BSOD 5-15 minutes after windows starts, 'works' after reboot.

[Fordel]

In the past handful of days, I've had more BSOD's and random reboots then I've had in the past like four or five years. I'll turn the machine on as per normal, everything will boot up just fine, there won't be any tasks that would be the machine under any kind of load... then while browsing a webpage, or looking through a folder, or opening steam or even the taskmanager, the computer will pause and either give me a BSOD or just flat out reboot itself.

Then after that first BSOD/Reboot, once everything loads in again, it will be fine. I can use the computer like nothing was wrong. Play games, watch videos, email, IRC, whatever I want to do. Then when I turn it off for the day and come back the next day, the cycle repeats and I get another BSOD.

It's a regular boring desktop, no overclocking or tweaks or anything like that. I don't know if there's a piece of hardware failing, or if I have a corrupted driver or what. I also don't really get why it only seems to happen when I first start up. It's not happening during the actual initial windows load up, I've let it sit idle for 10+ minutes after it finished loading, and I've still gotten that good morning BSOD.

I've just turned off the auto-reboot, I'll have the error code to add if/when it happens again. Sorry I don't have it now.

 

[gregrocker]

While you wait for analysis, start working through the Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7 which often themselves will uncover the problem.

 

[essenbe]

Hello, Fordel. I will try to help you on this problem, if that's OK. You have 4 dump files, which is what we go by, to debug a system . One said

atikmpag
start             end                 module name
fffff880`02e8e000 fffff880`02f1b000   atikmpag T (no symbols)           
    Loaded symbol image file: atikmpag.sys
    Image path: \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\atikmpag.sys
    Image name: atikmpag.sys
    Timestamp:       [COLOR=red]Wed Dec 19 13:32:55 2[/COLOR][COLOR=red]012[/COLOR] (50D21667)
    CheckSum:         00095A98
    ImageSize:        0008D000
    Translations:     0000.04b0 0000.04e4 0409.04b0 0409.04e4

The graphics driver is way out of date and should be updated. Does your computer have a separate graphics card or does it run off of on board graphics? If you have either one, I can help you update it if you will let me know.


The 2 dumps that concern me most represent 50% of your dump files and are probably the most important. If that is what is wrong, it can make the rest of the dump files unreliable, so I would like to check that first. It is a very long test, but please follow the instructions as closely as you can. If you have any questions at all or do not understand something, please feel free to ask. I don't mind explaining anything at all. Next I am going to show you the error then give you the instructions for running the test. It is necessary for you to run 8 complete passes all at the same time or until you get an error. If you get even 1 error, stop the test, your ram has failed. It will most likely take quite a few hours. It takes one of my computers with 8 GB of ram 9.5-10 hours. It is best to run it overnight and let it run while you sleep.

Followup: memory_corruption
Use !analyze -v to get detailed debugging information.
BugCheck 3B, {c0000005, fffff88001a3c73a, fffff88003b28aa0, 0}
[COLOR=red]Probably caused by : memory_corruption[/COLOR]
Followup: memory_corruption

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.​

 

[Fordel]

Thank you so much for your time and help!

I have a graphics card, ATI Raedeon HD 5670. I usually let Steam update it's drivers for me, but I guess that process broke down somewhere if I am two years out of date.

I will run that memory test ASAP. I've burned the ISO thing to a CD with the Windows Image making thing and will start that up. If I do get a fail on the memory test, does that mean what I think it does and the memory will need replacing?

As my first post, I had my initial morning BSOD, but this time I was able to record the error message!:

REFERENCE_BY_POINTER

Tech Info: ***Stop: 0x00000018 (0x000000000000, 0xFFFFFA8009B68440, 0x000000000000002, 0xFFFFFFFFFFFF )


I really hope I wrote down the correct number of zeros there.


Thank you again!

 

[essenbe]

If memory test fails, it means either the memory is bad or the dimm slots in the motherboard are bad. If it is the memory, I strongly suggest you buy a complete set of memory, as sets are tested to work well together and individual sticks are not. I will tell you how to test the dimm slots too.

 

[essenbe]

The dump files don't give us much information. I would rather you ran the memory tests first. Remember I said that if it is memory, the dump files are unreliable.

 

[Fordel]

No joke about the length of the memory test! Little under 12 hours later, the memory test thing finished 8 passes with 0 errors. Which is maybe good? Should I try it again till I get an error or move on to something else?

Instead of a BSOD or reboot, today I just had the system freeze utterly and needed to manually reboot it to get anywhere.

Sorry if the additional dump file was redundant!

Thanks again so much for your time and help.

 

[essenbe]

6 GB of ram shouldn't have taken that long. I have another PC with 8 GB and it takes 9.5-10 hours for 8 passes. If it is not too inconvienant you may try a couple more passes. 8 Is just a minimum number. If you can't do that 8 is sufficient.

 

[essenbe]

You need (have to have a good GPU monitoring program) if you do not have one, I can suggest one for you. But I don't like Speedfan. Watch the temps on your GPU card, and stop the test if they become too high. You will need to monitor the test constantly, watching the temps as well as watch for artifacting. Please run Furmark, http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/100356-video-card-stress-test-furmark.html
The temps will rise very high very rapidly, so watch them close. After a few minutes the temps will level out. When that happens for a few minutes you can stop the test. But be sure to watch the temps closely and watch for any artifacting. If in question, post a screenshot. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9733-screenshots-files-upload-post-seven-forums.html

 

[Fordel]

I can run it again tonight for a few more passes.


Could I have done something wrong with the memory test if it took longer then anticipated?

I put the ISO on a CD, then rebooted and booted from said CD and then the memory test showed up and I touched nothing till it finished the 8th pass. This was V5.01 of the memtest.

 

[essenbe]

No. I seriously doubt you could have done anything. I have run into a couple of cases where it took a very long time. I had one guy with 8 GB of ram and it took 22 hours to run 8 passes. The only thing possible, may be a bad download or a bad burn. Other than that there is nothing I know of that would cause it. It is possible there is something in the computer itself that could cause it, but I wouldn't have a clue of what that could be. The test runs completely from the ram. The hard drive or drivers are not involved in any way.

 

[Fordel]

I ran the memory test again and it still showed 0 errors. Is it still likely the memory even with the test not showing any fails?

Also ran the Video Card test thing and other then the freaky Eye of Sauron, nothing interesting happened.

The crash today caused windows to go into some kind of restore/repair mode on start up. After that another normal computing day.

I really don't get why the crashing/rebooting happens after the initial power on of the day, but not the rest of the day or any subsequent reboots. Turn PC on, load everything without issue, do mundane tasks or even just sitting idle, random reboot/BSOD/freeze. Reboot machine and it works like nothing was wrong. Is there some kind of task windows does once a day when a system wakes up and could that cause the failure?

 

[essenbe]

Yes and no. Yes, when you turn windows on, all services start to load and it takes several minutes to do that, some run at startup and some are delayed a couple of minutes so you don't have everything running at once. But, no in that when you have a BSOD and shut the system down then restart it, the exact same thing happens. To me, startup is the most stressful time for the computer. Everything, including your PSU is at a dead stop. When you push the start button, everything is full speed, instantly. So, it is very stressful.

I don't know what you have installed on your computer, software wise. But, you can reduce things running at startup, by holding down the Windows key(the one with the flag on it) and press R. That will bring up a run box, type msconfig and press OK. Go to the startup tab and start unchecking things that do not need to run. As a technical matter, unless you have some special software installed, the only think that needs to run is your Anti Virus. I run my Anti Virus and Windows Sidebar and nothing else. That does not mean that everything you uncheck won't work, it just means it wont be running all the time, but it will still work when you need it. For example, Adobe Reader always writes itself into startup. How often do you really use it. I suspect rarely. but, by unchecking it, the next time you click on a PDF file, Adobe will still open and still work just fine.

Next I would like you to do a couple of things for me. Please open an elevated command prompt ( click start, type cmd in the search box, right click on the cmd entry and select run as administrator) in the black box that opens, copy/paste sfc /scannow. If you decide to type it, notice the space between the sfc and the /. It is a system file checker which will scan your system files and attempt to correct any missing or corrupt files. What we want are the results to say windows found no integrity violations. If it says files were found but could not be repaired, close the box, reboot and run it again, after opening the administrative command prompt. You may have to reboot and run it three times for it to repair all system files. If it can't repair them after 3 reboots, let us know.

Also, Please run Seatools http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/313457-seatools-dos-windows-how-use.html#Part3 It's Seagates Hard drive Diagnostics test. It will give better results run from DOS, but if you can't download the installable version and run it from there.

And, I'll bite, what is the Eye of Sauron ? Do you mean the furry doughnut? In that case run Ungine Heaven, you'll like that much better. Download Unigine 'Heaven' DX11 Benchmark 4.0 | techPowerUp but still keep a close eye on the temps.

 

[essenbe]

One other thing I forgot to mention. Would you please put your Manufacturer and model of PSU under your system specs in the bottom left of your last post. Your system is getting some age on it and some wear and tear. It is possible that some things are starting to wear out or wear down. If you are overclocking anything, please set everything back to default levels. I am not opposed to overclocking, but it just makes things overcomplicated when we are trying to get you stabilized.

 

[Fordel]

Yea, the furry doughnut thing

I've run the sfc /scannow command from the elevated cmd prompt. It gave me the desired result, no integrity violations.

Will go ahead and try SeaTools test thing. I'll start with the short test and go from there.


-edit-
I actually have no idea what the brand of my Power supply is. This is a Dell Studio XPS 9100, and everything is pretty much stock values. No Overclocking or anything like that.

 

[essenbe]

Yea, the furry doughnut thing

I've run the sfc /scannow command from the elevated cmd prompt. It gave me the desired result, no integrity violations.

Will go ahead and try SeaTools test thing. I'll start with the short test and go from there.

Run the short and the long test. Most will pass the short test, the long test is where you find the troubles.

 

[Fordel]

The drive test locked up entirely at around 60% completion of the short test. I'm going to back up my files here first, then try again... but I assume not even being able to get through a drive test is a bad sign.