BSOD while idle and playing games.

Orsen · 22 Jun 2011

Hello everyone,
I have been getting BSOD errors for about a month now, I am at wits end with this machine and am suspecting that the motherboard or processors are failing.
My problem started about a month ago when after I installed an adobe flash update, whether the problem was caused directly by this update, I don't know. I experienced the first BSOD after I installed the update. The screen would freeze and a sound sample would repeat. At the time I was using Winxp Pro SP3, I also had Win7 and ubuntu installed. Windows XP would just BSOD after loging in, Windows7 would freeze at the log in screen, and ubuntu would not start at all.
I replaced my video card and installed an older one and stability seemed to be restored to the my system.
I decided to completely migrate to Windows 7 so I backed up my documents and deleted all of the OS' from my systems and installed Windows 7 Pro 32bit. But the problems still persisted. I get the BSOD mostly when I play video games (Heroes of Newerth in particular), when my system idles, and when I do simple tasks (like browsing the internet). The amount of time that elapses before I BSOD varies.
I thought it was an issue with my on-board sound and so I bought a new sound card but the problems still persists.

I have updated the BIOS, installed all the latest drivers, my memory passes memtest, and I have checked my hard drives for errors with the windows utilities. I am at a loss at to what is causing the problem.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I have:
- ASUS P5N E SLI
- Intel E4500 Core 2 Duo Processor @ 2.2Ghz
- Corsair CM2X1024-6400 DDR2 4GB (4x1GB) Memory at 800Mhz Dual Channel ( I am aware of the 4Gb the limitations of a 32bit system)
- XFX Nvidia 8600GT 256Mb PCI-E
(The card I had was an ASUS ENGTS250 512MB, now RMA after my initial computer troubles)
- ASUS Xonar DG 5.1 PCI sound card.
-3 HDD, 2 are IDE master-slave, each 120GB, one SATA at 500GB.
- Cooler Master GX 750W PSU

Orsen · 23 Jun 2011

Alas,
Looking through the invoices of my parts I noticed that the memory sticks I have are not as identical as I thought.
They are the same brand, same and same speed, however they have different latency and voltage operations. Their names vary slightly too.
I initially purchased the CM2x1024-6400C4, these two memory modules operate under 2.10V and have a CAS latency of 4-4-4-12.

Two years later I purchased CM2X1024-6400, these modules operate at 1.90V and have a CAS latency of 5-5-5-18.
This could be the problem to my system being unstable.
Now here is where the dilemma arises: As of now I have my motherboard to automatically control the latency and voltages of everything on my computer, I have never overclocked or messed with the latencies or voltages... If I lower the voltage of the old sticks then they would not operate with the same speed ... and if I increase the voltages of the new sticks, would they operate on the same speed? Keep in mind that I thought I had them on dual channel mode and each stick pair was in their designated memory channel.

Any thoughts or suggestions?
Your help would greatly be appreciated.

Orsen · 23 Jun 2011

Well, without any suggestions from someone more experienced it is hard to do the next move or even figure out where to start.
I will be posting on this thread as I go through and try to see the source of my problem.
I will begin with the most obvious of things I observed and already noted: the memory.
It could be that the newer memory sticks are giving me trouble. I will try to boot with just the old sticks (when my system used to be stable under WinXP), then with new sticks, and then each individual stick and see if the constant BSODs still occur.

If not, then I will also follow this website to shed more light into my issue.
Again, any help, thought, suggestion, or even good luck wishes are greatly welcomed.

Orsen · 24 Jun 2011

I have gotten a few more BSOD's, have not included the dumps yet, there are 15 total.
I suspect that my ram was the problem, I am currently running memtest86 v4.2... I am testing 5 passes on each ram stick, the newer sticks first.
I had done memtest with all the ram sticks in for 1 pass, which was probably my err.
I shall keep you guys updated in my progress... seeing that each stick will take about an hour...

In the mean time, if anybody has real advice to give, you will be greatly appreciated.

Its sad to see other posts get replies in a matter of hours while this one has gone by a few days and no help yet.

Orsen · 25 Jun 2011

Finally got done with memtest.
Turns out I had a bad memory stick, kept having errors on the entire range of 224.2Mb - 283.7Mb.
To be thorough I tested a single stick for 5 runs on each DIMM slot. Took hours to get all of the sticks done but in the end I seem to have found the root of my problems.

As I looked through the other threads I got rid of Avast and replaced it for MSE, as suggested.
I also double checked and made sure I had every driver up to date.
I took out the bad stick and the system seems to be stable.
Before it would BSOD while in idle. This has been running for about 2 hrs on idle and has yet to BSOD. I will do some benchmarks later on and perhaps resume my to my normal use.

As stated in my previous post, I have posted the new dumps on here.

I still have a concern with regards to the sets of memory running on different voltages and latencies, everything on my motherboard is set to auto but if anyone would like to suggest any tweaks or adjustments made on my BIOS, you will be greatly appreciated.
I also noticed that my system health report lists some device errors, service stop errors, and claims that I have no anti-virus installed even though I just installed MSE.
If anybody out there would like to analyze my crash dumps please do so, you may uncover something else.
I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope all goes well and hope I can get some help.