Windows 7: BSOD 0x124 occurring seemingly randomly - very frequent

Is Windows 7 . . .
- x86 (32-bit) or x64 ? 64-bit
- the original installed OS on the system? No - Homebuilt computer
- an OEM or full retail version? Full Retail

- What is the age of system (hardware)? roughly 3 years - different components are different ages
- What is the age of OS installation (have you re-installed the OS?) approximately 8 months



I haven't recently changed any hardware, so I'm not sure where to start - I ran the memory test overnight and found no errors, I ran a video card stress test for about an hour with no issues, my HD's both sound fine (I know that's not the only symptom, but just to put that out there).

I did have two of these memory sticks running in dual channel, but when I initially installed Windows 7 it would hang at the install screen and it ended up being because of one of the sticks of memory (which is why I'm only running one 2GB stick now), so that was my first thought - but it ran fine for months on this stick, and the memory test ran fine so I'm steering away from this.

I get this error very frequently, and almost always on the first boot of the session (if I wait a couple hours I boot it and it freezes at boot and then loads fine the second time).

I'm at college so I don't have another computer I can pull parts from (or the Windows 7 disc), so I was hoping that somewhere hidden in these files it might give a hint as to what is wrong... Please let me know if I left something out that will help!

Thank you in advance for any help you can provide!

Cody


edit: Updated system specs

Cody hi and welcome


this is almost certainly hardware and probably RAM or CPU. The only thing I can see in software that might do this is your Avast.

I assume you arent overclocking or running a raid.

That's correct, and my memory is actually running below spec right now rather than having the timings set to it's max. I will uninstall avast for a while and see if the error persists. Though mentioning RAM is a likely culprit, I'm inclined to think that (per the edit I made: "I did have two of these memory sticks running in dual channel, but when I initially installed Windows 7 it would hang at the install screen and it ended up being because of one of the sticks of memory (which is why I'm only running one 2GB stick now), so that was my first thought - but it ran fine for months on this stick, and the memory test ran fine so I'm steering away from this.").

Also, my Avast had an error updating for about two days, a week or so ago (though this problem has been ongoing for at least a month), that may also be a symptom.

I appreciate your help!

edit:
Also, I read in a similar thread to mine about drivers, so I updated my video card drivers as well (though I hadn't touched those around the time it started BSODing)

So, after updating the display drivers and uninstalling Avast! last night, my computer ran for about 3 hours (I don't know the last time it did that without freezing), even while running stress tests (P95, etc). It did freeze finally, while no stress tests were running, so I'm not sure what it was attributed to - but it was a different error this time (0x101 I believe). It just froze again while starting up (it didn't even post the first time, so I reset and it posted and started up). This leads me to believe it is the hardware, and not avast. I may have access to memory here shortly, so I will swap that out and see if it persists and if it doesn't (hopefully), I'll know! If not, it sounds like you believe it is the CPU - is that correct? Is that a guess, or is that at least loosely based off of the error I received?

Thanks again,
Cody

Cody if your error was "101" it would explain much


Best advice that I've seen about this error (from here: http://www.sevenforums.com/crashes-d...tml#post356791 )
So, check the drivers
Then check the inside of the case (temperature, voltage, dust, etc).
Then run some hardware stress tests

Then try replacing parts.
Then look up the versions of your BIOS to see what changes were done.[/QUOTE]

While running Prime95 I get the following (for core 2) - attached.

To me, this points to a faulty core on my processor (meaning I need to replace the CPU). Based on the errors I posted, would you agree with that?

It does seem like that. It is obviously a hardware issue. Have you checked the BIOS, and voltages?

I updated my BIOS (though I used the old bios for a couple years with zero issue) - I checked all settings in BIOS, eased my RAM timings (though now I know it isn't my RAM), I cannot change CPU voltage, and my memory V was properly set. I cleaned the case of dust... Was there something else about the voltage I should be looking at? I'm looking at an Athlon II x3 / Motherboard setup on Newegg that I will buy if necessary - I just want to make sure I have this narrowed down as much as possible so I decrease my chances of buying that and still having issue.

Have you checked the Temps?

My processor maxed at about 145f and held there. My video card was at 170 I believe, but no errors on that test. They both returned to normal very quickly after exiting the stress tests.