ASUS N53SV-XV1 suffering frequent BSOD, Win7 x64

[st0kEd]

I've being having persistent BSODs happening at random for a while now and am finally getting around to figuring out the problem. I've run Memtest and it came back clean and yesterday started updating drivers (not sure we got to all of them) and the BIOS. Since updating drivers I've had two BSODs (screencaps below). Prior to today I've seen BSODs pertaining to 'ndis.sys' and 'DRIVER_STATE_POWER_FAILURE' (among others) if that means anything. I have attached the .zip file as per BSOD Posting Instructions, but whenever I try to run the perfmon /report I get the following error:

Here are the BSODs I experienced this morning:

Here's an older BSOD screencap I just found when I got the 'DRIVER STATE POWER FAILURE':

MACHINE SPECS:
Make and Model
ASUS N53SV-XV1

OS
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Display
15.6-inch LED-backlit Full HD display (1920 x 1080)

Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 540M with 1GB DDR3 VRAM and NVIDIA Optimus Technology

Processor
Type : 2nd gen Intel® Core™ i7-2630QM
Speed : 2.0 GHz (with Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 2.9 GHz)
Cache : 3 MB L3

Chipset
Intel® HM65

Memory
Corsair 16GB (4x 4GB) 1333mhz PC3-10666 204-pin DDR3 SODIMM
NOTE:[/B]Ran Memtest (SINGLE PASS ONLY) and it came back clean (no errors).
EDIT: Running Memtest86+ again, this time plan to let it run for 7 passes.

Storage
2.5" SATA
500GB 7200rpm

Optical Drive
Super Multi DVD drive

Communication
LAN : 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet
WLAN : Integrated 802.11 b/g/n (@2.4GHz)

Bluetooth
Built-in Bluetooth™ 2.1

Audio
Bang & Olufsen ICEpower®
Built-in Speakers And Microphone SonicFocus
(Realtek High Definition Audio)

Interface
1 x USB 3.0 ports
3 x USB 2.0 ports
1 x RJ45 LAN Jack for LAN insert
1 x HDMI
1 x Microphone-in jack
1 x Line-in Jack
1 x VGA port/Mini D-sub 15-pin for external monitor

Power
Output : 19 V DC, 6.3 A, 120 W
Input : 100 -240 V AC, 50/60 Hz universal



Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[Maguscreed]

Showing system level memory corruption in the debugs, are you overclocked at all?

If not.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/105647-ram-test-memtest86.html

 

[st0kEd]

I'm not overclocked and I did run memtest recently but I'm happy to do it again. I'll report back with results when I have them.

 

[Maguscreed]

With memtest it's best to let it run overnight, make sure the ram is nice and heated up and everything is active to simulate normal operational usage better.

 

[st0kEd]

With memtest it's best to let it run overnight, make sure the ram is nice and heated up and everything is active to simulate normal operational usage better.

Okay, will do. Thanks for the help and advice!

 

[st0kEd]

With memtest it's best to let it run overnight, make sure the ram is nice and heated up and everything is active to simulate normal operational usage better.

Hmm, read this again and want to know what you mean by "everything is active." You mean have programs I normally use open during the test?

 

[Maguscreed]

no just like everything else in your computer the memory heats up under use.
It takes awhile for it to reach what one might call operation temperatures.

Normally this is done by programs and apps running, However in the case of memtest it's done by the reading/writing the test itself actually does.

There's nothing dangerous or crazy here, just basic stuff really.

 

[st0kEd]

With memtest it's best to let it run overnight, make sure the ram is nice and heated up and everything is active to simulate normal operational usage better.

Memtest has been running for 11+ hours and has completed 3 passes with 0 errors. I'm going continue to let it run until it makes 7 passes per the instructions. Anyone care to comment on the results thus far? What is the likelihood we'll find an error after 3 clean passes?

 

[Maguscreed]

there really is no definitive answer on memtest, you could likely ask 20 of our regs here and get varying answers. 11 hours straight is certainly enough time to warm up.
So we'll start looking more closely at your drivers, though on my first pass over that info I nothing really stuck out.
I unfortunately am not in front of the right computer for that right now.

The first thing I would do though would be to hop over to the motherboard manufacturer's website and see if they've updated anything recently for your model.

 

[st0kEd]

there really is no definitive answer on memtest, you could likely ask 20 of our regs here and get varying answers. 11 hours straight is certainly enough time to warm up.
So we'll start looking more closely at your drivers, though on my first pass over that info I nothing really stuck out.
I unfortunately am not in front of the right computer for that right now.

The first thing I would do though would be to hop over to the motherboard manufacturer's website and see if they've updated anything recently for your model.

Thanks for the reply. I believe I updated the MB driver the other day but will have to check later when I have access to the machine. I know for sure that the graphics driver (both Intel and NVidia components) have been updated. I'll need to go back and check on everything else.

 

[Maguscreed]

on that note I can tell you from personal experience that the drivers provided by windows update for the intel 3000 are garbage. They almost killed my machine. You have to go direct to intel's download center and track the most recent one there.
Fixed the only problem I had on this entire build.

 

[st0kEd]

Looks like we've identified the problem! On pass no.4 errors started turning up and here's a screencap with the report from pass no.6:

on that note I can tell you from personal experience that the drivers provided by windows update for the intel 3000 are garbage. They almost killed my machine. You have to go direct to intel's download center and track the most recent one there.
Fixed the only problem I had on this entire build.

I'm going to follow up on this because the machine was behaving badly BEFORE I installed the RAM that's in there now. Did you happen to look at some of my earlier dump files? I'm specifically wondering about the files from 11/1/2011, 11/26/2011, and 12/10/2011 which happened with the OEM RAM installed. Maybe the OEM RAM was bad as well? I remember back then the problem would be the machine hanging and freezing up with out going BSOD so maybe that was a driver issue that I've since resolved?

 

[Maguscreed]

This could even be a problem with one of the slots on the motherboard itself. A problem that only occurs when the heat reaches a certain level.
That kind of problem is pretty rare though.
Receiving bad ram happens all the time. And if it's warranty or still meets RMA conditions it's generally easy to return for replacement, as the manufacturer and dealers both realize DOA ram is a reality of life.

There could also be a problem with your specific motherboard / ram you chose combination.

There are a lot of reasons for ram to start misbehaving. Personally, if it's new I would just RMA it if you get the same issue from the next set it's time to start considering the motherboard might be to blame.

 

[st0kEd]

So, the seems the problem might be more than the RAM. The machine hung this morning while I was using the internet and when I powered it on this afternoon it refused to boot and it looks like my hard drive is shot:

After attempting auto repair and rebooting it refused and a second analysis revealed this:

Attempted repair again and now I'm getting this when I try to boot:

Thoughts? Is my RAM and (now) hard drive bad? Virus? Any insight is greatly appreciated!

 

[Maguscreed]

Who makes your hard drive?
You could download their utility and use it to check your drive.
A member here made a list of the vendors/sites
here
Hard Drive Diagnostic Procedure

we've already determined one stick was bad for sure. So it could still be to blame or there could actually be something going on with the hard drive you're going to have to check.

 

[st0kEd]

Who makes your hard drive?
You could download their utility and use it to check your drive.
A member here made a list of the vendors/sites
here
Hard Drive Diagnostic Procedure

we've already determined one stick was bad for sure. So it could still be to blame or there could actually be something going on with the hard drive you're going to have to check.

I opened the machine up this morning and it has a Seagate drive. I'll post diagnostic results when I have them. Have a 240Gb SSD ready to go in if the drive is bad!

 

[st0kEd]

Don't have a CD at the moment to run the manufacturer diagnostic tool, but I ran chkdsk on the drive (via USB hard drive reader connected to my desktop) and it came back with no errors.

 

[st0kEd]

Okay, so I tried running Seagate's hard drive tool and it won't recognize the drive. As mentioned above, I did run chkdsk on the drive using my desktop and a USB-Sata reader and it showed no errors.

Also, I pulled the aftermarket RAM and re-installed the OEM 4Gb stick and there is no change. On the first boot up I received another c000021a error. Time for RMA? An IT friend suggested the MB might be shot.

 

[st0kEd]

Called ASUS tech support and they instructed me to run their recovery module which wipes the OS partition and performs a clean install of Windows. Did this last night and spent this morning installing Windows updates as well as updating drivers. The machine has been well behaved so far and boots up and runs as it should. So for the time being the fresh install seems to have solved the problem, but I'm going to see how things are a week from now before saying case closed. And as happy as I am to have the machine up and running again, I am disappointed that we weren't able to determine the root cause of the issue.

Thanks to those who helped!

 

[Maguscreed]

I would be careful when applying updates, since it is working now, you should probably avoid making any updates of drivers through windows update. I have a feeling win update may have installed a driver your system didn't agree with. Namely chipset or hdd controller related.