Reproducible Win7 64-bit lock up - no event log entries

Hello,

I have a home built machine that has been running without issue for a few months. On Friday, out of nowhere my screen completely froze (no change in clock, etc.) without any response to keyboard strokes, mouse clicks, CTRL+ALT+DEL, and so on. Some applications were running but I wasn't using the keyboard/mouse at the time of the lock up. I then did a hard reboot, and everything ran fine for a few hours when another freeze occurred - again, nothing in event log to indicate what occurred before the freeze.

I began going through some troubleshooting like SFC scan and wasn't really finding anything until I noticed that my Windows Experience Score needed to be refreshed b/c new hardware had been detected (it may have been this way for a long time, I'm never in the control panel during my normal usage). Anyhow, just for the heck of it I decided to click the button to refresh my score. The update began to progress normally "Running the Direct3D..." then "Running the ...." and so forth until it got to "Tuning Windows Media Decoding" at which point it froze. I assumed that it was just time for another random freeze, but after hard rebooting and attempting to refresh the Windows Experience Score again it froze at the same point in the update "Tuning Windows Media Decoding". I verified that it was reproducible this way 4 times.

So I guess my question is, what occurs during this update either at or immediately after the "Tuning Windows Media Decoding" that could cause a lock up? Is it accessing a certain driver at that point in time?

Clearly, I don't know enough to identify the issue myself, but I'm guessing that my ability to reproduce the issue is a good thing. Would greatly appreciate any help in trying to pin down and fix the underlying cause for these random lock ups. If there is any additional information that I could provide which would be helpful, please let me know.

Thanks very much for the reply. I've downloaded FurMark but I can't get to the point where I can run it. Moments after I click 'Ok' after setting max temp to 90 and checking the option to log GPU data, the programs stops working "FurMark - swiss made GPU stress test and OpenGL benchmark has stopped working". I've tried many times, and the result is always the same. (this was v1.10.1)

I'm guessing this is an issue with the program rather than my machine. I will try an earlier version of FurMark and report back.

Here's somewhat of an update:

1. I was able to run the earlier version 1.9.2 of FurMark. It ran fine for 80 minutes before I stopped it. The GPU temp remained pegged at 72*C after the first 10 minutes or so. Do I need to run it longer? Also, it was set at 800 x 600 resolution when I started the program, so I just left it there - please let me know if that's an issue.

2. I updated the video card driver from PNY's website. I noticed that you said driver(S) - are there more that I should be updating?

3. The lock ups still occur after updating the driver. However, now sometimes the computer will also shut itself down after being frozen for a couple minutes. Updating the WEI has still worked every time but one to cause a lock up.

Below are min / max values from CPUID monitor taken while running the WEI update that led to a failure:
--Intel Corporation DX79TO--
CPU VCORE: 1.00 / 1.00 V
VIN1: 1.12 / 1.13
AVCC: 3.38 / 3.39
3VCC: 3.38 / 3.39
VIN4: 1.03 / 1.04 V
VIN5: 1.01 / 1.01 V
SYSTIN: / 33*C
CPUTIN: / 40*C
AUXTIN: / 49*C
CPUFANIN: 1318 / 1506 RPM
***All CPU Core Max Temps are in the 40s***
Package: 9.58 / 73.41 W
IA Cores: 1.99 / 64.54 W
--NVIDIA GeForce GT 520--
VIN0: .9 / 1.04 V
TMPIN0: 36 / 63*C
FANPWMIN0: 40 / 46%

One last note, the system specs shown are for my other machine. If any details are needed on hardware from the machine in question, please let me know and I will list them here or update the specs.

Next I am looking to run the Memtestg80 as suggested by the carrona site. Are there recommended parameters that I should be entering for amount of RAM and # of iterations?

Thanks again.

There is one additional item that may be worth noting...each time the machine starts up there is an Event Log Error "Session 'Microsoft Security Client OOBE' stopped due to the following error: 0xC000000D" - EventID 3. I've tried disabling MSE at startup and then running the WEI update, but it still froze. There is also an Event Log Warning after restarting that says "Windows detected your registry file is still in use by other applications or services...." - EventID 1530. At startup, these programs automatically run: Realtek HD Audio Manager, LogMeIn, MSE, Skype, USB 3.0 Monitor, and Java Auto Updater.

I looked at those but I don't have any dump files - the folder hasn't even been created since this machine has never had a BSOD. I did double check to make sure that I'm set up to do a kernel dump to C:/Windows/Memory.dmp...followed these instructions: Dump Files - Configure Windows to Create on BSOD and Dump File - Change Default Location

Am I wrong to assume that the folder does not exist because I've never had a BSOD before? When I checked the dump file / folder settings they were already set up as described in the above links.