Random BSOD

I'm working on my daughters Dell Inspiron N5010 notebook. Ship date was Dec 2010, but bought it as open box on eBay in August. OEM Win7 Home Premium 64-bit. (4GB)

She randomly gets BSOD. Running CHKDSK /F /R would help for a while, but system would eventually BSOD again. Windows Update wouldn't install latest updates. Windows Firewall was off for a while, but I managed to get it to function again. Scan for viruses with Microsoft Security Essentials, Malwarebytes, SuperAntispyware and system was clean.

Ran Dell Support Center app (PC Doctor) and it "passed" all the tests.

Ran sfc /scannow, but it failed at 11%.

Made recovery disks, reformated drive and restore to factory install. First attempt got stuck at 37%. Rebooted and second attempt completed succesfully. Uninstalled McAfee and Live Toolbar, but didn't add or remove anything else.

Started to install Windows Update, got stuck 31 of 73. Clicked Stop Installation. Rebooted computer and got BSOD. And here we are...

Since the machine is now back to factory install (with some Windows Updates), it needs a BIOS update and probably several drivers as well. But, since it previously randomly BSOD with updated drivers, and again now, I thought I'd hold off until I heard from you guys on what the cause might be.

Tried running sfc /scannow again. Failed at 25% with:
"Windows Resource Protection could not perform the requested operation."

Thanks.

Hello hfournier and welcome.

- I'm gonna say maybe a memory exception on this one.

Follow this Tutorial, and pay attention to part 3.

Part 3.

The goal is to test all the RAM sticks and all the motherboard slots.

Check your motherboard manual to ensure the RAM sticks are in the recommended motherboard slots. Some motherboards have very specific slots required for the number of RAM sticks installed.

If you get errors, stop the test and continue with the next step.

1. Remove all but one stick of RAM from your computer (this will be RAM stick #1), and run Memtest86 again, for 7 passes.
Be sure to note the RAM stick, use a piece of tape with a number, and note the motherboard slot.
If this stick passes the test then go to step #3.

2. If RAM stick #1 has errors, repeat the test with RAM stick #2 in the same motherboard slot.
If RAM stick #2 passes, this indicates that RAM stick #1 may be bad. If you want to be absolutely sure, re-test RAM stick #1 in another known good slot.
If RAM stick #2 has errors, this indicates another possible bad RAM stick, a possible motherboard slot failure or inadequate settings.
3. Test the next stick of RAM (stick #2) in the next motherboard slot.
If this RAM stick has errors repeat step #2 using a known good stick if possible, or another stick.
If this RAM stick has no errors and both sticks failed in slot#1, test RAM stick #1 in this slot.
4. If you find a stick that passes the test, test it in all the other motherboard slots.

If Part 2 testing shows errors, and all tests in Part 3 show errors, you will need to test the RAM sticks in another computer and/or test other RAM in your computer to identify the problem.

In this way, you can identify whether it is a bad stick of RAM, a bad motherboard, or incompatibility between the sticks.

Summary

Code:

*******************************************************************************
*                                                                             *
*                        Bugcheck Analysis                                    *
*                                                                             *
*******************************************************************************

NTFS_FILE_SYSTEM (24)
    If you see NtfsExceptionFilter on the stack then the 2nd and 3rd
    parameters are the exception record and context record. Do a .cxr
    on the 3rd parameter and then kb to obtain a more informative stack
    trace.

Fred.

hfournier said:

It came up with 40 errors immediately after the test started. Now I have to play find the bad stick (s)...

Just because another socket is working definitely doesn't mean the stick is perfect. If you have some sticks you can borrow from a friend it'd be great to test them. Personally I think that's the best way to test if it's the slots, or sticks.

Hopefully it's just your sticks.

Fred.

hfournier said:

The first stick I tested came up with errors immediately, so I stopped the test and swapped sticks (same slot). The test has just started, but no errors yet (48% of first pass). I'll let it run and see how it goes, but I'm hoping I've already found the problem.

It's very likely that changing your memory sticks will fix this. But don't throw money away until we know what's wrong. :)

Fred.