BSOD - help!

Hi,

I've been having BSOD issues on my newish (6 months) Sony Vaio for about three months now.

64 bit home premium
Original OS
OEM version
System is 6 months old, ditto for OS

I started troubleshooting with a system restore (no improvement), then memtest (no problems found), then removing the two RAM chips one at a time (BSOD recurs regardless of which chip is present). I am at a bit of a loss at this point. The computer is under warranty but I'd really like to avoid the hassle of sending it back.

Here are my observations, for what its worth:

- The BSOD error isnt always the same, but most of the time starts with STOP: 0x0000007F.

- Somedays I cant keep the computer on for five minutes before a BSOD, whereas I've gone a week or more at times with it working fine as well. There does not seem to be a correlation between BSOD and high RAM or CPU usage.

- The only correlation I can find is that it seems the BSOD is more likely to occur when programs are auto-updating in the background. Especially Flash, Avast, Java, Adobe Acrobat Reader. Or maybe its just that these programs are constantly in need of updates. I've tried uninstalling most of these programs at various times but still get the errors. I guess I could turn off auto updating altogether, and see if that helps any. However, I'm not convinced that the BSOD only happens when auto-update routines are running.

Thanks everyone/anyone for your feedback!

getskied said:

Hi,

I've been having BSOD issues on my newish (6 months) Sony Vaio for about three months now.

64 bit home premium
Original OS
OEM version
System is 6 months old, ditto for OS

I started troubleshooting with a system restore (no improvement), then memtest (no problems found), then removing the two RAM chips one at a time (BSOD recurs regardless of which chip is present). I am at a bit of a loss at this point. The computer is under warranty but I'd really like to avoid the hassle of sending it back.

Here are my observations, for what its worth:

- The BSOD error isnt always the same, but most of the time starts with STOP: 0x0000007F.

- Somedays I cant keep the computer on for five minutes before a BSOD, whereas I've gone a week or more at times with it working fine as well. There does not seem to be a correlation between BSOD and high RAM or CPU usage.

- The only correlation I can find is that it seems the BSOD is more likely to occur when programs are auto-updating in the background. Especially Flash, Avast, Java, Adobe Acrobat Reader. Or maybe its just that these programs are constantly in need of updates. I've tried uninstalling most of these programs at various times but still get the errors. I guess I could turn off auto updating altogether, and see if that helps any. However, I'm not convinced that the BSOD only happens when auto-update routines are running.

Thanks everyone/anyone for your feedback!

Easy. Your Avast. Remove and replace with Microsoft Security Essentials

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

Virus, Spyware & Malware Protection | Microsoft Security Essentials

Easy. 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 advice. I did as you suggested and the BSOD went away for a few days. It just returned however when I connected a Garmin GPS device to the USB port (the BSOD was instantaneous).

Any thoughts? Perhaps this is unrelated and I'm just really unlucky to have unrelated BSODs, but somehow I doubt that!

Thanks in advance.

getskied said:

Easy. 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 advice. I did as you suggested and the BSOD went away for a few days. It just returned however when I connected a Garmin GPS device to the USB port (the BSOD was instantaneous).

Any thoughts? Perhaps this is unrelated and I'm just really unlucky to have unrelated BSODs, but somehow I doubt that!

Thanks in advance.

Well you nailed it

BugCheck 1000007E, {ffffffffc0000005, fffff8800ae22351, fffff880033bd3a8, fffff880033bcc10}

Probably caused by : grmnusb.sys ( grmnusb+5351 )

Your Garmin.

I'm a bit dubious of this as I've gotten BSODs in the past when the Garmin hadnt been connected in days or even weeks. Furthermore, this latest BSOD listed the grmnusb.sys program on it, but in the past I havent seen any program listed and definitely not the grmnusb.sys program.

I'm at a loss...!

Anyways, I went ahead and uninstalled the Garmin USB drivers to see if that helps any. Especially after I read this post:

https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?t=2416