Random BSOD

Hi

I have a 4 year old HP Pavilion m9117.fr that came with Vista but running Windows 7 Ultimate for 2 years now, re-installed a few months ago. I've filled out my specs in my profile and tried to follow the BSOD posting instructions.

So I get random BSOD (or sometimes simple freezes) with varying messages, most often "Driver IRQL NOT LESS OR EQUAL". I've run Memtest 86+ and found no error. I've updated the drivers on my BIOS and my graphics card.

My latest error report :

System

- Provider

[ Name] Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power
[ Guid] {331C3B3A-2005-44C2-AC5E-77220C37D6B4}

EventID 41

Version 2

Level 1

Task 63

Opcode 0

Keywords 0x8000000000000002

- TimeCreated

[ SystemTime] 2012-07-11T07:07:08.724000000Z

EventRecordID 8168

Correlation

- Execution

[ ProcessID] 4
[ ThreadID] 8

Channel System

Computer Cedric-PC

- Security

[ UserID] S-1-5-18


- EventData

BugcheckCode 26
BugcheckParameter1 0x5002
BugcheckParameter2 0xfffff70001080000
BugcheckParameter3 0x4ed0
BugcheckParameter4 0x8005c14fffffffe
SleepInProgress false
PowerButtonTimestamp 0

I've been having this problem for a whil now and I still can't figure it out. Please help me :)

Software Concerns:

Code:

Start Menu\Programs\McAfee Security Scan Plus
Start Menu\Programs\Spybot - Search & Destroy 2

Spybot Search and Destroy and McAfee Security Scan Plus are not the best malware/spyware/standalone utilities. McAfee may cause conflicts with avast!. Take a look at Good and Free system security combination. for better options.

Analysis:

Graphics Card Crashes:

Some crashes were DirectX/graphics card related. DirectX comes installed with Windows, so this may indicate Windows corruption. It may also be that you have corrupted drivers or a graphics card hardware problem.

• If you are overclocking any hardware, please stop.
  
  
• Check Windows for corruption. Run SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker up to three times to fix all errors with a restart in between each. Post back if it continues to show errors after a fourth run or if the first run comes back with no integrity violations. Use OPTION THREE of SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker to provide us with the sfcdetails.txt file if errors occur.

Follow the steps for Diagnosing basic problems with DirectX. To re-install your display card drivers as outlined in the DirectX link, use the following steps.

1. Download the drivers you want for your display card(s)
2. Click Start Menu
3. Click Control Panel
4. Click Uninstall a program
5. For NVIDIA:
   • Uninstall the NVIDIA Graphics Driver (this should uninstall all NVIDIA software and drivers)
   • Restart your computer
   • Make sure NVIDIA 3D Vision Driver, NVIDIA 3D Vision Video Player, NVIDIA HD Audio Driver, and NVIDIA PhysX System Software are not still listed under Uninstall a program through Control Panel
   • If any remain of the above, uninstall one at a time
   • If asked to restart after uninstalling any of the above, do so, and continue uninstalling any remaining NVIDIA items until all are removed
6. Restart your computer after uninstalling drivers for all display cards
7. Install the driver you selected for the display cards once Windows starts

Remember to try multiple versions of the graphics drivers, download them fresh, and install the freshly downloaded drivers.

Corrupted avast!:

Your installation of avast! may be corrupted. Re-install it:

1. Remove avast! with the avast! Uninstall Utility | Download aswClear for avast! Removal...
2. Download a fresh copy of avast! 2012...
3. Install avast! with the fresh installer...

Thank you for your answer. I've uninstalled McAfee and installed free Malwarebytes and free Superantispyware, and also Microsoft Security Esentials. They make my computer lag quite a bit when they're all running simultaneously, but that's another problem.

I ran System File cheker without finding any error and re-installed Avast. I'll stay with the latest driver for my graphic card for now, as I've just installed it, and wait to see if any new error occurs. It sometimes doesn't happen for days, and I'm not home much these day, so testing different drivers could take some time.

Anyway, thanks a lot for your help, and I'll keep you updated if changing my graphic card driver doesn't help.

When you say:

2goldfish said:

They make my computer lag quite a bit when they're all running simultaneously, but that's another problem.

Do you mean that the system runs slow when you scan with all three at the same time? If so, that is normal. If they are slowing the system down by just being installed on the system together, that is not normal.

2goldfish said:

[R]e-installed Avast.

You should not have avast! and Microsoft Security Essentials installed at the same time. They are both realtime antivirus programs, so they use the same system resources which can cause instability and conflicts.

2goldfish said:

I ran System File cheker without finding any error and... I'll stay with the latest driver for my graphic card for now, as I've just installed it, and wait to see if any new error occurs. It sometimes doesn't happen for days, and I'm not home much these day, so testing different drivers could take some time.

Anyway, thanks a lot for your help, and I'll keep you updated if changing my graphic card driver doesn't help.

Good news with the system file checker. Look forward to hearing back whether the driver change helps. :)

writhziden said:

When you say:

2goldfish said:

They make my computer lag quite a bit when they're all running simultaneously, but that's another problem.

Do you mean that the system runs slow when you scan with all three at the same time? If so, that is normal. If they are slowing the system down by just being installed on the system together, that is not normal.

They actually are slowing the system even if I'm not scanning but just by running they realtime protection at the same time. I've tried stopping Superantispyware and my system was running smoothly then.

writhziden said:

2goldfish said:

[R]e-installed Avast.

You should not have avast! and Microsoft Security Essentials installed at the same time. They are both realtime antivirus programs, so they use the same system resources which can cause instability and conflicts.

Oops, I didn't get that, I'll try uninstalling one or the other when I get back home. Thanks.

Hello

So I've tried several different drivers for my graphics card in the past few weeks, but the BSOD always come back eventually. Lately, they actually always happen a few minutes after I start my computer. I have to restart it one or more times every morning, and when I can get past those first few minutes without a crash, the computer runs fine all day long.

I've run a new round of SF DIAG, if you'd be so kind to look at it, please.

Should I simply change graphics card ?

After a few BSODs this morning, now when I launch my computer it doesn't recognize my screen or anything on an USB port like my mouse or keyboard.
I guess the graphics card was not the sole problem after all. Maybe it's the hole motherboard I need to change. Did anyone look into my previous diag report ?

OK so, I don't know if anyone is reading this at this stage, but yesterday after a few hours, another try got the screen to start so on a hunch I decided to run memtest again. It found several errors, and I've been trying to pinpoint the problem since. I've tested each one of my rams modules separately, and then tried each of my ports, but memtest found no errors (I did 2 to 3 passes each time).
So I've decided to do another few passes with all my modules, but when I put the 4 of them together I lose the display again. I've removed one of the modules and memtest seems to be running fine now. I'm at loss to explain this.