BSODs while playing games, Error IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

RedBalloon said:

I came back to mark this issue "Solved" as these crashes are definitely tied to my CPU clock speed.

I followed the advice of @philc43 to disable Intel Turbo Boost in the BIOS which drops the maximum clock speed from 4.2 GHz to 4.0 GHz. Since then, one of my games (Dying Light) has yet to crash to desktop. PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) has crashed once, but after about six matches as opposed to only two or three. I tried turning Intel Turbo Boost back on in the BIOS, and Dying Light crashed within 15 minutes of play, confirming this solution in my mind.

My guess is that my CPU is not handling Intel Turbo Boost well due to some prior overclocking which may have pushed the voltage too far on my CPU. I wonder if dialing in a higher CPU core voltage would solve these problems, but I am afraid to keep pushing the chip and I'm happy if I can continue playing my games at 4.0GHz until it's time for an upgrade.

Thank you for all of the help you've provided.

Cheers,
RedBalloon

I don't know how you overclocked your 6700K but i know on stock voltage alone you can hit 4.5 Ghz with out touching voltage

Anything higher than that requires some extra juice i am running 4.7Ghz with Vcore of 1.38-1.39 Some take more some take less depending on board and Power phase

You should be able to achieve that on default settings as far as the chip degrading it would of have to been running at a really high voltage and all day everyday for it to really go bad but stranger things do happen hope this helps with overclocking part at least

I like the plan and although I was suspicious the BSOD was being caused by CPU speeds being ramped up during the gaming I agree that it should be possible for this CPU to withstand >4.2GHz if the voltages and cooling are increased. May I add that it would be useful to post a link to the memory.dmp files if you can save them after any BSOD event so that we can continue to look for any possible driver involvement.

philc43 said:

I like the plan and although I was suspicious the BSOD was being caused by CPU speeds being ramped up during the gaming I agree that it should be possible for this CPU to withstand >4.2GHz if the voltages and cooling are increased. May I add that it would be useful to post a link to the memory.dmp files if you can save them after any BSOD event so that we can continue to look for any possible driver involvement.

Yes that would be very beneficial

Could really do with much more system details entered in to system specs.

Hi @worf105,

Thank you for these suggestions. I will 1) turn on Turbo Boost, 2) set core voltage to 1.4V, and 3) set XMP RAM voltage to 1.35V. I'll get back to you with the results soon.

Please note that I do have my system specs listed in my profile, so if there is any information lacking there let me know and I'll provide more details.

RedBalloon said:

Hi @worf105,

Thank you for these suggestions. I will 1) turn on Turbo Boost, 2) set core voltage to 1.4V, and 3) set XMP RAM voltage to 1.35V. I'll get back to you with the results soon.

Please note that I do have my system specs listed in my profile, so if there is any information lacking there let me know and I'll provide more details.

Thank you RedBalloon. Looking for things like BIOS version, Windows version and the like. Look forward to your reply

OK @worf105,

I set Turbo Boost back on, increased the CPU Core Voltage to 1.4V and verified that the XMP settings are correct in my BIOS (3200MHz, 1.35V, timings are 16-18-18-36).

I ran Dying Light stable for about 30 minutes with no crash. In my previous experience, this would have crashed under default settings so this seems like good news to me.

My temperatures were about 55-60C on average while the game was running, but it did max out at 80C at one point. Also, according to HWMonitor my CPU Core voltage maxed out at 1.238 V for what that is worth. Edit: I think I was looking at the wrong entry as CPU VCORE says 1.392 V. I am using a Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO for cooling. Ambient temperature is about 18-19C (bit cooler today than normal).

My BIOS version is F22f, and I am on Windows 10 Home Version 1703, OS Build 15063.540.

Please let me know what my next target should be for CPU Clock Speed. I have been using the core multiplier to accomplish this in the past.