Computer crashing unless I have WoW running

[Jimson]

So, I've got a computer issue. Tried Google but got the exact opposite results. Here's the problem: intermittently it will blue screen and throw one of a few errors (IRQL, KMODE, and one other one I can't remember). BUT! If I have WoW launched it runs perfectly fine and won't crash. I tested it by leaving it up for a night with WoW in the background and when I woke up there were no problems.

Any ideas?

[Phob]

I don't think world or warcraft does anything to prevent bluescreens or crashes, you would have to be doing something to make it crash. Instead of just leaving wow on and afking for the night. Turn wow on in the background and do your other tasks that you were doing before the blue screens. World of warcraft shouldn't prevent the crash.

[Ethereal0327]

So, I've got a computer issue. Tried Google but got the exact opposite results. Here's the problem: intermittently it will blue screen and throw one of a few errors (IRQL, KMODE, and one other one I can't remember). BUT! If I have WoW launched it runs perfectly fine and won't crash. I tested it by leaving it up for a night with WoW in the background and when I woke up there were no problems.

Any ideas?

Sounds to me like there is an issue with the sleep function on your computer. You can check this by turning off hibernation or sleep mode int he power settings and making it so that your monitor never shuts off and your computer never hibernates. It has happened to me before and if i recall correctly it was something with the firewall (non windows-non native firewall) was messing with the group policy that was on my work laptop. Just a thought, it could be anything else too, but that was when I experienced something similar.

[schwarzkopf]

So, I've got a computer issue. Tried Google but got the exact opposite results. Here's the problem: intermittently it will blue screen and throw one of a few errors (IRQL, KMODE, and one other one I can't remember)Any ideas?

Do you have dual graphics cards in your computer (many laptops do). If you do one of them is running whilst doing text work, the other beefy one is running whilst running things like WoW.

If you do have this setup, it may be that your basic graphics card driver is faulty/correct/out of date.

[Jimson]

Thanks man, will check it out when I get home.

- - - Updated - - -

Do you have dual graphics cards in your computer (many laptops do). If you do one of them is running whilst doing text work, the other beefy one is running whilst running things like WoW.

If you do have this setup, it may be that your basic graphics card driver is faulty/correct/out of date.

Just a single 3060. I guess in the interest of getting help, I'll lay out some system specs.

Win 11
3060 GPU
AMD Ryzen 3600X

[Dimmak]

Check your power conservation settings on your graphics card. It may be cycling down too low when nothing graphic intensive is happening. You can try going to windows settings for power and switch it to performance and tell it to not sleep or shut monitors and peripherals off when idle. If the crashes stop then you know its something to do with power saver settings for sure. If it does it might be directly related to power use on the card. In that case an app like Afterburner can be used to force minimum voltage to the card.

[Jimson]

Check your power conservation settings on your graphics card. It may be cycling down too low when nothing graphic intensive is happening. You can try going to windows settings for power and switch it to performance and tell it to not sleep or shut monitors and peripherals off when idle. If the crashes stop then you know its something to do with power saver settings for sure. If it does it might be directly related to power use on the card. In that case an app like Afterburner can be used to force minimum voltage to the card.

Thanks! Will check it out.

[Frozenbeef]

Note to self, use this as excuse at work.

[Jimson]

Update: I changed my GPU settings from "Adaptive" to "Maximum Performance." Also disabled sleep mode completely. Just browsing with three tabs open in Chrome and blue screen (no other programs running in the foreground). Then I pulled up WoW, left it idling at the login screen, and went about my night without a crash.

Note to self, use this as excuse at work.

This is hilarious and I dearly wish I had thought of this joke.

[tikcol]

Do you have more than 1 disk in your pc?

[baskev]

So, I've got a computer issue. Tried Google but got the exact opposite results. Here's the problem: intermittently it will blue screen and throw one of a few errors (IRQL, KMODE, and one other one I can't remember). BUT! If I have WoW launched it runs perfectly fine and won't crash. I tested it by leaving it up for a night with WoW in the background and when I woke up there were no problems.

Any ideas?

not sure, to broad of a set of problems. But my exerpience if its not bad ram etc ( things you can test). try disabling virus software, fast start, sleep mode

[Jimson]

Do you have more than 1 disk in your pc?

Windows/most programs are on my SSD. I do have a HDD for storage.

not sure, to broad of a set of problems. But my exerpience if its not bad ram etc ( things you can test). try disabling virus software, fast start, sleep mode

I'll run a RAM test when I get home, thanks.

[tikcol]

Windows/most programs are on my SSD. I do have a HDD for storage.



I'll run a RAM test when I get home, thanks.

I had a problem a year ago with my HDD that when it went to sleep or woke up it would freeze the computer. But I had the exact same issue as you that the pc would freeze if it was idle and I fixed it by changing windows power settings and nvidia power settings. Don't put it into adaptative.

[pansertjald]

So, I've got a computer issue. Tried Google but got the exact opposite results. Here's the problem: intermittently it will blue screen and throw one of a few errors (IRQL, KMODE, and one other one I can't remember). BUT! If I have WoW launched it runs perfectly fine and won't crash. I tested it by leaving it up for a night with WoW in the background and when I woke up there were no problems.

Any ideas?

KMODE and IRQL are both bad drivers error. Start by doing a clean Uninstall of your GFX drivers with DDU and see if thats the problem. Remember to boot up in safe mode, when you Uninstall your GFX drivers with DDU

https://www.guru3d.com/files-details...-download.html

IRQL not less or equal

After digging further, you can discover that most “IRQL not less or equal” BSoD files are linked to malfunctioning drivers or devices.

This error will happen when Windows or a kernel-mode driver tries to access pagefile memory at the wrong process IRQL. If this happens, the computer will shut down with a blue screen and issue a stop code to prevent more harm.

The IRQL not less or equal blue screen of death might appear while booting a computer or when working with incompatible drivers. A third-party antivirus program might prevent a driver from doing its job, or CPU overclocking could be to blame.

This is due mainly to a malfunctioning driver, another piece of software, or an improperly configured device.

Kmode Exception Not Handled

The technicalities of what the Kmode Exception error is are in-depth and more than a little dry. In a nutshell, though, it's when applications overwrite each other's memory, causing errors or crashing software, and in the case of a blue screen, a full system crash.

Essentially, some software has been corrupted and the Windows error handler isn't entirely sure what's gone wrong. It just knows that something has, and it's caused the system to fail.

The most likely culprit is a problematic driver.

[Ssateneth]

When it comes to problems this this, instead of going right for surgical fixes (maybe its a specific driver, or a bad system file, or a bad setting somewhere, etc) its better to go broad IMO.

First step I would take is to go to your BIOS and reset all BIOS settings to default. Yes this does mean NOT enabling XMP profiles, since XMP is an overclock and can lead to crashes/instability.

If problems still happen, I would format and reinstall your OS, start fresh. This will reset every system file to a known good state.

If the problem STILL happens after a BIOS reset and an OS reset, then you likely have a hardware problem, which will cost money to fix. Since you only get the crashes in low load/idle state, I'd suspect a bad GPU (I have had some GPU's crash only in idle/browsing youtube across the thousands that I have refurbished) and would replace that first. It could be anything thought and I would replace parts 1 by 1 until the problem goes away.

This might be the "nuclear" option, but it is guaranteed to fix your problem.

[Julmara]

my pc used to hardcrash when i have hardware acceleration option turned on in chrome turning it off helped fix it
usualy always crashed when watching youtube

[baskev]

Windows/most programs are on my SSD. I do have a HDD for storage.



I'll run a RAM test when I get home, thanks.

also try to turn of sleep mode, power save mode, fast start. Those buggers can sometimes screw you 2.

[Biglog]

It wouldn't seem very likely for wow to be related. But just to be certain it would be worth taking another look at what things might be different in configuration between your running desktop and what you have set in wow. For example, is your desktop at 4k and wow at 2k or vice-versa? Likewise is HDR, v-sync, etc. on with one and off in the other?. So not necessarily wow itself making a difference, but a wow (most likely gpu) setting that maybe your system is having a problem that's on in the desktop but that's off in wow.

[SolomonGuad]

After update I have this problem. Thanks for help

[jackfrostenson]

The best advice I can give you is to send your computer to a technician right now, otherwise it will be too late