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.

**************************

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.

Code:

*******************************************************************************
*                                                                             *
*                        Bugcheck Analysis                                    *
*                                                                             *
*******************************************************************************

Use !analyze -v to get detailed debugging information.

BugCheck 116, {fffffa80088e8010, fffff8800841145c, 0, 2}

Unable to load image \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\atikmpag.sys, Win32 error 0n2
*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for atikmpag.sys
*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for atikmpag.sys
Probably caused by : atikmpag.sys ( atikmpag+745c )

Followup: MachineOwner

LMVM *atikmpag.sys*

Code:

3: kd> lmvm atikmpag
start             end                 module name
fffff880`0840a000 fffff880`0845a000   atikmpag T (no symbols)           
    Loaded symbol image file: atikmpag.sys
    Image path: \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\atikmpag.sys
    Image name: atikmpag.sys
    Timestamp:        Wed Apr 20 03:22:32 2011 (4DAE3558)
    CheckSum:         00050398
    ImageSize:        00050000
    Translations:     0000.04b0 0000.04e4 0409.04b0 0409.04e4

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

Best Regards,
FredeGail

Luke T said:

First thing to do.

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

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

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 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?