my guess is that the BSODs are on the hardware side and the creative soundcard is tossing a wrench h into the PCIE bus.  and that sound card might have been fine on pre PCIe 4.0 capable motherboards.....
 
it shouldn't matter, but like i said, with creative stuff i start there.  

 Actually I had suspected that and I have fast boot turned off, I also bought a second M.2, I bought a Samsung and put it in the first slot, I put the other OS drive in the second slot, So the OS is now in the second slot and MSFS 2020 is on the one in the first slot. I also made sure the firmware was updated on both drives, **the WD (OS drive) did require a firmware update**, the Samsung is fine.
 
 I still think this is a Windows 11 incompatible driver someplace, I mean all of the drivers for my dark board (AND creative sound card) are Windows 10 only. and they "should work" but remember, I installed windows 11 raw.
 
Other than the driver thing the system runs like a scalded dawg, I was playing STALKER Lost Alpha yesterday and I played for like 8 hours straight, with no issues....So I don't know this is a crazy problem, but I turned on Intel Adaptive Speed Boost Tech? last night in BIOS and it locked in Cinebench within 5 seconds, it WAS trying to run all cores at 5.1g though and I didn't tweak the voltage properly and am running my ram in Gear 1 so, that is really just my screw up, I just wanted to see what it would do...lol
Got a dump file on that one though....hehe
 
I had to order a new Toslink cable as the one I was looking for is hooked to my TV, so it will be here Saturday I think, I'm gonna try to change the sound card next, I will let you know what happens....and I hope the sound doesn't suck.

hmmm smart sound technology?  not sure if I have that on my 11 system.

rblaes_99
my guess is that the BSODs are on the hardware side and the creative soundcard is tossing a wrench h into the PCIE bus.  and that sound card might have been fine on pre PCIe 4.0 capable motherboards.....
 
it shouldn't matter, but like i said, with creative stuff i start there.  

 Ok, I got a new Toslink cable over the weekend and thought I would wait a while till it hard locked on me again, well that time was tonight, it locked while I was trying to update to the new Nvidia driver......  BSOD with no log file created, a total hard lock. After running flawlessly since the last time I tried updating a driver/iCUE....
 
 SO, I yanked the creative card out and set the onboard sound to enabled, rebooted and hooked it up with the optical cable.
 
 So far, I was able to install the audio drivers from the EVGA website, AND the new Nvidia driver with no issues, and, so far, Alice in Chains sounds pretty dang good through this cable and the old Z906's soooo....we shall see.
 
BTW I have the 12900k overclocked, stable and running cool 24/7, memory at 3600 XMP 1, Gear 1, running like a bat outta hell!!  Plays every game I throw at it in full detail, so I am fully convinced it's not the CPU or memory.
 
I'm NOT going to say just yet that this is it and I will have no more problems, but I HOPE so!!
 
 

 Well, it blue screened again, this time when trying to update iCUE software.  and again I let it sit for 30 mins, and when I rebooted iCUE was updated....makes NO sense at all.
 
 I'm about done messing with this pc, I think I'm gonna call it a loss and try another board, I GUESS I could wait to see if windows 11 is ever properly finished, OR install windows 10....or never try to update any drivers again...lol.  I guess as long as I can get video driver updates to install I can use the PC normally, I just don't like to have these kinds of problems, they drive me nuts.
 
I don't know, but thanks to everyone for trying to help.  BUT at least I know it's not the Creative sound card.

 I can't even get it to install from a new download, it BSOD's at 13% every time. It even BSOD's when trying to uninstall it, it must hit one certain file and runs into a wall. 
 
 But, as I said, it IS partially installed, and even though it will not start with windows and I can't fully open the dashboard, I can start it from an old desktop icon, it is updated to the latest version, and my default blue profile is working so I don't have to look at that rainbow wave crap. I am limited to the right-click tray options, but as long as the blue profile is working I'm good, I HATE RGB crap...
 
I think I messed iCUE up last night in the 15 times I tried installing it, I got pissed and deleted the whole folder in safe mode. What I'm going to have to do is take/unplug everything but my ram and video card later today and try installing it that way as that seems to work, OR I may just leave it as is and NEVER update it again, which is what I should have done.
 
 I don't know what's going on with this thing, but as long as I don't try installing/removing driver/firmware type apps, I can run it for weeks at a time without an issue.  and that just seems so odd to me, it doesn't make any sense at all.
 
 I guess my final try is going to be installing windows 10, but I don't have a license right now and I need to use my PC for the time being, so I'll try that in a couple of months.  In the meantime I am collecting parts to build another PC, I will use this for my overclocker, might even do a bench mount. setup...as soon as my wife gets her rescue cats out of my man cave...

i would get rid of all of that extra crap.  i buy silicone cap covers from ebay and seal off every single SATA port on the motherboard day one.  nothing gets plugged in there ever.

rblaes_99
i would get rid of all of that extra crap.  i buy silicone cap covers from ebay and seal off every single SATA port on the motherboard day one.  nothing gets plugged in there ever.

I would, except I need all those hard drives and at least my one burner, I have Several flight simulators, tons of files, games, a music video collection, family photos, music, you name it.  However, SATA hard drives are so cheap now I guess I could buy some 6TB drives and cut down on the number of ports I'm using 
 
 I wonder if it could be the ASMedia ports? 
 
 Anyways, so far it seems to be working fine, I'll know when I have to install another driver.
 
Funny thing though, when the drivers are installed/updated from windows update I don't have any issues.
 
Plus, I just finished playing Lost Alpha for the past 7 hours, didn't even break a sweat.
 

With all of the rigmarole you have endured, you probably could have just wiped the M.2 and clean installed Windows 10 and not had any issues. Windows 11 is likely the cause of many of the issues you are experiencing. Each version update of Windows is less reliable and has more bugs than the one before it. My daily driver OS is Windows 10 LTSC 2019 (1809) and it has no issues of any kind other than not being as good as Windows 7 was/is, LOL. I also stay on older (non-DCH) GeFarts drivers. There is no Windows Store/UWP filth to gum up the works with LTSC. Micro$oft Updates are disabled and I manually install only "security" updates if and when I deem that doing so to be important enough to do it (which is not very often) and the experience is drama-free. If a game requires a newer version of Windows 10 or a newer GeFarts driver, then I pass on it. It's not worth it. Games that require more recent versions of Windows 10 and DCH drivers are nothing more than a shill farce being forced by muppets that serve the Redmond Mafia.

 I THINK finally have an update, I've waited because every time I think I have this figured out it face-plants on me again.
 
 Everything seems to be pointing to the Legacy ASMedia SATA port (on the bottom)
 
 (YES I know, I am using all of my SATA ports and that seems like overkill, but that's why I buy these boards, I want to "be able to" use all of the SATA ports if needed.)
 
 But beyond that, 
 
 I have had that port unused for the past month and (so far) everything seems to be working normally.
 
 I can actually use my Creative AE-7, which I have updated the drivers and software for at least 2 times in the past month, 
I can keep my DVD ROM plugged in and use it with no issues.
I have updated to every new video driver that has come out since and used the Driver Cleaner (DDU) each time with no problems.
I have been able to update ICue every time it needed updating.
I have a decent little per-core overclock running 24/7, the system runs everything I throw at it stable and cool. (Literally 4 to 8 (and sometimes longer) hour gaming sessions with chat programs and music all running at once)
All of my hard drivers work properly and I use a USB 3.0 (BlacX) for my storage drives instead of the hot-swap drive cage I had plugged into the ASMedia port, and that works fine.
 
How did I know it was this port?:
 
I had drives hooked to it that port that would just disappear as if they failed.
My DVD ROM seemed like the problem causing the BSOD's...until I moved it to another controller. And now it doesn't.
Since leaving that bottom ASMedia port open (unused) I have had no more BSOD's/WHEA Errors, there is no more reporting in the event logs about failing hardware.
 
 
So, is it just a driver issue?? I have NO idea because there are STILL no official Windows 11 Drivers available to test with.  OR is it that I just cannot use all 8 ports at once?  ...again I have no idea.
 
BUT, the system works without using it (for now anyway) and I am cool with that.
 
 
HOPEFULLY, this issue is solved (time will tell, and hopefully it doesn't become a larger issue)
A HUGE thank you to everyone for putting up with me through this, believe it or not, I have learned a LOT of valuable information (like have NOTHING hooked up when installing windows 10/11!! and only add one device at a time!) and discovered some cool things about using optical cable for sound (some frustrating but some very cool), and I think I'm going to stick with windows 11, as even as buggy as it is sometimes, it is just VERY easy to use and has everything I need right there.

Sorry, it took me a while to get back, super busy right now.
 
 It "might" be a bad cable, but I used one of the brand new EVGA ones with the metal clips on it, It's underneath the end of my video card, and the port on the bottom, so the cable is still in there until I have time to mess with it again. I might give a new cable a try in there when I take my cooler out to change the fans in it.  But no matter what I plug into that cable/port, it has problems. DVD, HotSwap cage, SSD drive, all of them cause issues with driver installs and/or malfunction.
 
 Got some cool Arctic fans for my 280 CLC though, so when I put those in I'm going to install another new cable and try a drive in there.