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#1
Different BSODs - System Service Exception and Driver IRQL Most Common
I have recently been having problems with one of my Windows 7 x64 machines which was stable for about 7 months before it started having problems again. Before it was stable it had similar problems to what I'm seeing now, except it lacked BSODs. Reseatting the memory fixed those issues it was having before. It is similarly configured to another computer I have that runs fine, so part swapping is an available option for memory, video card, and processor.
It suffers from a seemingly random assortment of BSOD problems (though SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION and DRIVER_IRQL_LESS_OR_EQUAL are the most common so far). Most of the BSOD point to ntoskrln.sys driver, one has pointed to the Nvidia driver (nvlddmkm.sys). It also sometimes crashes outright without a BSOD, going black and then restarting or just freezing. The BSOD and other restarts happens mostly when playing video games, but has also happened watching Hulu, or letting it sit at the desktop. When it restarts seldom does it not post the BIOS and give a BIOS error code instead. I haven't recorded the beep codes, but it appears to be long beeps running continuous without end; which according to Gigabyte means "memory not correctly installed".
I have tried updating my BIOS, chipset and video card drivers; but have found older Nvidia drivers to be more stable. Though this could just be coincidence as the crashes are random and the machine can be stable for hours playing a game one day and then suffer repeated crashes the next. I have reseated the video card and RAM (haven't swapped RAM with my other machine yet or taken some sticks out). I have monitored temperature on the video card and processor running stress testing programs and while they run closer to hot than I'd like, they don't reach critical levels. The video card stress Fur Mark has sometimes caused a reboot. I have tried underclocking the video card (which comes overclocked). I have run hard drive scans (CHKDSK and HDDScan, no errors), Memtest86 (9 hours, no errors), and driver verifier (caused one of the BSODs immediately on loading Windows, but didn't identify a driver).
Nvidia recently released a new driver, so I thought I'd try that since the Nvidia driver being reported in the one BSOD tempted me to, but that didn't help (and may have hurt), so I used system restore to go back to the version currently running.
My suspicions at this point are the drivers are a false lead and that it is memory or the memory connectors. My next step is going to be trying to run the computer without the oldest sticks in the machine (two came with the machine and two were purchased at a later date) and see how it fairs.
Thanks for any help you can provide.
Edit: SFC /scannow was run as well without finding errors. Added attachments generated by SF Diag.
Last edited by SirMoogie; 16 Mar 2014 at 23:45.