Fixing Blue Screen Crashes in Online Games: The Truth About Kernel Mode Heap Corruption and Anti-Cheat Software
If you’re an avid gamer, you’ve likely experienced the frustration of launching your favorite online game, only to have your Windows PC crash within minutes, often resulting in a dreaded blue screen with the error message “Kernel Mode Heap Corruption.” Sometimes, you may see “IRQL Not Less or Equal” instead. This issue can occur in various games, including Rust, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, PUBG Battlegrounds, Punishing Gray Raven, Rainbow Six Siege, Valorant, and many more.
Upon Googling solutions, you’ll likely come across the usual troubleshooting advice: check your game installation, run system diagnostics on Windows, and perhaps reinstall key software. You may even encounter wild suggestions such as removing your RGB software, particularly from Gigabyte, or reinstalling services like Ubisoft Connect. Some suggest running a memory test like MemTest overnight to check for faulty RAM sticks, with a suggestion to remove XMP overclocking or replace your modules if any errors are found.
However, the real cause of these issues often lies deeper than simple hardware failures. While it’s true that faulty RAM can cause crashes, in this particular case, there’s more to the story. The recurring crashes and blue screen errors are often linked to something you wouldn’t expect: aggressive anti-cheat software.
The Role of Anti-Cheat Software in Game Crashes
Most of the games that experience these crashes are online multiplayer games, which rely heavily on anti-cheat mechanisms to prevent hacking and cheating. Interestingly, despite being from different developers and regions — Western, Chinese, Russian, and others — these games share a key similarity: they use particularly aggressive anti-cheat systems.
The worst offender here is probably Riot Games’ Vanguard, the anti-cheat for Valorant. If you try to find solutions for the blue screen error in Valorant, you’ll be met with some even stranger advice, such as replacing the TPM (Trusted Platform Module) on your motherboard. While Valorant indeed uses TPM for anti-cheat purposes, this only applies to Windows 11. On Windows 10 and below, TPM is not required, and you can even disable it in Windows 11 and still play Valorant just fine.
So what’s really going on?
The AMD Factor: Storage Drivers and Anti-Cheat Issues
The root cause of the problem on my own PC was an AMD machine. While AMD has made significant strides in hardware in recent years, they’ve historically struggled with software, particularly drivers. In fact, AMD has been so unsuccessful in creating stable drivers that they’ve made some of their drivers open-source. In some cases, AMD even relies on the Linux community to create drivers for their hardware.
But here’s the twist: AMD offers a storage solution called AMD StoreMI, which competes with Intel’s Rapid Storage Technology (RST). Even if you don’t use a RAID configuration or don’t have multiple drives, AMD still installs this driver as part of their storage solution. And it’s this AMD StoreMI driver that’s causing all the trouble.
It’s not unusual for systems running AMD hardware to experience issues with anti-cheat software in online games, especially since many of these anti-cheat tools are very sensitive to potential system modifications. AMD StoreMI, unfortunately, tends to trigger problems with these anti-cheat systems, leading to crashes and blue screens.
The Fix: Uninstalling AMD StoreMI
If you’re using an AMD system and experiencing blue screen crashes in online games, the solution is relatively simple: uninstall the AMD StoreMI driver.
Here’s how you can fix the issue:
Uninstall AMD StoreMI: Go to your PC’s Device Manager, locate the AMD StoreMI driver, and uninstall it.
Reboot your PC: After removing the driver, restart your system.
Enjoy Stable Gaming: With AMD StoreMI removed, you should be able to play hours of your favorite online games without encountering blue screens or crashes.
This fix is specific to AMD machines, so if you have an Intel CPU, you may be dealing with a different issue altogether.
Conclusion
While the usual advice to check your game installation and run memory tests may sometimes be helpful, the real culprit for many players encountering blue screen crashes in online games is often tied to aggressive anti-cheat software and, in the case of AMD users, the AMD StoreMI driver. By removing this storage solution driver, you can enjoy a smoother, crash-free gaming experience, and avoid the dreaded Kernel Mode Heap Corruption error.
If you’re on an Intel machine and still facing issues, the problem may lie elsewhere, but this guide is a step in the right direction for AMD users looking for a solution to their blue screen woes.