Several BSODs occurred last night, now seeing major performance drop

System Specs

• Windows 7 Ultimate x64, Upgrade from a Windows 2K Install
• AMD Phenom II X4 955 @ 3.20GHz
• 8GB RAM
• AMD Radeon HD 6770
• 1TB Seagate Hard Drive
• Custom build completed in November 2011

Last night, I encountered my first BSOD since this build was complete. I had a series of maybe about half a dozen occur throughout the night, with each BSOD after the first occurring about 5 or 10 minutes after loading to Desktop. Safe Mode worked fine.

I ran Windows Memory Diagnostic overnight last night (6 passes, full tests) with no errors reported. Today, I noticed no further BSODs, but I found computer performance was noticeably degraded. Applications take a bit longer to load (sometimes a minute or two more), and games have very noticeable FPS drops and audio skips.

Reports attached.

Any ideas, guys? Thank you for your time!

These crashes were caused by memory corruption/exception (probably a driver).
Please run these two tests to verify your memory and find which driver is causing the problem.

* If you are overclocking anything reset to default before running these tests.
In other words STOP!!!

* If you have Raid update its Driver.



Memtest.

*Download a copy of Memtest86 and burn the ISO to a CD using Iso Recorder or another ISO burning program. Memtest86+ - Advanced Memory Diagnostic Tool

*Boot from the CD, and leave it running for at least 5 or 6 passes.

Just remember, any time Memtest reports errors, it can be either bad RAM or a bad motherboard slot.

Test the sticks individually, and if you find a good one, test it in all slots.

Any errors are indicative of a memory problem.

If a known good stick fails in a motherboard slot it is probably the slot.

RAM - Test with Memtest86+



Driver verifier

Using Driver Verifier is an iffy proposition. Most times it'll crash and it'll tell you what the driver is. But sometimes it'll crash and won't tell you the driver. Other times it'll crash before you can log in to Windows. If you can't get to Safe Mode, then you'll have to resort to offline editing of the registry to disable Driver Verifier.

So, I'd suggest that you first backup your stuff and then make sure you've got access to another computer so you can contact us if problems arise. Then make a System Restore point (so you can restore the system using the Vista/Win7 Startup Repair feature).

Then, here's the procedure:
- Go to Start and type in "verifier" (without the quotes) and press Enter
- Select "Create custom settings (for code developers)" and click "Next"
- Select "Select individual settings from a full list" and click "Next"
- Select everything EXCEPT FOR "Special Pool", "Force Pending I/O Requests" and "Low Resource Simulation" and click "Next"
- Select "Select driver names from a list" and click "Next"
Then select all drivers NOT provided by Microsoft and click "Next"
- Select "Finish" on the next page.

Reboot the system and wait for it to crash to the Blue Screen.
Continue to use your system normally, and if you know what causes the crash, do that repeatedly.
The objective here is to get the system to crash because Driver Verifier is stressing the drivers out.
If it doesn't crash for you, then let it run for at least 36 hours of continuous operation.

Reboot into Windows (after the crash) and turn off Driver Verifier by going back in and selecting "Delete existing settings" on the first page, then locate and zip up the memory dump file and upload it with your next post.

If you can't get into Windows because it crashes too soon, try it in Safe Mode.
If you can't get into Safe Mode, try using System Restore from your installation DVD to set the system back to the previous restore point that you created.

7 of 11 crashes point directly to memory management.

Please follow JMH'S suggestions.

It is probably a driver but windows diagnostics doesnt stress the memory enough so you will have to run memtest as well.

Thank you both for your prompt responses. I'll run memtest tonight to be sure.

KEGong said:

Thank you both for your prompt responses. I'll run memtest tonight to be sure.

Keep us in the loop and good luck.

The BSODs have not happened since I started running Driver Verifier a few hours ago, and the performance issues have also mysteriously gone away. I'll leave Verifier running for the recommended 36 hours, and report back my findings.

No BSODs, no performance issues, I stopped running Driver Verifier. Everything seems to be back to normal with no further intervention. Curious.

Hello again everybody.

BSODs started again tonight. I woke the computer up from Sleep after being out all day, but the display remained blank. Restarted computer, got the first BSOD. After it rebooted from that crash, it crashed again with our familiar memory management code. Running Driver Verifier again now. Doesn't it sound like it's a display driver problem? That's the only driver I can think of that I've updated within the past month.

Please let me know if you would like me to post new dump files. I'll otherwise keep you all updated.

Well, that was fast. After I restarted into normal boot with Verifier running, the computer immediately crashed, and restarted. Do you just want me to post the raw dump file, or should I run that Dump and System File Collection process again? Thanks.

Hello again, attached are the minidump files from all the BSODs tonight, including ones where Verifier was running. Sorry for the post spam, I re-read JMH's instructions just now, and realized y'all were probably waiting for these.