BSOD, possibly while using DVBViewer to record

About disks tests, I already tried to move the Windows system from the Samsung SSD to one of the regular hard drives, and that did not change anything.

I think that pretty much rules out the operating system drive.

I ran a check on all drives without any error found.

I also tried to change the drive where DVBViewer writes its recordings, and it did not help either.

That also should rule out the data drive as source of the problem.

Anyway, here are the CrystalDiskInfo cap, and a txt file generated by Speccy.

I think we should backtrack here and try approaching this again from the beginning.

It looks like you don't have Driver Verifier turned on. Turn it on, restart system, let it BSOD your system some, then go into Safe mode, turn it off, return to normal Windows and then send us the resulting crashdumps.

Unfortunately, turning the Verifier on made Windows unable to start.

An automatic repair was launched, which worked, allowing to go back to the previous state.

Thanks for the suggestion.

I'm thinking now to swap the graphic card, since the problem appears to be display related, and see what happens.

That means Driver Verifier is doing its job. It's detecting a driver bug in a driver loaded at Windows startup and it is responding by BSODing the system. Typically this appears to a user as a boot loop as the system is set to automatically restart after a BSOD. Hopefully, you may be able to find some new crashdumps in C:\Windows\Minidump, in which case archive those and send them to us for analysis.

Here is the one generated today with Verifier.

You made sure that when you were at the part to select drivers in Driver Verifier that you only selected drivers that did not have Microsoft Corporation as their vendor, yes?

Unfortunately this minidump has just not enough info in it, but I thiiiink with what little it gives me it may be enough. I've discovered the AverMedia TV Tuner driver to be present within the thread responsible for doing the device I/O that tripped up Driver Verifier. The driver itself is quite old, as in pre-Windows 7 old (June 5 2009). Please find an update for it, and if there isn't, then it may be time to look for a replacement for it, since most likely it has reached its EOL (End of Life).

Analysts:

Driver Verifier found something, but the IRP nor the callstack tells any tales. However, dump the raw stack of the offending thread to find a little devil lurking within:

Code:

3: kd> !niemiro.rawstack
dps fffff88003378dc8 fffff88003379d68
fffff880`03378dc8  fffff800`02f523dc nt!VerifierBugCheckIfAppropriate+0x3c
fffff880`03378dd0  00000000`000000c9
fffff880`03378dd8  00000000`00000213
fffff880`03378de0  fffff880`04fbdda5 ks!CKsDevice::DispatchPnp+0x5c1
fffff880`03378de8  fffff980`07150cf0

...

fffff880`033790e0  fffff980`07150cf0
fffff880`033790e8  00000000`00000002
fffff880`033790f0  fffff880`04fae560 ks!WPP_ThisDir_CTLGUID_AvStream+0xb0
fffff880`033790f8  fffff880`04e53764*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for AVerBDA716x_x64.sys
*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for AVerBDA716x_x64.sys
 AVerBDA716x_x64+0x764
fffff880`03379100  00000000`00000000
fffff880`03379108  fffffa80`039bdb90

...

3: kd> lmvm AVerBDA716x_x64
start             end                 module name
fffff880`04e53000 fffff880`04f9dc80   AVerBDA716x_x64 T (no symbols)           
    Loaded symbol image file: AVerBDA716x_x64.sys
    Image path: \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\AVerBDA716x_x64.sys
    Image name: AVerBDA716x_x64.sys
    Timestamp:        Fri Jun 05 05:58:38 2009 (4A28EC4E)
    CheckSum:         00157483
    ImageSize:        0014AC80
    Translations:     0000.04b0 0000.04e4 0409.04b0 0409.04e4

The Avermedia driver is actually the latest one available, and is cited by Aver like being compatible with W7x64.

This PC uses 2 tuner cards: the Aver one, which just never made the PC crash, and a Technotrend one used with DVBViewer.

It's using DVBViewer that was making the PC crash, until I changed the display renderer for it. And I get crashes now only when using display applications like VideoRedo or VLC.

The Aver app does not display anything, it just records, and as I said, it just never crashed when used alone.

I don't doubt that it made the PC crash when using it in Verifier mode since you spotted it, but I really don't think it's the cause of my problems, unless it's for some reason interacting with the video drivers. I do get crashes when the Aver card is not in use.

Anyway, I just can't update it, and I need it!

I'll see this week if I can swap the graphic card, and report about it.

And yes, I did check out all the Microsoft drivers.

Thank you for your help.

I just cannot believe their statement that it's compatible if the driver predates Windows 7 RTM. In fact, it is definitely evident from Driver Verifier that the driver has a serious bug in it. It is trying to manipulate I/O that it has absolutely no reason fiddling with.

Driver Verifier does I/O checks for drivers by sending fake erroneous I/O to drivers. By Windows driver conventions, if a driver does not understand an I/O passed to it, it is required to pass it down the line so that something that does understand will receive and operate accordingly. The Aver driver is not doing this, which means it is attempting to interact and manipulate I/O it has no business dealing with. If it will do it with the fake DV I/O, then it will do it with normal I/O.

This is especially true if the two TV Tuner cards sit in the same driver stack (very likely). If I/O is being passed down that stack that caters to the Technotrend card, the Aver card will still try to mess with it, which will cause a whole sort of issues once it reaches the Technotrend card driver - or, if it's after the Technotrend driver, it's manipulating the results of that driver, which in turn will change the total outcome of the I/O, again causing unexpected results. The Aver card may be compatible with Windows 7 (doubt it), but for sure it probably isn't compatible with the other tuner card.

I would love to present more concrete evidence to show you, but I cannot access it because minidumps do not retain that information. I would need at least the kernel dump (MEMORY.DMP in Windows folder). Rest assured, though, that there is very little chance this is a false positive, but rather that Driver Verifier is doing its job and is finding a driver operating in an unstable and unexpected manner, which so happens to be the Aver driver. The fault given by it coincides with your description of the symptoms as well as the previous crashes.

Either the driver itself needs to be updated, which appears that may not be an option, or you need to change your usage of the system to adjust to the limitations of the bug present in that driver, which means disabling the Aver TV tuner card while the Technotrend one is running, and vice versa. If your work requires both cards, then you need to see about getting updated models or brands, because the bug will still continue to be present in the Aver driver. You will either need to remove the bug by installing an updated driver or replace/remove the card or work around the bug.