BSOD and random reboots

[brennok]

Hey guys I am hoping you can help me. I am having all sorts of random BSOD issues with my current primary PC. It had been fine since the Windows 7 launch up until sometime towards the end of November. All of the sudden I would get random crashes and errors. A couple times it has required me to do a restore off my WHS since even the Windows 7 disk couldn't repair or find a restore point. One thing that started happening a couple days or so before the crashes were I would either lose my ethernet ports or my usb keyboard or mouse would stop working. If I unplugged and plugged whichever device was having problems, everything would go back to normal except ethernet which would require a reboot.

This morning I noticed my ethernet was showing nothing was connected and I tried the second ethernet port and also swapping cables and plugs with my secondary PC which still showed a working network. I shut my PC down since I didn't have time to fool with it. When I got home from work and tried to boot I then crashed after logging in. I don't believe that is in the attached memory dump since I had to do a restore to finally get it working again only to have more crashes upon login. Safe mode seems to work fine.

I have run sfc /scannow and it reports no issues. I have also run Windows memory test without issues. I used WD tool for scanning the hard drive in both a quick and extended test and no errors were found. I have checked Gigabytes site and have the latest drivers as far as I can tell.

One note my crashes in November I attributed to a bad Nvidia driver since I had rolled back drivers to see if I could get COD: UO working. Once I updated drivers to the latest version everything seemed fine for a while.

System specs in profile or
GA-P55-UD4P
Intel i7 860
WD Black 640gb
HAF 932
EVGA 8800 GT OC
2x2gb DDR3 which is on memory list for MB

 

[usasma]

Due to the large number of different errors, it's possible that this is a hardware issue. Please run this memory test overnight (I don't trust the Windows memory test): Memory Diagnostics (read the details at the link)

Also, please run one of these free, independent online malware scans to ensure that your current protection hasn't been compromised: Malware (read the details at the link)[/QUOTE]

If the memory turns out fine, then I'd suspect:
- some low-level driver that's messing everything up
- network hardware
- video hardware
- motherboard

I would update the program(s) for these drivers (especially the one from 2006):

GVTDrv64.sys Tue Sep 05 03:10:02 2006
AODDriver.sys Mon Oct 13 00:38:55 2008

Then I'd run Driver Verifier according to these directions:

Using Driver Verifier is an iffy proposition. Most times it'll crash and it'll tell you what the driver is. But sometimes it'll crash and won't tell you the driver. Other times it'll crash before you can log in to Windows. If you can't get to Safe Mode, then you'll have to resort to offline editing of the registry to disable Driver Verifier.


So, I'd suggest that you first backup your stuff and then make sure you've got access to another computer so you can contact us if problems arise. Then make a System Restore point (so you can restore the system using the Vista Startup Repair feature).


Then, here's the procedure:
- Go to Start and type in "verifier" (without the quotes) and press Enter
- Select "Create custom settings (for code developers)" and click "Next"
- Select "Select individual settings from a full list" and click "Next"
- Select everything EXCEPT FOR "Low Resource Simulation" and click "Next"
- Select "Select driver names from a list" and click "Next"
Then select all drivers NOT provided by Microsoft and click "Next"
- Select "Finish" on the next page.


Reboot the system and wait for it to crash to the Blue Screen. Continue to use your system normally, and if you know what causes the crash, do that repeatedly. The objective here is to get the system to crash because Driver Verifier is stressing the drivers out.
Reboot into Windows (after the crash) and turn off Driver Verifier by going back in and selecting "Delete existing settings" on the first page, then locate and zip up the memory dump file and upload it with your next post.


If you can't get into Windows because it crashes too soon, try it in Safe Mode.
If you can't get into Safe Mode, try using System Restore from your installation DVD to set the system back to the previous restore point that you created.
If that doesn't work, post back and we'll have to see about fixing the registry entry off-line.


More info on this at this link: Using Driver Verifier to identify issues with Windows drivers for advanced users
​

 

[brennok]

I would update the program(s) for these drivers (especially the one from 2006):

GVTDrv64.sys Tue Sep 05 03:10:02 2006
AODDriver.sys Mon Oct 13 00:38:55 2008

Thanks. I wish I could figure out what those are. All searches point to something by Gigabyte which is my motherboard and this was a new build. Also most links bring me back to this board. I have used all the drivers they offer on their website which are all new drivers prior to the crashes so it isn't one they offer for download.

I will try the online malware scanners to see if Microsoft Security Essentials missed something.

 

[usasma]

Locate the driver files in C:\Windows\System32\drivers
Right click and select Properties, then Details
See if that tab contains more clues about what the drivers are.

If you'll post a link to the download page for your motherboard, I'll give a shot at opening some of the driver packages to see if those files are inside of them.

Worst case, rename them to end in .BAK, then reboot to make sure that they don't respawn.

 

[belikexp]

Have you checked here for latest bios, drivers, memory support list, etc. GIGABYTE - Product - Motherboard - Specification - GA-P55-UD4P (rev. 1.0)

 

[brennok]

Locate the driver files in C:\Windows\System32\drivers
Right click and select Properties, then Details
See if that tab contains more clues about what the drivers are.

If you'll post a link to the download page for your motherboard, I'll give a shot at opening some of the driver packages to see if those files are inside of them.

Worst case, rename them to end in .BAK, then reboot to make sure that they don't respawn.

Thanks, I am running a search now since I don't see either one in the drivers folder. Searching for both drivers on this forum the two always seem to be together and always out of date in the various threads. I didn't find anyone mentioning they found an update for them.

Have you checked here for latest bios, drivers, memory support list, etc. GIGABYTE - Product - Motherboard - Specification - GA-P55-UD4P (rev. 1.0)

Yeah thanks those were the first things I updated.

I have read issues with some of the Nvidia drivers causing complete hardware failure and those were the drivers I rolled back to at one point since they worked with COD:UO which also happened to be when I later started crashing. More info here

 

[usasma]

the AODDriver.sys is in the EasyTune6 utility available from the Gigabyte website ( GIGABYTE - Support&Download - Motherboard - Utility - GA-P55-UD4P (rev. 1.0) )


For the GVTDrv64.sys - check in C:\Windows and C:\Windows\System32\drivers for this file
Right click on it and select Properties, then select the Details tab
Check to see if there's any info on it there.

If not, selectively install the other utilities on your system to see if you can find it (I couldn't extract some of the cab files in a couple of the utilities). If it's not installed (with a new date stamp), then uninstall it and try another until you find the one that works.

 

[usasma]

BTW - I've seen issues with the GVTDrv64.sys driver in the past, so I'd suspect it was the most important one to find.

 

[brennok]

Ok once I repair Windows Startup since I just had two more crashes and it is recommending I repair startup I will uninstall all of the Gigabyte's utilties to see if that fixes it.

I know one of the BSODs was due to CNG.sys but I didn't see what the other one was for.

 

[brennok]

Well either my memory or my motherboard appears to be bad. I figured since I couldn't get into Windows without a restore since the startup repair failed, I would run Memtest.

At pass 35% errors started popping up. I am now at pass 39% with 314 errors all from test 5. This is the first time I have had memory issues before so I don't know what if any info is needed off the screen and if there is a way to tell which stick is bad. It is a pair so I guess it doesn't matter since both will have to be RMA'd assuming it is actually the memory and not the ram slots.

Well I let it keep running just to see what would happen and I got an Unexpected Interrupt- Halting at 74% of the pass and test 12% on Test #8.

 

[usasma]

If you get errors when running Memtest, there's either a problem with your RAM or with your motherboard.

Start with paragraph 7 in this link to figure out which stick/slot is/are bad: Memory Diagnostics

 

[brennok]

Both sticks pass a couple passes individually which is more than I can say with the pair. I still need to try with the memory swapped.

Now running with the pair back in but swapped from their original slots, I am not getting errors either. I am going to let it continue overnight and see if any errors pop up. If not then I am really confused.

I also wanted to say thanks for all your ongoing help.

Ok I spoke too soon. I got 64 errors on pass #2 at test #6 at 3562.8MB.

 

[belikexp]

I checked the ram configurator here G.SKILL-Search
and I don't see your motherboard listed. I see GA-P55A-UD4P listed but not GA-P55-UD4P.

I do see it listed as supported memory . http://www.gigabyte.us/FileList/MemorySupport/mb_memory_ga-p55-ud4p.pdf

How about trying intel burn test? It's faster then memtest.

IntelBurnTest - The new stress-testing program - XtremeSystems Forums

 

[usasma]

It's either:
- bad RAM
- bad slots on the mobo
- or, most likely, incompatibility between the 2 sticks

What's the make and model of each stick? (there should be stickers with numbers on them which will contain the model number). Most recently I saw this in an HP laptop with a 1gB Kingston stick and a 2 gB Crucial stick. We replaced the Kingston stick with a Crucial stick and all was well.

 

[brennok]

I checked the ram configurator here G.SKILL-Search
and I don't see your motherboard listed. I see GA-P55A-UD4P listed but not GA-P55-UD4P.

I do see it listed as supported memory . http://www.gigabyte.us/FileList/MemorySupport/mb_memory_ga-p55-ud4p.pdf

How about trying intel burn test? It's faster then memtest.

IntelBurnTest - The new stress-testing program - XtremeSystems Forums

The weird thing with that is if you look under the memory itself under products it lists the MB also. G.SKILL-Products

Intel Burn Test passed at Standard, 1gb, for 5 runs. It also passed at High, 2gb, for 5 runs. On Maximum with 5 runs I got a BSOD with Stop: 0x0000007E(0xFFFFFFFFC0000005,0xFFFFF800020BC15A, 0xFFFFF880062c2198, 0XFFFFF880062c19F0). It stopped at collecting data for crash dump so I doublt actually generated a crash dump. It looks like similar results to memtest then since I only start to have problems around the 3gb mark.

It's either:
- bad RAM
- bad slots on the mobo
- or, most likely, incompatibility between the 2 sticks

What's the make and model of each stick? (there should be stickers with numbers on them which will contain the model number). Most recently I saw this in an HP laptop with a 1gB Kingston stick and a 2 gB Crucial stick. We replaced the Kingston stick with a Crucial stick and all was well.

Both sticks show F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ DDR31600 PC3-12800 2GBx2. CL9-9-9-24 1.5-1.6Volt and the serial number is one digit off.

Would upping the voltage help? I know the MB detects the timing correctly with both sticks or a single stick but sets the voltage at 1.5 which is also how Newegg listed them so I never bothered trying to raise it.

 

[usasma]

Gigabyte boards seem to have some RAM issues (similar to the Asus P5 series of boards) in some cases.
I'd suggest messing with the timings, settings, voltage - but I can't help out with that (don't know anything about it except to say "BE CAREFUL not to fry things with too much tweaking")

 

[brennok]

Thanks. I have pretty much given up on the build. I sent emails to both Gigabyte and G Skill. I am waiting for a response from both and authorization to post on the G Skill board to see if their techs know anything.

I know nothing about tweaking the timings so it isn't something I really want to mess with. I may just scrap this build entirely and just buy brand new everything while RMAing what I can.

 

[belikexp]

If your interested try crucial. Computer memory upgrades for Giga-Byte GA-P55-UD4P Motherboard from Crucial.com
If you buy from their site they guarantee it's compatible. I've bought from them before with no problems.