IRQL Driver and Window System BSOD, unkown cause

Hey guys, I've had this problem for days now and have had no success in fixing it. I've did a clean install of windows, yet I still come across this problem. I've linked the minidump file, with hopes that someone can tell me what the problem is. I've had 2 kinds of blue screen, both of which are in the driver.

Minidump - Copy.dmp

Now, the enclosed mindump had the system service exception error. At that time, I was running an AVG scan and transferring files from my backup. It began lagging, then crashed. There are a few things to note though. Before I restored, my computer experienced this randomly ( once a week ) while playing a game. However, there was no bluescreen, just a fizz and crash. After a series of recurring crashes, it came to the point where I couldn't even reach the loading screen without it crashing. Note that before my restore, there was no blue screen, but there were minidumps.

I'm not sure what caused this, as I have not made any hardware changes for years, especially not now with my finals coming up. Here I've attached a few minidumps before I restored for your viewing pleasure.

Minidumps before restore.zip

I do have yet to run memtest on my computer, so the idea that my RAM is corrupt is not out of the question. Also, a recent techie I've called over said that my graphics card could be spoiled. However, I've read that these two errors aren't related to the graphics card, only drivers or memory.

As of now, I have AVG, drivers, motherboard utilities and google chrome installed, nothing else. The reason I posted my problem instead of reading others is due to the fact that of the many I've read, each of them had an entirely different problem with varying solutions.

Please do help me out here.

Cheers,

OS= Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
Recently restored
8 gig of RAM
Drivers updated and installed. Tried without graphic drivers, same problem.

It's clear the reason for all of this is because your finals are coming up. As I've found, there's a direct correlation between approaching testing date and stability of PC.

Joking aside, I can kinda see why the graphics card could be blamed, as the crashdumps often had DirectX operations taking place at the time of the crash. I did, however, see other problems, such as a "file cannot be read due to corruption" error that triggered a BSOD.

If you wish, you can turn on Driver Verifier just to be absolutely sure we aren't dealing with some driver bug here. Do not select the following checks: Force Pending I/O Requests, IRP Logging, and Low Resource Sim. Select all other checks. Make sure to restart system after you finish setup. If you experience a boot loop afterwards, go into Safe Mode by pressing F8 prior to Windows logo and disable DV there. Provide us any new crashdumps.

I recommend you follow with some hardware tests:

RAM: Memtest86+ - 7+ passes
CPU: Prime95 - Torture Test; Blend; overnight (9+ hours)
Drives: Seatools - All basic tests aside from the advanced ones.

In addition, you may wanna run Chkdsk in regards to that corrupted file error. Go to Computer, then right click your Windows drive then click Properties. Then go to Tools tab, then click Check Now. Select both checks, then attempt to start. It'll prompt you to schedule to run test at next boot. Agree to it, and follow the same procedure for every other internal storage drive listed. Restart and let her run.

Haha, thanks for getting back to me. Yeah, I've run chkdsk and memory diagnostic tool from windows ( NOT MEMTEST ) without problem. However, when you say DirectX I believe you were looking at the previous dmp files. I suggest you look at the more recent ones,

Minidump - Copy.dmp

to see whats causing it as I had no DirectX running.

I appreciate your reply, and thanks !

Sorry for the incomplete reply just now. I don't think the technician really knew what he was doing, because he simply googled the blue screen error, and didn't even bother checking my dmp files, so I doubt I can really trust his word. When you say DirectX, do you mean the old or new dmp files, because for the most recent crash, I have yet to install DirectX ( i think ). If it’s not too much to ask, could you tell me what driver exactly is causing this problem so I might pinpoint it? Thanks a ton mate.

Oh dear, now I have another error:

PAGE_FAULT_IN_NON_PAGED_AREA

It happened after I woke my computer from sleep mode and launched chrome. I may not be able to retrieve the dmp files as my computer simply refuses to boot up. Any help?

DirectX has come implemented in Windows for a good while now. If you are not using software-based desktop rendering - which implements GDI and not DirectX - then you are using DirectX (translation: if you installed your graphics drivers, you're using DirectX).

As for the tech, he probably saw one of them was a 0x117 bugcheck, which means the graphics drivers stalled and could not be recovered. While this could be related to the graphics driver or the card itself, often other things can get in the way that would eventually stall it.

As for telling you the driver, I can't figure that out. I can't even determine if it is a driver. There just isn't enough information at the moment to discern exact cause, and I may not have all the expertise to give an accurate diagnosis. However, if you follow the instructions I've given previously, I will have plenty of information to start working with. The hardware tests also are greatly beneficial because crashdumps are not a reliable source of diagnosis for hardware failure. One can only discern if hardware is most likely cause of a crash, and one can make educated guesses on what it is based on the exact nature of the crash, but that's as far as it goes from there. The hardware tests themselves are not perfect, but they are far better than going without em.

Now if you're having difficulties even getting Windows to start up, as you seem to imply, then we'll try to start getting your system at least in partial working condition so you can provide us the info. First check to see if Safe Mode works. You can access it by continuously pressing the F8 key before the Windows logo pops up. If Safe Mode with Networking works then that's even better since you'll have internet access to do everything from there.

If Safe Mode does not work, then you are most likely indeed suffering hardware failure. The UBCD is a LiveCD environment you can boot into that house a lot of recovery and diagnostic tools like the ones I mentioned before. Understand that Prime95 and other CPU tests are broken in latest version. You can still run Memtest and Seatools. I also recommend the Video Memory Stress Test under Peripherals section.

Oh, I forgot to mention that safe mode works fine and perfect. No BSOD's. However, I have downloaded the windows debugger and found out that the likely cause of my crashes before the restore were caused by "ntoskrnl.exe" ? What could that mean? Moreover, I got a few more dmps that pointed to ntfs.sys and hardware ( ntfs ) . Weird?

In reply to you:

DirectX has come implemented in Windows for a good while now. If you are not using software-based desktop rendering - which implements GDI and not DirectX - then you are using DirectX (translation: if you installed your graphics drivers, you're using DirectX).

Oh haha, i didn't know that. My bad, I'm not the most tech savvy person around.

As for the tech, he probably saw one of them was a 0x117 bugcheck, which means the graphics drivers stalled and could not be recovered. While this could be related to the graphics driver or the card itself, often other things can get in the way that would eventually stall it.

As for telling you the driver, I can't figure that out. I can't even determine if it is a driver. There just isn't enough information at the moment to discern exact cause, and I may not have all the expertise to give an accurate diagnosis. However, if you follow the instructions I've given previously, I will have plenty of information to start working with. The hardware tests also are greatly beneficial because crashdumps are not a reliable source of diagnosis for hardware failure. One can only discern if hardware is most likely cause of a crash, and one can make educated guesses on what it is based on the exact nature of the crash, but that's as far as it goes from there. The hardware tests themselves are not perfect, but they are far better than going without em.

Well, I ran Windows Driver Verifier, Windows Memory Diagnostic, chkdsk without any problems detected. However, I will get back with the results of the test and complete details of my computer once i get back.

Now if you're having difficulties even getting Windows to start up, as you seem to imply, then we'll try to start getting your system at least in partial working condition so you can provide us the info. First check to see if Safe Mode works. You can access it by continuously pressing the F8 key before the Windows logo pops up. If Safe Mode with Networking works then that's even better since you'll have internet access to do everything from there.

If Safe Mode does not work, then you are most likely indeed suffering hardware failure. The UBCD is a LiveCD environment you can boot into that house a lot of recovery and diagnostic tools like the ones I mentioned before. Understand that Prime95 and other CPU tests are broken in latest version. You can still run Memtest and Seatools. I also recommend the Video Memory Stress Test under Peripherals section.

Well, safe mode works fine, so no worries there I guess?

The "ntoskrnl.exe" is a misnomer. It only triggered the crash, but the culprit is either another driver or hardware failure. The analysis engine can only do so much and makes basic assumption of cause. That's why it's up to a person to evaluate it further. The ntfs ones also fit the same bill, though having it pop up often in crashes often means either a file filter driver bugging out or disk failure.

You'll want to turn on Driver Verifier, set it all up, click the "Finish" button, and then restart the PC afterwards. DV will continue to remain "on" even after crashes and restarts, until you either do a system restore or you manually turn it off. In addition, Windows Memory Diagnostics is not a thorough memory testing regiment, though it tries. Memtest86+ is the de facto standard for memory testing and there are no other superior alternatives. It's also necessary to run it through at least 7 passes (all tests ran once = 1 pass). Do not forget to do Seatools as well since we most likely are witnessing drive failure of some sort given that Safe Mode is running fine. Understand that Driver Verifier will not operate in Safe Mode so you'll have to run Windows in normal mode to get it to crash.

I did that all right and fine. Only have yet to run Seatools. Driver Verifier turned out fine without any errors, so did Memtest. I've also been getting dxgmms1.sys errors. Directx maybe?

Driver Verifier, if setup up, will cause your system to crash in the event it discovers a problem. It merely adds more checks to Windows than Windows already does for causing BSODs. Essentially it turns Windows into "diagnostic mode" where it becomes extra careful about what's going on and panics more often. So providing us any crashdumps from crashes you've experienced after turning Driver Verifier on would be great. Again, it'll stay on even through crashes and restarts until you manually turn it off or you do a system restore.