Daily BSOD

CarlTR6 said:

Jonathan_King said:

BTW PCTools does not play well with Windows 7 either. Many BSODs caused by it.

Interesting. I had no problems with it on my 32 bit system. It runs smoothly and uses less RAM than Comodo. I prefer Comodo's interface.

Just like ZoneAlarm and AVG, PCTools only has a higher risk of causing BSODs. Most users never get them, but compared to other programs, they cause a lot of BSODs.

npolite said:

The test was using memtest86+. I checked Gigabyte's website (N650SLI_DS4) and didn't find any network driver updates for Win 7. The latest dirvers from Nvidia's website are 15.51 and haven't been updated since Oct 2009. I'll try going down the upgrade route for MS Security Essentials but I must have a driver conflict in Win 7.

I really like Zone Alarm over the MS firewall because it tells me when any request goes outbound, I get notified. Sometimes this doesn't happen with the MS one.

It does if you tell it too. Microsoft realize that the vast majority of users don't care and in fact are bothered by an alert each time a program tries to make an outbound connection. Please read: Windows Vista Firewall enhancements: rule types, profiles, domain isolation If you'd like to have the Windows firewall, which we know causes no compatibility issues, alert you under the conditions you outlined, please follow these instructions.

You can manually set outbound firewall rules using "Windows Firewall with Advanced Security" built into Windows 7 by opening Start, typing "wf.msc" and pressing Enter. In the Overview section click "Windows Firewall Properties" and you'll see this:
Attachment 70122
Change the circled setting to Block and then use the Wizard to create rules for each program you install. No other traffic will be allowed.

To simplify this while still using the built in firewall get the free Windows 7 Firewall Control : Sphinx Software it will give you a UI similar to third party firewalls while controlling the built-in software, creating the firewall rules for you that you can later tweak if you like using wf.msc. Please give this a try.

I think implementing this and Microsoft Security Essentials will clear up your issues.

Also, have you made absolutely sure you're not carrying the Alureon rootkit I wrote about earlier? Why are you using a third party memory tester? Start, type "mdsched.exe" and enter and you'll get a memory tester that works like Windows, because it is Windows, and is specializes in stressing your RAM in ways that typically cause Windows to fail. Please try that too!

baarod said:

npolite said:

The test was using memtest86+. I checked Gigabyte's website (N650SLI_DS4) and didn't find any network driver updates for Win 7. The latest dirvers from Nvidia's website are 15.51 and haven't been updated since Oct 2009. I'll try going down the upgrade route for MS Security Essentials but I must have a driver conflict in Win 7.

I really like Zone Alarm over the MS firewall because it tells me when any request goes outbound, I get notified. Sometimes this doesn't happen with the MS one.

It does if you tell it too. Microsoft realize that the vast majority of users don't care and in fact are bothered by an alert each time a program tries to make an outbound connection. Please read: Windows Vista Firewall enhancements: rule types, profiles, domain isolation If you'd like to have the Windows firewall, which we know causes no compatibility issues, alert you under the conditions you outlined, please follow these instructions.

You can manually set outbound firewall rules using "Windows Firewall with Advanced Security" built into Windows 7 by opening Start, typing "wf.msc" and pressing Enter. In the Overview section click "Windows Firewall Properties" and you'll see this:
Attachment 70122
Change the circled setting to Block and then use the Wizard to create rules for each program you install. No other traffic will be allowed.

To simplify this while still using the built in firewall get the free Windows 7 Firewall Control : Sphinx Software it will give you a UI similar to third party firewalls while controlling the built-in software, creating the firewall rules for you that you can later tweak if you like using wf.msc. Please give this a try.

This is exactly why I don't use the Windows firewall. Setting up the rules is a PITA. A firewall such as Comodo, PCTools, Zone Alarm, etc make this much simpler and much less of a hassle.

Windows firewall could definitely improve in this area; though I understand why MS has chosen this route. The average user user doesn't want to bothered and would select always allow without even checking to see what he/she was allowing.

CarlTR6 said:

baarod said:

npolite said:

The test was using memtest86+. I checked Gigabyte's website (N650SLI_DS4) and didn't find any network driver updates for Win 7. The latest dirvers from Nvidia's website are 15.51 and haven't been updated since Oct 2009. I'll try going down the upgrade route for MS Security Essentials but I must have a driver conflict in Win 7.

I really like Zone Alarm over the MS firewall because it tells me when any request goes outbound, I get notified. Sometimes this doesn't happen with the MS one.

It does if you tell it too. Microsoft realize that the vast majority of users don't care and in fact are bothered by an alert each time a program tries to make an outbound connection. Please read: Windows Vista Firewall enhancements: rule types, profiles, domain isolation If you'd like to have the Windows firewall, which we know causes no compatibility issues, alert you under the conditions you outlined, please follow these instructions.

You can manually set outbound firewall rules using "Windows Firewall with Advanced Security" built into Windows 7 by opening Start, typing "wf.msc" and pressing Enter. In the Overview section click "Windows Firewall Properties" and you'll see this:
Attachment 70122
Change the circled setting to Block and then use the Wizard to create rules for each program you install. No other traffic will be allowed.

To simplify this while still using the built in firewall get the free Windows 7 Firewall Control : Sphinx Software it will give you a UI similar to third party firewalls while controlling the built-in software, creating the firewall rules for you that you can later tweak if you like using wf.msc. Please give this a try.

This is exactly why I don't use the Windows firewall. Setting up the rules is a PITA. A firewall such as Comodo, PCTools, Zone Alarm, etc make this much simpler and much less of a hassle.

Windows firewall could definitely improve in this area; though I understand why MS has chosen this route. The average user user doesn't want to bothered and would select always allow without even checking to see what he/she was allowing.

Simple free add-on from Sphinx fills the void. It makes the rules as needed like the others.

npolite said:

Well I got another BSOD after installing Comodo and MS Security Essentials. Malwarebytes also didn't find anything when I had it scanned. I guess it's time for another reinstall of Windows 7. I really never had any problems in Windows XP using either AVG nor Zone Alarm.

Also attaching the latest dump if anyone can find anything else that might be wrong.

Thanks for everyone's help so far.

I hope you've not reinstalled 7 yet. It appears that you've forgotten to turn off the Windows firewall before installing Comodo. There are dozens of BugCheck 10000050 errors on their forums: BSODs: Please add your minidump files here (CIS v4.x)

Get rid of it and try Windows 7 Firewall Control : Sphinx Software. It's compatible because it's just a front end to the built in firewall. Blocks outbound and all that. See if you still get the crashes.

Good, glad to hear you have no problems. :)

Just be warned AVG and ZoneAlarm are #2 and #1, respectively, for security program related problems.

Jonathan_King said:

Good, glad to hear you have no problems. :)

Just be warned AVG and ZoneAlarm are #2 and #1, respectively, for security program related problems.

Gotta love how AVG puts out definitions that detect windows system files as viruses.

Bill