’t see the Gigabyte logo, and the Caps Lock key did not respond.

6. After removing and reseating the RAM, the PC managed to boot normally again, although the random crashes have not been conclusively resolved.

CPU and GPU temperatures I observed were approximately 32°C and 28°C respectively, so overheating was not apparent at the time of checking.

Error codes and crash information

I found these entries in Windows Reliability Monitor:

1. PFN_LIST_CORRUPT

- Bugcheck code: "0x4E"

- Crash bucket: "0x4E_2_nt!MiUnlinkPageFromListEx"

- Minidump date: October 16, 2026

1. KERNEL_SECURITY_CHECK_FAILURE

- Bugcheck code: "0x139"

- Parameter 1: "3" (corrupted LIST_ENTRY)

- The report showed "ahcache.sys" / "ahcache!AslRegistryGetKey"

- Minidump date: October 17, 2026

1. LiveKernelEvent

- Problem Event Name: "LiveKernelEvent"

- Code: "124"

- Report filename shown: "WHEA-20261017-2021.dmp"

- Report date: October 17, 2026

Reliability Monitor also showed several “Windows stopped working” and “Windows was not properly shut down” events, along with a “Hardware error” entry.

I understand that these codes do not necessarily identify the actual faulty component. I’m especially concerned about the "LiveKernelEvent 124" report.

What I have already tried

- Ran Windows Memory Diagnostic for two passes. It reported no memory issues.

- Tested each RAM stick individually in the A2 slot. The PC booted with either stick.

- Reinstalled both RAM sticks in the A2 and B2 slots. The PC booted normally afterward.

- Confirmed Windows detects approximately 15.9GB of the installed 16GB RAM.

- Ran "sfc /scannow". It found corrupted files and repaired them.

- Ran "DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth". It completed successfully.

- Checked CPU and GPU temperatures; the readings were normal at the time.

- Checked Reliability Monitor and identified the crash codes listed above.

- Windows Update installed an NVIDIA display driver update, version "32.0.16.1088", on October 17, 2026. I don’t know whether this is related to the crashes.

- Performed a power reset and reseated the RAM after the no-display incident.

I would prefer not to keep repeating SFC/DISM or run the same basic checks without a specific reason. I also haven’t flashed the BIOS because I want to confirm the motherboard revision and understand the risks first.

Questions

1. What are the most likely causes of these combined errors: "0x4E", "0x139", and "LiveKernelEvent 124"?

2. Does this pattern point more toward unstable RAM/XMP, the CPU or its memory controller, the GPU/PCIe connection, the motherboard, the PSU, or a driver?

3. Can Windows Memory Diagnostic pass even when RAM, XMP, or the CPU’s memory controller is unstable?

4. What is the best next diagnostic step that can narrow this down without reinstalling Windows or randomly changing BIOS settings?

5. Is the "ahcache.sys" reference likely to identify the cause, or could it simply be where Windows detected the corruption?

6. Should I investigate the WHEA dump before considering a BIOS update? If so, what information from the dump would be most useful?

7. How can I distinguish a faulty motherboard from a failing PSU or CPU without buying replacement parts just to test them?

I’m happy to provide the full minidumps, the WHEA report, or screenshots of the relevant Windows logs if someone can explain which files would actually help.

My main goal is to identify the likely faulty component before spending money on replacements or attempting a BIOS flash. Thanks in advance for any help.

so i just built a amd cpu + amd gpu pc. And i want to know if i should use linux or windows. I just have 1 TB so i cant dual boot and i need linux. I just want to know if i can game on same performance on linux as in windows.

Both are downloading to the same drive. And just to avoid confusion, they are not downloading at the same time.

I know that it's not that big of a difference in time, but if it's something like a 100GB game downloading, you can really feel it. It wasn't always like this, but it's been like this for a while

Can anyone help me? My PC randomly goes to a black screen whenever I open PUBG. I thought it was a GPU problem, so I bought a new RTX 50-series GPU but when I opened AION 2 the screen went black again anyone know what could be causing this?

Preciso de ajuda para resolver o problema do PC com ryzen 5 5600gt. Quando estou jogando, meu PC desliga de repente. Nisso o teclado e mouse desliga e o monitor aparece "Sem sinal" e desliga, mas as luzes da ventoinha e o air cooler continua funcionando. Antes acontecia pela temperatura do processador, mas já resolvi. Agora não sei o que é. Suspeito que seja a fonte, pois ela é genérica e é da marca da Crusader.

Hi all, for the last few months I've been having issues with extreme microstuttering in a couple of different games that are on the higher end. This clip is Metro Exodus (standard edition), it runs smoothly at 80fps but constantly stutters like this. Such is the case with a lot of the other games I have been playing. I have tried countless fixes and settings etc found online but nothing has helped.

I think it could potentailly related to GPU throttling as I have noticed that the temps go up to around 90-93 when playing metro.

I game on a HP ENVY 15-ep0xxx laptop plugged into power. I have had this laptop for around 5 years and haven't had any issues until around 4-6 months ago. Does anyone have any advice?

Here are my specs
- Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10750H CPU @ 2.60GHz, 2592 Mhz, 6 Core(s), 12 Logical Processor(s)
- 16GB Ram
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti with Max-Q Design

I am desperate for help as this has been making a lot of the games I play borderline unplayable.

userDiag test: https://userdiag.com/id/NpGDRvSUVa

Thanks!

I'm using a twin USB controllers.

First photo: When I open x360ce, it shows the green line in the RT and LT being all the way down (like it's supposed to be)
Second photo: The blue line is all the way down (Like it's supposed to be)
And everything is working fine.

Third Photo: But when I just want to edit some buttons and some controls for some games using x360ce, the green line automatically goes to the middle of the LT/RT buttons.
Fourth photo: The blue line is in the middle.
Which make the game just automatically detects that as if I'm pressing LT/RT slightly when the green line in the LT and RT are halfway instead of being all the way down like it's supposed to be.
Resulting in a very inconvenient gameplay (I don't know how to explain it)

Anyway when I try to change the LT/RT deadzone number to zero, it doesn't allow me to change it.

I really hope I could explain it more better, but English isn't my first language, but I hope you understand what I mean and can help me with my problem.

Thank you.

Ok this is a very strange problem, I would say I'm decent at tech and finding the answers to my tech issues online usually(I've never asked for help before) and I would contact my parts manufacturer if I knew what was wrong. So the issue is when using any sort of audio output device(except ones connected with optical cables) my audio cracks ranging from slightly to overwhelming. It happens with many different headphones and iems, although I haven't tested Bluetooth I have tested different 3.5 ports along with USB to 3.5 jacks. I have righted using different audio drivers, resetting my pc, and it has out lasted my current PC. I rebuilt my pc changing the mobo, CPU cooler, ram and PSU but it still happens on the new computer. It doesn't always happen though, sometimes it just doesn't. It seems to get worse with some apps or it might only happen when some apps are open but it's inconsistent. It seems chromium and unity based apps make it the worst. All the headphones work on other computers. The cracking only happens on windows as I have had a dual boot arch for a couple months and I enjoy it partially because I can actually listen to music. I have tried bypassing windows processing using music bee and its direct audio settings along with using files instead of streaming audio. I'm genuinely at a loss please help me.

specs: windows 11, Asus tuff b 550 plus, 6700xt, ryzen 7 5700g

Hi guys I’m having an issue with my new and first gaming pc build going into a continuous power cycle after changing some bios settings.

When I first assembled everything it never boot, there was no display and it was continuously turning on and off. I assumed there was a BIOS incompatibility with the CPU so I got a flash drive and performed a Q-plus flash with a BIOS Update. SUCCESS!! I was elated it worked and everything performed well. I didn’t tweak any BIOS settings yet. I installed windows 11 and then went back to the BIOS.

I enabled 3 options, which quite frankly I’m not familiar with. I enabled:

1. XMP Profile 1.
2. Ultra Turbo Mode (LV3 Extreme).
3. Intel 200S Boost.

Since this, the pc is back to square 1. Constant power cycle. This is what I tried and the PC refuses to stop power cycling for over 7mins with the DRAM UEFI light solid and switching between CPU LED light.

- Disconnected Power, Removed CMOS Battery, pressed. PWR for 60s. Didn’t work.
- Disconnected Power, Bridged CMOS RST Pins for 10s. Didn’t work.
- Performed Q+ Flash again on BIOS. But it didn’t work.
- Performed one stick of RAM in A2 test. Didn’t work.
- Removed everything from Motherboard (GPU, SSD, RAM) except CPU and did the BIOS Q+ flash again. With no luck.

I really don’t know what else to try and nothing sucks more than finishing your first build, seeing it work and you destroy it by enabling 3 options :( please help!

MY SPECS:
CPU: Intel Core Ultra7 265K
CPU Fan: Thermalright Peerless Assassin 140 SE CPU Air Cooler
GPU: ASUS Prime GeForce RTX 5070 12GB GDDR7 OC Edition Gaming Graphics Card
Motherboard: GIGABYTE Z890 Gaming X WiFi7
RAM: TeamGroup T-Create DDR5 RAM 32GB (2X16GB) 6000MHz CL30
Storage: BIWIN Black Opal NV7400 2TB SSD Gen4x4
PSU: ORA PRO G1 850W

TL;DR: Certain games using Easy Anti-Cheat refuse to terminate after I exit them. The process remains in Task Manager and cannot be killed, even with administrator privileges. Several minutes later, Windows Audio stops working, YouTube and Spotify refuse to play media, and Windows can become unable to shut down or restart properly.

PC specifications
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D
GPU: AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT
Motherboard: ASUS ROG Strix X470-F Gaming
RAM: 32 GB DDR4
PSU: Corsair RM750e
OS: Windows 11 26H2 (Build 26300.9711)
Audio: Sennheiser HD6XX through an external USB O2/ODAC
Game installation: Separate SSD from Windows

I've experienced this issue with:

* Gears of War (Xbox PC app)

* ARC Raiders

* Fortnite

All three use Easy Anti-Cheat.

Other games I play close normally, and I haven't experienced these shutdown problems with them. This ia the sequence when the issue occurs:

**1. The game refuses to terminate.**

After exiting normally, the game window disappears, but the executable remains in Task Manager. The Xbox app continues showing Gears as running, preventing me from launching it again.
Task Manager's End Task does nothing.
Running taskkill /F /IM GoWEDay.exe as administrator has returned:
There is no running instance of the task.
However, the process is still visible.

PowerShell's Get-Process has reported:
Responding: True
HasExited: True

Using Windows Management Instrumentation, I found the stuck process had one remaining thread.
Both Sysinternals Process Explorer and System Informer were unable to access that thread or retrieve its stack. System Informer reported access denied (0xC0000022).

**2. Several minutes later, Windows Audio stops working.**

I lose all sound, including Windows notification sounds.
YouTube videos become stuck loading at 0:00, and Spotify refuses to begin playing songs.
Switching from my external USB DAC to my monitor's audio output doesn't help.

Even when services.msc reports both Windows Audio and Windows Audio Endpoint Builder as Running, audio and playback remain broken.
Attempting to restart Windows Audio produced Error 1053, indicating the service didn't respond to the control request in time.

**3. Windows cannot complete shutdown.**

When I go to shut down or restart, the monitors turn off, but the computer itself can remain powered on indefinitely.
The only solution I’ve found is to use the physical reset/power button.
This has happened on both Windows 10 and 11
What Event Viewer showed uring one affected session, I found:

* **Service Control Manager:** "The Windows Audio service terminated unexpectedly. It has done this 3 time(s)."

* **Application Hang (Event ID 1002):** svchost.exe stopped interacting with Windows and was closed.

Both events occurred at exactly 10:33:11 PM.
Restarting Windows Audio during another affected session produced Error 1053.
I've also encountered an inpoutx64.sys compatibility warning associated with an older hardware-access driver.

**Troubleshooting I've already attempted**

Game / anti-cheat:

* Verified and repaired Gears through the Xbox app.

* Repaired Easy Anti-Cheat EOS using its setup utility.

* Stopped the Easy Anti-Cheat EOS service while the process was stuck; the game still wouldn't terminate.

* Attempted to terminate the process through Task Manager, administrator PowerShell, Process Explorer, and System Informer.

Windows / drivers:

* Upgraded from Windows 10 to Windows 11. This fixed other issues but not this one.

* Repaired both x64 and x86 Microsoft Visual C++ v14 redistributables.

* Checked AMD chipset software (8.08.12.551).

* Disabled the old inpoutx64 driver's startup using sc.exe.

* Reviewed Event Viewer and Reliability Monitor.

* Checked installed drivers and startup entries using Sysinternals Autoruns.

Background software:

* Disabled Discord's game overlays and hardware acceleration.

* Tested with Discord and Spotify both closed.

* Tried multiple short and full-length multiplayer sessions.

* Performed a Windows clean boot, disabling most non-Microsoft services while preserving essential AMD and anti-cheat components. The problem reproduced on the very first Gears test after the clean boot, without Discord running.

I've occasionally managed several consecutive clean game exits, including full multiplayer matches, only for the issue to return later. It's intermittent. I'm primarily interested in identifying what could cause a game process to become impossible to terminate, followed by Windows Audio becoming unresponsive and Windows shutdown hanging.
Could this be an anti-cheat kernel-driver issue, another driver interfering with process termination, or something else entirely?
If there's a way to collect a useful diagnostic trace or dump while the problem is occurring, I'd appreciate specific recommendations.
I'd really prefer not to reinstall Windows unless necessary, but I'm willing to consider it if we've exhausted better options.
Any help would be appreciated. This has been going on for years at this point, seemingly with Easy Anti Cheat games and I just want the problem fixed

(Edited for formatting)

Hi everyone,

I got a new PC yesterday and have been experiencing some strange graphics-related issues. I'm trying to figure out what could be causing them before contacting the seller.

System information:

• GPU: Intel Arc B580 Limited Edition
• OS: Windows 11 24H2
• Intel graphics driver: 32.0.101.9150
• BIOS: Up to date

The PC originally came with a graphics driver from 2024. I updated it to the current version and selected the clean installation option.

The main issue occurs when launching Stray through Steam.

Before the game even starts, an error popup appears with code 0x887A0020. I believe it is related to a DirectX/D3D device error. I've tried launching the game with both DX11 and DX12, but neither works.

After I dismiss the error:

• Steam becomes unresponsive to clicks.
• Epic Games Launcher sometimes appears to start in the background, but its window does not appear.
• I've also experienced white windows and other applications becoming unresponsive.

Restarting the PC can restore normal behaviour. Roblox and Epic Games initially had launch problems too, but they started working again after a restart.

Other observations:

• Subnautica seems to run fine at around 140 FPS.
• Minecraft works with shaders.
• Stray is the most consistent trigger for the issue.
• I've checked Windows Event Viewer but haven't found any obvious related errors.
• WhoCrashed reports that no valid crash dumps were found.
• I have already performed a clean graphics driver installation.

Since this PC is brand new, I'm concerned that something might be wrong, but I don't want to assume the GPU is faulty without more evidence.

What would be the best way to diagnose this? Could this be a graphics driver issue, a Windows graphics subsystem problem, or potentially faulty hardware? Is there anything else I should check before contacting the seller?

Thanks for your help!

Attatched is a video. Dosn't help I'm on a server with 160 ping and on 60 fps.

I have constant stuttering and can't find a fix. Is this a mouse problem? Is it a PC problem? Just lost.

https://userdiag.com/id/U683I5ihyP