BSOD and Complete Freezes - seemingly random.

[FrzBSOD15]

Hello,

As the title states, my PC is randomly either getting a BSOD (System service exception 0x03B, and more rarely 0x01E) or totally freezing (M+K become unresponsive, cannot ctrl-alt-delete, display and sound are hung). I cannot figure out what is causing it. Because it seemingly happens at random, it is difficult to debug. I am at my wit's end.

I recently upgraded my GPU and RAM in preperation for Fallout4.

My specs:
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 Processor 3.2 ghz
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-880GM-D2H
GPU: Zotac Nvidia gtx 970 (formerly radeon hd 6800 series)
PSU: Corsair CX500
RAM: 2x4gb crucial ballistix sport ddr3 240 pin SDRAM PC12800 (formerly 2x2 gb)
500gb HDD (music, videos) and 120gb SSD (Windows, games)

After googling these problems, I have tried many things.
I have done:
reseating RAM/GPU
windows disk check
memtest86+ (Came back no errors, ran for 8 hours, 3 passes)
display driver uninstaller (both GPU manufacturers, in safe mode)
malwarebytes and avira scans
CC cleaner registry and overall cleaner
ensuring system temps are acceptable with speedfan
Downloading Tweakbit Driver updater- It says I have a few out of date drivers, but windows device manager doesn't seem to think so.

I tried downloading "who crashed", but I do not seem to be getting dump files, even though I followed instructions about setting the dump files and page files up. So that program hasn't really helped.

I even ran the "firestrike" gpu benchmarking, and it made it through that ok.

The freezing seems totally random. I'm so lost. Last night I played for four hours totally fine, this morning I had three crashes within two hours.

I have an ISO of windows on a jump drive if I really need to nuke it, but I did a clean install about 2 months ago when I got my SSD...so I don't think that's necessary.
The only thing I haven't tried that I've seen listed is a BIOS update, but when I checked the bios, it was difficult to tell what version I was on and difficult to find the appropriate update, and I am afraid of bricking my build.

I know my PSU is a little on the weak end, but it seems like it should be good enough for now.

Does any one have any insight or tips? How to get a dump file so I know what is triggering it? Please let me know if I can provide anything else to aid in this discussion.

Thanks in advance!

 

[axe0]

   Warning

Programs that claim to update your drivers install either the wrong or corrupted drivers.
If you have installed any driver with Tweakbit, please remove them as it may cause trouble.

Please read BSOD Posting Instructions & How to upload files

 

[FrzBSOD15]

Hello,

I have no installed any drivers using TweakBit. I simply checked them per recommendation I saw elsewhere.

Attached is the ZIP file from the tool linked in the BSOD instructions page.

Thank you for your help.

 

[axe0]

Lets start with configuring Ccleaner to not remove dump files:

The reason why Who Crashed couldn't find anything?

Please make sure your pc is configured for small dump files How to configure minidump | Windows 7 tutorial

Please fill in your system specs

Please follow this tutorial and download the tool. The tool will give you detailed information about your system specs, please fill in your system specs more completely including PSU and cooling system.
How to fill in your system specs:

As there is no about a BSOD, I would need you to try force the bluescreens until at least 5 dumps are created.
The dumps are located in

C:\windows\minidump

Try running MemTest86+ again, this time please at least 8 passes.

Diagnostic Test

 RAM TEST

Run MemTest86+ to analyse your RAM. MemTest86+ - Test RAM - Windows 7 Forums

   Note

MemTest86+ needs to be run for at least 8 passes for conclusive results. Set it running before you go to bed and leave it overnight. We're looking for zero errors here. Even a single error will indicate RAM failure.

 

[FrzBSOD15]

Axe0,

I have configured Ccleaner to not remove dump files.

I have set system managed page files. It is automatically managing page file size for all drives (but only C is chosen). It is currently allowcating 8189 MB to the page file. There is 32073MB available on the C drive. This should be sufficient.
I have set the system failure settings to: write an event to the system log, automatically restart, small memory dump, and %SystemRoot%\Minidump. However, I have noticed the system does not automatically restart. Did I have to create the Minidump folder? Because I did. There wasn't a folder there named that when I checked (showing hiddenfiles and protected system files, of course).

I have updated my specs in my profile, however, the program linked did not provide details about my PSU or much detail about my RAM. I left those fields as I originally filled them.

I ran memtest86+ overnight for about 9 hours, it only got to the middle of the fourth pass.

Hopefully dump files get created now! I will try to force blue screens by playing more Fallout

Attached is a picture (crude, I know) of my memtest results.

Thank you so much for you (extremely prompt) help!

 

[axe0]

The PSU and cooling system you have to find out yourself

MemTest86+ less then 8 passes isn't worth any time as it isn't conclusive. Please run it for at least 8 passes.

 

[FrzBSOD15]

Hey, it worked! I got a dump file.

I was trying to upload pictures of the 2 BSODs I am getting but I keep getting a 500 server error when I click the upload button in the "attach" pop-up bux.

Excerpt from WhoCrashed:



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Crash Dump Analysis
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Crash dump directory: C:\Windows\Minidump

Crash dumps are enabled on your computer.

On Fri 11/13/2015 8:20:58 PM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\111315-9063-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x73C10)
Bugcheck code: 0x1E (0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0)
Error: KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This indicates that a kernel-mode program generated an exception which the error handler did not catch.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver that cannot be identified at this time.





--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Conclusion
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

One crash dump has been found and analyzed. No offending third party drivers have been found. Connsider using WhoCrashed Professional which offers more detailed analysis using symbol resolution. Also configuring your system to produce a full memory dump may help you.

 

[axe0]

You can't upload the dumps directly, that is why you need to run the DM Log Collector tool. To upload the dumps in a zip with other necessary data

 

[FrzBSOD15]

I did not see you mention anything about a DM Log Collector tool? I'm not sure what that is.

I have attached the dmp file and also pictures of the blue screens (although I'm guessing now that I'm getting dump files the pics of the blue screens are unnecessary).

Thanks again mate

 

[axe0]

The DM Log Collector tool is the tool from the BSOD Posting Instructions

 

[FrzBSOD15]

Ah, silly me. Thank you.

So I just re-run the dm log collector and repost the zip?

That is what I have done here.

I hope the next crash is the other BSOD I've been getting

 

[axe0]

I can't load the dump, not sure why.
Please check your system files, it might be an indication for the why.

Diagnostics Test

 System File Check

Please try following:

• Open an admin command prompt
• Copy/paste "sfc/scannow" (without quotes) and press enter
• When it finished reboot your system
• Open again an admin command prompt
• Enter sfc/scannow again

If sfc/scannow does NOT say "Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violation", please upload the cbs.log file located at {windows partition}\Windows\Logs\CBS\, if the file is too large try a 3rd party uploader like dropbox, onedrive, google drive, mediafire etc.
System File Check(SFC a.k.a. Windows Resource Protection) needs to have your system rebooted in order for sfc to try to fix the problems that it finds.

 

[FrzBSOD15]

I ran sfc/scannow twice, one pre-restart and one post-restart.

Both said "Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations."

I'll try googling the ntoskrnl.exe module and the fixes associated with that. I found something about overclocking cpus, but I'm fairly certain I have done no overclocking.

What else do we try?

 

[axe0]

Googling won't help, gives memory issues as result.
Ntoskrnl is Windows related, if it truly was the cause you would have much more problems.

 

[FrzBSOD15]

So, now what?
Rerun memtest?
Keep googling?
Wait for the other BSOD crash dump?

All of the above, I suppose.

 

[axe0]

As suggested run Memtest86+ again.

 

[FrzBSOD15]

Hey,

So I just got another 0x03B BSOD, but I didn't get another .dmp file. Do you have any insight as to why?

I haven't changed anything else since our previous discussions.

 

[axe0]

Hard to say, try following and SFC

Diagnostics Test

 Malware scan

Please run a threat scan with Malwarebytes*, a full scan with your AV, scan your system with Adwcleaner, Kaspersky TTDSKiller, ESET Online Scanner and SuperAntiSpyware

   Note

*(Uncheck trial version in the installation process)

 

[FrzBSOD15]

Yesterday evening I swapped out my new (2x4gb) RAM with my old (2x2gb) RAM, and have played for a cumulative of ~10 hours, and have not had a single freeze or BSOD. This seems indicative that my computer does not agree with the new RAM sticks, even though memtest said they were OK. BIOS is up to date, and all the voltage controls are set to automatic. Do I have to tell the bios to recalculate the auto voltage required to run the new RAM? I honestly have no idea anymore.

 

[axe0]

What are/were the voltages and frequency values of the new ram?
It is either that these values are wrong, or MemTest86+ is just wrong what happens rarely.