BSOD no Errors or blue screen - Playing High End Graphics games

bionoman · 17 Jan 2013

Posted on Tom's Hardware : Hardware News, Tests and Reviews Also.

Event viewer: ID 41 Kernel Power
Error: CUSTOM_ERROR
A third party driver was identified as the probable root cause of this system error.
No blue screen - just a blank screen

Hi there,

I tried to fix this issue i have with my computer for the past year, it seemed to be overheating, but now, i suspect it turned into a hardware issue. My build was used for less than 3 years since 2010, around 2012, the random restarting began happening, but mostly when i play high end games, and the room temperature is fairly hot.
There was a point where my CPU temperatures reached around 70 to 80 Celsius. but that was fixed about a week ago with a new Cooling tower - Tpc 812. The Random restarts could be because of CPU being damaged from overheating, or possibly the power supply being inadequate which i ruled out.

in Detail:

Recently - When playing high end games, such as HL2 Garry's mod on high graphics, XCom, or any other game, my Pc would run for about half an hour until finally, it get to a point where the sound immediately freezes and glitches, the screen turns black, and the pc becomes unresponsive.
Keyboard doesnt work, the CD drive works. -seems random

Today this issue has become more clear, when now i attempt to play these games, and only 5 minutes or more into the game and the pc crashes.

overheating :
My Graphics card is a GTX 480 Nvidia - its considered a good card, but becomes very hot, and the CPU fan and heat sink has 2 pins that broke, causing the heatsink to not fully attach itself to the CPU.
Result: ( Faulty CPU )

GPU Failing
Possibly my graphics card has reached its lifetime ( 2 years ) of generally working in heat, causing some components to malfunction ) Result ( Faulty GPU causes issue in hardware causing PC to crash ) - not sure if thats possible.

Motherboard and power supply:
After looking through the Event Log, i found the CRITICAL Error stating: Event ID (41) Kernel-Power happens every time my computer crashes, and after reading countless forums, i found that this is a simple Event message showing the Pc suddenly swtiched off and not cleanly saved all work.

-Causes may be Loss of Power, Restarting, Power supply failure:

There was a Thread that suggested that the issue could be a Damaged motherboard that would cause this issue. I hope its not becouse this desktop Pc was actually shipped from country to country once, by a shipping company, and this issue (could) be the result.

The other Cause could be a insufficient or Faulty Power supply, which cant be possible considering its a new power supply that i recently bought to FIX this same issue i had. It seems that the old Power supply had a short circuit of some sort, and didn't want to switch the Pc back on, and right after getting the new power supply, the Issue disappeared for the Time being, until recently this issue ( Random restarts ) began again.

my power supply is a Corsair 780W i believe, and should be a good peice of hardware, since its lifespan is no less than a year.

Memory:
I ruled this out, i havent seen any Memory related problems since i have 6GB (3x2GB) Corsair Dominator, DDR3 sticks, which worked fine.

hardware :
650W Corsair CMPSU-650TXUK TX, 86%
Intel Core i7 950 Bloomfield 45nm,
1TB Western Digital WD1002FAEX Cavi
6GB (3x2GB) Corsair Dominator, DDR3
1536MB EVGA GTX480, 40nm, 3696MHz G
Asus P6X58D-E, Intel X58, S1366, PC
120GB OCZ Technology Vertex 2E, 2.5

Windows 7, 64 bit
Intel Core i7 - 950 3.07 GHz

________________________________________
Crash Dump Analysis
----------------------------------------------

Crash dump directory: C:\Windows\Minidump

Crash dumps are enabled on your computer.

On Tue 01-Jan-02 12:42:26 AM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\010102-12012-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: Unknown ()
Bugcheck code: 0x0 (0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0)
Error: CUSTOM_ERROR
A third party driver was identified as the probable root cause of this system error.
Google query: CUSTOM_ERROR

Any help would be great, im not that much of a pro when it comes to computers.

Dsprague · 17 Jan 2013

Ok so I had a look at the files you uploaded it seems however there are no dump files so firth thing i would like you to follow this tutorial so that we can ensure your system will actually be creating dump files upon BSODing:

Dump Files - Configure Windows to Create on BSOD

The next thing i notice is that your Primary drive is an SSD so if you could please ensure that the firmware is up to date.

Code:

Model    OCZ-VERTEX2 ATA Device

Next I would like to address that you seem to be running three different antivirus programs:

Code:

Start Menu\Programs\AVG 2012
Start Menu\Programs\Avira
Start Menu\Programs\Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2013

I would like you to either remove all three of these and replace them with a combination of MSE and Mbam at least until we can rule them out as the problem, and even then you should only be running one not three.

respective removal tools for the antivirus programs:

Kaspersky removal tool

AVG removal tool

Avira removal tool

Next I note that you have Daemon Tools installed, this is a known cause of BSODs, please uninstall it and once it is uninstalled download and run this tool:

DuplexSecure - Downloads

when you run the tool, there will be a box with three buttons the only one you need to be interested in is the Uninstall button if it is grayed out , then Daemon tools is gone. DO NOT click the install button it will install a harmful driver that is known to cause BSODs.

Next on the list if you are overclocking at all on anything, stop.

and the last thing, I notice that you have a Razer Lycosa keyboard, the older drivers for this keyboard are known to case BSODs you can update the drivers here.

bionoman · 17 Jan 2013

Thanks for the Reply,
i will be uploading a Full Dump soon.
And fix these issues shortly.

I would like to inform you that the Tool to get information, the SF tool had issues when pressing Grab all,
the error was "unhandled exception caught" so i had to manually extract one file at a time. and Upload the SF file.

"See the end of this message for details on invoking
just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.

************** Exception Text **************
System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not find file 'C:\Windows\EventApp.txt'.
File name: 'C:\Windows\EventApp.txt'
at Microsoft.VisualBasic.FileIO.FileSystem.CopyOrMoveFile(CopyOrMove operation, String sourceFileName, String destinationFileName, Boolean overwrite, UIOptionInternal showUI, UICancelOption onUserCancel)
at Microsoft.VisualBasic.FileIO.FileSystem.CopyFile(String sourceFileName, String destinationFileName, UIOption showUI, UICancelOption onUserCancel)
at Microsoft.VisualBasic.MyServices.FileSystemProxy.CopyFile(String sourceFileName, String destinationFileName, UIOption showUI, UICancelOption onUserCancel)
at SF_Diagnostic_Tool.Form1.Button1_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnClick(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnClick(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnMouseUp(MouseEventArgs mevent)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseUp(Message& m, MouseButtons button, Int32 clicks)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ButtonBase.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Button.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)

************** Loaded Assemblies **************
mscorlib
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.4927 (NetFXspW7.050727-4900)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v2.0.50727/mscorlib.dll
----------------------------------------
SF Diagnostic Tool
Assembly Version: 5.0.0.6
Win32 Version: 5.0.0.6
CodeBase: file:///C:/Users/Youssef/Downloads/SF_Diagnostic_Tool.exe
----------------------------------------
Microsoft.VisualBasic
Assembly Version: 8.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 8.0.50727.4927 (NetFXspW7.050727-4900)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/Microsoft.VisualBasic/8.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll
----------------------------------------
System
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.4927 (NetFXspW7.050727-4900)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Windows.Forms
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.4927 (NetFXspW7.050727-4900)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Drawing
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.4927 (NetFXspW7.050727-4900)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Drawing/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Drawing.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Runtime.Remoting
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.4927 (NetFXspW7.050727-4900)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Runtime.Remoting/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Runtime.Remoting.dll
----------------------------------------
Accessibility
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.4927 (NetFXspW7.050727-4900)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/Accessibility/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/Accessibility.dll
----------------------------------------

************** JIT Debugging **************
To enable just-in-time (JIT) debugging, the .config file for this
application or computer (machine.config) must have the
jitDebugging value set in the system.windows.forms section.
The application must also be compiled with debugging
enabled.

For example:

<configuration>
<system.windows.forms jitDebugging="true" />
</configuration>

When JIT debugging is enabled, any unhandled exception
will be sent to the JIT debugger registered on the computer
rather than be handled by this dialog box.
"

---
Will upload all data soon

Dsprague · 17 Jan 2013

I hope we can get you sorted out and back to gaming shortly.

bionoman · 17 Jan 2013

Dsprague said:

I hope we can get you sorted out and back to gaming shortly.

heh, its not that, its generally the damage caused by whatever the issue here is

but yes gaming is a major part :P

I also use 3D software, which is also a major part of what i do on the Pc, having my pc crash at the most
undesired time would be catastrophic lol

Ill update you with the current fixes im applying to the pc, will let you know shortly.

Dsprague · 17 Jan 2013

bionoman said:

Dsprague said:

I hope we can get you sorted out and back to gaming shortly.

heh, its not that, its generally the damage caused by whatever the issue here is

but yes gaming is a major part :P

I also use 3D software, which is also a major part of what i do on the Pc, having my pc crash at the most
undesired time would be catastrophic lol

Ill update you with the current fixes im applying to the pc, will let you know shortly.

I look forward to it.

bionoman · 17 Jan 2013

Kaspersky removed,
AVG removed,
Avira Removed.

Created registry for Complete memory Dump.
Testing game for crash, with Whocrashed, will update soon.
Full FC diagnostic and memory dump soon

bionoman · 17 Jan 2013

Dsprague said:

bionoman said:

Dsprague said:

I hope we can get you sorted out and back to gaming shortly.

heh, its not that, its generally the damage caused by whatever the issue here is

but yes gaming is a major part :P

I also use 3D software, which is also a major part of what i do on the Pc, having my pc crash at the most
undesired time would be catastrophic lol

Ill update you with the current fixes im applying to the pc, will let you know shortly.

I look forward to it.

hi there,
illl let you know tomorrow asap, i got caught up with a couple of things

Dsprague · 18 Jan 2013

Take your time but keep us posted.

bionoman · 18 Jan 2013

Update: the Game ran for 1 hour, also today, 1 to 2 hours, its possible it could be overheating, but the temp readings show a stable temp. ~ the BSOD seems to be either random or, could be the heating.

Update:
The issue is persisting, i Removed the anti viruses, after detection and cleansing, Set the Reg for Complete memory dump, ran SF, its attached with all the info, however, i dont know how to update the wireframe of the SSD, im not sure how to update since i went to the webpage, and it told me that i could loose some data ?

So, im not quite sure i would know what im doing in that case.
um, my Windows is on the SSD lol i think.

SF file :
http://speedy.sh/JU7cY/SF-18-01-2013.rar
http://depositfiles.com/files/837mbd4ej

Daemon tools also Removed
- Running game again, see if it crashes again