BSOD after starting computer following a short circuit

[MdK]

Hello,

somehow I managed to get water into the power socket that my computer was plugged into, resulting in a short circuit. After reconnecting all the cables I attempted to start my computer and succeeded until the windows 7 loading screen (booting was thus successful). After a few seconds I received the following BSOD message:

The error itself sounds like it could be caused by anything. Here's the carrona.org BSOD index entry:

STOP 0x0000007E: SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED (go to top of page) Usual causes: Insufficient disk space, Device driver, Video card, BIOS, Breakpoint with no debugger attached, Hardware incompatibility, Faulty system service, Memory, 3rd party remote control,

There is definitely enough disk space available, video card drivers are up to date and hardware incompatibility sounds implausible given that the system ran just fine for two years with these components. That leaves device drivers, GPU, BIOS, breakpoint with no debugger attached, memory, faulty system service and 3rd party remote control.

Unfortunately I cannot diagnose the error further, since I can't interpret the parameters of the error properly (what comes after the 0x0000007e).

Help of any description is highly appreciated, in particular analysis of the aforementioned parameters.

My System:
Core i7 950; Dual GTX 580 3GB; Dual Caviar Black 1TB R0; Corsair Force 120GB SSD; Corsair Dominator GT 6 GB DDR3-1866; Asus Rampage III Extreme; Corsair AX1200 PSU; Windows 7 64

I would also like to apologize for not being able to follow the posting instructions, seeing as I cannot install diagnostic software given the situation I am in.

Thanks for your time,
Mark

 

[Thedoctor44]

Please upload the dump files by following the http://www.sevenforums.com/bsod-help-support/96879-blue-screen-death-bsod-posting-instructions.html

 

[MdK]

Thanks for your reply.

Once again:
"I would also like to apologize for not being able to follow the posting instructions, seeing as I cannot install diagnostic software given the situation I am in."

How can I install the required software without logging in to windows? Are the parameters of the crash displayed on the screen not enough to at least restrict the range of possible problems further?

 

[Thedoctor44]

Ok sorry, right. First thing is first, can you boot into safe mode at all? The bugcheck doesn't sound like a hardware issue, it also doesn't sound like it as your PC works fine when not in windows (from what you've described).

 

[MdK]

I'd be surprised if it wasn't a hardware issue. I mean the software was working fine just before the short circuit. From an amateur's perspective a short circuit can really only cause hardware failure, right? The second stop code (which I failed to elaborate on earlier) pertains specifically to nvidia graphic card functionality, which worries me to say the least.

Anyway, you're the expert here. I'm busy today, but will check for safe mode tomorrow. Awfully sloppy of me not to try that immediately.

 

[Thedoctor44]

If you can remember the stop code then I'll try and help you best I can.
I'll be honest here, I'm no expert especially when it comes to hardware; I like to stick to my software mostly but I should improve on it.
Anyway, it depends on when you get bugchecks. If you only get them in normal windows and not safe mode then it's probably not hardware.
If you get them regardless it sounds more like a hardware issue.
Just make sure you upload the dump files if you get any more.

 

[MdK]

Well, surprisingly safe mode works, so I'm guessing your thinking was correct, seems to be a software error.

While using DM log collector failed due to lack of administrator rights (right-clicking on the .exe and applying the appropriate predicate did not yield results), SF diagnostic tools seems to have been successful collecting at least the last dump file. Here are the results:

http://www.file-upload.net/download-8799692/MdK.zip.html

Let me know if some vital component is missing and I'll look into it. I'll happily crash this machine a couple more times if you require more dump files. Thanks again for your time.

 

[Thedoctor44]

Despite what I said earlier I would recommend running Furmark to see if your GPU is failing.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/100356-video-card-stress-test-furmark.html

 

[MdK]

I couldn't run furmark in safe mode, so I decided to at least try and clean install video drivers. I was then able to start the computer normally and ran MSI Kombustor, which worked fine.

You were right after all then. I'm just having problems understanding how my drivers were damaged, considering the nature of the accident. Very strange indeed.

One final question: would you replace your PSU after an incident like this if it still worked fine? It's a 200 quid PSU so I'd rather not make the investment and the PC seems to be running fine now (I'll certainly be checking the other components with appropriate tests in the near future as well).

Thanks a lot for your help! I appreciate it greatly.

 

[Thedoctor44]

If the computer works fine then no you wouldn't.
I think it just happened to be a coincidence.
Drivers a lot of the time don't get damaged as such but rather they contain bugs that can cause illegal operations.
One of the main things a buggy driver can cause are page faults by trying to access certain memory addresses that it hasn't got access to.
The other main issues they can cause are buffer overflows that cause a driver to write information into other stacks of memory, this causes information to 'overflow' into nearby stacks or sometimes completely different stacks that when access by memory causes issues, a lot of the time a bugcheck.
The problem is when a driver overflows a stack that is completely unrelated then something else can get the blame even though it wasn't the cause.

 

[MdK]

Insightful, thanks.
How do drivers behave during use? Normal programs' code doesn't change after compiling and as such no code bugs could technically be added without an update to the software. Does driver code adapt to it's current task? I was running a GPU intensive application at the time of the short circuit, so maybe in response the drivers made use of memory that was later on not freed as a result of the crash. Sorry if I'm rambling on like a mad man, I have a terrible grasp on the matter, but it interests me.

 

[Thedoctor44]

Drivers are pieces of software that communicate with hardware by running subroutines to the hal (hal.dll). It doesn't really perform much different except that it runs in Kernel Mode (or Privileged Mode) which shares the same Virtual Address Space. This means that anything running in Kernel Mode has access to the entire operating system, if it contains a bug and it performs an illegal operation it will take a snapshot of the system then bugcheck. The snapshot is what we see in the dump files, the callstack etc.
I am unsure how a short circuit could cause driver bugs, I don't think it's possible. Graphics drivers on default settings generally update themselves, so you could have downloaded a driver that contains bugs. Bugs don't happen all the time, form personal experience I've had my graphics driver fail on me weeks in with absolutely no system change.