BSOD Unsure what is triggering it. Happens every ~10 minutes

AutomaticUpdate · 04 Sep 2016

I have been getting BSODs quite frequently and I believe it is either an issue with Drivers or possibly hardware. I need help determining the root cause.

I'll include some information about the situation.

Computer & Specs:

Dell Inspiron 7559
i7
GTX 960
16 GB Ram
UHD Screen (4k)
128 GB M.2 SSD
1 TB HDD

By default the computer came with Windows 10. It started getting BSODs every ~2 minutes or so. I went ahead and attempted to use Windows 10 built in reset. This ended up getting the computer stuck in a boot loop. Eventually I had to fully reinstall and the issues were still happening. So I ended up reformatting the drive and installing Windows 7 pro. I am still getting BSODs regularly and am not sure how to fully investigate it. I believe the issue is a driver or possibly hardware.

I activated verifier and the BSODs seem less frequent now, but they are still happening.

The common BSOD messages include (forget the inexact names/descriptions):

Cannot access page in non paged area
drivers_irql_less_than_or_not_equal

Attached is the log zip from the log collector tool.

Any and all help is greatly appreciated. I've had numerous problems with this laptop and am not very happy with the overall purchase. Unfortunately, it is the computer that I'll have to use for awhile.

Please let me know if I can provide more information. I'll do my best to produce it. I attempted to pinpoint what would trigger the BSODS, but it seems to happen in many circumstances, such as opening chrome, leaving the computer sit for a bit, starting vmware player, etc.

Unrelated to the BSODs, ever since I installed Windows 7 (Dell claims Windows 7 compatibility with this laptop), I've been hearing an occasional 'popping' sounds when clicking around. I'm unsure of what it is, but I feel like it might be an issue with the audio driver or something. I just felt like this was worth mentioning in case it might be an issue. It happens despite having the volume muted.

AutomaticUpdate · 05 Sep 2016

Is there any additional information that I can provide? If so, I'll be happy to do so. If not, are there some suggested tools and tutorials for me to look at the start debugging in the mean time?

**axe0** · 07 Sep 2016

Hi AutomaticUpdate,

Welcome to the 7forums :)

I've had a quick look at the dumps and have come to the conclusion that your problem is most likely a hardware problem.
This conclusion is based on a few things
1. You say that you've installed multiple Windows versions
2. Driver verifier caused dumps, but did not catch any driver
3. Many memory related crashes, unfortunately 'memory' is not specific with the reason that memory usually means either of the following possibilities

RAM,
HDD,
GPU

4. Different causes

Network drivers, not visible in the dumps but NETIO.sys is visible which is a network driver from the system
Window file system
DirectX, GPU

My suggestion, if you have warranty you should use it to get a replacement for the laptop. Backup as much as possible what can be done with a Windows Pre Environment Resque Media. You may want to check this post for one.

Troubleshooting the hardware from a laptop/notebook can be quite difficult, because if software tests detects problems then part needs to be replaced what is not easy compared to a desktop unless you know how to open the laptop/notebook.

AutomaticUpdate · 07 Sep 2016

Thank you for the response, I appreciate the time you took to look into the issue.

I do have a warranty, unfortunately that means I'll have to wait 3-4 weeks to get my laptop back though.

Again, thank you for taking the time to look into it for me.