BSOD 15 mins after startup. Screen flickers multicolours?!

[FrankButcher]

Hi there,

I really need some help getting to the bottom of an issue with my PC. About 15 minutes after switching it on it suddenly crashes, but instead of the monitor showing the BSOD it goes to a multi-coloured flickering type of static, as if it's having a fit or something. Really strange. Other times it's gone to a screen of one single colour like green or pink but never an actual BSOD. If I have music playing when this happens sometimes it will continue playing while the screen is freaking out, other times it will cut off the instant the crash happens.
After this has happened the computer will either restart itself or I will have to restart it by holding down the reset button. Once Windows has reopened after the crash it will run perfectly until switched off. I can even restart it several times if I want, and as long as it has crashed once it will not do it again.

The first time this happened was after installing a new OCZ Agility 3 60GB SSD into my tower. I did not format it because forums I had read said that wasn't necessry for newer SSDs. I began installing Windows 7 Ultimate x64 on it and the multicoloured flashing screen crash thing happened during the installation. I restarted the computer and began installation again. Everything went fine that time and I was able to install Windows and use it normally. However, from then on most times I start the PC it will do the crash thing about 15 mins after startup. Some times sooner, other times later but around 15 mins (and sometimes not at all).

I have run a Memory Test utility which came back clean so I know the RAM is fine. I have tried to keep all my drivers up to date but cannot be sure if that's the problem. What really confuses me is that fact that this happened before Windows was even installed on the drive, during installation. What would make that happen?

It did it earlier and here's the report:

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.1
Locale ID: 2057

Additional information about the problem:
BCCode: f4
BCP1: 0000000000000003
BCP2: FFFFFA800A1A4060
BCP3: FFFFFA800A1A4340
BCP4: FFFFF800031E5470
OS Version: 6_1_7601
Service Pack: 1_0
Product: 256_1

Files that help describe the problem:
C:\Windows\Minidump\031513-21184-01.dmp
C:\Users\Dolby\AppData\Local\Temp\WER-22947-0.sysdata.xml

Ive run the Diagnostic Tool and attached the results to this message, as per the instructions.

Here's everything I know about my system:

Asrock Z68 Pro3-M
OCZ Agility 3 60GB SSD running Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit
8GB Crucial Ballistix RAM
Intel Core i5-2300 2.8 GHz Processor
2x Sata 500GB HDD

Please help! Thanks.

 

[Arc]

Download and install this version of Intel RST.

Uninstall Apple mobile device for the time being.

What is your disc H? is it a partition of an internal HDD or any external? And what is the HDD3 in device manager? Do some disc cheks; specially on Disc H and HDD3.

1. Re-seat the sata and power. Place HDD3 in another unused port.
   
   
2. Run chkdsk /f/r, following the option two of the tutorial Disk Check
3. Seatool for dos: SeaTools | Seagate download
   Burn it in a blank cd. boot from the CD, click on "Accept", wait for it to finish detecting the drives, then in the upper left corner select "Basic Tests", then select "Long Test" and let it run.

And upload your MSINFO32.nfo file.

1. Click on the start button
2. Type "msinfo32" (without quotes) in the search bar of the start menu, click the resulting link. It will open the System Information window.
3. File>Save. In the "File Name" filed, put "MSINFO32" (without Quote), give the save location to desktop, and click the "save" button.
4. Give the time for processing, it will save a .nfo file on your desktop.
5. Zip it, and upload it following the instruction.

 

[FrankButcher]

Hi,

Thanks very much for the advice. Ive installed the different version of RST and plugged the SSD into the other SATA3 port on my mobo (it only has 2).
Disc H: is a Samsung 1TB external hard drive I use for backup. It seems to be working perfectly although Windows sometimes runs a check disc on it at startup but I assumed that was rlated to the fact that the computer is prone to crashing unexpectedly. It was a recent purchase anyway; the crashing problem has been going on much longer.

I couldnt get the SeaTools utility to run from the CD after booting my comp from the CD drive. It just seemed to freeze. I used the Windows version on the SSD and it came back clean.

Since changing the SATA ports round I have not experienced the flashing screen thing once and Ive powered up the computer 3 or 4 times so fingers crossed it's fixed the problem. I've attached the MSINFO file to this post anyway if you want to take a look. The computer froze one time while I was using it but did not show the flashing colours or BSOD so that may have been unrelated.

Thanks again.

 

[Arc]

Daemon Tools, Alcohol 120% and Power Archiver Pro uses SCSI Pass Through Direct (SPTD), which is a well known BSOD causer. Uninstall Daemon Tools at first. Then download SPTD standalone installer from Disk-Tools.com, and execute the downloaded file as guided below :

• Double click to open it.
• Click this button only:
• 
• If it is grayed out, as in the picture, there is no more SPTD in your system, and you just close the window.

Free up the startup.

1. Click on the Start button
2. Type “msconfig (without quotes), click the resulting link. It will open the System Configuration window.
3. Select the “Startup” tab.
4. Deselect all items other than the antivirus.
5. Apply > OK
6. Accept then restart.

Uninstall AVG using AVG Remover. Its file system monitoring driver often causes storage access blockings. Use Microsoft Security Essentials as your antivirus with windows inbuilt firewall, and free MBAM as the on demand scanner.
Download, install and update those, and then run full system scans with both of them, one by one.

Uninstall these bloatware:

Start Menu\Programs\ASRock Utility
Start Menu\Programs\ASRock Utility\AsrAppCharger
Start Menu\Programs\ASRock Utility\ASRock eXtreme Tuner 
Start Menu\Programs\ASRock Utility\InstantBoot

These programs are not needed at all, but often causes problems.

See your disc utilization

ITEM | VALUE

Drive | C:
Size | 55.80 GB (59,914,579,968 bytes)
Free Space | 12.21 GB (13,112,565,760 bytes)
Drive | E:
Size | 34.18 GB (36,701,163,520 bytes)
Free Space | 6.53 GB (7,015,215,104 bytes)
Drive | G:
Size | 263.91 GB (283,369,119,744 bytes)
Free Space | 22.56 GB (24,227,225,600 bytes)

I think you need to backup some data externally .....

Do these. Let us know the results ... about how the computer is performing, is it crashing anymore or not.

 

[FrankButcher]

Hi again,

I did everything you suggested:

I uninstalled Daemon Tools and AVG using the AVG remover. I ran the SPTD utility and the "Uninstall" box was greyed out.
I used MSconfig to switch off all the processes I didn't think were necessary (which was most of them).
I installed security essentials and Mbam, updated them and ran full scans of my C: drive with both and they came back clean.
I thought all of that had fixed the problem until I switched my computer on last night when, about 15 mins after startup, it did the same flashing colours crash thing as before.
I pushed the restart button on the tower to get it going again and it stayed at the black pre-windows screen for ages, then eventually it booted up and then it stayed on the "Starting Windows" screen for ages (especially since it usually boots in a few seconds from the SSD). Once Windows was loaded my USB soundcard had not come to life and I could not get any sound out. It was not lit up at all suggesting it was not receiving power from the USB port. I have had this happen before after a crash. The only way to fix it was to power down, wait a minute or 2, then power up again.
This fixed the USB problem and the computer ran smoothly for 90mins until I switched it off.

Any ideas what might be causing it still to crash? I'm at my wits end!

Thanks a lot.

 

[Arc]

Execute the SF Diag tool again?

 

[FrankButcher]

Hi,

Today I saw a BSOD for the first time ever with this machine. It powered up fine and worked correctly for several hours. No crash, no flickering screen, nothing. Then I tried copying a file (1.2Gb) to disc H:/ (Samsung 1TB external hard drive connected to USB3 port on mobo) and it paused during tranfer for 30 secs but then completed the transfer. I tried to move another file (about 200Mbs) and that's when it crashed and showed the BSOD. Heres the report:

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.1
Locale ID: 2057

Additional information about the problem:
BCCode: 1e
BCP1: 0000000000000000
BCP2: 0000000000000000
BCP3: 0000000000000000
BCP4: 0000000000000000
OS Version: 6_1_7601
Service Pack: 1_0
Product: 256_1

Ive run the SF diagnostic tool again and attached the results.

Thanks.

 

[Arc]

Hello Frank, it says that the BSOD is caused by XFastUSB driver (AsRock) and Etron USB 3.0 Extensible Host Controller Driver also contributed in it.

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

Use !analyze -v to get detailed debugging information.

BugCheck 1E, {0, 0, 0, 0}

*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for [URL="http://www.carrona.org/drivers/driver.php?id=FNETTBOH_305.SYS"]FNETTBOH_305.SYS[/URL]
*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for FNETTBOH_305.SYS
*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for EtronXHCI.sys
*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for [URL="http://www.carrona.org/drivers/driver.php?id=EtronXHCI.sys"]EtronXHCI.sys[/URL]

Probably caused by : [URL="http://www.carrona.org/drivers/driver.php?id=FNETTBOH_305.SYS"]FNETTBOH_305.SYS [/URL]( FNETTBOH_305+15a8 )

Followup: MachineOwner
---------

And both the drivers are somehow old.

fffff880`06fea000 fffff880`06ff7000   FNETTBOH_305 T (no symbols)           
    Loaded symbol image file: FNETTBOH_305.SYS
    Image path: \SystemRoot\System32\drivers\FNETTBOH_305.SYS
[COLOR=Red]    Image name: FNETTBOH_305.SYS
    Timestamp:        Fri May 13 10:39:28 2011[/COLOR] (4DCCBD08)
    CheckSum:         0000CF94
    ImageSize:        0000D000
    Translations:     0000.04b0 0000.04e4 0409.04b0 0409.04e4
================================================================================
start             end                 module name
fffff880`055ca000 fffff880`055dfb00   EtronXHCI T (no symbols)           
    Loaded symbol image file: EtronXHCI.sys
    Image path: \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\EtronXHCI.sys
[COLOR=Red]    Image name: EtronXHCI.sys
    Timestamp:        Fri Jul 20 12:45:46 2012[/COLOR] (500905A2)
    CheckSum:         000255A5
    ImageSize:        00015B00
    Translations:     0000.04b0 0000.04e4 0409.04b0 0409.04e4

Update the drivers from ASRock XFast USB and Etron Technology, Inc.

Update your network driver.

Name    [00000012] TP-LINK 300Mbps Wireless N Adapter
Driver    c:\windows\system32\drivers\athrx.sys (8.0.0.376, 1.51 MB (1,579,520 bytes), 08/10/2012 16:36)
=============================================================================
fffff880`05437000 fffff880`055bd000   athrx    T (no symbols)           
    Loaded symbol image file: athrx.sys
    Image path: \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\athrx.sys
[COLOR=Red]    Image name: athrx.sys
    Timestamp:        Wed Nov 24 05:41:58 2010[/COLOR] (4CEC584E)
    CheckSum:         00187FE1
    ImageSize:        00186000
    Translations:     0000.04b0 0000.04e4 0409.04b0 0409.04e4

Update it from Download - Welcome to TP-LINK. Eager to know the results of this update.

Update intel graphics driver from Intel Download Center

Download and install this version of Intel RST only.

Let us know the results.

 

[FrankButcher]

Hi,

I did all the things you suggested in the previous post. I've updated the XFastUSB and Etron USB 3.0 drivers, and also the TP-Link one. I downloaded and installed the version of RST you suggested. I did not uninstall the previous version, just installed over it. Would that make a difference?
I wasn't sure which version of the Intel Graphics driver to install so I used thier automatic driver checker and it said the driver I have installed is current. Could you tell me which one specifically I should install if it needs changing. There seemed to be quite a few different ones to choose from.

I got the flashing screen crash last night after switching on, in the usual manner (afte about 10-15 mins), although Ive had a few startups where it hasn't happened. Things seem to be improving but the problem is definitely still not fixed.

Thanks for your continuing help and advice.

 

[Arc]

Click the start button.
Type "dxdiag" (without quotes) in the search bar, click the resulting link.
Click "yes" on the resulting dialog, it will open the "DirectX Diagnostic tool" with the "system" tab opened.
Click on the "display" tab. Observe what is said against "Chip Type".
You are to download the display driver according to the chip type from intel download center.

It is to notice that the screen glitches occur even after the display driver update or not.

 

[FrankButcher]

Hi,

Thanks you for the reply. I followed the instructions and found I am using

Chip Type: Intel(R) HD Graphics Family.

I went to the intel site and used their driver detector, which suggested an update to the driver. I installed the recommended update but this has not helped. In fact, things are as bad as they have ever been. The computer always crashes 10 mins after startup with the screen suddenly freaking out and displaying the flashing colours and static I described earlier.

To make matters worse the computer has started freezing occasionally. I think this must be to do with the graphics because one time I got an error message saying the graphics driver had stopped working (or something similar to that). Another time, the computer froze but rather than re-starting it I just left it frozen for a couple of minutes and suddenly it came back and started working again! It just suddenly woke up and carried on working normally. Very strange and not something I have experienced before.
Do you have any more ideas for things I could check? It would be great to get to the bottom of what's causing this.

Thanks for your time.

 

[Arc]

Something like this?
View attachment 263710

If it is happening irrespective of the driver version, it is a hardware failure. And, in your case it is onboard graphics. Most possible the the graphics adapter is getting weak.

In this situation the first worthy try should be RMA the motherboard, if it is still under warranty. If it is not, try a PCIe GPU card.

Your windows license is OEM, and so motherboard changing may cause greater issues like windows activation.