Windows 7: Spontaneous BSODs, varied errors, real toughie

Well, folks. I swear to God I have had more trouble with this computer, and I've come here as a last resort. It's an expensive custom build; I have a huge history of attempting to solve these problems, getting new hardware to the fix crashes, updating drivers, etc. I could state everything I've done, but that would be like a 5-page essay, so instead I will put what I believe to be the essentials.

Ok, so. I get BSODs at random times. Sometimes it will be when my computer is comepletely idle (even for hours), others when I'm using it. It doesn't seem to be something specific, like I can play games, or be browsing the internet, or any old thing, and it will crash. I.e., isn't necessarily anything CPU-intensive, GPU-intensive, or RAM-intensive. The types of errors it gives are varied, but the most common is "MEMORY_MANAGEMENT," though others include "PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA," "BAD_POOL_HEADER," and several more. In fact, just as I came on this site, IE crashed (which is relatively common) and when I click on whatever I did to get rid of it, I got a BSOD (one of the few examples where I actually did take an action that could potentially give it a reason to crash). Had to redo the diagnostic info retrieval tool for the attatchment.

Anyway, I've done everything I can think of, updating drivers and the bios, detailed overnight memory diagnostics, removing any overclock-type setting that could potentially cause a problem (though, truthfully, I am not completely familiar with overclocking), and more. No dice. I am hesitant to say this because I don't want to create preconception (and additionally, this would be the most undesirable consequence), but I think it's a hardware problem. Rather, the worst of all, God have mercy--my $250 (each) dual SLI graphics cards. But. I don't know what the error report things mean, so I don't want to make any conclusions until those have been reviewed by someone who knows stuff. And speaking with objectivity, while I'm not stupid, I don't know stuff. So, it would be appreciated if I didn't get any answers on the sarcastic level of "did you try restarting your computer?" I know that, thank you. I've come seeking the wisdom of the wise--the wise who know what funky error messages on a scary blue screen mean.

So whatever. I mean, seriously, if someone thinks they can help me, I swear with the blinding radiance of the Soviet Union's entire nuclear arsenal that you have my purest gratitude. Again, I've done this because all else has failed. Vielen Dank.

What did you use to test the ram?
I only ask because the crashes basically got like this
memory corruption
memory corruption
kernel crash
bad poll header
memory corruption

wash rinse repeat.

I am tempted to lean towards blaming one of two things with a mess like that.
A really really bad problem with a antivirus or firewall app.
Or actual damaged memory.
Nothing else really fits, and you don't have any 124 stops which would actually indicate hardware failure for certain.

Follow these steps:

• Stop 0x124 - what it means and what to try

Stop 0x124 never provides much good information and doesn't point any specific hardware; "GenuineIntel" is a generic probably caused line with 0x124 BSODs, that's why it's always best to test all the hardware and follow the steps within the 0x124 link.

Here are some programs which will come in useful when following the steps -

Hard Drive:

• Disk Check
• CrystalDiskInfo - Software - Crystal Dew World
• SeaTools for Windows | Seagate

Memory:

• RAM - Test with Memtest86+

Run Memtest86+ for least 7-8 passes, and preferrly overnight as it can take a while to fully complete.

Test each RAM stick individually, if an error is found then move the same RAM stick into the next DIMM slot and test again, if errors are found for the same RAM stick in every available slot then you have a faulty RAM module. On the other hand, if no errors are found in the next slot or the other slots for the same RAM module, then you have a faulty DIMM slot.

Test each RAM stick and every motherboard DIMM slot available.

Graphics Card:

• Video Card - Stress Test with Furmark

CPU:

• Hardware - Stress Test With Prime95

Read all the steps within the hardware test tutorials very carefully, as stress tests is designed run components to their maximum capacity, in order to point out failing or faulty hardware components.

Where did you find the 124?
I looked through like a dozen of them...
oh well see the post above or really you can just look here.
Stop 0x124 - what it means and what to try

The last BSOD is usually the latest crash

Thought I was roman guess I was just russian.

Thanks for replying. I used the microsoft memory diagnostics tool that is on the Windows 7 installation disk. I put it on the most thorough setting and left it overnight, allowing it to run 5 full passes. No problems. Also already did chkdsk /r and came up with nothing. I did the drivers, the bios update, etc.

My antivirus is Security essentials and I use no third-party firewall. One thing that might be a problem is that I use sandboxie to run multiple instances of the same program--a game, in fact. Others who do this same thing for the same reasons have reported no problems, so I dismissed it for the most part.

Someone did suggest to me to use a stress test, but I haven't yet. I thought to avoid it because it crashes when idle, at a time where it is not undergoing stress.

Well, to be honest, this is incredibly embarrassing, but why I think it might be the graphics cards... Each one uses two PCI-E power connectors--they're heavy-duty graphics cards. I quite idiotically plugged them in wrong... Instead of having both the connectors of a single line go to one card, I had one connector of each line go to each card... It was like 10PM and my back hurt... Well, anyway, the computer simply didn't turn on when I tried. I had found the problem after looking inside again, and I was worried about damage, but after I corrected it, it seemed to work fine. Again, you can see the frequency of the crashing. With my old motherboard, It used to just cut power without BSOD, but after I replaced it and formatted Windows 7, you see the results.

Once I go home, I'll run the tests and follow the steps I have not done yet, and I'll post back here what I find. Thanks for the advice.

It is better to run MemTest86+ for least 7-8 passes, as each pass performs a different test on the RAM modules and the DIMM slots.