Recent spate of BSoDs with various error codes after 2 clean years


  1. Posts : 3
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
       #1

    Recent spate of BSoDs with various error codes after 2 clean years


    Hi folks. Until recently, I had gone approximately two years without an unexplained BSOD while using the computer in question heavily. I've now gotten 6 in the last few weeks, displaying a number of different bugcheck codes. A quick timeline:

    11/30/11 - BSOD, bugcheck code 0x1000007e
    11/21/11 - BSOD, bugcheck code 0x00000050
    11/11/11 - BSOD, bugcheck code 0x0000003b
    11/08/11 - BSOD, bugcheck code 0x0000001e
    11/07/11 - BSOD x2, bugcheck codes 0x0000001e and 0x0000003b
    10/02/11 - BSOD, bugcheck code 0x0000001e - First recent, unexplained BSOD
    7/19/11 - BSOD, bugcheck code 0x0000003b - Occured very shortly after installing new RAM, discovered that BIOS settings had defaulted to wrong values and corrected.
    10/29/09 - BSOD, bugcheck code 0x0000001e - This was my last BSOD before the ones detailed above. I have no recollection of the cause, but I was pretty pleased with the 2 year gap.

    Other potentially relevant information:
    As I mentioned, I added RAM in July of this year, going from 2 to 4 sticks of 2gb DDR3 running at 1333.

    I had been running somewhat outdated ATI video drivers (May 2011, iirc) until I updated after the 11/11 BSOD looking for a fix. Other than that, the only software change I can think of is installing BlueScreenView, which obviously happened after the issues started.

    Scans with Microsoft Security Essentials and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware have come back clean.

    Memtest has been left to run overnight repeatedly, completing at least a half dozen passes without finding any errors.

    I don't recall precisely what was going on at the time of each BSOD, but at least 2 of the recent ones have occured while watching Netflix streaming video, and 2 more have occured while playing games (Defense Grid and Sanctum, if it matters).

    System info:
    Windows 7 Home Premium x64
    Shipped with Vista Home x64 in July of '09, completed "fresh install" upgrade to W7 sometime around October of '09
    Processor: Phenom II x3 720
    Video card: HIS Radeon HD 4850
    Memory: 4x2GB DDR3 1333

    Attached ZIP file contains the diagnostics requested in the sticky at the top of this forum. Thanks for your time reading this and any guidance will be very much appreciated!
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 28,845
    Win 8 Release candidate 8400
       #2

    Many different causes and when this is the case it is usually hardware. The first thing I would check would be RAM but since yours appears to have passed I would move on to a driver.

    I'd suggest that you first backup your stuff and then make sure you've got access to another computer so you can contact us if problems arise. Then make a System Restore point (so you can restore the system using the Vista/Win7 Startup Repair feature).

    In Windows 7 you can make a Startup Repair disk by going to Start....All Programs...Maintenance...Create a System Repair Disc - with Windows Vista you'll have to use your installation disk or the "Repair your computer" option at the top of the Safe Mode menu .

    Then, here's the procedure:
    - Go to Start and type in "verifier" (without the quotes) and press Enter
    - Select "Create custom settings (for code developers)" and click "Next"
    - Select "Select individual settings from a full list" and click "Next"
    - Select everything EXCEPT FOR "Low Resource Simulation" and click "Next"
    - Select "Select driver names from a list" and click "Next"
    Then select all drivers NOT provided by Microsoft and click "Next"
    - Select "Finish" on the next page.

    Reboot the system and wait for it to crash to the Blue Screen. Continue to use your system normally, and if you know what causes the crash, do that repeatedly. The objective here is to get the system to crash because Driver Verifier is stressing the drivers out. If it doesn't crash for you, then let it run for at least 36 hours of continuous operation (an estimate on my part).

    If you can't get into Windows because it crashes too soon, try it in Safe Mode.
    If you can't get into Safe Mode, try using System Restore from your installation DVD to set the system back to the previous restore point that you created.
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 3
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
    Thread Starter
       #3

    Thanks for replying, zigzag.

    I did as you suggested. It's been about 40 hours since I activated the verifier without any BSODs. Should I shut it off now or let it keep going? My last 3 blue screens have come about 10 days apart, so I wonder how large a sample is needed.

    Your warnings to back everything up reminded me of one other possibly meaningful change that I forgot about. In an effort to be more diligent about backups, sometime around mid-September (a couple weeks before the first BSOD) I installed SyncToys and mapped a shared drive on another computer on my network to sync to. That computer is off 99% of the time, and only really gets turned on when I'm updating my backups. My amateur research suggests that several of those error codes can be the result of a lack of available disk space. There's plenty of space on my primary hard drive, but is it possible something's trying to write to the unavailable drive on the network for some reason and then causing a freak out when it can't do so? Or is this likely to be completely unrelated?
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 3
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
    Thread Starter
       #4

    Another crash-free 24 hours with the verifier running. Ironic that I come here to complain because I'm getting BSODs and now I can't get one when I'm looking for it!

    Any suggestions on where to look now? Barring instructions to the contrary I'll discontinue the verifier tonight, as I'd rather not continue to leave the computer running overnight.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 11,269
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit
       #5

    Just continue running as normal and post back when you get another BSOD. I would think verifier is not going to cause the problem, so maybe it is just the network syncing you mentioned. If you continue to get one once a week, try running without the sync program for a couple weeks and see if it repeats itself. You can always backup your computer using the usual external drive usb connection.

    Edit: Another thing to check is:
    1. Click Start Menu
    2. Type eventvwr into Search programs and files and press enter
    3. Go to Windows Logs, Application
    4. Look for any Errors that occurred around the time of your last BSOD.
      My Computer


 

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