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Frequent & random BSODs for months on new laptop, various error codes
I’ve been plagued by chronic and unpredictable BSODs since day one of using my Toshiba Satellite P70-A. I’ve found and tried countless solutions; none have worked. Apologies for the length of the case history below, but I’d rather explain as much as I can to avoid confusion later.
The lappy came with Windows 8 when I first bought it online (mint condition). I immediately swapped for Windows 7, then ran SlimDrivers and Windows Update until no new updates were found. Laptop is kept on automatic updates.
For privacy/security reasons, the Windows 7 partition is encrypted with TrueCrypt. Plenty of others have done the same without issue, so I doubt that’s the problem.
Almost at once, the computer began to BSOD on occasion and has continued ever since, despite numerous updates since. The crashes occur at random, at least once every 24 hours of continued operation or so, though often sooner. The error codes listed vary and have included (from memory) “DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL” and “MEMORY_MANAGEMENT”.
Use of Driver Verifier (enabling all checks on all drivers) results in near-instant BSODs during start-up (“A device attempting to corrupt the system has been caught. The faulty driver currently on the kernel stack must be replaced”, error code 0x000000c4). I had to disable Driver Verifier in Safe Mode to get it to stop crashing the system before it could finish loading.
Online research led me to believe the variety and nature of the error codes might indicate a memory issue. A PC repair shop ran extensive hardware tests for a couple days (including MemTest86) and gave my machine a clean bill of health, all but guaranteeing the problem is with the software.
Also, I just had another BSOD (“IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL”) and had to retype all of this. Fun. (Last time, it cost me a month’s worth of work due to data corruption. That was oodles of fun.)
So far, I’m unable to pinpoint any specific program(s) or configuration(s) that may be causing all this.
I’m officially out of ideas. I’m no expert, so please point out anything I may have missed, no matter how obvious. Attached is the DM Log Collector .zip as recommended. (I would attach the latest memory dump, but it’s 800 MB …)
Growing desperate for answers, so thanks in advance for any help.
Last edited by Noc; 10 Jul 2014 at 05:38. Reason: Changed font for legibility.