Windows 7: System instability, with BSOD

Hi,

I've had my system for just over a year, with no crash issues until this week. I am trying to narrow down what has changed to cause this. The problems:

*********skip to the next break if you want the short version

-starting Thursday, my machine would hard-freeze at random intervals of about every hour with no blue screen, requiring a hard reboot.

The suspects:

1) I moved across country last week, and had my computer shipped via UPS. I sent it in the same packaging it was sent to me in, but it's possible it got shaken up.

2) There were Windows 7 critical updates released this week.

3) I installed a scientific word processor I got from another student this week. I just followed the readme that was with it but, in retrospect, I suspect the installation may have included a 3rd party crack to avoid having to register. I did a system restore to before I installed it, but I don't know whether that would necessarily undo any damage that may have been done.

4) There were a couple of minor hardware changes (different plug-and-play monitor, logitech webcam added).

I tried what I could think of, including sfc /scannow, but even once got a hard freeze while in BIOS setup. The last thing I tried was to reseat my video card, which I had unseated to ship the machine. I did that last night and left my machine running overnight. It has not hard frozen since, easily the longest run since Thursday.



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However, I did just get a BSOD moments ago (see attachment). I reset my TCP/IP since that was implicated, but who knows if that is the real cause given all this trouble. Any help diagnosing this would be most appreciated.


Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, OEM, original install
Machine is 13 months old, no issues until last Thursday

Hello Luke T & Welcome to SevenForums!

First thing to do.

Uninstall your ATI Graphic driver, and install the newest version once again. The currently one is broken.

LMVM *atikmpag.sys*

Even though it's quite new. But there might be a newer on available.

Best Regards,
FredeGail

First thing to do.

Uninstall your ATI Graphic driver, and install the newest version once again. The currently one is broken.
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Thanks for such a quick reply. I had the latest one installed, but I redownloaded it and reinstalled it to be safe. Is there a "second thing" to do, or should I just update on this thread as events dictate?

Just update it and upload any incoming dump (if any).

Best Regards,
FredeGail

Had about 2 days of stability after resetting TCP/IP and reinstalling video driver, as recommended, then had another BSOD today. Info attached. Help!

Another blue screen after another 2 days - all three have come while playing a game in full-screen mode.

The system hung on the blue screen (ie, did not auto restart), so I had to hard reboot. Error in Event Viewer says "unable to produce a minidump file from the full dump file", and sure enough there isn't one. As the full dump file is > 600 MB, I'll not attach it. The blue screen read:

0x0000007e (0xFFFFFFFFC0000005, 0xFFFFF88004525FFB, 0xFFFFF880053C6698, 0xFFFFF880053C5EF0)

*** dxgmmx1.sys - Address FFFFF88004525FFB base at FFFFF88004505000, DateStamp 4ce799c1)

And again, a BSOD--and again, it seized up while creating the dump file. Error was "A driver has overrun a stack-based buffer." No driver named on the blue screen.

Any leads?

Scanned my computer today, and got another BSOD during the Avast boot-time scan. Then the system froze during the startup repair sequence (no BSOD). Then a BSOD during the next startup repair, but the system hung during the blue screen, so no minidump (and hadn't actually gotten the computer fully started since the first BSOD, so that one was overwritten). Then the computer wouldn't post for a couple of tries. Just started it up now without startup repair.

Am I right to suspect flaky hardware? It's been 5 days now with no response on this board--is that normal and I should just keep waiting?

And another, this time with no blue screen at all. I've read that can be an issue with power. I will say, all of these issues started once I got to this new apt, and I do happen to be using a different power strip than I used to. Any chance building wiring, etc, could cause this kind of behavior?

Another BSOD, but I've changed the settings to generate only the minidump file, which allowed the dump to complete for the first time in 4 days. It's attached.