Randomly crashing Windows 7

TheMacca · 26 Aug 2011

Hi Karl,

It's not that the directory is empty it's that the directory does not exist at all. There is no Minidump directory inside C:\Windows.

Thoughts?

Macca.

karlsnooks · 26 Aug 2011

create one.
Go to an elevated command prompt.
enter following commands
cd /d %windir%
md . \minidump
exit

NOTICE the PERIOD between the "md" and "\minidump"

The period means relative to where you are at the moment.

TheMacca · 26 Aug 2011

I just got another crash. There is no .dmp file

I created the directory as instructed. I also had resmon running when things started hanging. The items in red were pidgin.exe and CoreTemp.exe. However, when I clicked on other stuff (Skype for e.g.) that hung and went red also. So I don't know if pidgin / CoreTemp are causes or victims.

The BSOD stopped when it said "Initializing disk for crash dump ..." again. This time I left it for 5 minutes and it didn't complete.

What next?

Thanks for sticking with this, it's uber frustrating.

Macca.

karlsnooks · 26 Aug 2011

macca,

From the researching I did, I recommend a 100% uninstall of Pidgin until this problem is resolved.

The next time you hang, only the first program in red in resmon needs to be pursued. The process will probably indicate others that are dependendent upon it.

Let's run driver verifier and see what the verifier catches.
Driver Verifier - Enable and Disable

=====================================
======================================

Also please attach the .txt files generated by this procedure. Link to CCleaner in my sig.

LIST OF STARTUP AND INSTALLED PROGRAMS USING CCLEANER

STARTUP PROGRAMS
CCleaner | Tools icon | Startup button | click on Save to text file button (bottom right side)

Using the PAPER CLIP icon in the top panel of a Message Reply window, attach the startup.txt file generated by CCleaner.

INSTALLED PROGRAMS
CCleaner | Tools icon | Uninstall button | click on Save to text file button (bottom right side)

Using the PAPER CLIP icon in the top panel of a Message Reply window, attach the install.txt file generated by CCleaner.

TheMacca · 26 Aug 2011

I enabled the driver verifier per your instructions. Attached are the two text files saved by CCleaner.

Thank you,
M

karlsnooks · 26 Aug 2011

Macca,
| MSCONFIG | STARTUP tab |
Uncheck ALL except for:
Sidebar C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\sidebar.exe /autoRun
MSC "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Security Client\msseces.exe" -hide -runkey

REBOOT.

don't worry. You didn't delete anything. You just told Win7 to run the programs at startup time.

How do things look now?

karlsnooks · 26 Aug 2011

Uninstall Pidgin.exe

TheMacca · 26 Aug 2011

Okay Karl, I uninstalled Pidgin and unchecked all of the autostart stuff except for MSC and Sidebar. Interestingly, CoreTemp start up automatically after reboot. Is that significant?

What next? :)

M

karlsnooks · 26 Aug 2011

Macca,
CoreTemp has an option for starting automatically.

I recommend turning that off (and I use CoreTemp when I want to look at my temps).

CoreTemp |Options|Settings
see snip.
Attachment 172288

TheMacca · 26 Aug 2011

Okay, that's disabled now. Do I just wait now until it crashes again and post everything? Is it your suspicion that something being run automatically was preventing the BSOD from writing the .dmp file.

Thanks Karl,
M