Persistent BSOD After Updating Drivers

originofcheese · 27 Dec 2014

Dell Inspiron 1545
Windows 7 Home Premium x64
Intel Celeron CPU 900
2GB Ram

This is my first time dealing with BSOD that I can recall and am incredibly out of my depths, so any help at all would be greatly appreciated.

Several hours ago, I updated 3 drivers and rebooted. I first noticed that any active windows would repeatedly deselect and then reselect. Within 10-15 minutes of logging in, the laptop blue screened and rebooted. This happened every single time I booted up and logged in normally. If I try to run programs, it blue screens within a minute or two of opening.

I tried system restore 3 times and each time failed (0x800703f9 error - I expect this is a separate issue).

I ran windows' memory check and had no problems.

I booted up in safe mode (and am in safe mode now) without any problems. I rolled back all 3 drivers I updated and tried booting up normally. The active window issue was gone, but the BSOD persisted.

I then ran an sfc scan in safe mode (tried out of safe mode and it blue screened). It informed me that there were problems, but not all could be fixed.

I'm not entirely sure what else to do. I do not have a minidump, unfortunately, because I didn't have it set to do so. I've tried setting it to do so in safe mode, but the settings don't seem to be taking? And if I try in normal mode, it will blue screen before I can. So I'm not sure what to do about that either.

Any and all help with this would be appreciated, thank you.

Golden · 27 Dec 2014

Which drivers did you update initially, and then roll-back?

originofcheese · 27 Dec 2014

The drivers were for 802.11n USB Wireless LAN Card, Marvell Yukon 88E8040 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller, and the third is actually no longer showing in device manager that I am seeing? It was a Bus one, but it was not listed under Universal Serial Bus controllers.

Golden · 27 Dec 2014

Do you recall what the code was for the BSOD.....Bugcheck 00000x??

originofcheese · 27 Dec 2014

No, it flashed too quickly for me to get a good look at it. =/

Golden · 27 Dec 2014

OK. In order to get a .dmp file you need a minimum of 25GB free disk psace, and you only have 13GB - you will need to uninstall some software to make space.

Start with these which have dubious value, are well-documented causes of BSOD's and system instability, and probably conflict with one another:

Code:

Start Menu\Programs\Driver Booster 2	Public:Start Menu\Programs\Driver Booster 2	Public
Start Menu\Programs\IObit Malware Fighter	Public:Start Menu\Programs\IObit Malware Fighter	Public
Start Menu\Programs\Lavasoft	Public:Start Menu\Programs\Lavasoft	Public
Start Menu\Programs\McAfee Security Scan Plus	Public:Start Menu\Programs\McAfee Security Scan Plus	Public
Start Menu\Programs\Smart Defrag 2	Public:Start Menu\Programs\Smart Defrag 2	Public
Start Menu\Programs\SmartDoctor	Public:Start Menu\Programs\SmartDoctor	Public
Start Menu\Programs\TuneUp Utilities 2014	Public:Start Menu\Programs\TuneUp Utilities 2014	Public

On a minimal system such as yours, I would use MSE for your anti-malware together with the existing Malwarebytes - get rid of everything else.

Once you have freed up enough free disk space (minimum of 25GB) configure a Small Minidump as follows:

Dump Files - Configure Windows to Create on BSOD

Now do the following:

Run Driver Verifier for 24 hours or the occurrence of the next crash, whichever is earlier.
Driver Verifier - Enable and Disable

Driver Verifier will cause your computer to run very sluggishly - this is normal. What it is trying to do is force your system to BSOD and isolate the offending driver/s. When it does, reboot, disable driver verifier, reboot as normal and upload the new dmp file/s here.

I recommend creating a system restore point before turning on driver verifier:
System Restore Point - Create

If your system fails to boot to desktop once driver verifier is enabled, turn it off by booting into Safe Mode:
Safe Mode

Longer term, I see a system that is going to struggle with Windows 7, and has a lot of bloatware and crapware installed. You may want to consider a Clean Install at some point.

originofcheese · 27 Dec 2014

Okay, thank you, I will try all of this! Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow at the latest with a .dmp

originofcheese · 28 Dec 2014

Golden said:

Once you have freed up enough free disk space (minimum of 25GB) configure a Small Minidump as follows:

Dump Files - Configure Windows to Create on BSOD

Hi, I cleared up 30GB, but when I try to configure a minidump, the settings aren't taking? I thought maybe it was because I was in safe mode before, but I booted up normally today and the settings are still not saving. Is there something I'm missing here?

Golden · 28 Dec 2014

Are you choosing minidump? What size is your pagefile?

originofcheese · 28 Dec 2014

Pagefile is set to 2008-2050, and yes i'm choosing minidump. The settings simply revert as soon as I clicked okay.

As a side note, I actually have not had a single BSOD today despite it happening 4-5 times yesterday. Should I continue to pursue this or would it be best to leave it alone for now?