Continued issues with Z690-E after recent BIOS update

[eanewton]

I had another thread in the past related to updating multiple components and seeing a number of issues, including the "STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATION" in Chrome - https://rog-forum.asus.com/t5/intel-700-600-series/driver-issues-after-upgrading-to-z690-e-motherboa...

One commenter there recommended updating my BIOS to the most recent version - I've waited for that new BIOS version to be released, and installed it this morning. Before I made this update, my system was basically back to normal, though I had made tweaks that commenters in the previous thread said I might want to walk back.

This morning, I reset CMOS (as far as I know, removed battery and replaced after 5 or so mins), installed the most recent BIOS release for my motherboard (https://rog.asus.com/us/motherboards/rog-strix/rog-strix-z690-e-gaming-wifi-model/helpdesk_bios/), and reset the BIOS settings to defaults.

Now the "STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATION" issue is coming back, and just as frequently. The changes I made in the past were:

- Enabling XMP

- Manually disabling Core 4 in my BIOS

Has anyone else experienced this? Do I just need to go disable Core 4 again? What does Core 4 do that is apparently so critical?

[eanewton]

This is so frustrating. Right back to where I was previously. System randomly shutting down/restarting, applications closing without error messages, Chrome tabs crashing with "STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATION". Looks like I'm manually disabling Core 4 again and hoping that works.

[achugh]

Have you tried to reach out to Intel and see if they will RMA your CPU? What is your current version of BIOS? After clearing CMOS, what settings have you loaded/changed? How stable is your system if you don't enable XMP? Are you mixing memory kits?

[Wesley1]

You should try to narrow what is causing the problem, because you might need to RMA some components of your PC. You suspect XMP and Core 4, right? Do you use "contact frame" for your CPU? Contact frame can cause memory instability. If so revert to stock CPU mounting mechanism.
You should also check if RAM you bought is compatible with Intel CPU and with motherboard you have. You can check it on RAM vendor page and on Asus support page. Then run memtest tool from Asus BIOS to check if ther are RAM errors.

If you're not very familiar with computers, it might be a best option to get it repaired by specialized service.