Random BLK SOD-sometimes 5/night

Koolkat77: Thank you kindly, I was about to take the poison pill (restore W), but verrry reluctant. No recent dumps? THE BLK-SOD's I have been getting lately seem seem only to log a "critical: did not shut down properly." Months ago I saw some real BSOD's but now I only see a black screen and a reboot. No blue screen or dump, even tho those are enabled.
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I only did a Windows Memory Dump from Start, very cursory. I will do Memtest86 (and chkdsk /R)

The driver is for a Gigaware USB-to-serial cable. Not even plugged in lately, but will uninstall.
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Meanwhile, I did 3 sfc/scannow's and got "cannot repair" errors, but all 4 mention "Simplified Chinese--for example;
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2012-09-22 01:21:42, Info CSI 00000302 [SR] Cannot repair member file [l:22{11}]"PINTLGB.IMD" of Microsoft-Windows-IME-Simplified-Chinese-Core, Version = 6.1.7601.17514, pA = PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE_AMD64 (9), Culture neutral, VersionScope = 1 nonSxS, PublicKeyToken = {l:8 b:31bf3856ad364e35}, Type neutral, TypeName neutral, PublicKey neutral in the store, hash mismatch
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I will let you know,
-Cab-

Thanks for sticking with me, koolkat77.

• First, my homeworK; I did MemTest86+, 15 hours, 16 passes, no errors.

• Next I tried chkdsk/R but I got a text message (after reboot) that it could not do it because of some "recently installed" software, and I should restore to a point prior. I was not able to read all the text because it went away so quickly, even though I tried twice more. And I don't know what recently means but within a week I have not installed anything, except mozilla, java etc. updates -- (oh maybe "treesize free" which I needed to backup).

• I have been having problems with Restore (to an earlier point). In fact I have -never- had a successful Restore on any system (at least 6). Upon reboot I always get the message "was not able to restore, your system has not been changed." (That will be a separate post).
  
  • But the very last restore (getting the same message) must have done something because I was invited to restore to the new point in time just before that "harmless" restore. And I believe it damaged my WindowsMail (yes, using Windows 7). So maybe my system is really messed up here.
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• I will follow your instructions for /scannow
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• I don't have an installation disk, I have a store-bought system with a clean-reinstall partition. I looked at the DigitalRiver website--it looks like I can download an installation disk, but I don't know if I even have a product key. Even if not, a 30-day trial looks possible and would be fine for now, I could find out if I have a hardware problem, before shipping to ASUS for warranty repair. This would be the worst outcome, since I can't afford to do without for a month, so I am very grateful for any help on this forum.
  
  • I do have a disk-image made by MS-Backup. I am wondering if a clean-install followed by image-restore would help. If it is a software problem I suppose the image-restore would just bring the problem back. I can see that your method deletes driver and perhaps that is what I need.
  
  

Thanks, gregrocker. That link will help greatly if and when I do a clean re-install. My plan was (should I have to do it) to re-install from the ASUS factory image on D:. Then restore my disk image and see if that helps. If not, I will re-install again from D: and recover as well as I can--your directions look superior.
- If i have to do a clean-reinstall is there a reason not to use the ASUS image on D:? I'm guessing that would be more specific to my hardware--for example, drivers for the ASUS battery, for the touch-pad, etc. I can puncture bloatware.
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- Another concern is that if I ship to ASUS, they may ship right back saying "there are no hardware problems." I would wonder how hard they looked. I'm hoping to at least be able to demonstrate a hardware problem before I decide to ship.

You can run Factory Recovery if it will run from partition or disks you make, however it is an inferior install which throttles Win7 OS with corrupting bloatware and useless duplicate utilities which have better versions built into Win7.

Drivers are covered in the tutorial. Win7 is the authority on its own drivers, not Asus or anyone else. This is not XP.

You might try running Recovery to see if it helps the problems at hand, then if not try the Clean Reinstall. If Recov is run from F8 as with most Asus' then it will not run from partition after a Clean Reinstall.

Either way I wouldn't waste much more time since the countdown to warranty expiration is ticking and you want the option to replace it.

Hmm! Just as I get the BLK-SOD I do hear a slight click--perhaps like power-supply (i'm guessing here). But I have a working battery and the adaptor plugged in. However, the event-logs seem to have no relevant trigger before the reboot, perhaps like what happens when I hit the power switch (but I haven't tried that and will after I make this post).

• But if it is like driver conflict--there would be a BLU-SOD and note some event -before- the restart, wouldn't there?. Note: I have checked [x]Write an Event, and unchecked []Automatically restart.

• Since there have been more undesirable events since my first post--didn't restore, wouldn't do a chkdsk/R--I have attached a new SF_diagnostic cab_23_09_2012.zip.

gregrocker: I see your post. Thanks for the wise warning. I have a case-number and (I am told) I need only call in and get an RMA in time to be under the warranty.

I hit the power switch on my ASUS. (Perhaps not recommended but sometimes necy when screen is frozen). What I see in the Event Viewer is very similar to what I see during a BLK-SOD. Namely, all Application Logs are Information-Level, as far as the eye can see. But in the System Logs, I see 1) A Critical-Level Log with Kernel-Power Source: "The system was rebooted without cleanly shutting down first" then 2) about 6 secs later an Error-Level Log with EventLog Source "The previous system shutdown at 2:13:23 AM on ?9/?24/?2012 was unexpected."
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>> And the recovery screen looks about the same "Windows did not shut down normally, giving a choice of SAFE MODE, etc, or START WINDOWS NORMALLY. Perhaps I neglected to mention this happenstance.
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>> Perhaps if I re-install, these BLK-SOD's will continue to happen, but it does not seem to happen a lot when the system is IDLE. (not sure). Perhaps I have to access a certain disk location or system file (I'm guessing).
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>> I will try the boot-up /scannow now.