BSODs after installing HD 6770

Hi All,

I’ve come across a series of BSODs since installing my new HD 6770. A bit of googling came up with results indicating a a history of BSODs with the card. Below are the specs of my computer.

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition
MB: ASUS M4A78-E DDR2 Motherboard
RAM: Corsair XMS2 DHX TWIN2X4096-6400C5DHX 4GB DDR2 2X2GB PC2-6400 DDR2-800
PS: OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W Modular Power Supply
CASE: Antec Three Hundred
OS: Windows 7 Professional 64

VIDEO: Gigabyte Radeon HD6770 775MHZ 1GB 4.0GHZ GDDR5

I’ve had the system for about 2.5-3 years now, running problem free with the on-board video card. I recently purchased the HD 6770 to play Diablo 3. I installed the card as one normally would and installed the drivers from the ATI site. I fired up Diablo 3 Beta and this is when the BSODs started to happen – 8 in the span of 2 days. All would occur in the middle of the game, completely random and not at any specific point at the game. I remember one happening when I was just idle in town.

I’m not all that familiar with troubleshooting BSODs but after some reading I tried the following:

- Update all drivers with Slimdrivers
- Set BIOS back to default settings
- Complete update to Windows 7 via Windows Update
- Removed and re-seated video card
- Installed AMD Catalyst 11.6b Hotfix (Resolves blue screen, screen flicker at idle and corrupt mouse pointer issues; AMD Catalyst)
- Replaced Logitech wireless mouse with MS wired mouse
- Ran Memtest86+ and passed


At one point, I managed to log in about 60 minutes before the system crashed. After replacing the mouse, I played about 45 minutes last night before calling it quits, crash-free. I come home today, and had another 2 BSODs not related to Diablo 3. I've attached a zip file of folder Windows_NT6_BSOD_jcgriff2 minus the perfmon HTML since it was coming up with an error message ("The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion."). I'll try to get that fixed and uploaded asap. In the meantime if you guys can take a peak at what I have so far, that'd be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for everyones help!

Before we can even begin to investigate there is one issue that needs resolving. Yours is from 2005

Asacpi.sys

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
ASUSTeK Computer Inc. - Motherboards- ASUS P5K-VM

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 (not before).

Thanks ZigZag. I went ahead to update the asacpi.sys yesterday with the time stamp "14/05/2009". Unfortunately, it seems to go deeper then that. I've attached an updated Windows_NT6_BSOD_jcgriff2.zip with 2 more minidump files. Thanks.

flameboy54 said:

Thanks ZigZag. I went ahead to update the asacpi.sys yesterday with the time stamp "14/05/2009". Unfortunately, it seems to go deeper then that. I've attached an updated Windows_NT6_BSOD_jcgriff2.zip with 2 more minidump files. Thanks.

I knew it would but we had to eliminate that first.



These crashes were caused by memory corruption 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 a 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 5-7 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 Verifer

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.

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).

In Windows 7 you can make a Startup Repair disk by going to Start....All Programs...Maintenance...Create a System Repair Disc - with Windows Vista you'll have to use your installation disk or the "Repair your computer" option at the top of the Safe Mode menu .

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 "Low Resource Simulation" and click "Next"
NOTE: You can use Low Resource Simulation if you'd like.
From my limited experimentation it makes the BSOD's come faster.
- 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.

If you are using win 8 add these
- Concurrency Stress Test
- DDI compliance checking

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.

Thanks to JGriff2 & Usasma.

Using Driver Verifier to identify issues with Windows drivers for advanced users

Driver Verifier

Using Driver Verifier (Windows Drivers)

Here's my results from the Memtest86+ (tested with 2 sticks of 2GB RAM):

RAM 1/slot 1: 6 passes, 0 errors
RAM 1/slot 2: 10 passes, 0 errors
RAM 2/slot 1: 17 passes, 10 errors
RAM 2/slot 2: 8 passes, 0 errors

Current configuration is RAM 2 in slot 1 and RAM 1 in slot 2.

I proceeded to run the Driver Verifier test and got 2 BSODs before disabling the test and one more after it was disabled. Attached is the updated Windows_NT6_BSOD_jcgriff2.zip with the latest 3 minidump files.

flameboy54 said:

Here's my results from the Memtest86+ (tested with 2 sticks of 2GB RAM):

RAM 1/slot 1: 6 passes, 0 errors
RAM 1/slot 2: 10 passes, 0 errors
RAM 2/slot 1: 17 passes, 10 errors
RAM 2/slot 2: 8 passes, 0 errors

Current configuration is RAM 2 in slot 1 and RAM 1 in slot 2.

I proceeded to run the Driver Verifier test and got 2 BSODs before disabling the test and one more after it was disabled. Attached is the updated Windows_NT6_BSOD_jcgriff2.zip with the latest 3 minidump files.

At least 2 of these were driver verified and Related to kernexplorer.sys ad-aware security program from Lavasoft. I would remove it to test.

Went ahead to remove Ad-Aware and the system ran fine for about 4 hours then had a BSOD.

flameboy54 said:

Went ahead to remove Ad-Aware and the system ran fine for about 4 hours then had a BSOD.

Back to memory corruption. Not driver verified.

There is one exceedingly old driver. It may be involved.

Related to ckldrv.sys CrypKey is a leading global provider of software copy protection and license management solutions. Yours is from 2007 and must be updated or removed.

Been trying my best to see which program utilizes CrypKey but no luck. Can't seem to find any info on updating either. Any pointers you can give me?

During this whole process, the system BSOD'd 3 times.

flameboy54 said:

Been trying my best to see which program utilizes CrypKey but no luck. Can't seem to find any info on updating either. Any pointers you can give me?

During this whole process, the system BSOD'd 3 times.

Cryptkey can simply be renamed to *.bak.

Might want to re-enable verifier.