Many consecutive BSODs

My boss's PC BSODs everyday and upon restart, it does it again 3-5 times before he's able to log in again. It seems like different sys halts all of the time, so I'm fearing the worst right now and hoping someone here can shed some light on the situation. Sometimes it looks like the video card (we've swapped it out a few times) and sometimes it's ntoskernel and more recently it's fltmgr. I'm kind of at a loss at the moment.

Any help would be most appreciated. Zip file attached. Thanks!

When you mean you swapped the card, you mean you've replaced it with another yes? Still same issue with the other card?

I notice you have an outdated ATI video driver. You may wanna update it.

The crashdumps are pretty inconsistent and inconclusive. I'm seeing what may be hardware issues at least so we can approach it from that direction. If you have time, run the following tests on the system:

RAM: Memtest86+ - 7+ passes (1 pass = all tests 1x)
CPU: Prime95 - Torture Test; Blend; overnight (9+ hours)
Drives: Seatools - All basic tests aside from the Fix all, Long generic or the advanced ones. Also provide us a screenshot of CrystalDiskInfo output.

All of these are included in the UBCD if you prefer a Live CD environment (which is the best environment to test hardware on). Also, please provide us temps/voltages using HWInfo with Sensors only option checked. Log two 30-minute instances: one for idle, and one for high load. If you can get the system to crash during high load logging, that's even better. Last, make sure that when running Prime95 that you check temps during first 30minutes or so to see if temps are stable. Prime95 runs very hot so be sure your cooling can handle it before letting it run extensively.

Since your boss can't be without her system obviously, best thing to do is to see if you can't have each of these tests run overnight. The Seatools ones will only take a few minutes so you should be able to do that quickly during work hours.



Before you go about doing heavy diagnostics on the system, I noticed that this is a very new Dell system (5/23/2013). Most likely you guys just ended up getting a dud. The best thing to do is run the Dell diagnostics on the BIOS, record any error message it may have spurt out, and then talk to Dell about getting the thing replaced/repaired, mentioning any errors it gave. Put that warranty to work, especially since it will save you money and most likely time as well. If you want to see if you can't add some quick extra info, run those Seatools tests as well as check the CrystalDiskInfo. If tests come up bad or SMART data in CrystalDiskInfo comes up with a warning or issue, then you can add that into your report to Dell. Anything more is probably not worth the time at this moment.

As a future reference, I would not recommend doing extensive diagnostics on a production system unless it's a critical application system like a production server, and/or a system that is out of warranty. Your end goal is to reduce downtime, not repair the system. So sometimes the best solution for this isn't to repair but to replace if it means getting things straightened out quickly - as long as you have the budget for it of course. Detailed diagnostics is the means to which to reduce cost for the goal of reducing downtime, but when you don't have the resources or the knowledge to gain a solution quickly then you just have to throw money at the problem till it's fixed. In this case you have a warranty so that makes the diagnostics almost moot!

Thanks for the quick reply Vir.

Yes, when I say we swapped the card, I mean to say that we've replaced the card with different ones. I've tried to update the driver but the ATi utility causes a blue screen on the Device Detection phase.

I just ran SeaTools and it passed the Short Generic, Short DST, and SMART tests. Below is a screenshot of the CrystalDiskInfo screen and one of the HWInfo screen.

I'm running MemTest86 right now and will report back. Thanks again.