BSOD 19 times since May 2012

[crash2009]

Believe it or not, I only saw the most recent one.

Recently, over at TGB, I was getting some help for a PlayReady issue related to my Ceton Infini4 pcie. It was discovered that the IP adresses were not setup correctly. I correctled that and was watching a channel and "poof" BSOD.

I contacted Ceton Support, and they requested the dump files. Their report back to me was:

Thanks for the package of memory dumps. I went through each of them and it showed there is a very serious issue with your computer. It's very difficult to determine the cause and you may need to seek Microsoft support and have one of their Kernel Debuggers review all the dumps. We know that our InfiniTV drivers are not causing any issues but we see lots of memory corruption. This memory corruption can come from two places one is third party applications and their drivers corrupting memory. The second and more probably cause is you may have one or more bad ram sticks. If you are overclocking the CPU\RAM you may want to unclock it.

I ran Memtest 4.20 from bootable USB (1pass) no errors. Found out later that I should run it for 6 or 7 passes. Will do that tonight.

It is possible that I might have some CPU\RAM clocking issues. I was running 1 pair of Corsair XMS2. I added a 2nd pair and the computer wouldn't boot. The Corsair website told me to lower the speed and increase the Northbridge Voltage, I bumped the CPU from 1.35 to 1.40 at the same time. I ran Prime95 v2511 overnight with no errors and thought I was good to go. Until yesterday when I found out I had 19 dump files.

Not sure what to do next and am asking for your help. Thinking about changing my handle to 19crashes or crashalot.

crash2009

 

[z3r010]

I'm no expert on this stuff but some of the recent dumps are blaming AVG and L1E62x64.sys (Atheros AR8121/AR8113/AR8114 PCI-E Ethernet Controller (NDIS6.20))

Driver Reference Table - L1E62x64.sys

I'd look for an updated driver for the Atheros controller and replace AVG with MSE and see if that sorts the issue.

 

[crash2009]

I'd hate to lose AVG, it has been a good friend over the years. However if push comes to shove.........Atheros on the other hand, I am just looking for an excuse to replace that one.

Where can I read more on the subject of these two not co-operating with each other?

 

[crash2009]

Ram or Controller?

I downloaded a copy of BlueScreenViewer. I have sent the jpg to a couple friends. Their opinion is that I have a memory problem. Either the RAM (sticks) or the memory controller on the CPU (AMD 6000+)

How do I eliminate one or the other?

What is your opinion of what the proplem is?

 

[crash2009]

Troubleshooting Steps

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/220165-troubleshooting-steps-windows-7-a.html

First up was to toss my old friend AVG. Then install Malawarebytes and Microsoft Security Essentials. Malawarebytes found a few things (10) in the storage drive. Nothing important so I allowed removal.

 

[crash2009]

Step 3, Establish a Clean Boot

Everything was unchecked except for Antivirus. Wasn't quite sure with the services section so I left a few things turned on.

 

[crash2009]

Step 4, Study the event Viewer

I had a quick peek in there. Plan to go back later.

 

[crash2009]

Step 5, Performance Log, Reliability Monitor

Performance log looks ok to me. Reliability Monitor shows a steady decline since the end of July. I think that's right about the time I started playing around with PRTG and SNMP.

 

[crash2009]

Step 6, and Step 7

Step 6 refused to work today, will try again later.
Step 7, I think I'll have to spend a half a day in there.

 

[crash2009]

Step 8, Memtest

I ran Memtest 4.2 from USB. The test ran from 9pm last night until 6pm today. 18 hours and 8 passes. No errors were reported.

 

[crash2009]

Step 9, Hard Drive Diagnostics

Ran the short test from SeaTools for Windows. No problems were discovered. Chkdsk was also run. Thought you might want to see CPUZ.

 

[crash2009]

Step 10, Cabling

Did not disconnect Floppy or Cd drives. Did re-install the Atheros Network Adapter with a new driver.

 

[crash2009]

Step 11, Check Temps

Core Temp is a nice little utility. When it's running, CPU core temps are displayed in the taskbar, down by the clock. I like it.

 

[crash2009]

Step 12, Device Manager

No Errors in Device Manager. Hardware auto-update is turned on.

 

[crash2009]

Step 13, Display Driver

Not going to go there until it is determined nescesary. Skipped Step 14 as well.

 

[crash2009]

Step 15, SFC /SCANNOW

Nice tool. Just used the verify switch. No Problems that I can see. I like the log file feature.

 

[crash2009]

Step 13, Display Driver

I originally skipped step 13 until it appeared to be necesary. Win 7 started whining about, I forget, but it had something to do with the AMD HD 3200. So, I uninstalled it from Uninstal or change a Program. As you can see in the screencap the "old" driver is 8.0.873.0 and the "new" one is 8.0.881.0

This one step likely accounted for the biggest increase in responsiveness. By the time I got to this step, I had allready pulled 2 sticks of ram. The computer is more responsive running on 4 GB with the new driver, compared to 8 GB and the old driver. I can hardly wait till I can figure out the ram problem.

 

[crash2009]

Step 31, BIOS Upgrade

I was running American Megatrends bios version 1501. Today I upgraded to version 1701. Prior to upgrading I reset all the bios settings back to their defaults and removed the 2 possibly problematic ram sticks (sticks 3,4).

After the upgrade to ver 1701, I tried moving the sticks around a bit. Sticks 1,2 work good in slot 1,2. Sticks 3,4 in slot 3,4 cause no boot. Sticks 3,4 in slot 1,2 cause no boot. So I pulled sticks 3,4 to try in another machine. Not sure if slot 3,4 is no good or stick 3,4 is no good. All I do know for sure is I get no boot when both 3,4's are involved.

Strange huh?

 

[crash2009]

Ram Modules

Cannot see any visible signs of damage to stick 3,4. The only thing that does attract a second look is on stick 3. I have highlighted what appears to be a burn. Actually it's just more of a discoloration.

Ram modules 1,2 work fine in slot 1,2. When I install module 3 in slot 3, I lose dual channel. Module 4 in slot 4 causes BSOD. MEMORY MANAGEMENT ERROR

Motherboard is a M4A78PRO running Version 1701 bios.

All bios settings are set to AUTO except for:

AI OVERCLOCK = MANUAL
DRAM FREQUENCY CONTROL = MANUAL
DRAM FREQUENCY = 800
TCL = 5 CLOCKS
TRCD = 5 CLOCKS
TRP = 5 CLOCKS
TRTP = AUTO
TRAS = AUTO
TRC = 18 CLOCKS
TWR = AUTO
TRRD = AUTO

DRAM VOLTAGE = 1.99
NBVOLTAGE = AUTO

 

[crash2009]

Step 13, Display Driver

It appears to me that the new display driver has caused some "Combing". 411 Ctrl D displays some evidence of the 29/59 bug.