Multiple BSOD after updating, errors 4e and PFN

lonewolfkai · 26 Oct 2015

I have an Intel Core i7-2700k @3.50 Ghz with 16 GB of Ram and had a GeForce 460. I run this on a 750w PSU.

I've played Guild Wars 2 on it for a couple years with no problems before now. There was a recent expansion addon to it and when I started playing it, I started getting random crashes from the game. So I thought maybe I just should update the GeForce 460 card drivers, and the Windows Updates to see if that might fix it. It actually made it worse, causing multiple PFN BSOD errors. I uninstalled all fo the Windows Updates I put in and reinstalled the old drivers. But didn't help the crashing.

So I thought maybe i just needed a new card and bought a new EVGA GeForce 970 card got the latest drivers. That's when the PFN errors went away and I started getting IRQL errors. I uninstalled the drivers, reinstalled again, and updated to the driver version just below the most recent one. That seemed to help and I was able to play the game again. I went ahead and cleared logs thinking I had fixed the problem, but started getting crashes again after playing for a couple hours. This time it was a the 4e and PFN errors again. I ran several chkdsk and memory tests several times but there were no problem ever found.

I'm at a loss here. I don't know what's wrong and now I'm getting BSODs with the computer just sitting in idle as I type this (on a different computer). I really appreciate any help that can be provided. I've attached to this post the required dm log collector .zip file.

Again, thanks for the help.

EDIT: I've tied redoing the drivers using Display Driver Uninstaller and reinstalling a fresh downloaded driver for the card. Now I'm getting complete system lockdown requiring a forced shutdown via power button or I get a new BSOD Memory Management error.

**axe0** · 27 Oct 2015

Hi lonewolfkai,

Welcome to the 7forums.

Please remove ASUS software, these software is known for causing BSOD's.

In case of

If you are using a program like Ccleaner please stop using it while troubleshooting.
This because programs like Ccleaner remove dump files that are needed to troubleshoot.
Or configure Ccleaner to not remove dump files:

If you haven't ran MemTest86+ to test your memory, please run MemTest86+

Diagnostic Test

RAM TEST

Run MemTest86+ to analyse your RAM. MemTest86+ - Test RAM - Windows 7 Forums

Note

MemTest86+ needs to be run for at least 8 passes for conclusive results. Set it running before you go to bed and leave it overnight. We're looking for zero errors here. Even a single error will indicate RAM failure.

lonewolfkai · 27 Oct 2015

Ok. I've removed the ASUS software. While it was uninstalling, I noticed one of the parts of it was a GPU Boost, which surprised me a bit. I had also uninstalled the Display Drivers as well.

I've downloaded the Memtest files and as I was reading the instructions I get a PFN BSOD! After that crash I started the Memtest up. I'll make another reply once it's finished.

lonewolfkai · 28 Oct 2015

Okay, I've finished the Memtest. Per the instructions, I tried all four RAM Sticks at the same time right away on the test and almost immediately get an error so I began the individual stick tests. The 3rd RAM stick was the culprit while the rest were fine. Using a known good RAM stick, I also tested the 3rd mother board RAM slot just to be sure it too wasn't bad and it checked out good.

So I guess this was the problem. I will remove the bad stick and just make do with 3 sticks, which will give me 12 gb of RAM, which is still good, even for the game.

Here's my worry though: what caused the stick to go bad in the first place? It was working perfectly fine until the game expansion and many crashes/new graphics card/graphics drivers. Would any of those things have caused that particular RAM stick to overload or something?

**axe0** · 28 Oct 2015

Hardware can suddenly fail, the first day it works perfectly and the second day it is faulty.
As you say, you have played GW2 for a couple of years, hardware fails after a couple of years no matter how much care you give them.

My thoughts are that probably the old components were also about to fail.

lonewolfkai · 28 Oct 2015

axe0 said:

Hardware can suddenly fail, the first day it works perfectly and the second day it is faulty.
As you say, you have played GW2 for a couple of years, hardware fails after a couple of years no matter how much care you give them.

My thoughts are that probably the old components were also about to fail.

I'm hoping that's all it is too and not the introduction of the new graphics card. Thank you very much for the help Axe. I'll test this out with real time use a bit more over the next day or two, report back, and then mark the thread as solved.

**axe0** · 28 Oct 2015

You're welcome :)
Glad I could be of assistance.