BSOD whilst music editing

Hi, pretty new to all this, as I usually manage to solve all my computer related problems but I've had a few blue screen crashes lately whilst mixing music in Logic. In fairness, I'm pushing the system quite hard but its never happened before with such frequency so could do with some help.

I downloaded 'Whocrashed' and this is what its telling me:

On Tue 23/10/2012 15:12:12 GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\102312-55754-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntkrnlpa.exe (nt+0x4165B)
Bugcheck code: 0xD1 (0x0, 0x2, 0x8, 0x0)
Error: DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntkrnlpa.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This indicates that a kernel-mode driver attempted to access pageable memory at a process IRQL that was too high.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver that cannot be identified at this time.



On Tue 23/10/2012 15:12:12 GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\memory.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntkrpamp.exe (nt!Kei386EoiHelper+0x29D3)
Bugcheck code: 0xD1 (0x0, 0x2, 0x8, 0x0)
Error: DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
Bug check description: This indicates that a kernel-mode driver attempted to access pageable memory at a process IRQL that was too high.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
A third party driver was identified as the probable root cause of this system error. It is suggested you look for an update for the following driver: ntkrpamp.exe .
Google query: ntkrpamp.exe DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL



On Tue 23/10/2012 14:53:37 GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\102312-59327-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntkrnlpa.exe (nt+0x4165B)
Bugcheck code: 0xD1 (0x500A5E, 0x2, 0x1, 0xFFFFFFFF872BE54F)
Error: DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntkrnlpa.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This indicates that a kernel-mode driver attempted to access pageable memory at a process IRQL that was too high.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver that cannot be identified at this time.



On Sat 13/10/2012 12:59:13 GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\101312-22588-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: nvstor32.sys (nvstor32+0x49FD)
Bugcheck code: 0xD1 (0x2C8D, 0x2, 0x1, 0xFFFFFFFF8AD6703B)
Error: DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
file path: C:\Windows\system32\drivers\nvstor32.sys
product: NVIDIA nForce(TM) SATA Driver
company: NVIDIA Corporation
description: NVIDIA® nForce(TM) Sata Performance Driver
Bug check description: This indicates that a kernel-mode driver attempted to access pageable memory at a process IRQL that was too high.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
A third party driver was identified as the probable root cause of this system error. It is suggested you look for an update for the following driver: nvstor32.sys (NVIDIA® nForce(TM) Sata Performance Driver, NVIDIA Corporation).
Google query: NVIDIA Corporation DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

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My system originally came with Vista but I have a partioned HD with Vista and Windows 7 because Windows 7 runs my music editing software more fluidly than Vista does. The one thing I notice is that Vista has updated the graphic card drivers whereas 7 has not and is running some 'bare essencial' NVIDIA drivers with no real options.

I have been to the NVIDIA site and downloaded the latest drivers for Vista/7 but when installing it just tells me I'm not running Vista and it cancels the install.

Could it be the video drivers? And if so, every time I try and download new drivers it either tells me I have the latests ones or (from the NVIDIA site itself) it tells me I'm not running vista when the site states the drivers are for Vista AND Windows 7.

Also, what is this ntkrnlpa.exe it keeps mentioning?

Pulling my hair out here!

Kind regards,

David

fireberd said:

I have a home recording studio using Sonar X2. I have both an MAudio Fastrack Ultra 8R and a Roland Octa-Capture as my audio interfaces (the Octa-Capture is my main unit). Video seems to be a common issue with DAW software, I see it on the Sonar forum, on the Pro Tools forum and on the gearslutz forum.

I would make sure you have the correct Win 7 drivers. Generally, Vista drivers work OK on Win 7 as basically Win 7 is just "Vista improved". 3GB of RAM, even for the 32 bit version of Win 7 ultimate is "bare bones" and that may be some of the problem too. ntkrnlpa.exe, from google searches suggests this can be a memory intensive Windows module and thus could also suggest memory is an issue.

You should consider upgrading the RAM, if the hardware will accept more RAM and even changing the Win 7 to a 64 bit OS so it can take advantage of more RAM.

Cheers Fireberd.

Two points here, the 'what seems to be correct video driver' on the NVIDIA site tells me that I'm 'not running Vista' even though the site says its for 7 & Vista. And also, I got 4GIG of RAM because I know my system will take it but it just doesn't boot with 4GIG (through I think, after investigation, that this is because I'm running Vista on a seperate partition).

Everytime I try to update my GFX driver, Windows7 says its the most up-to-date when I know its not because Vista (on my other partition) recentely updated to the newest one with all the NVIDIA features.

Could it be that windows update or Microsoft just isn't doing that it should?

I really need a newer PC but I'm just having to work with what I've got at the moment unfortunately.

Cheers again.