Windows 7: Constant crashing on or after startup, white or brown screen

System specs:

Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
PSU: 650W
Motherboard: Intel X58
Processor: Core i7 960
Memory: 16GB DDR3
Hard Disc: 1TB 7200rpm, partitioned
Optical Drive: DVD-RW
Graphics Card: GeForce GTX 470
Sound Card: X-Fi Titanium Professional Audio
Hard Disc 2: 300GB - 10000rpm (+ ¥31,500)
Monitor: Iiyama 24 Inch Flat LCD Wide 1920 x 1080

A little history on the system:
I bought the system about 18 months ago for the purposes of video editing and gaming. It served me well for around 11 months, when I started getting random crashes on Startup. After a lot of troubleshooting and replacing the PSU and RAM, it seemed that the cause was in fact the NVidia graphics driver - when NVidia released a new version of the driver the system suddenly functioned correctly again for around 6 months.

Recently I had a problem with the sound cutting in and out, and was getting error reports that stated "one or more audio service failed to start". Then once again the system refused to startup, crashing after the Windows logo. After two attempts at restoring from disc the system suddenly worked fine again for around a month.

Yesterday I was running Skyrim when suddenly the screen went completely brown and the system reset itself. It then refused to startup in Normal mode at all. Considering the wealth of problems I'd had with the system, I decided the best option would be to do a complete clean reinstall of Windows 7.

After reinstalling Windows I reinstalled drivers for the Wi-fi dongle and then downloaded the latest NVidia drivers, but the system refused to recognise the sound card. I also had an error message that drivers could not be found for a USB 3.0 Host controller which was showing up as 'unknown device' in Device manager. On the advice of another forum, I unplugged the computer completely to reset the motherboard and this seemed to fix the USB problem, though the sound card was still not recognised. Furthermore, the system now repeatedly crashes either immediately on startup or after around five minutes of use. When it crashes the screen simply goes either totally white or totally brown for around 10 seconds before resetting. Safe Mode with Networking works almost fine, although I still have the "Audio Service not running" error (even though sound works for the five minutes of usage I get in Normal mode, albeit only with the onboard sound).

Dump files for the last few crashes are attached to this post, though I'm nowhere near technically minded enough to make any sense of them. I tried the perfmon/report thing but it doesn't seem to work in Safe Mode.

I'm really at the end of my tether here, and I wonder if I perhaps have a hardware issue with either the GPU or motherboard. It's still quite a high spec system and was really quite expensive when I got it, which is why it's so frustrating that it's been the most problematic PC I've ever had. Any help would be much appreciated.

Your problem is most likely due to "Asus ATK0110 ACPI Utility (a known BSOD maker in Windows 7). Also a part of the Asus PCProbe and AISuite Utilities" From Driver Reference

Update the driver by:
1. Going to the Asus motherboard support site
When you reach the website:
2. Scroll down the page and click Utilities
3. Hold Ctrl and press f (ctrl+f) to enter the browser's find feature
4. Search for "ATK0110 driver for WindowsXP/Vista/Windows 7 32&64-bit" (without quotes)
5. Download and install the driver.
6. After installation is complete, verify that it installed correctly.

a. Click Start Menu
b. Click My Computer
c. Go to C:\WIndows\System32\drivers\
d. Verify that the ASACPI.SYS file is dated 2009 or newer (2010,etc.)

Thanks to JMH and zigzag3143 for the above information.

Edit: Updated to let OP know to update the driver rather than removing the utilities (THANK YOU JMH! )

You have a few things that should be addressed.

ASACPI.SYS

Quote:

The pre 2009 version of this driver is a known BSOD cause.

Please visit this link: ASUS teK Computer Inc. -Support- Drivers and Download P7P55D LE
ASUSTeK Computer Inc. -Support- Drivers and Download P7P55D LE

Scroll down to the Utilities category, then scroll down to the "ATK0110 driver for WindowsXP/Vista/Windows 7 32&64-bit" (it's about the 12th item down).
Download and install it.
Go to C:\Windows\System32\drivers to check and make sure that the ASACPI.SYS file is date stamped from 2009 or 2010 (NOTbefore).

"It's not a true crash, in the sense that the bluescreen was initiated only because the combination of video driver and video hardware was being unresponsive, and not because of any synchronous processing exception".

Quote:

Since Vista, the "Timeout Detection and Recovery" (TDR) components of the OS video subsystem have been capable of doing some truly impressive things to try to recover from issues which would have caused earlier OSs like XP to crash.

As a last resort, the TDR subsystem sends the video driver a "please restart yourself now!" command and waits a few seconds.

If there's no response, the OS concludes that the video driver/hardware combo has truly collapsed in a heap, and it fires off that stop 0x116 BSOD.

If playing with video driver versions hasn't helped, make sure the box is not overheating.

Try removing a side panel and aiming a big mains fan straight at the motherboard and GPU.

Run it like that for a few hours or days - long enough to ascertain whether cooler temperatures make a difference.

If so, it might be as simple as dust buildup and subsequently inadequate cooling.

I would download cpu-z and gpu-z (both free) and keep an eye on the video temps Let us know if you need help

STOP 0x116: VIDEO_TDR_ERROR troubleshooting

Please also use the SYSTEM UPDATE READINESS TOOL & then update to SP1.

Ensure you install the correct 64 or 32bit option for your system)

Download the System Update Readiness Tool (64bit)
Download the System Update Readiness Tool (32bit)

ISC Diary | Windows 7 / 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 Problems

Hi, thanks for the responses.

I updated the driver as per your responses and it is now showing a 2009 date. The crashing persists, however - the only real change being that the screen now goes black instead of white or brown before restarting.

I tried downloading cpu-z and gpu-z but it seems I can't install in Safe Mode. I'll have a couple more tries at getting them to run in Normal mode before it crashes.

I would be surprised if it was a GPU heating issue because I always used a program called Afterburner to monitor the temperature and never had anything above 75; besides, it crashes soon after startup without doing anything remotely GPU-intensive. I also cleaned all around the fans but to no discernible effect.

EDIT: Have now been successfully running for about 15 mins. GPU temperatures are hovering around 50 degrees; not exactly sure what I should be looking for in CPU-Z, though. Have three messages in Windows Action Centre:

Address a problem with NVidia Graphics Driver - NVidia Graphics Driver has stopped working 2 times.

Install your power management system driver. (just finished doing this).

Download an update for USB 3.0 Host Controller driver.

I'm about to reinstall the NVidia drivers again, just in case, but this will be the third time since I did the clean install of Windows.