Multiple BSOD. PFN_LIST_CORRUPT, among others.

magreb · 16 Nov 2012

Hello all. I've been experiencing a lot of BSOD events lately. It's probably related to my GPU, because they tend to occur while I'm playing games, but sometimes t happens when I'm doing standard stuff, like browsing the web. Once or twice it happened right after reboot.

Also, sometimes after the errors I see a message like "updating backup BIOS image. Writing BIOS image.....". It reboots normally after that.

Then It started to complain about corrupt files: "The file is possibly corrupt. The file header checksum does not match the computed checksum". I did 2 chkdsk /f after that, the first one found and corrected a bunch of errors.

After that (and while I was gathering the dumps to make this post), it crashed again. And this time it's refusing to boot on windows. So, I booted on linux to make this post. Then the linux crashed! while I was using chromium. After reboot, it threw me a "Unaligned pointer 0x7fcf4" message even before grub, and I had to reboot again into recovery mode.

After a quick fsck (which found and fixed a couple of errors), I was finally able to log in here and make this post.

I'll probably have to reinstall windows anyway (it's almost 1,5 years old, so it's due time to reinstall it anyway), but the problem seems to be affecting the linux file system, so it's probably hardware related. Any idea which piece of my computer is trying to kill the rest of it?

Arc · 17 Nov 2012

Welcome aboard.

Code:

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*                        Bugcheck Analysis                                    *
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Use !analyze -v to get detailed debugging information.

BugCheck 4E, {8d, 1619a, 510020, c0013e2b}

Probably caused by : memory_corruption ( nt!MmZeroPageThread+504 )

Followup: MachineOwner
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According to Carrona.org, STOP 0x0000004E: PFN_LIST_CORRUPT
Usual causes: Device driver, memory

So, Test your RAM modules for possible errors.
How to Test and Diagnose RAM Issues with Memtest86+
Run memtest for at least 8 passes, preferably overnight, per RAM module per slot.

Let us know the results.

magreb · 18 Nov 2012

I run memtest86+ and it found a bunch of errors on the 1st pass. I opened the case and found that one of the memory sticks was dusty as hell (the slots are positioned just next to the processor. I must have neglected to clean it last week), so I cleaned cleaned both sticks, tested them individually for just 1 pass, no errors found, tested them together, no errors for 8 or so passes.

My windows installation is still refusing to boot, but I'm able to boot on Ubuntu right now. I'm running some tests on my HD using the Ubuntu built in disk utilities, I'll then run memtest again over night, and tomorrow I'll try to repair the windows installation (or reinstall it if needed).

Thanks for the help. If anything new arises, I'll report back.

Arc · 19 Nov 2012

Do you have windows and linux installed in Same HDD, different partitions, or in different HDDs?

What is the bootloader you use, Windows boot manager or GRUB?

magreb · 19 Nov 2012

They are in different HDDs, and the bootloader is Grub.

Ran memtest overnight. 8 passes, no errors. I'm restoring windows right now (posting this from my laptop).

Arc · 19 Nov 2012

magreb said:

They are in different HDDs, and the bootloader is Grub.

Ran memtest overnight. 8 passes, no errors. I'm restoring windows right now (posting this from my laptop).

Very nice.

Unplug the HDD where linux is installed.
Follow it:
Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Start

Or, run Startup Repair for three separate times, with restarts after every single run.
Startup Repair: Run three separate times.

It is expected that it might loss the dual boot settings created with GRUB. Dont worry. After windows is bootable, use the boot menu key to select which HDD to boot from, windows or linux. It is a better practice to use multiple OSs, when those are installed in different HDDs.