Sound Device / Driver Problems Causing BSOD

I have no clue - I have no sound, reinstall the driver, get a BSOD, reboot using Last Config that worked which gives me back my sound until I attempt to logoff, which hangs because Windows can't play the logoff tune. It eventually shuts down, but on reboot I have no sound. Repeat cycle.

Well, you have dumps going back to May of 2013, most of those are corrupt anyway.

Starting from this month you have 11 dumps, the first 4 are all hardware,

Code:

BugCheck 124, {0, 869d58fc, 0, 0}

Probably caused by : hardware

Followup: MachineOwner

The rest are from,

Code:

BugCheck 1000007E, {c0000005, 9718cf56, 8e727aec, 8e7276d0}

Probably caused by : AtihdW73.sys ( AtihdW73+3f56 )

Followup: MachineOwner

Driver Reference Table - AtihdW73.sys

Your ATI sound device.

It looks fairly recent,

Code:

start    end        module name
ac5b2000 ac5c9000   AtihdW73 T (no symbols)           
    Loaded symbol image file: AtihdW73.sys
    Image path: \SystemRoot\system32\drivers\AtihdW73.sys
    Image name: AtihdW73.sys
    Timestamp:        Tue Sep 24 17:22:19 2013 (52422CBB)
    CheckSum:         00021D45
    ImageSize:        00017000
    Translations:     0000.04b0 0000.04e4 0409.04b0 0409.04e4

There was also a Norton driver flagged but considering the problems you are having in this thread,

Sound Devices Have Disappeared

I think following through with fireberd on that matter would be wise.

If I can make a couple of suggestions, filling in your system specs would help,

System Info - See Your System Specs

Using that method, they are at the bottom of each of your posts, the Belarc you posted in your other thread contained your product keys, so I asked to have it removed for you.

This is a laptop you had Vista on then upgraded to Seven, you mentioned a repair install in your other thread, have you tried that?

Repair Install

Lastly, you mentioned you used Driver easy to update a driver, those programs are not recommended because they often find outdated or incorrect drivers.

The fact that the first few dumps were blaming hardware on an aging laptop is not a good thing.

And seeing the limited amount of drivers available at Gateway isn't promising, I looked on the AMD site for drivers and it just refers back to the manufacturer for your model.

Okay....

• Between me, my wife, my kids and their spouses, and my grandkids we've got about 13 computers that it's my responsibility to maintain. Rewriting my system specs with each machine that has an issue, although doable, requires information that in many cases I don't know, and in others seems extraneous to the problem. For the BSOD sound issue, running tests to determine my internet speed, telling you the browsers or the kind of mouse we use on this PC seem off topic. I try to provide what info I can, and hope that something like a Belarc scan can fill in some of the holes, or that someone like firebird will ask about (as he did when it came to the sound hardware IDs
• Speaking of Belarc - they seem to be totally terrible at determining product keys - the key listed in the scan is neither my original Vista key nor the current W7 key. That's why I didn't sweat it.
• I did run a repair install, but since the W7 32 bit disk I used is NOT from Gateway, it did nothing to replace or update any drivers This a generic disk that I downloaded and burnt some years ago. AFAIK it contains no driver info
• I was never made aware of any previous crashes with this laptop. I was only informed about the sound problem and since I've been playing with it for the last 10-12 days it is the only issue I've observed
• I somehow thought that the dumps and the event viewer info would help to pinpoint the exact problem and that there would be some kind of tool to lead me to whatever software is needed. I HAD sound for 2 whole days while I've been investigating this. It was only shutting down the unit that 'did something' to the sound device. Since I was able to get the sound to work for those 2 days I figured it WAS NOT some piece of hardware that was not plugged in, and since the screen images I'd provided show the device manager and Playback devices both when I have sound and when I do not... well I just figured it was fixable.

OK, that's a valid point on not filling your specs in, that would be confusing even if you could get them all in there. :)

As for Belarc, it's better to be safe than sorry, there was an office product key in there too.

Windows 7 is almost driver complete when installing, if not they are usually delivered shortly there after in windows update.

I'm not suggesting it isn't fixable, I'm certainly no expert either so I'll ask for someone else to look over your dumps and other info.

I also didn't want to offer conflicting info since fireberd was already helping with basically the same issue, minus the BSOD.

Something, as you already mentioned in your other thread, has removed your other sound devices that were previously there.

Slartybart said:

Disable ATI HD Audio Device in Device Manger.

On the Sound -> Playback tab
Right click an open area to display the alternate menu
Tick both [a] Show ..... Devices options
and post a new screen shot if that change adds any information.

I'm not even sure what, if anything changed - I've looked at so many iterations of the sound drivers and playback devices that they start to blur. This particular set of images I've sent look like they should work (and the sound mixer even shows that something is playing), but nothing of what is playing translates into sound that's audible through the laptop speakers.

The playback image is with all devices being displayed, including those that are disabled or disconnected

Slartybart said:

I know the feeling :) - trouble shooting an issue where everything looks as though it should work, and yet....

I finally got a chance to review your Speccy, but the link returned the dreaded Not found msg.
It might be a Piriform server issue or..... Anyway, if you wouldn't mind, please PUBLISH a new Speccy report and post the link here.

I don't know what's going on w/ Speccy, but this did work a couple of days ago after I'd installed it. Now I can't even run it I'll try uninstalling and reinstalling. I hope there's no server issues because there's a good chance it won't be addressed until Monday

Slartybart said:

Just to make sure... This BSOD thread and this Sound Devices Have Disappeared thread concern the same machine, right?

Yes, the same machine, and I apologize to the forum about double posting, but I somehow imagined that the ATIHDW73 BSOD dumps I'd been receiving over and over might contain nuggets of important info that I couldn't see with my rudimentary viewing tools.

Slartybart said:

Don't let me hijack either thread, Derekimo and firebird were originally advising you. I jumped in to collect information and propose remedies, but these should be secondary to the lead of the other members. These member have great experience in the particular areas (sound and BSOD). During the course of your trouble shooting, some data might give them the final piece of the puzzle - so if they pop in with a suggestion - try that first before completing my requests.

At any rate, let's continue collecting data and trying a few low hanging fruit solutions while we're waiting.

Bill

Sounds like a plan.