Windows 7: Frequent BSOD, nearly always when playing games, varying errors

Hi all,

I've been getting a lot of BSODs in the past couple of months with errors like "PAGE FAULT IN NON PAGED AREA", though this is one of many. It's particularly prevalent when playing graphically intensive games like Guild Wars 2, which is almost guaranteed to trigger it.

Initially, I thought it was a faulty NVidia 560 GTX card, so I brought it back to the shop and reinstalled my old ATI 6770. The crashes stopped for a few weeks just after I swapped out the cards, but recently have started up again. They occur at least once a day, often two or three times.

Every component I have is less than 12 months old except for the hard drives. There doesn't seem to be any overheating. I ran Memtest86 overnight on two occasions with no errors. I have changed Anti Virus software (from Comodo Firewall & Avast to Zone Alarm), updated all drivers as far as I can tell, and eventually had Windows 7 reinstalled - all to no avail.



'Who Crashed' indicates a different cause virtually every time I run it, usually blaming a third party driver but isn't able to indicate which one.

It's driving me mad at this stage as I have no clue what is the cause of the BSODs. I've attached the info from the Diagnostic Tool if anyone out there can help me.

Many thanks,

Cian

Welcome to SevenForums.

How old are the hard drives?

You should test them: Hard Drive Diagnostic Procedure

Upload a screenshot of your hard disk using crystal disk info:

• CrystalDiskInfo - Software - Crystal Dew World
• Screenshots and Files - Upload and Post in Seven Forums

Please uninstall Zone Alarm as it's contributing in your crashes. Use Microsoft Security Essentials while troubleshooting:
Recommended antivirus program for Windows 7 based on stability compared to others:-

• Microsoft Security Essentials - Free Antivirus for Windows
• Malwarebytes - The Free version
• Good and Free system security combination.

Do not start the free trial of Malware Bytes; remember to deselect that option when prompted.

Run a full scan with both (separately) once downloaded, installed and updated.

Run the System File Checker that scans the of all protected Windows 7 system files and replaces incorrect corrupted, changed/modified, or damaged versions with the correct versions if possible:

• Click on the
• Type CMD on Search
• Left click and Run as Administrator
• Type SFC /scannow

Full tutorial here:

• SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker

Run Disk Check on your hard disk for file system errors and bad sectors on it:

• Disk Check

Reinstall your graphic card drivers. Click on the Start ► Control Panel ► Programs ► Uninstall a program ► Uninstall everything related to; ATI. (Reboot the computer if required). Delete remnants of its drivers/older drivers using Driver Fusion/Sweeper

Get the latest drivers from the link below. (Choose custom install, avoid CCC - Catalyst Control Center during installation.)

• Download AMD Catalyst Drivers 12.10 Vista 64 - FileHippo.com

Free up the start-up, nothing except the antivirus is usually needed.

• Startup Programs - Change
• Troubleshoot Application Conflicts by Performing a Clean Startup

System Optimisers

Please remove the following software:
This software is a known cause of BSOD's. The windows 7 operating system does not require these registry cleaning software. They often tune-down rather than tune-up and can wreck the OS beyond repair. Microsoft have improved Windows 7 significantly and it is much better at organising and optimising itself than its predecessors. Check this, this and this thread for evidence.

If you feel the need to use a registry cleaning or optimisation software, most of us recommend the use of CCleaner but make sure you back up the registry before making letting ccleaner delete anything.

Check for a newer version on the BIOS:
Let us know the results and further BSOD-s if any.

Hi Koolkat77,

Thanks for the comprehensive reply - there's lots of stuff there I hadn't done. I cleared the startup programs except for a few essentials, removed Zone Alarm (it took a number of attempts to clear this software - the uninstaller froze about 5 times) and also Advanced System Care. Malwarebytes tested ok. Reinstalled just the ATI driver and not ccc.

System File Checker found quite a few bugs in Windows and successfully replaced the corrupt files. After seeing this, I ran Guild Wars 2 for about 3 hours and no BSOD. That's far from conclusive, but it is unusual based on recent behaviour, so fingers crossed. This could have solved the problem....

Both my internal hard drives have seen a lot of use, the Crystal Disk Info shocked me a bit. I've attached them as requested - the C drive and external E drive have clocked up over 1000 days each and my older B drive has seen 2053 days of use !! (that's six years of actually being on and active). Whatever solves these crashes, it's way past time I look at replacing the drives.

So I'll run checkdisk next and work on the rest of your suggestions over the next couple of days and let you know how I get on.

Thank you so much for your help - my problems may already be solved but I really appreciate your fast (and thorough) response. I'll keep you posted.

Cheers,

Cian

Thanks for all the information.

From the snips, the hard drive seem to be OK but you may still want to test them from Hard drive diagnostic procedure.
* Be sure to keep a back up of all important files . Back up is important whether or not your hard drive is failing.

Post an update when you're done with the rest of the steps.

Good luck

Any BSOD-s lately?

Hi Koolkat77,

Firstly, my apologies for not posting back sooner - I've been very busy in college and have been testing a theory in the limited time on my PC which I'm now pretty sure is the root cause of my problem.

About a week ago, and after the BSODs unfortunately continuing to occur as before, I was rebooting when I got a new error message just after powering on. This was on the 'American Megatrends' screen as BIOS starts and it read "DQS training failed on previous boot, reverted to slower DRAM speed." I started getting this message a few more times since then as well. After some googling, I figured that there was a problem with the memory sticks or the memory slots on the motherboard.

Sure enough, slot 1 on my motherboard is causing the crashes. I'm running one memory stick in slot 2 without a single crash since. Either memory stick works fine in slot 2, but either will cause a BSOD if used in slot 1. They used to work fine together for more than 9 months.

So it appears a new motherboard is needed, but I'm under warranty so I'll be alright.
I am so relieved to finally find the cause of this madness! Thanks so much for all your help, and for anyone else reading this, my advice is to try the stuff I have as advised by Koolkat77 and, if nothing else, rule out a software problem as I did.

Incidentally, I might have saved some time if I'd checked the memory slots themselves on the motherboard instead of just focusing on potential faulty sticks but the BIOS message really started giving the game away !

Thanks again,

Cian

Thanks for letting us know.
We'll be here for an update.

Did the bsods stop?