BSOD-various culprits but ntkrnlmp.exe is common,clean install,no cure


  1. Posts : 5
    win 7 64bit pro
       #1

    BSOD-various culprits but ntkrnlmp.exe is common,clean install,no cure


    Hello, merry xmas.
    Sorry to just jump straight in with a problem, but this has been bugging for months now until yesterday when 5 bsod's in a day. I use my PC for music production, video editing and photoshop so can push it pretty hard at times and it is (was) a pretty stable system - a random bsod once a month or so.

    I have spent hours reading forums but just do not have the knowledge to figure it all out - windbg is mystical to those not in the know, i am hoping one of you clever people can help :) I have not installed any new software or hardware, excluding a D-link usb hub and denon mixer which has not been on at any point.

    The history:
    In the last year I had a system that i was happy with (as said earlier the odd crash which is all part of the windows experience in my, er, experience). I decided I wanted to upgrade to allow more ram and have access to usb 3 and 6gb sata ports. So I bought the asus m5a97 evo r2 mobo - everything was tickety boo (good) for 3 months, I benched the gigbyte mobo and the OCZ ram - i bought corsair vengence 2 x 8gb(cmz16gx3m2a1600c10). I upgraded to the samsung evo 840, a corsair h100 and win 7 pro - no OS issues (just a bad firmware update on the ssd) but that got sorted with an RMA. I added two more sticks of RAM to the corsair vengence a couple of months later (cml16gxm32a1600c10). The ram is of different serial numbers but close enough and after reading many posts I discerned it wouldn't be a problem (and i couldn't afford 4 new sticks!)- it defaults to the slightly lower timings but as I am not overclocking and am happy with stability as opposed to speed, that is ok with me. It all worked fine - but still the odd random BSOD, no more or less than with the gigbyte mobo system and ocz ram. I started to think PSU as that is a constant. I have monitored voltages using HWmonitor for a few months now and have seen nothing that concerns me (but im no expert, just no great voltage drops that i could see). So I started to think RAM (again) even though there has been no difference between the Corsair and the OCZ in terms of stability, either with 2 sticks of same serial number or 4 sticks with slightly different serials.
    Yesterday after several BSOD's and after trying to work out the cause via windbg and reading forums I thought do a clean install, not a sys image from my back up. Honestly, windbg to me is like a baby trying to read shakespear! Several hours later I got a clean system that runs, that was until I tried to run MSE to check for viruses before i made another system image - it crashed. I tried again and it did it again. I uninstalled MSE and installed Avast. I ran avast and it crashed - bsod. The same thing seems to happens with anti malware bytes: this is new! Especially as ntkrnlmp.exe keeps popping up - I attached the dumps from today (4 of them) and the files as requested (nice little tool BTW).

    I have d/l memtest and will run it when I buy some dvd's and can burn the ISO - damn, no disks! I ran prime 95 for an hour today and it worked a treat, I was especially pleased to see my cpu temp never got over 48 degrees.

    So now I am utterly bewildered. Ram has been changed, mobo has been changed, clean install, cool running. It doesn't crash when i am on photoshop doing 3d whilst watching media centre, running a virus scan and surfing the net. It does crash when i run an anti virus! The only constant I can think of is the hardware (a driver fault that keeps re-occuring) and the PSU. I hope its not the PSU and is a driver that one of you guys can see straight off (drivers are fully up to date) - if indeed you are kind enough to help.

    If you got this far, thank you very much and have a happy new year. Thanks in advance for any help or clues.

    P.s. I got Traktor dj yesterday which i have been waiting for for 3 weeks, it couldn't have happend 3 weeks ago could it?!? No point putting it on at the moment. Bloody sods law! :)

    p.p.s I have also run chkdsk on the OS drive.

    Update: I forgot to mention i have updated to the the latest bios. I just booted in safe mode and tried to malwarebytes - it crashed with the same culprit - ntkrnlmp.exe. Thanks.

    Update 2: I just ran furmark GPU stress test after following this thread: BSOD from ntoskrnl when explorer.exe is open
    - 10 mins and the temps levelled out at 83 degrees.

    Update 3: I ran driver verifier and it would not boot - the faulting driver was niwincdemu.sys which is form native instruments. I will uninstall all there stuff, run ccleaner and then try to run avast again. I will post back :)

    Update 4: Ok so I found 4 instances of niwincdemu.sys on my system. I renamed 3 of them, one would not let me, restarted and ran malwarebytes and avast at the same time - NO CRASH! I did not delete their software, just a renamed the faulting file. So now I am unsure whether that driver has always been the issue (it would make sense as their software has always been on my system) or whether there is still another problem that is concerned with hardware. Are niwincdemu.sys and ntkrnlmp.exe related in some way? All I have now is a yellow exclamation mark in device mnaager under storage controller: ISO mounter (which is preferable to instability). Any techhie harry potter have any ideas. illuminatus. Cheers. BTW no viruses or malware found on any drive.
    Last edited by nilojones; 30 Dec 2013 at 21:40. Reason: Update
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 1,449
    Windows 7 ultimate 64-bit
       #2

    So; did what you did above in renaming the 2 of the 3 files with no crash work to solve your issue; or is there still a underlying issue left to solve; cause it seems like you may have solved your own issue?
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 5
    win 7 64bit pro
    Thread Starter
       #3

    matts6887 said:
    So; did what you did above in renaming the 2 of the 3 files with no crash work to solve your issue; or is there still a underlying issue left to solve; cause it seems like you may have solved your own issue?
    Merry xmas, thanks for the reply.
    I really do not know? arghh. For the last 2 hours no issues and no crash. It could have been that driver all along but time will tell on that one. As i said, i am no expert and windbg is mystical - i was hoping that someone cleverer than me (not hard) would shed some technical light on the situation by analysing the dmp files. For now I can run virus scans and for 2 hours firefox or IE have not restarted; another recent issue. So things are looking better - are they fixed? I am unable to say right now, time will tell. I still have the yellow exclamation mark but have sent a ticket to Native intruments - but in my experince they are not very good at replying.

    It would be nice if someone could confirm, deny or support my theory - i posted the updates so other people might benefit if they have similar probs. I am just taking a stab in the dark. poke, poke, stab
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 5
    win 7 64bit pro
    Thread Starter
       #4

    Hello again,
    So i ran memtest v4.3.6 overnight but am unsure what the results mean. Most threads I have been reading say errors appear in red. But my results still say errors. Can anyone help? Is a stick of my ram screwy? Any ideas which one or should I test each stick individually?
    Thanks.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 5
    win 7 64bit pro
    Thread Starter
       #5

    OK, so I decided to do another clean install. Loaded all the basic stuff on (no progs) and 3 BSOD's when trying to scan the system with malware bytes and antivirus. I tried it with just the 2 newer sticks in and it went BSOD. I have just one stick in at the moment (old) and I have managed to get through the scans.

    Can someone help me to conclude that the ram is to blame please? I take it the pic above does mean faulty stick!

    Thanks.
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 1,449
    Windows 7 ultimate 64-bit
       #6

    It does sound like the ram could be a probable cause. Otherwise there may be some other
    Piece of hardware that's also on the fritz like possibly the CPU.
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 5
    win 7 64bit pro
    Thread Starter
       #7

    matts6887 said:
    It does sound like the ram could be a probable cause. Otherwise there may be some other
    Piece of hardware that's also on the fritz like possibly the CPU.
    How do I test the cpu? It's never easy. Tomorrow I will swap the RAM with the newer stuff only and see if it crashes, if it does I will run memtest (although I have no ideas what the answers mean) on that ram alone, but so far it's running sweet with no BSOD in 4 hours.

    Does that memtest pic look like ram to you?

    Thanks v much for the help :)
      My Computer


 

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