BSOD on Shutdown

I have a situation which I'm not sure I should be overly concerned about, but which also may be an indication of a more serious problem.
About 2/3 of the time, when I shut down my system, everything is normal. But about 1/3 of the time, it is abnormal. And the sequence goes like this:
1. I click SHUTDOWN, and I get the usual messages about Windows is shutting down. The screen of the monitor goes black, just as it does in a normal shutdown.
2. However, instead of the computer shutting down, as it normally does, it keeps running (that is, the power light remains lit)
3. After about 30 seconds or so, I get a BSOD screen (picture of it attached).
4. At this point, one of two things happens. Either the computer reboots after several seconds (reboot appears to be normal in every way), OR, nothing happens. The message just remains on the screen, and the only way to shutdown is to turn off the power.
5. Whether the system reboots itself, or I turn off the power, the next boot appears to be normal in every respect. And if I then click shutdown again, the shutdown is normal.
6. Nothing is written to the Minidump folder after one of these events.
From what I have read, a Machine Check Exception message NORMALLY points to a hardware problem. This is a new machine, and the only hardware I have added are a PCIe Parallel port card, and an Iomega USB external drive. However, both these items appear to be working normally, and this behavior was present BEFORE I added either of them, so my assumption is that they are NOT the cause. In addition, this ONLY happens (at least so far) at shutdown. I have not experienced ANY BSOD at any other time, and the computer appears to be working normally in every other respect. The only other anomoly I have had was a temporary blackout of the monitor screen. This would happen several times a day, and each would last from 3 to 5 seconds. When the screen would return, everything would be normal, and, in fact, I found that if I were typing when the blackout occurred, and kept typing, all of the typing would be present--that is, that the material I typed DURING the screen blackout was present. It was if someone had simply turned the monitor off and back on. At the time, I had the monitor connected with a Display Port cable. I changed the cable to a DVI cable, and have not experienced that problem since changing the cable. So I assume that there was something in either the Display Port connection, or the cable itself that was causing that problem.
Any ideas would be welcome. And I'll be glad to provide any additional information that might be helpful in figuring out what is going on.

Jacee said:

The 0x09C stop code is often a hardware problem.

As I mentioned in my note, I'm aware of that. Is there any way to help isolate the problem beyond the assumption that it is hardware based? Do you know if the other parameters provided in the Stop message give any clue to what specific hardware might be causing the problem? Or do you know of any way to test the hardware to try to isolate what may be causing the problem?

Jonathan_King said:

See this article on the 124 error. 9C is very similar. https://www.sevenforums.com/crash-loc...-what-try.html

Also try updating your video card drivers.

Jonathan--

Thanks for the link. Pretty depressing. I have downloaded a graphics driver, though I'm not sure it is a new one. The one I am using is dated 18 Sep 09, and the package I downloaded from ATI is dated 13 Oct 09, so it MAY be the same driver. I haven't installed it yet. I did a Windows Update, and it had a couple of things, one of which mentioned that it could cause the system to stop responding during shutdown. That's not exactly what happens with me, but figured it was worth a try.

I'm certainly no expert on hardware, but in reading the article, it seemed to me that many of the items discussed as possible causes (bad memory, hard drive controller, etc), if they were the culprit would not appear ONLY during shutdown. I'd think that most of them would cause problems at other times. But that's just the warped logic of someone who doesn't know what he's talking about.

This is a fairly new machine (less than 2 months old), so I'm not inclined to dig deeply into fiddling with the hardware and take a chance of messing up something that would void the warranty. If I still have the problem after the Windows Update, I'll try the "new" graphics driver.

What is hard for me to decide is how to proceed if I can't find a fix for the problem. I've spent a HUGE amount of time getting sofware moved from my old machine, getting a wireless router setup to let the two systems talk to each other, installing drive imaging and antivirus software, and the like, so it would be kind of despressing to have to start that all over again. Especially since as it is behaving now, it is nothing more than a minor annoyance. It is something I'd have no problem just living with, if I could be comfortable that it isn't also a sign of a more serious problem. Any additional insights are appreciated.

Has this always happened? Or did it just start out of the blue? Wow, you have a lot of RAM. Do memtest too. How new is the PC?

Jonathan_King said:

I suggest a hard drive test. Run one of these tools: HD Diagnostic

Thanks. I've downloaded the Seagate ISO file to run the DOS based test for the HDs from a bootable CD. Also have a downloaded, but not yet applied graphics driver. Right now, I'm waiting to see if the two updates to Windows that I downloaded yesterday have any effect. I've had three uneventful shutdowns in a row, but I'm nowhere near ready to declare the problem solved yet. If I still get the problems (and I suspect that I probably will), I'll try (one at a time) the new graphics driver, and the HD test.

metalmania31 said:

Has this always happened? Or did it just start out of the blue? Wow, you have a lot of RAM. Do memtest too. How new is the PC?

The machine is less than two months old, and it did it for the first time within a few days of me getting it. So, to that degree, at least, it has always happened. About all I had installed on it by then was an antivirus program. As I mentioned earlier, I also installed a PCIe parallel port card (have a couple of older parallel port printers I wanted to use), but that seems to be working well, and besides, the first of the BSOD happened before I installed the card. So I don't really think it is anything I've added.

Is there a memory test that you recommend? I may be wrong, of course, but wouldn't a problem with the memory be more likely to cause a problem while the system is running, rather than on shutdown?

RP McIntosh said:

metalmania31 said:

Has this always happened? Or did it just start out of the blue? Wow, you have a lot of RAM. Do memtest too. How new is the PC?

The machine is less than two months old, and it did it for the first time within a few days of me getting it. So, to that degree, at least, it has always happened. About all I had installed on it by then was an antivirus program. As I mentioned earlier, I also installed a PCIe parallel port card (have a couple of older parallel port printers I wanted to use), but that seems to be working well, and besides, the first of the BSOD happened before I installed the card. So I don't really think it is anything I've added.

Is there a memory test that you recommend? I may be wrong, of course, but wouldn't a problem with the memory be more likely to cause a problem while the system is running, rather than on shutdown?

memtest86, memtest86+, windows memory diagnostic, & docmemory all free just to name a few of the top ones. Yes usually memory would cause a problem while running, but I would cover all the hardware just to be sure. Did you try removing those things one at a time to rule them out as well?