Sudden BSODs

Hello, the past few days (and once early last month) my computer has had a few BSODs. I don't remember what I was doing when the first one occurred, but the next two happened while playing World of Warcraft and the last two while watching Starcraft 2 streams.

WhoCrashed is saying the following for all crashes:
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\060511-5304-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x7FD00)
Bugcheck code: 0xD1 (0xFA5F, 0xD, 0x8, 0xFA5F)
Error: DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This indicates that a kernel-mode driver attempted to access pageable memory at a process IRQL that was too high.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.

From looking around, the crashes seem to either be RAM or driver related. Running "perfmon /report," I found that there were no USB controller drivers so I installed them (could that have been the problem?). My computer hasn't had a BSOD since installing the driver, but the crashes seemed pretty random/inconsistent.

I've not yet run Memtest86+ for more than ~30 minutes and plan on doing so tonight, but the brief initial test found no errors.

Is Windows 7 . . .
- x86 (32-bit) or x64 ? x64
- the original installed OS on the system? Yes
- an OEM or full retail version? I think retail. (Got it from MSDNAA)

- What is the age of system (hardware)? About 1.5 years
- What is the age of OS installation (have you re-installed the OS?) About 6 months, and I have not tried reinstalling yet.

Anybody have any ideas of what is causing the crashes?

Thanks for the help.

Jophess said:

Hello, the past few days (and once early last month) my computer has had a few BSODs. I don't remember what I was doing when the first one occurred, but the next two happened while playing World of Warcraft and the last two while watching Starcraft 2 streams.

WhoCrashed is saying the following for all crashes:
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\060511-5304-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x7FD00)
Bugcheck code: 0xD1 (0xFA5F, 0xD, 0x8, 0xFA5F)
Error: DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This indicates that a kernel-mode driver attempted to access pageable memory at a process IRQL that was too high.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.

From looking around, the crashes seem to either be RAM or driver related. Running "perfmon /report," I found that there were no USB controller drivers so I installed them (could that have been the problem?). My computer hasn't had a BSOD since installing the driver, but the crashes seemed pretty random/inconsistent.

I've not yet run Memtest86+ for more than ~30 minutes and plan on doing so tonight, but the brief initial test found no errors.

Is Windows 7 . . .
- x86 (32-bit) or x64 ? x64
- the original installed OS on the system? Yes
- an OEM or full retail version? I think retail. (Got it from MSDNAA)

- What is the age of system (hardware)? About 1.5 years
- What is the age of OS installation (have you re-installed the OS?) About 6 months, and I have not tried reinstalling yet.

Anybody have any ideas of what is causing the crashes?

Thanks for the help.

Two initial problems


1-ASACPI.SYS a major cause of BSOD's in the 2005 rev.

The pre 2009 version of this driver is a known BSOD cause.

The 2005 version of this driver is a known BSOD cause.
Please visit this link: ASUS teK Computer Inc. -Support- Drivers and Download P7P55D LE
ASUSTeK Computer Inc. -Support- Drivers and Download P7P55D LE

Scroll down to the Utilities category, then scroll down to the "ATK0110 driver for WindowsXP/Vista/Windows 7 32&64-bit" (it's about the 12th item down).
Download and install it.
Go to C:\Windows\System32\drivers to check and make sure that the ASACPI.sys file is date stamped from 2009 or 2010 (NOT 2005).

2- Your avast. remove and replace with Microsoft security essentials.

http://files.avast.com/files/eng/aswclear5.exe

Virus, Spyware & Malware Protection | Microsoft Security Essentials

Thanks for the quick reply. I actually uninstalled Avast a few days ago, and didn't realize it also needed that cleanup utility. Also, ASACPI.sys now shows 2009 instead of 2005.

Is there anything else I can do, or is just time to wait and see if it crashes again?

Thanks again for the help.

Jophess said:

Thanks for the quick reply. I actually uninstalled Avast a few days ago, and didn't realize it also needed that cleanup utility. Also, ASACPI.sys now shows 2009 instead of 2005.

Is there anything else I can do, or is just time to wait and see if it crashes again?

Thanks again for the help.

Most crashes are a combination of things so I would just wait. ASACPI.sys is a HUGE cause of them and it may by itself resolve the issue.

Hello, unfortunately I need to bump this thread. My computer has been running BSOD free since my last post, untill today. Though this time it crashed with a different reason.

On Tue 6/14/2011 4:35:15 PM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\061411-5662-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x7FD00)
Bugcheck code: 0xFC (0x271CF, 0x82A0000165949867, 0xFFFFF880030B09D0, 0x0)
Error: ATTEMPTED_EXECUTE_OF_NOEXECUTE_MEMORY
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This indicates that an attempt was made to execute non-executable memory.
This might be a case of memory corruption. More often memory corruption happens because of software errors in buggy drivers, not because of faulty RAM modules. There is a possibility this problem was caused by a virus or other malware.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.

Any ideas? I ran MemTest86+ overnight after my last post just to be sure, and it came back with no errors found.

EDIT: This time the computer crashed while only browsing the internet with Firefox.

Jophess said:

Hello, unfortunately I need to bump this thread. My computer has been running BSOD free since my last post, untill today. Though this time it crashed with a different reason.

On Tue 6/14/2011 4:35:15 PM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\061411-5662-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x7FD00)
Bugcheck code: 0xFC (0x271CF, 0x82A0000165949867, 0xFFFFF880030B09D0, 0x0)
Error: ATTEMPTED_EXECUTE_OF_NOEXECUTE_MEMORY
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This indicates that an attempt was made to execute non-executable memory.
This might be a case of memory corruption. More often memory corruption happens because of software errors in buggy drivers, not because of faulty RAM modules. There is a possibility this problem was caused by a virus or other malware.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.

Any ideas? I ran MemTest86+ overnight after my last post just to be sure, and it came back with no errors found.

EDIT: This time the computer crashed while only browsing the internet with Firefox.

Still have asacpi.sys from 2005.

Hmm, not sure why the 2005 one is still there. I installed the new one, and my computer is even showing the date being 5/14/2009.

Is there a way to get rid of the old one after the new one is already installed over it?

Jophess said:

Hmm, not sure why the 2005 one is still there. I installed the new one, and my computer is even showing the date being 5/14/2009.

Is there a way to get rid of the old one after the new one is already installed over it?

search for asacpi.sys. find which is the old one and rename it from asacpi.sys to asacpi.bak

Alright, I searched and found the 2005 version in DriverStore/Filerepository. I had to move it to another folder to rename it since it was saying I needed permission, even though I took ownership of it and gave myself permission. I'm assuming that will be fine?

Thanks again for the help.

Jophess said:

Alright, I searched and found the 2005 version in DriverStore/Filerepository. I had to move it to another folder to rename it since it was saying I needed permission, even though I took ownership of it and gave myself permission. I'm assuming that will be fine?

Thanks again for the help.

Should be ok if it complains move it back and rename it bak.

It should not be loading from there though. It should be loading from the system32 folder.