Windows 7: hal.dll BSOD on AMD Phenom II (6 cores) 64

I built a new computer 1 year ago on an Asus M4A89TD PRO/USB3 motherboard with a Phenom II AMD64 6 cores CPU running at 3.2 GHz.
The OS is : Windows 7 Service Pack 1, 6.1, build: 7601 full retail.

I recently and repeatedly encountered a crash on my system when using photoshop cs4/bridge application.

The problem seems to occur whenever the system is fully loaded, e.g. when opening a directory (in photoshop/bridge) that contains many pictures and while the photoshop cache builds up.



I also encountered disk errors where the cache resides (i.e. a 300 GB WD velociraptor at 10000rpm) but this is probably the consequence rather than the cause of it.

What is strange is that the same data resided on another (slower) disk and the problem did not occur there. It occured since I moved the data circa 250 GB of pictures) into a newer and faster WD 600 GB velociraptor HD, precisely when building the cache...

Googling on photoshop gave me hints to update to latest graphic drivers, which I did (the graphic card is am ATI Radeon HD 5800 with 1 GB of RAM and I am now on version 8.861.0.0 ). The driver upgrade did not change anything...

The output of "whocrashed" gives me the following hint :
This was probably caused by the following module: hal.dll (hal+0x12A3B)
Bugcheck code: 0x124 (0x0, 0xFFFFFA8007DBB028, 0xB640A000, 0x3B000135)
Error: WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR
file path: C:\Windows\system32\hal.dll
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: Hardware Abstraction Layer DLL
Bug check description: This bug check indicates that a fatal hardware error has occurred. This bug check uses the error data that is provided by the Windows Hardware Error Architecture (WHEA).
This is likely to be caused by a hardware problem problem. This problem might be caused by a thermal issue.
The crash took place in a standard Microsoft module. Your system configuration may be incorrect. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver on your system which cannot be identified at this time.

I would like to add the following: I endured BSODs one year ago and got rid of them once I removed ZoneAlarm and a PCTools anti-virus.

I do not think that the hardware is directly the cause of it, since this is a dual boot config (Ubuntu) and Linux never crashed. Admittedly, photoshop/bridge is consuming a lot more resources than any Linux programs...

Whatever you did on sept 12, 2010 changed the BCC from the pctools/ZAP error (7F) to a hardware 124. I would start with a system file check (to verify and repair OS files)

Run a system file check to verify and repair your system files.
To do this type cmd in search, then right click to run as administrator, then
SFC /SCANNOW

Read here for more information SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker

Let us know the results from the report at the end.


Did you by chance change the memory then? re-seat a card? something physical?



Any ideas?

Thank you for your feedback.

Unfortunately, running the sfc check did not show any errors. The output as follows :

"Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations"

Now to go back to what happened in September is a bit difficult but I know that I did not add any new hw (I opened the PC for the first time since installation only last week, as I added a new disk) and I am almost certain that I did not install any new sw either except regular OS updates (automatic). The only driver update I did was for the video card last week.

The only major change I did since I installed the OS one year ago was to remove ZA firewall and PCTools antivirus, which reduced a lot the frequency of BSODs, but that was before September...

What I can state is that, several months before SP1, one automated update did fail and to my understanding the previous config was restored (I did not intervene). I am not 100% certain that the failed update happened in September but this is the only noticable event I can remember.

Now, after the sfc trial, I decided to update the motherboard BIOS to its latest release (M4A89TD-PRO-ASUS-2001). But this did not help since bridge.exe led to 2 crashes in the same circumstances (rebuilding the cache with average CPU above 40% on Task Manager, which is the heaviest load as far as I can tell).

so ???

so I am stuck with this issue...

I would like to come back to a comment I had read re: CPU temperature...

I just noticed that in case of BSODs (which always happend under heavy load) the CPU temp was above 73°C, which is above the "official" limit recommended by AMD for this Phenom II X6 1190T running at 3.2 GHz, i.e. 62°C.

For me the question is : should I replace my current cooler ? (a Thermaltake Spin Q VT with s.th more efficient e.g. liquid cooling )
I have some doubts, for several reasons .
1. 11 °C above the limit is not a big gap
2. reading diverse tests with different coolers but on the same CPU shows many results above 73 °C for the heavy loads ( and I do not even mention of overclocking). That would mean that more than 50% of coolers tested do not match the AMD CPU requirements, which is a bit difficult for me to swallow.
3. would a heat problem signalled by the processor be comptaible with a BSOD ? To me a CPU overhating should lead to a system halt, period. (i.e. not blue message and no dump recorded).

If any one who reads this has some ideas, he is welcome to share them...

Well, after a run of"CPUID Hardware Monitor (version 1.18.0)" I found out that under heavy load the CPU does indeed heat too much...

And this allowed me to find the culprit. I initially thought my cooler was under-performing despite its size, and I considered changing it. Doing so, I found out that I HAD NOT SEEN AND REMOVED A THIN PLASTIC LAYER ON TOP OF THE CPU !!!!

REmoving it solved the problem. I can now run at full speed without overheating and subsequent BSODs...The max temp so far is now 46C on each core.

So, sorry to you zigzag, but thank you for your help anyway. It was appreciated...