Most bizarre BSOD/rebooting issue EVER, 1 1/2 years ongoing, HELP!!

[whitewolf81]

IF YOU LIKE A CHALLENGE, THIS POST IS FOR YOU!!
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I am about to write a novel here with all of the ridiculousness I've been through. Note: I am an advanced user myself, and I am seeking the help from THE MOST experienced, uber-advanced techies out there. I am going to need to hear the most bizarre, far-out ideas you can think of because I am at my absolute wits end.

Let me first say, BSOD's are only 1 of 3 issues I am having. The others are; -my system just freezing up and rebooting, and -my displays going out (as if the computer went to sleep, even though I have all that disabled) and after a minute or so, one display will come back but the other (the main one) will remain unresponsive.

--- If you don't want to read it all, you can skip to bottom for the summary. ---
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Like the title says, this has been going on for well over a year. It's been mostly intermittent, so for a while I kind of just dealt with it, while reinstalling drivers here and there, testing memory, etc. Anything I did seemed to help for some amount of time, till it'd all start acting up again. In the beginning, BSOD's would throw random driver errors... as in THE MOST RANDOM drivers.

Back in Jan, after a fresh reformat and BSOD'ing again soon after, I posted a crash dump on another forum and someone pegged Daemon tools as the culprit. I got rid of that, and I seemed home-free... for about a month. Queue once again, the intermittent issues- some days nothing, some days 2 or 3 reboots/freez-ups etc. Again I am uninstalling & reinstalling drivers to try to find the issue. Still some random driver errors, and a bunch of new "windows uncorrectable hardware error" ones. And when it rebooted without the BS, I'd go look in the event logs and see this "WHEA" error.

--- INSERT LIFE(PC)-CHANGING EVENT ---
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One day this past spring, the fan in my PSU decides to quietly die. Which, I can only deduct, fried my motherboard. I won't go into details, but I absolutely could not get anything to run, not even a virtual OS off of a CD. This prompted me to finally start replacing things, and I thought thank god, I can get rid of the issues I've been having.

I acquired an MSI G33M mobo, a QX6700 CPU, and Thermaltake 850w PSU. Reformatted my HD to go along with that. Everything is fine, yet again, for a short amount of time. My three intermittent issues are back.
Note: my BSOD's aren't throwing driver errors so much anymore, but a mix of "paged fault in nonpaged area" and "windows uncorrectable hardware error". Also note: I HAVE tested my RAM through all of this, ran MemTest overnight, and came up with no problems.

After some more time of dealing with this, I decided to get a new HD. Maybe, mechanically, mine happened to be failing?? I don't know but I was running out of things to replace. Along with the brand new HD, I tried an older video card (GeForce 9500), one I'd never had issues with. Perhaps that's the problem, since my displays would do that weird thing too.... nope! Within a couple days, I was experiencing my three issues of doom again. So I decide to just put my GTS 450 back in.

The new HD was almost 2 months ago now. Ever since, BSOD's aren't my most common issue, it's the freezing & rebooting that I'm getting the most. However, any BSOD's I DO get are ONLY the "Windows uncorrectable hardware error" one- they don't point to a driver or system file or anything.

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SO... to make a long story short, the problem I am still trying to figure out... What is causing BSOD/freezing/rebooting/weird display thing AFTER ALL THE HARDWARE HAS BEEN CHANGED/CHECKED?!?
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The ONLY constants that are left are my case, CD/DVD-RW, 2 fans, SATA cables, and 2nd HD. And the RAM, as I mentioned, I have tested. Now, I do have 2 sets of 2 different speeds of RAM (2x 2gb DDR3 2800 and 2x 2gb DDR3 3200), and before you say anything about that, I HAVE tried to pull out just the 3200's... still the same issues. I've checked the mobo mounts to make sure there isn't anything contacting the case that shouldn't be. Could it be the wiring to the power/reset button??

Let me also point out, there isn't any one particular thing that triggers any of the three issues. Sometimes it happens while I'm gaming, sometimes while browsing, and sometimes while I'm not even at the PC and it's idle. But they do seem to happen in bursts.... i.e., 5 days of peace and then 2 days of all three things happening half a dozen or more times.


Now, I did some digging not too long ago, and found the only remotely relevant explanation I can find that fits my scenario- the Realtek audio on the mobo (which my last mobo had, even though it was an AMD and this one Intel), having some weird conflict with NVidia graphics cards. However, I don't seem to have any options as far as chipset driver versions that I can install. I had uninstalled NVidia's HD audio thing- that seemed to work for a while, then of course everything started acting up again.

The only other solution that fits, albeit illogical, is there is a gremlin in my case.

I have done everything short of buying a whole new tower, which I can't do now that I spent the extra money I had on parts for this one. I'm ready to rip my hair out, after I throw this thing through the window. -.-

​

 

[Arc]

Dont like a challenge, so this long post is not for me

If you are having BSODs, post it following the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) Posting Instructions.

Without having those, how long the description may be, it will not describe anything at all.

 

[whitewolf81]

crash dumps

Alright, here it is... but the reason I didn't do this is the BSOD's weren't the only issue and the dump files won't point to the when/why the other 2 issues happened, and I have also tried poking through the dump files myself with windows debugger and WhoCrashed and don't get any specific answers aside from "Windows uncorrectable hardware error".

My post is good reading I promise. lol

 

[Arc]

"Windows uncorrectable hardware error".

Not windows, but WHEA (Windows Hardware Error Architecture).

It is WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR, Stop 0x124. Supposed to be a hardware environment related error.

*******************************************************************************
*                                                                             *
*                        Bugcheck Analysis                                    *
*                                                                             *
*******************************************************************************

WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR (124)
[B][COLOR=Red]A fatal hardware error has occurred[/COLOR][/B]. Parameter 1 identifies the type of error
source that reported the error. Parameter 2 holds the address of the
WHEA_ERROR_RECORD structure that describes the error conditon.
Arguments:
[COLOR=SeaGreen]Arg1: 0000000000000000, Machine Check Exception[/COLOR]
Arg2: fffffa8007ba8028, Address of the WHEA_ERROR_RECORD structure.
Arg3: 00000000b2000040, High order 32-bits of the MCi_STATUS value.
Arg4: 0000000000000800, Low order 32-bits of the MCi_STATUS value.

You are highly overclocked.

CPUID:        "Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU           @ 2.66GHz"
MaxSpeed:     2660
[COLOR=Red]CurrentSpeed: 2936[/COLOR]

As you are getting BSODs, you should stop overclocking and run all the hardware components like CPU, GPU and RAM to their default settings. Also set the BIOS to default, too.
How To Clear CMOS (Reset BIOS)

The computer is more or less 3 years old.

BiosVersion = V1.4
[COLOR=Red]BiosReleaseDate = 01/12/2010[/COLOR]

Is it running hot? Report us the heat of the computer after a couple of hours of your normal usage. Upload a screenshot of the summery tab of Speccy. No descriotion please. We need the screenshot only.

As it is a stop 0x124, you need to perform some hardware tests.

Test your RAM modules for possible errors.
How to Test and Diagnose RAM Issues with Memtest86+
Run memtest for at least 8 passes, preferably overnight.
If it start showing errors/red lines, stop testing. A single error is enough to determine that something is going bad there.
No errors? Let us see a camera snap of the memtest screen showing 8 passes are complete.

Stress test the Graphics Card using Furmark.
Video Card - Stress Test with Furmark

Stress test the CPU.
Hardware - Stress Test With Prime95

Check if the Power Supply Unit (PSU) supplying adequate power to the computer or not.
eXtreme Power Supply Calculator
Also let us know the wattage of the PSU.

Also, update all the logitech drivers. Remove all other USB devices, observe how it is going. Coz, some interruption is being caused from the part of USB stuff, too.

fffff880`009f3a58 fffff800`0360ca3b nt!KeBugCheckEx
fffff880`009f3a60 fffff800`031a0453 hal!HalBugCheckSystem+0x1e3
fffff880`009f3aa0 fffff800`0360c700 nt!WheaReportHwError+0x263
fffff880`009f3b00 fffff800`0360c052 hal!HalpMcaReportError+0x4c
fffff880`009f3c50 fffff800`0360bf0d hal!HalpMceHandler+0x9e
fffff880`009f3c90 fffff800`035ffe88 hal!HalpMceHandlerWithRendezvous+0x55
fffff880`009f3cc0 fffff800`0308846c hal!HalHandleMcheck+0x40
fffff880`009f3cf0 fffff800`030882d3 nt!KxMcheckAbort+0x6c
fffff880`009f3e30 fffff880`045d2b7a nt!KiMcheckAbort+0x153
fffff880`02f1b928 00000000`00000000 [COLOR=Red]usbehci!EHCI_InterruptService+0x22[/COLOR]

Let us know the results.

 

[whitewolf81]

Half the stuff you've said to do is resolved in my post, lol. I've ran Memtest overnight, sticks are fine. I've stressed the CPU with no issues, I have yet to stress the GPU. However, like I mentioned, it did this with my previous vid card as well. At least read over the last portion of OP?

Note, I did mention this;

Now, I do have 2 sets of 2 different speeds of RAM (2x 2gb DDR3 2800 and 2x 2gb DDR3 3200), and before you say anything about that, I HAVE tried to pull out just the 3200's... still the same issues.

I have no idea why it's overclocked... I've already had the BIOS set to defaults. (and I've never even messed with the vid card) Also note, it doesn't look like you are able to see that it's a Core2 Extreme, which should be able to handle it just fine. Not to mention I have an aftermarket cooler (AC Freezer 7 Pro). I do admit I could probably stand to replace the cheap thermal paste I had with better stuff... but it's not running all that hot, MAYBE 42-43c under load (45 is the worst I've seen it). And by "load", I mean I am playing 2-D MMO with Firefox & maybe 6 tabs open. BTW, that's monitored using my mobo's little program they had available. I will give Speccy a try though.

PSU wattage recommended for me is 670 and mine is 750.

As far as USB devices... I remember the Logitech one throwing codes a while back more often than others. And of course, I have uninstalled and reinstalled it (the only Logi device I have is a gamepad), more than once. I have even tried leaving the device completely uninstalled and not plugged in for a few days! Not the cause...

 

[Arc]

Do the tests again and supply the results as suggested.

 

[Layback Bear]

From Whitewolf specs. Not good. Ram should be matched in all respects. It may or may not solve your problem but they still should be matched.
Memory 4x 2GB DDR2 (2 sets of 2 different speeds)

Antivirus none
Their could also be a infection problem.

Yes I did read post #5
I mean I am playing 2-D MMO with Firefox

 

[whitewolf81]

Do the tests again and supply the results as suggested.

Well there is something wrong in the temp department... Speccy is reading 30ish degrees higher than what the BIOS is actually reading. See attachment of Speccy alongside mobo's overclocking program (which I do not use to overclock, just to check temp & speed). The actual BIOS reading has to be correct, right? Why would third party programs be giving me such different readings? I had this happen with HWMonitor also... it reads the same higher temp of 60-70c while BIOS tells me upper 30's.

Now, I HAVE had overheating issues when I first installed this mobo & CPU, due to Intel's crappy stock heatsink. I would get readings of 80+c, and at that point the CPU would dramatically underclock itself to try to compensate. So when it DOES overheat, I know what happens. Not this random BSOD or rebooting every few days. And certainly not half my display(s) going out... any ideas yet what THAT is all about? Happened again this morning.

Once again, RAM is fine.

Not sure exactly what to report regarding stress tests... ran GPU one for 18 mins, it peaked at 82c and plateaued at 80-82 for about 15 of those mins before I stopped it. CPU one says it passed 720k, 8k, 800k, 12k, 960k, 20k, 1120k, and 32k tests successfully on all four cores. (ran it for 2 hrs)

Let me reiterate... my hardware is fine (I am 99% certain), aside from this weird temperature anomaly. All of my hardware has been replaced throughout the issues I am having, and yet continue to have the issues.

From Whitewolf specs. Not good. Ram should be matched in all respects. It may or may not solve your problem but they still should be matched.
Memory 4x 2GB DDR2 (2 sets of 2 different speeds)

Antivirus none
Their could also be a infection problem.

I guess I will pull out two of the sticks, if it's really not that good of a thing. As far as a virus... as I've mentioned, these things continue to happen through 2 reformats (and one brand new HD), and within days after a reformat. I don't do anything stupid online, either.

 

[Arc]

As you post that much of words all the times, it becomes tough to get the important stuff that is needed.

Let me contradict you, your hardware is not fine at all. If so, there would not be a stop 0x124 BSOD.

About the heat reading, I would trust on Speccy, and not on a MSI junk.

RAM cannot be fine at all, as Layback Bear already pointed out.

You MUST to try to control the heat at first. Dismantle the computer. Clean everything inside, but very carefully, without breaking anything. Clean the air vents, the fan grills, so that it can blow the hot air outside efficiently. Then, remove the old thermal paste and use new one.



Now let us know .... if the temp counts changed? No statement is needed, no MSI junk stuff is needed. Just upload the Speccy screenshot. We need information only, not opinion.

If still the heat is out of control, we have to think it differently.

As you are getting BSODs, you should stop overclocking and run all the hardware components like CPU, GPU and RAM to their default settings. Also set the BIOS to default, too.
How To Clear CMOS (Reset BIOS)

Last but not least, See again what Layback Bear suggested. Use some RAM those are not only matching with each other but also compatible with the motherboard.

Solved issues harder than the present one ..... if you talk less, stop supplying opinions and supply facts only, it will be not only helpful to us, but also (and mostly) will be helpful to you.

 

[whitewolf81]

I am not giving you opinions, I AM supplying facts. I ran Memtest overnight and it did not give me errors. I ran the GPU & CPU stress tests you told me to, and I did not have any errors. If I am really having a temperature problem, then wouldn't the CPU stress have crashed my system?

I am saying a lot because I am trying to figure out WHY certain things do and don't happen. Even though, as you said, I am getting that stop error that tells me there is a hardware problem, my hardware is testing out fine. It makes so sense and I'm trying to make sense of it! BSOD is telling you there is a hardware problem, but all the hardware is testing okay. Isn't that weird??

The "MSI junk" is reading directly from the BIOS. Even if I reboot and go into the BIOS, it tells me the lower temperature. So I ask you again, is it possible for the BIOS to be wrong? What would make it read wrong? If it can't be wrong, then Speccy has to be wrong. I am not overclocking my system, I never have, and everything is set to defaults.

 

[Layback Bear]

whitewolf81 let me see if I can get us all on the same page.

Post #1

Note: I am an advanced user myself, and I am seeking the help from THE MOST experienced,

No body here knows how qualified you are with only 5 post here.
We all know that Arc is highly qualified on such matters. If by chance Arc runs into something of question he know where and how to seek help from other members.

Now you have to make a decision whether you do or do not want help by following the recommendations and instructions by Arc and others.

We all are here to help others that request help. Those people that ask for help must work with us or we can't help. This Forum has helped thousands if not millions of people. We would like to add you to the help list of people but you must help us help you.
**********************
Now that we are on the same pages I do have some requests and questions.
1. Post #1 states you have a 850 power supply and post #5 a 750W power supply. Please let us know exactly what power supply you are using now. My System Specs is the place to install that information.
2. You have change most every piece of hardware but yet insist to use the old mismatched ram; Why?
3. If it was my computer I would remove your MSI temp program. That program can cause many problems not just temp readings.
The two recommend programs for temp reading work for millions of other users.
4. You state you are a advanced user and you don't need security programs. That is very hard for me to understand. That would insinuate that the other quarter of a million members of this Forum are not advanced users. Believe me their are many advanced users here that do use security programs.
5. So other members can see you system specs without going through a bunch of post please do this and fill them out completely. Look at My System Specs in the lower left corner of this post to get a idea of what information that could be added and helpful.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/180324-system-info-see-your-system-specs.html

The ball is on you side of the net. Let us know if you are going to let us help you.
Please remember the two things we do the most here are learn and help each other.

 

[Arc]

If you try to discriminate between fact and opinion a bit clearly and supply facts only, it will be helpful for both of us. Otherwise I have to accept it that your intention is just to appreciate yourself for having the most bizarre BSOD issue (which is not the fact at all) and not to go to the solution.

As you are trying to figure things out over 1.5 years, now as you are giving us the responsibility to do it for you, you need to help us to help you, and the first step is to not supply non-information in your posts. Saying again, we have solver 10 times harder issues than your one. But based on mutual cooperation. As an advanced user, you know what cooperation is.

Depending on your next reply, I will decide whether I will continue in this thread or not.

Edit: Revoking myself. This place is not for me.

 

[whitewolf81]

Sorry, it is in fact an 850w PSU... I typoed. I say I am an advanced user so I'm not told simple things like "reinstall your drivers", etc. I have done everything I can absolutely think of on my own and don't want to hear to do the same things again. (like calling ISP tech support and them telling you to reset your router, lol) I never said not using security programs made me advanced. :shock: To be honest, I'm still on a fresh new HD and just haven't decided on one yet. I have yet to find a decent free one. And I don't do much besides emails, graphics, & play one game anyway.

I never saw anything wrong with mis-matched ram, it just steps down the higher frequency ones. Can you tell me WHY it is so wrong? I am here to learn as well, I don't simply want to just be told what to do.

I'm doing everything that's been suggested, running the tests and everything and reporting them. And I know that MSI program is crap... I just use it to look at temp and then close it. But forget about the MSI program, even the bios itself is reporting the lower temp. Can the bios itself be wrong?? How do the programs report temp differently vs. the bios? It's these things I want to learn. But I guess all I have left to do now is get more thermal paste and reapply it, which I have to wait for because I'll have to buy it online.

 

[Layback Bear]

On the ram; You have been having these problems a long time and to my best thinking the only thing you haven't changed is the Ram and the tower. After all that hardware replacement all ready done why not get proper ram and give it a try. I understand that both rams will go to the lower speed but they also could cause other things to happen. I never assume their is just one problem or one cause of one problem. I also don't want to start on (Q) when (A) hasn't been done first.
When ask to do something and post the logs as instructed those logs are needed so the people helping you can interpret them.
*Just saying: I did that and every things is okay is not good enough.*
Most of those logs requested I can't interpret but members of our BSOD team can.

I recommend starting at post #2 again and do as requested and we will see if a member of our BSOD team will jump in.
As you can see I'm not a member of the BSOD team.
I just trying to get everybody on the same page with a few suggestions.

 

[whitewolf81]

Oh! No no... I did not have all the same RAM all along, most of the time I only had 2 sticks. I only added 2 more just recently, after I got the new CPU. So for like 4 months? But I've gone back to just 2 now. No blue screens/freezing yet since OP, but like I said, it can take days in between it happening so there is no telling if that helped.

My displays are still going out every night. (they both look like they "sleep", then when I move the mouse, one will come back but the other will be unresponsive) I have uninstalled/reinstalled different version of my graphics card drivers but no help, and this even happened with a different graphics card. So I am at a complete loss on this one.

If I am overheating, I am still looking for someone to tell me why the bios would be wrong ??

 

[YoYo155]

I don't know why you're refusing good advice :huh:.

View attachment 288872

Do you notice the difference in temperature?
View attachment 288873

 

[whitewolf81]

I am not refusing any advice!! :O The next thing I have to do is re apply thermal paste, as Arc said... which I need to wait on because I have to order online. I don't know why my questions are getting interpreted as me being stubborn, when I'm only trying to learn the HOW and WHY things are happening the way they are so I can learn.


Regarding MSI giving me the mobo temp... if I reboot and go into bios, the BIOS is telling me the CPU temp is 34-35. Is it dropping 25 degrees from the reboot??

---

UPDATE: Sofar today since this post, another BSOD and 2 restarts, all one right after the other. So for sure not a problem with the RAM I've removed. Arctic silver on the way...

 

[whitewolf81]

Let me contradict you, your hardware is not fine at all. If so, there would not be a stop 0x124 BSOD.

You guys were all SO wrong, and Windows itself is the absolute worse thing to use to diagnose its own issues.

I have just bought a BRAND NEW, ready out-of-the-box, completely different (Asus)PC... and I mean different in every way possible... AMD vs my Intel, ATI vs Invidia, and even running Windows 8.... and guess what?! I AM STILL HAVING ISSUES. Explain that to me??

It's only day 3 of this PC being up and running, and today I've experienced a random reboot for no reason and the monitors going out twice.

My problem is OBVIOUSLY software. Though I am completely baffled as to why my monitors are still doing the same thing, each with their own problem (brand new monitors also, mind you)... I'll be damned if it's the DVI cables that are somehow causing it, which are the same ones I was using before, so I guess I'll be replacing those as well.

I guess there's really not much anyone can say or suggest to me at this point... seems I'll have to just uninstall/reinstall one thing at a time and wait. Or find a place where ppl actually know the ins and outs of the Windows kernel.