BSOD on startup - but can run in safe mode fine

jason102 · 11 Aug 2013

Hi all,

About a week ago I started getting this BSOD on startup, happening at about the time consistently every time I boot Windows normally when the Windows login screen appears (if I login immediately, the BSOD happens right afterwards - sometimes the desktop can display in time; if I wait at the login screen, the BSOD will occur a few moments later before logging in).

It's the IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL error, and initially I thought I could solve this myself by searching online. Because I'm able to run in safe mode without any problems, I decided to try updating as many of my drivers as I could (thinking it was an outdated driver problem). However, this was only partially successful as some of the drivers require rebooting normally (not back into safe mode) to finish their installation (so I wasn't able to finish them, or else after booting back into safe mode it would say the driver installation failed).

In the zip file, in addition to the dump info, I also included a screenshot of the BSOD - it displayed long enough for me to quickly take a picture of it with my camera, if that helps.

I don't think this is related, but during the last successful session before my first BSOD occurred Windows Update downloaded and installed a fairly large service pack, I believe for Microsoft Office. Unfortunately, I just discovered that I never configured the system restore tool, so I can't go back in time...

Again, safe mode works like a charm (other than not being to install drivers that require restarts), so I'm thinking it's not a memory RAM issue. I spent a long time in safe mode the other day trying to get necessities done without a problem.

Any ideas? Thank you!
Jason

Arc · 11 Aug 2013

Hello Jason.

The BSOD is caused by avast! Self Protection Driver.

Code:

*******************************************************************************
*                                                                             *
*                        Bugcheck Analysis                                    *
*                                                                             *
*******************************************************************************

Use !analyze -v to get detailed debugging information.

BugCheck A, {0, 2, 1, fffff80002ce096c}

*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for aswSP.SYS
*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for aswSP.SYS
Probably caused by : aswSP.SYS ( aswSP+4133e )

Followup: MachineOwner
---------

Description here: Driver Reference Table - aswSP.SYS

Uninstall Avast using Avast Uninstall Utility. Use Microsoft Security Essentials as your antivirus with windows inbuilt firewall, and free MBAM as the on demand scanner.
Download, install and update those, and then run full system scans with both of them, one by one.

Free up the startup. Windows does not need any other program to auto start with it, but the auto start programs often conflicts and causes various problems including BSODs.

Click on the Start button
Type “msconfig (without quotes), click the resulting link. It will open the System Configuration window.
Select the “Startup” tab.
Deselect all items other than the antivirus and the touchpad driver, SynTPEnh.
Apply > OK
Accept then restart.

Let us know the results.

jason102 · 11 Aug 2013

Hi Arc!

Yes, avast! was the problem! Thank you so much for the fast bug check and response!

I tried to look for that Bugcheck Analysis that you posted, but couldn't find it in the compiled SF Diagnostic Tool files that I posted. Perhaps you ran some other app to scan the .dmp files, which I cannot view?

I completely got rid of avast!, installed the two security apps, and did full scans like you instructed - nothing bad detected.

In terms of reducing the startup programs (msconfig), are those additional steps I can take in case the first step of removing avast! didn't work? Or are you suggesting to clean up those startup programs simply as an extra maintenance task? I'm just asking because if I uncheck almost everything like you say, wouldn't this prevent some things that I assume should start when I log in (like Dropbox for file syncing and the automatic update processes for third party programs)?

At any rate, problem solved! You seem pretty active in these forums - do they pay you to respond to all these trouble reports?

Thanks from Shanghai, China.
Jason

Golden · 11 Aug 2013

jason102 said:

At any rate, problem solved! You seem pretty active in these forums - do they pay you to respond to all these trouble reports?

H doesn't work hard enough for pay!

Arc · 11 Aug 2013

Golden said:

jason102 said:

At any rate, problem solved! You seem pretty active in these forums - do they pay you to respond to all these trouble reports?

H doesn't work hard enough for pay!

jason102 · 11 Aug 2013

Haha, I think I'll stay out of the pay debate!

Just so we don't miss it, I did have that follow up question about the startup programs - again, is this just a suggested maintenance step?

Thanks again! It's so good to be free from safe mode again!