BSOD while browsing(Chrome, Firefox) gaming(Diablo 3), plus more.

[Narcissos]

My BSOD's started 3 weeks ago with a forced OS change, after i went from XP PRO x32 to Win 7 x64.
The machine has just had a hardware change(new Motherboard for DDR3 memory, the cooler was replaced). Reason, why i perpetrated this hardware change, was due to the high temperatures and lack of memory on the old motherboard, which i attributed to the BSOD's i was having then. Well i'm still getting these crashes, so something must be still wrong . Usually the browser crash(es) occur(s), during watching a video on the web.

In addition to the BSOD's i also have these problems(which are actually new, since they didn't occur, when i had the old setup):

1)All browsers(haven't tried IE) crash chronically(the instruction at 0x referenced memory at 0x the memory could not be read).

2)Diablo 3 crashes randomly to desktop(intervals are very shaky), plus the picture freezes and recovers to normality in 5-10secs(Display driver has stopped responding and has recovered).

3)Desktop Window Manager has stopped working (over & over).

Formatted the PC, because after running verifier.exe, i couldn't boot the machine up anymore, and i just wanted to try, if a clean install of drivers would make any difference- it didn't. I've already tried older display drivers, but nothing seems to make any difference.
Used mdsched to chk my RAM, and windows determined some problems on one of the mem sticks, so i've removed that one, but i'm still having all of the problems mentioned here.
Perhaps some of the default drivers are outdated, if so, i need something to determine the proper problems. There is an abundance of different driver utilites out there, but which ones should i use, i have no idea.

Specs: Windows 7 Forums - View Profile: Narcissos

 

[JaidynM]

One of your dumps shows a hardware error (0x124). Read the following thread and see if any of it's fixes work.
http://www.sevenforums.com/crash-lockup-debug-how/35349-stop-0x124-what-means-what-try.html

Among the fixes in the above thread are a few stress tests. Before you do any of the other fixes mentioned in the thread, you should run these tests:

Test your RAM using Memtest86+. Let it run until 6-8 passes have completed or errors have been found.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/105647-ram-test-memtest86.html

Test your video card using Furmark. Watch your machine's temps and stop the test if it starts to overheat or artifacts appear on the screen.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/100356-video-card-stress-test-furmark.html

Test your hardware using Prime95. Watch your machine's temps and stop the test if it starts to overheat. Let it run for up to 2 hours or until errors have been found.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/100352-hardware-stress-test-prime95.html

Stress test your CPU using Intel Burn Test.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/220743-cpu-stress-test-using-intelburntest.html

Run a chkdsk on the system partition to check for bad sectors or system errors.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/433-disk-check.html

 

[Narcissos]

Well i've done all the stress tests except for the memory, i need to buy an USB memory stick for that then. When i try to do an extended diagnose with Mdsched for my remaining memory stick, it stops at a certain percentage and won't continue - bad sign?

The heating seems to be ok. The case is open atm, but the errors/crashes are occuring with the open case too, so there should be no difference.

CPU's max temp during the Intel Burn Test and Prime 95(2 hours) was 67c and both tests were succesully passed without any anomalies or sudden surges(never saw a temp over 70c while the tests took place). In the last half-hour of prime 95 my temps even lowered to 60c from 65-66c.

GPU reached 70c(69-71c) under Furmark and was stable after that for around 35-45 minutes, until i stopped it -since again- i wasn't seeing any anomalies. I also ran a little check for the GPU memory(VMT), which also found no errors.

Windows didn't find any errors or bad sectors on my harddisk, i had already done that earlier today.

I tried IE9 and it seems to be crash free(not in BSOD terms), i haven't seen a single error like i have with the other browsers. One small detail, which i should mention, is that before the hardware was changed, i did a thorough cleaning of the ventilators. During that process i totally dismantled the PSU, since it was hopelessly covered with dust, maybe something got "hit" there during the cleaning phase and is causing problems now.

A few new dumps below:

 

[JaidynM]

You can use a CD for memory, it doesn't have to be a USB stick.

You also have a few drivers that need to be updated:

EMVSCARD.sys    Wed Dec 13 18:42:07 2006 (457FAECF)
PdiPorts.sys    Thu Jun 05 10:59:17 2008 (48473A65)
WinRing0x64.sys Sat Jul 26 23:29:37 2008 (488B26C1)
amdxata.sys     Wed May 20 03:56:59 2009 (4A12F2EB)

These drivers can be found by searching them in Google and then finding the associated software or driver. Finally, find the latest version of this driver or software and download and install it. Some of the drivers may also be found here (if the driver says 'Windows Update' simply make sure all Windows Updates are installed).

You should also update any other drivers you can think of including graphics, audio, chipset, SSD etc.

ASACPI.sys may also be the cause of the problem. The pre-2009 version of the driver is notorious for causing BSOD's. From the below link, click on Utilities and download and install the 'ATK0110 driver for WindowsXP/Vista/Win7 32&64-bit'.
ASUSTeK Computer Inc. -Support- Drivers and Download P7P55D LE

 

[Narcissos]

Thx for all the great info.

Should i uninstall these older drivers, if i'm installing a new one over them?

 

[JaidynM]

It's good to uninstall the old drivers first but it's not essential.

Give priority to updating ASACPI.sys though.

Finally, if can find a CD somewhere please run Memtest. Just so we can rule out the memory before we go into anything else.

 

[Narcissos]

Sorry for taking so long, but it has been a stressful few days. Let's talk about the hardware first.

Memtest didn't detect any errors on my remaining stick(10 passes on 1 slot), but there was something really odd though. The 1st time i ran memtest, i noticed that it shows DDR2 instead of DDR3 in the slot. Stopped the test and ran CPU-Z which detected it was DDR3 in the slot. I switched slots and memtest showed the correct RAM(DDR3) this time.

The bolded out driver has been replaced. I couldn't find the others though and in the process of looking for them i discovered that my Windows hasn't been updating. Tried to update, but there is a problem - i can't install SP1(neither manually or automatically). I've tried chkdisk R and a smaller windows update, which were recommended for such cases, but these don't seem to fix my problem. Sfc/scannow detected some corruption in the registry, which it couldn't fix.
Is it time to reinstall windows or even make the entire disk a "tabula rasa" again?

I also had a huge amount of blue screens, i think these occured, when i tried to run the SP1 updates, but they don't seem to exist in the minidump folder anymore, but there are a few left though:

 

[JaidynM]

Run a http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html. It should fix your current version of Windows 7 but preserve your data, programs, user accounts etc.

For the drivers, search the link I provided above (this one); it should give you an update link.

 

[Narcissos]

These two seem to be some very obscure drivers(no idea what process or program uses those), they have links at the site you mentioned, but there are no drivers at these sites as far as i can tell:

PdiPorts.sys Thu Jun 05 10:59:17 2008 (48473A65)
Support Knowledge Base

WinRing0x64.sys Sat Jul 26 23:29:37 2008 (488B26C1)
Winring

No link:
EMVSCARD.sys Wed Dec 13 18:42:07 2006 (457FAECF)

The last driver should come with a windows update(if it already hasn't, since smaller updates have no problem installing).

 

[JaidynM]

It doesn't look like Winring has a download link but PdiPorts does. Just select your product from the dropdown arrow on their website and it should take you to a download page.

Have you tried the repair install?

 

[Narcissos]

Have you tried the repair install?

It crashes, when the disk starts phase 2 gathering folders, information etc.

Edit: PdiPorts.sys should be up to date now.

 

[JaidynM]

This could actually be something wrong with the disc rather than your system. Try burning another disc and trying the repair install again.

 

[Narcissos]

This could actually be something wrong with the disc rather than your system. Try burning another disc and trying the repair install again.

Either it crashes instantaneously at 1-2% or it tells that i'm missing files and stops the installation. I've already downloaded and burned the iso file again for 3-4 times and it's still missing files every time i try to install.

 

[JaidynM]

A fix I've seen is taking all sticks of memory out but one and then trying the repair install.

Do you get some sort of error message or code? If so, can you please take a picture or write it down?

 

[Narcissos]

This error comes with the ISO files:

"Windows cannot copy files required for installation. The files may be corrupt or missing. Make sure all files required for installation are available, and restart the installation."
Error code = 0x80070017.
I'm starting to think that maybe the DVD drive itself is defective and causing some of these problems, last time i wandered through the event viewer i saw some DVD drive errors there, but that was about a week ago.

There is another crash with the ISO's, but the above one is the most common. The other crash occurs with pretty much everything, which needs to run more than say 15-20 minutes, whether i'm installing windows, browsing or trying to do a full MSE scan of the system.

 

[JaidynM]

That error code refers to either bad media or a faulty DVD drive. Do you have another drive in your computer? If not, do you have one that you can temporarily transfer from another computer?

 

[Narcissos]

Unfortunately i don't have any extra hardware, besides an old graphcis card(which i haven't tried yet). It seems some of these issues could be very well related to the hardware, since stress tests will only show that much.

One last go at the reinstall before:
i will try to format the machine again, if something goes wrong, then so be it. It's near impossible to operate any programs atm( for over an hour without a blue screen, not to mention the chronic appcrashes), so it doesn't make much difference anyway.

If all goes well, i'll only install a LAN driver, so i can keep up you up to date here. If the chronic crashes start again with a minimum amount of drivers installed, then it's time to start swapping hardware i guess.

I've also accumulated a lot of dumps in the past few days:

 

[JaidynM]

The dumps for the most part point to hardware errors originating from either the memory or the CPU or system drivers.

Before you go ahead with the clean install. Try isolating your RAM (removing all but one stick) and booting the computer. Use your computer as you normally would for 15 or so minutes and see if you get any BSOD's.

 

[Narcissos]

Before you go ahead with the clean install. Try isolating your RAM (removing all but one stick) and booting the computer. Use your computer as you normally would for 15 or so minutes and see if you get any BSOD's.

Alright, i've switched the memstick to the one which mdsched detected having problems with, and guess what? I haven't seen a single crash for 4-5 hours now. I will keep you posted with the developments(will prolly post tomorrow again). I will try to reinstall my windows with the original cd i got, since appcrashes and BSOD's seem to have ceased with everything i'm using, at least for the moment.

 

[JaidynM]

That's good to hear, keep us posted.