Unknown and Random BSOD

This is a post about my Dad's PC. It's a tower he had some kid build it a couple years ago - it's a 64 bit W7 Home Premium with 8GB of RAM and he's experiencing random BSODs as well as display driver stopped responding and has recovered msgs.

About the only other info I have on this is that the mobo is a Gigabyte GA-F2A55M-DS2.

Included is the needed zip file. The BSODs that I've seen seem to have no real heading, and it displays for such a brief period that I have no additional helpful info. Hopefully everything you need is in the zip file.

Thank you.

Followed your instructions

• I uninstalled using DDU
• Downloaded and installed 14-4-win7-win8-win8.1-64-dd-ccc-whql

The AMD Catalyst Install Manager gave me 'Failures Occurred During Installation' generating an xml file install report, which I saved as a txt file and uploaded as an attachment

I don't know what to tell you - I once again started in safe mode, used DDU to remove the display driver. The removal process wants a restart. I did that and saw it install a Standard VGA Graphics driver. I reclicked on your link and redownloaded 14-4-win7-win8-win8.1-64-dd-ccc-whql-[Guru3D.com].

I then ran that as an administrator and got the attachment

In addition you can try uninstalling the CCC bloatware in Control Panel along with any driver listed at all.

Next Enable hardware auto-updating via Windows Update (Steps 3 and 6) then Check for Updates to see if there is a driver Windows 7 prefers, as well as possibly patches queued under Important or Optional needed to make the OS, software and all hardware run correctly. So install all of them, except Bingware if you don't prefer it. After reboot check again for any other Updates.

After exhausing all Updates if there is still only Standard VGA placeholder driver, if this is the integrated graphics chip on the mobo and not a separate card, try the chipset driver at GIGABYTE - Motherboard - Socket FM2 - GA-F2A55M-DS2 (rev. 1.0). It says VGA is bundled in chipset.

If that doesn't help or you have a card, go to the AMD site and scan for the driver they want you to try first, or manually search for the driver for your device. If there are several choices choose the latest driver without the CCC package if possible. If this fails try any other driver listed.

If necessary because downloads continue to be corrupted use another browser or computer, scan your PC for malware with all 3 scan given in Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7, run SFC, establish a Clean Boot, proceed with the other steps if needed to go over the install most thoroughly.

You might also want to try reinstalling the Video card if you know or confirm you have one, carefully guarding against static shock by unplugging, draining power by holding power button, touching case metal before reaching inside, coaxing the card out slowly and carefully, blowing out the contacts of possible debris, reseating it with absolute precision. Check in BIOS setup for settings choices between the onboard display chip and video card.

You can also compare the install you have to the perfect install compiled in Clean Reinstall Windows 7 as if it varies much you may want to do it over following those steps closely which have been used by over 1.3 million consumers without a single problem. The install is everything if the hardware is sound.

This situation has gone from bad to worse...
After following your suggestions greg, the computer seems to be totally unresponsive. After the first normal restart I got the desktop with all it's icons, but the mouse and keyboard were doing nothing. I had to hold the power button to restart and this time all I got was a black screen. Then I unplugged, held in the power button for about 30 seconds, replugged and restarted. This time I again got the desktop and icons with an unresponsive mouse and keyboard, along with a msg box headed 'Failed to connect to a windows service'. The msg itself was 'Windows could not connect to the group policy client service'

Then I powered off and restarted in safe mode. The keyboard arrows did let me scroll to the correct line for safe mode, but when the display was complete I got the left half of the desktop with the right half covered by the safe mode info screen. The mouse and keyboard do nothing

No steps I gave you should affect the mouse or keyboard. These are steps which have been given thousands of times before here without problem so it must be something else you did or symptoms of having no display driver, though I've not heard of them.

We already know you have no video driver except rudimentary. You can possibly increase the Screen Resolution on that to tighten up the display a bit to work.

What steps did you perform exactly before this happened? If you had gotten to establishing a Clean Boot then there may be a listing under Startup or Services (after Hiding all MS Services) relating to keyboard or mouse starting up with Windows. This is highly unusual though, can't remember it happening either.

You may need to try another keyboard or mouse, even System Restore if necessary from the Win7 disk or Repair CD System Recovery Options

gregrocker said:

What steps did you perform exactly before this happened?

I went to programs and features in the control panel and uninstalled everything AMD related - there were 2 items - one was a control center and I can't recall the other. It wanted a restart which I did not do.

I then clicked your link Enable hardware auto-updating via Windows Update (Steps 3 and 6), opened Devices and Printers from the right side of the Start Menu, right clicked the C: drive and left clicked Device Installation Settings. I did not see the screen listed under step 3. I saw the screen listed under step 6, where I selected 'No, let me choose what to do', and 'Always install the best driver from Windows Update'.

I then went to Windows Update - there was 1 important update (for Microsoft Office) which I unchecked, then I checked 4 optional updates - I don't recall exactly what they were, but my recollection is that they were 'generic' Windows 7 updates. I installed those updates and let the PC reboot. You know the story from there.

I have mashed F8 on restart and select 'Last Good Configuration...'. Nothing. Still a frozen mouse and useless keyboard. This tower has no ports for a PS2 keyboard or mouse. I'll have to dig around and see if I can find a 64 bit W7 Home disk.

Somehow I knew letting this kid put together a tower was a mistake - of course, the kid's number from a couple years ago is no longer in service.

Somehow the occasional BSOD doesn't seem that bad anymore.

There is nothing in those steps at all that could have caused that unless it was the odd Update.

Do you have another 64 bit Win7 PC which can generate a System Repair Disk
or borrow its mouse and keyboard?

Does F8 key offer System Recovery Options at boot?