Random BSOD (Ntoskrnl seems common denominator)

[boblimerick]

Hello all,

Hopefully someone can help me with this issue. I have recently built my own new computer,and all is performing well and is exactly as i expected, apart for some random BSOD's. These are totally random, sometimes I can get 3 in a row, and others may not pop up for a week or two. I have changed HDD's and re installed windows etc, but the problem persists.

In the blue screen viewer i see Ntoskrnl is recurring but I wonder is this a symptom rather than the source of the issue?

I have uploaded the crash file as directed in the tutorial for this forum, in the hope someone can help me...

Thanks
boblimerick

 

[essenbe]

Hello boblimerick and welcome to the forums. I will ry to help you with this. I think you were correct that Ntoskrnl is a symptom. That is the Windows Kernel and will never crash unless it has been altered or corrupted. It crashes because something else caused it to crash. You had 3 dump files. One said

Use !analyze -v to get detailed debugging information.
BugCheck 7A, {fffff6fc4000a9c8, ffffffffc00000c0, 1ee879860, fffff88001539064}
GetPointerFromAddress: unable to read from fffff800032bb278
[COLOR=red]Probably caused by : memory_corruption[/COLOR]
Followup: memory_corruption

The other 2 said the same thing which was

fffff880`0287d008  fffff880`04cd6a18Unable to load image \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\dump_iaStorA.sys, Win32 error 0n2
*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for dump_iaStorA.sys
***[COLOR=red] ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for dump_iaStorA.sys[/COLOR]
 dump_iaStorA+0x88a18

Dump_iaStor is a driver that makes room to write the crash dump to disk. I am assuming the crash had already occurred when it was called, which brings us back to #1. So, I am going to ask you to do a couple of things for me.

Please run Seatools for DOS, both the short and the long test. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/313457-seatools-dos-windows-how-use.html#Part3

Please Run Memtest86+

   Information

Please download from this site only http://www.memtest.org/ in the middle of the page are the Download links, you can download the ISO.zip or the Auto USB Flash Drive installer.zip

Extract the Zip file. If you chose the ISO image, burn it to a CD using Windows Disk Image Burner or any Image burner you may have. If you downloaded the Auto USB installer, extract it, insert your USB 2.0 Flash Drive and take note of the drive letter. Run the installer, select the Flash Drive Letter, check the format box and press next. It will install memtest86+ to a flash drive. You can use either V4.20 or V5.01. Boot from your selected media. If you use V5.01 it will tell you to press certain buttons at the start, please press no buttons. The test will begin on it's own and continue to run until you stop it. It needs to run for 8 complete passes or until you receive an error. If you receive an error, stop the test. Even 1 error is a fail. Each pass tests a different part of the ram and each of the 10 tests in each pass tests something different. It takes a minimum of 8 passes to completely test the ram, more passes are better. It is quite a long test and will take several hours depending on how much ram you have. Due to the time length it is best to run overnight. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask​

 

[boblimerick]

Hello essenbe,

Many thanks for your reply. I will definatly try your suggestions this evening, and will come back to you with the results.

Thanks again for your help

Regards
Robert

 

[essenbe]

Great, just let me know and we will continue from there.

 

[boblimerick]

Hello, Just to update. I ran all of the tests outlined above, both long and short versions of Seatools, and 10 passes of Memtest, with no errors. Before testing I noticed the ram timings were set to 9-10-9-9 @ 1866, but the ram was advertised at 9-9-9-20 @ 1866mhz. I set the timings to 10-10-10-24 and reduced the speed to 1333mhz. All tests ran fine with absolutely no problems.
I'm wondering if this (slowing of timings and speed) will have helped stability and helped my problem? Or am I thinking too mechanically and not electronically about the issue?

I suppose I will have to run the PC as normal to see if I can generate more BSOD's so the dump files can be analysed further?

 

[Golden]

I suppose I will have to run the PC as normal to see if I can generate more BSOD's so the dump files can be analysed further?

Bob, I'll try help whilst we wait for Steve to logon.

You can attempt to force a BSOD by stressing the drivers/components. Please follow this:

Run Driver Verifier for 24 hours or the occurrence of the next crash, whichever is earlier.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/101379-driver-verifier-enable-disable.html

Driver Verifier will cause your computer to run very sluggishly - this is normal. What it is trying to do is force your system to BSOD and isolate the offending driver/s. When it does, reboot, disable driver verifier, reboot as normal and upload the new dmp file/s here.

I recommend creating a system restore point before turning on driver verifier:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/697-system-restore-point-create.html

If your system fails to boot to desktop once driver verifier is enabled, turn it off by booting into Safe Mode:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/69585-safe-mode.html

 

[essenbe]

Bob, if you don't have it download and install CPUz CPU-Z | Softwares | CPUID

Post screenshots (http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9733-screenshots-files-upload-post-seven-forums.html) of the mainboard, memory, and SPD tabs. On the SPD tabs you can select each dim slot from a dropdown in the upper left. Just post screenshots of the ones with ram in them.

 

[boblimerick]

Hello all,

Many thanks for your suggestions.

@Golden, I have started the driver verifier as outlined, nothing to report so far, but I will keep you updated (its only been running 1 hour so far).

@Steve, I have downloaded CPU-Z and attached a screen shot below of the requested tabs.

If you had time to review them it would be great?

Thanks
Bob