Asus z270e blue screen issues and chipset/bios/drivers question

sgtsteel

Prominent
Apr 10, 2017
13
0
510
Hi Guys, long time reader of these forums, first time poster. Thanks for being such a great service to the tech community.

I'll apologize as this will be long, but I'm really curious and would like to get to the bottom of my issue so I will provide as much detail as possible.

It's been about 14 years since I built a PC and I built one about 3 weeks ago. Specs are:
i7 7700k, Asus ROG Strix Z270E Motherboard, 32gb Corsair Vengeance LPX 3200 Mhz ram, Corsair h100i v2 cooler, Asus ROG Geforce GTX 1060, NZXT S340 elite case - don't think rest of the specs matter (SSD,HD etc..).

Was running for 2 weeks on a pirated Win 10 version, had 0 issues. When I booted up the first time, I updated EVERYTHING except the BIOS. I went to https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/ROG-STRIX-Z270E-GAMING/HelpDesk_Download/ and clicked on everything I can (except BIOS bc at the time I didn't realize it needs to be updated through a USB in BIOS itself). This includes chipset drivers, wifi, bluetooth...all. I know I missed a few things and deleted them - when I opened it, it said it wasn't supported by x64 and deleted the file. I realize now I likely clicked on the wrong setup file, however regardless, I had no issues with whatever I did. I was playing games fine, no issues, no blue screens. I even clicked on "optimal" asus settings in BIOS which I believe overclocked my system by some "safe" limit (can't tell you for sure but it seemed like it was 7% based on my boot screen - it would say OVERCLOK07% - when booting).

I didn't feel safe on a pirated system and realized I should go ahead and actually purchase windows, considering how much money I already spent on all my parts and this will be my main PC. I do a lot of banking and trading on my system and feeling safe was a must.

I proceeded with the following; went to the Microsoft website, made a boot disk on a USB for windows 10 64 bit and deleted my SSD with a fresh installation. Entered in my new CD key, everything was accepted.

Well... what I didn't like with my first boot for the first 2 weeks was I had too much "bloatware" if you will, all these audio drivers and everything poping up. 3 different volume controllers and stuff,I felt it was overkill. I decided to be more selective and ONLY downloaded wifi and bluetooth drivers, and the gtx 1060 drivers. At this time, I also realized my RAM was running at 2133 in bios instead of my advertised 3200 of what I purchased. So I did the research and everything suggested "update bios and turn on xmp" so I did this. Downloaded BIOS to a USB, updated it. Turned on XMP - Great, now my RAM is running at 3200. (prior to this I didn't have any blue screens, but I also didn't really use my system yet).

Well, for several days after this fresh legitimate windows 10 install, I was getting several blue screens having PC shutdowns. Not only while gaming, but sometimes opening several windows - computer would freeze up and bam, another blue screen. I was playing with the BIOS, I did the "optimal asus overclock" which was now showing 9% on boots (probably went from 7% to 9% due to new bios update?). Even going back to normal default settings with 2133 mhz ram, my computer was still getting blue screens, just not as frequently. I open a game, blue screen. Light multitasking - blue screen. Something was not right.

I thought - what did I do differently from last time? Well
1) previously I didn't tinker with my RAM Mhz from 2133 default to 3200. Is my ram bad? Doesn't seem likely? But also previously when I did "optimal asus settings" I noticed ram went from 2133 to 29xx something. So unlikely ram is bad.
2) I had old bios...is new bios unstable? Doesn't seem likely?
3) did I install my corsair h100i v2 incorrectly? Did I install the wrong standoffs (there were so many screws in the box... what if I put the AMD ones instead of intel)?? Should I have applied thermal paste even though it comes pre-applied? Was overheating CPU causing it to blue screen? Well this is a possibility and I'd like your feedback - however I was running stable 2 weeks prior - keep that in mind.

So I dismissed most of these possible issues above and realized - I didn't update all those "bloatware" drivers (keep in mind at this point I only had wifi, bluetooth and gtx 1060 drivers). So as I went back to the downloads website I noticed these 2 under "chipset" and installed it.
-Intel(R) Management Engine Interface
-Intel(R) Chipset Software Installation Utility V10.1.1.38

Additionally - I added these:
-AISuite_3 -ASUS AI Suite 3 V1.01.61 Install Program for Windows 7 32-bit & 64-bit, Windows 8.1 64-bit, Windows 10 64-bit.
-RAMCACHEII
-Intel RST driver 15.5.0.1047 beta
-Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology Driver
-+ all those audio drivers.

Keep in mind, I don't know or understand what any of this is. So now my system was looking more like it did on my boot 2 weeks ago.

For half a day following these updates - no blue screens, no restarts. Therefore I proceeded to change my RAM from 2133 to 3200 Mhz and still no restarts/blue screens.

So in summary, I've been running 1 full day stable now. I haven't tested the "optimal asus OC" yet, but would like to (I feel I have the specs and cooling to be able to handle it...right?). Keep in mind I'm not planning on doing an overkill overclock or anything, just a stock asus BIOS OC what I feel would be safe.

Based on everything I've done - I'm lead to believe that possibly not installing those 2 chipset files caused me to have those blue screens? Maybe AI Suite?

Can someone please give me an analysis on what they think my problem was - and if you think its been fixed now? I will post back if I receive another blue screen. Will be testing after work.

Also - FYI - since it became stable, I did research on how to run benchmarks as I wanted to test stability. I came across Prime95 and ran a 15 min CPU test at 100% load. My max temp hit 84 degrees Celsius which alarmed me...but apparently that's fine for Kaby lake? (normal BIOS settings except I changed ram from 2133 to 3200). Also, I'm assuming if something was off with my PC, I'd get a blue screen during this test as this would be the ultimate test...correct?

I really appreciate anyone who has read all that and is going to comment. Thank you very much guys.
 
IME and Intel Chipset drivers are essential - without them you can't expect your system to run as it should. Also lack of RST driver could cause problems with SSD, which could be reason for BSODs.
AISuite is just utility - could live without it.
BIOS could be unstable after update too, especially on new mobo like this.
As for Prime95, use version 26.6.
 

sgtsteel

Prominent
Apr 10, 2017
13
0
510
Hi DRagor, I really appreciate your response.

I went ahead and tried Prime95 v 26.6 as you mentioned - max temp 78C which is a huge difference, appreciate it.

Also, so far I have had no stability issues since those Intel chipset drivers. I'm going to assume it was that or the RST driver with the SSD, as that was a good point, I didn't consider that. I will post back if I have another blue screen but by the sounds of it, I think I'm in the clear.
 

sgtsteel

Prominent
Apr 10, 2017
13
0
510
Unfortunately... I received a blue screen.

The code was: Stop code: INVALID_WORK_QUEUE_ITEM.

Not sure if this helps, however I had headphones connected via bluetooth. I then proceeded to turn my bluetooth speaker on at the same time I was turning my bluetooth headphones off - blue screen. Unrelated?

I read this and I don't understand a single word in there... https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff559300(v=vs.85).aspx

Can anyone kindly provide input? Appreciate it.
 

sgtsteel

Prominent
Apr 10, 2017
13
0
510
Wow...another blue screen. This time INVALID_SECURITY_CHECK_FAILURE (approx 10pm EST - made a type and did edit)
 

sgtsteel

Prominent
Apr 10, 2017
13
0
510
Ok so I got a third blue screen...another INVALID_SECURITY_CHECK_FAILURE. This happened while playing GTA 5 (60 FPS in 4k) and I hit volume up on my keyboard and my Bluetooth speaker was on. The audio started looping for 10 seconds and the blue screen came up.

Is it possible Bluetooth is causing this? And yes...I have the latest Bluetooth. It's so annoying paying 2k for a PC and having this issue, I hope someone can provide some assistance. Much appreciated..
 
This driver FNETURPX.SYS is 5 yrs old. Update them. It's either AsRock XFastUSB drivers

Or FNet Turbo HDD USB Driver <- If it's this uninstall it. I dont even know what it is, or what it does

Did you uninstall AI suite ?? The files are still on the hdd

These are also old. SiUSBXp.sys7 yrs old











 

sgtsteel

Prominent
Apr 10, 2017
13
0
510
Hi Paul, sorry for the noobie response... how can I have AsRock drivers on an Asus board? I can't find any of these in device manager or add/remove programs. Can you kindly lend a hand?

Are you saying
1. update FNETURPX.SYS? No clue where to find this or what it is.
2. uninstall both or 1 of AsRock XFastUSB drivers and/Or FNet Turbo HDD USB Driver? Still no clue where or what this is and how to do it.

I did uninstall AI Suite and Ramcache after I uploaded these files.
 

sgtsteel

Prominent
Apr 10, 2017
13
0
510
Please forgive me but I have no idea how to find these drivers. I do not see them on device manager or anywhere. According to windows all my drivers are up to date. Any suggestions?
 

Csp_490

Prominent
Jun 15, 2017
3
0
510
Hello, you and I have similar configurations it would seem and I've been having the exact issues. System worked fine for about 1 month no problems, then lots of hangs, random restarts and BSODs even after multiple reloads. Desperate for a solution.

 

sgtsteel

Prominent
Apr 10, 2017
13
0
510


What fixed my issue was deleting everything by doing a full reformat & reinstalling windows, and then installing all of the drivers in order before doing anything further. No more blue screens since.

Hope this helps.
 

Csp_490

Prominent
Jun 15, 2017
3
0
510


 

Csp_490

Prominent
Jun 15, 2017
3
0
510
Thanks a lot for responding. I'm at my wit's end trying to solve this problem. I've done multiple reloads of Windows ... Same issue. Could you elaborate a little more on what you mean by "installed in order". And as best as you can remember every step of the process. Sorry to ask so much but I've been going around in circles all week testing the various components...Only thing left for me to consider is changing the mobo.