I'm out of ideas, (DRIVER_IRQL) - BSOD, Freezes every day.

Dappa · 08 Dec 2014

First time posting, sorry if this isn't in the right forum but it seemed the most relevant.

A bit of background info - I've been having issues with this computer for a good few months now, it feels like forever. It started out as constant bluescreens - I had a lot of minidumps which pointed to ATI and USB drivers throwing up the errors. After rollingback/updating a lot of drivers, I eventually got the bluescreens to almost completely vanish - but now my computer keeps freezing, multiple times a day, usually when playing video games (has happened in multiple video games so I can't attribute it to one game).

Basically the computer just freezes, unresponsive to everything, including caps lock toggle - I'm getting no crash dumps from it, I was lucky enough to get a bluescreen the other day, but it didn't have much information in it.

Steps I have tried:

Fresh OS install.
Replaced graphics card.
Swapped ram slots, Isolated individual sticks, and ran extensive memory tests - no memtest errors, and the freezes still happen with both sticks isolated.
HDD tests with HD Tune Pro
Updated/rolled back many drivers
Installing SP1/updates (???)
Reseated ram/gfx card and other connections inside the computer.
Tried different mouse/keyboard, uninstalled wireless drivers (im wired, and eventviewer shows strange wan/dns erros sometimes)

I feel like I've done a lot more, but probably less significant troubleshooting steps, basically I'm clutching at straws big time. My PC is just locking up all the time, it's very frustrating because usually a computer doesn't beat me. I feel like it's some kind of driver corruption incompatibility, but I have no idea how to find out what?

Even though I did a fresh OS install, these weird "lockups" are different to the bluescreens, so it's like fixing one problem, has given rise to another, it's an endless cycle - I'm willing to try anything, if some troubleshooting master can give me any ideas on where to go from here, I will be eternally grateful.

I've uploaded an SF_D file, it included a kernel dump, but it was 500meg - too big to upload here so I've left it out, I'll post some details below. For some reason my pc was set to save kernel dump rather than a small dump, I only have one report too as CCleaner deleted my old ones, this is the most recent one though - but BSOD's are very rare now, 99% of my issues are just my computer freezing.

Here's the last, rare bluescreen I had -

DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL 0x000000d1 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000002 00000000`00000000 fffff880`051e0b08

No driver information (not that the software I'm using can see) - I can upload the 500meg memory.dmp to my dropbox if anyone wants to take a look at it, unfortunately my computer isn't bluescreening very much at all anymore so it's difficult for me to work out what's going on.

Thanks again.

koolkat77 · 09 Dec 2014

Make sure your dump logging is enabled.

Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
Double-click System.
Click the Advanced tab, and then click Settings under Startup and Recovery.
Check Write an even to the system log, and Automatically restart.
In the Write debugging information list, click Small memory dump (256k).

Location of Dumps:
C:\Windows\minidump

Dappa · 09 Dec 2014

Yeah I enabled minidump logging after I realised it was set to log kernel, unfortunately my computer doesn't seem to make it to a bluescreen, it just freezes :/.

I've been running that driver verify thing since last night, nothing has happened yet...

koolkat77 · 09 Dec 2014

Run the System File Checker that scans the of all protected Windows 7 system files and replaces incorrect corrupted, changed/modified, or damaged versions with the correct versions if possible:

Click on the
Type CMD on Search
Left click and Run as Administrator
Type SFC /scannow

Full tutorial here:

SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker

Clean boot

Troubleshoot Application Conflicts by Performing a Clean Startup

Reduce items at start-up. No software except anti-virus is required plus doing this improves the time for logging into windows:

How to Change, Add, or Remove Startup Programs in Windows 7

Make scans with the following:

Kaspersky TDSSKiller

Anti-rootkit utility TDSSKiller

ESET online scanner:

Free Online Virus Scanner | ESET

Run Disk Check on your Hard Drive for file system errors and bad sectors on it.

Hard Drive Diagnostics

Double click and open my computer.
Right click on desired drive and hit properties.
Click on tools tab and Check now.

Read complete instructions on the tutorial: Disk Check

Other Tests:

Temp Monitoring

Check for heating issues using Speccy or HWMonitor.

Upload a screen shot with either of the tools: Screenshots and Files - Upload and Post in Seven Forums

Dappa · 09 Dec 2014

I did an SFC scan about a week ago, no errors, I've been monitoring temps too but nothing out of the ordinary, I'll post a screenshot tomorrow after some intense gaming.

I'm currently doing a NOD32 scan, I'll install kapersky after, and run a clean boot.

As I was writing this post, I had a bluescreen - uploading the minidump. (THREAD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_DRIVER) - happened during virus scan and listening to music on youtube.

I have ran Hard Drive checks with software called HD Tune Pro a couple of weeks ago (trial expired so I uninstalled it yesterday, it seemed pretty exhaustive and I'm confident it's not my hard drives, if you would still like me to do another windows disk check let me know).

Thanks so much for getting back to me, I really appreciate the help.

EDIT - NOD32 scan result - found two potentially unwanted programs, one appeared to be a false positive from a very old backup ( I would have had problems years back if it was an issue) - the other PUP seemed a bit curious, it was an .exe in a temp folder, it also auto-removed a "virus body", not sure what that means.

Running kapersky now, I'll probably try and find a crash before I do a clean boot to see if these scans fixed the issue, in the spirit of troubleshooting properly.

EDIT2 - Kaspersky will not work, click for screenshot, tried a clean reinstall, updated client & definitions - will not scan for some reason.

EDIT3 - HDD Screenshot (as said previously I have ran error checks with HD Tune Pro.

Dappa · 16 Dec 2014

Has crashed since 'virus' removal, will try clean boot.