Solved BSOD CRITICAL_OBJECT_TERMINATION ntoskrnl.exe after ~1 hour of uptime

[OvercastSunburn]

I keep getting the above-stated BSOD after about an hour of normal use (playing unreal or half-life engine based games/minecraft). When the BSOD is about to occur, chrome usually crashes, my start bar no longer works (hovering/clicking does nothing) and my sound either stops completely, or begins to do a low rumble. Other times it goes to a black screen and the windows spinning wheel of doom takes over, and when I can anticipate a BSOD coming, Ctrl-Alt-Del does nothing (probably not a surprise).

I am at wit's end with trying to resolve the issue. I have looked up the error online a bit, and the solutions are much too vague and system-dependent. I have tried to update my drivers (ethernet and sound to realtek's most up-to-date) and I have done the PC-Doctor diagnostics that came with my board, which have told me that nothing is wrong with my hardware. I haven't yet done a chkdsk on my drives yet, but the TB drive will take forever, and the diagnostics tell me that it's fine anyway.

Any advice?

 

[koolkat77]

Is the firmware for your SSD up-to-date?

Check for one and see if the stability returns.

Disk Check

For errors on your Hard drive(s): How to Run Disk Check in Windows 7

We've seen a number of BSOD issues with SSD's. Here's the information that I've compiled so far:
There's not a whole bunch available to test SSD's. The "easiest" test is to remove the SSD, install a platter-based hard drive, install Windows and test for stability that way.

Here's some suggestions:
- Update the SSD's firmware to the latest available version (VERY IMPORTANT!!!)
- Update the motherboard controllers drivers to the latest available version from the controller manufacturer (NOT the mobo manufacturer unless you can't find any on the controller manufacturer's website). Be sure to update ALL controllers on the motherboard! I STRONGLY suggest not using controller drivers older than mid-2012 with SSD's.
- Slow the memory (RAM) down to the next slower speed (I've only seen one person who claimed that this worked for them).
- Use any manufacturer's utilities that you may have. If you don't have any, then try this free one (I haven't used it myself): Crystal Dew World
....NOTE: Recently (Nov 2011) we had BSOD issues with the Marvell 91xx controller and an SSD. You may have to switch controllers also.
- Replace the SSD with a platter based hard drive and see if that stops the BSOD's. If it does, then it's likely that there's a problem with the SSD OR an incompatibility with your system.
06 Dec 2011 - This post tends to confirm issues with certain SSD chipsets and certain controllers - [SOLVED] cant find the cause of BSOD F4 - Tech Support Forum
05 Jan 2013 - very interesting post about difficulties with the Marvell controllers even when not connected to the SSD drives: Solved Win8 x64 PC reboots when waking from sleep
27 Feb 2013 - I'm starting to see much better reliability with SSD's using current (mid-2012 and later) storage drivers. I have withdrawn my objections to using these devices in everyday systems.

BSOD BUGCHECK SUMMARY

Microsoft (R) Windows Debugger Version 6.2.9200.20512 X86
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.


Loading Dump File [C:\Users\USER\Downloads\OvercastSunburn_23-06-2013\SF_23-06-2013\062313-28750-01.dmp]
Mini Kernel Dump File: Only registers and stack trace are available

Symbol search path is: SRV*C:\SymCache*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols
Executable search path is: 
Windows 7 Kernel Version 7601 (Service Pack 1) MP (4 procs) Free x64
Product: WinNt, suite: TerminalServer SingleUserTS Personal
Built by: 7601.18113.amd64fre.win7sp1_gdr.130318-1533
Machine Name:
Kernel base = 0xfffff800`0301b000 PsLoadedModuleList = 0xfffff800`0325e670
Debug session time: Sun Jun 23 09:48:43.313 2013 (UTC + 6:00)
System Uptime: 0 days 1:02:59.077
Loading Kernel Symbols
...............................................................
................................................................
...................
Loading User Symbols
Loading unloaded module list
.......
*******************************************************************************
*                                                                             *
*                        Bugcheck Analysis                                    *
*                                                                             *
*******************************************************************************

Use !analyze -v to get detailed debugging information.

BugCheck F4, {3, fffffa80063e4b30, fffffa80063e4e10, fffff80003397350}

----- ETW minidump data unavailable-----
Probably caused by : wininit.exe

Followup: MachineOwner
---------

 

[OvercastSunburn]

When I run the Crucial brand firmware updater, it tells me that my firmware is up to date, even though I received this disk as a gift for christmas 2011, and their site lists an update on 04/02/2013. Is this unusual?

Edit: also, I just finished reseating the RAM, GPU, and the HDDs, in addition to all of the power delivery cords. Will report on stability as developments are made.

second edit: just had a bsod again. the problem remains.

 

[essenbe]

You can find your firmware by clicking the start button, type device manager, click on the device manager that appears, expand disk drives, right click on properties. Click the details tab, in the center it will say Device Description, click that and the next entry down is hardware ID, select that. The last numbers on the right will be your firmware. In the screenshot below, you will see I have a Samsung with Firmware DXMO5BOQ. The latest Firmware for Crucial is 070H. If you still think it is the SSD, You can try using Crystal Disk Info, which is pretty much reading the SMART readings, and Koolkat gave you the best advice about installing on another hard drive to see if the problem goes away. Also, unless you changed it, your model shipped with a 250W PSU and Nvidia says the GTX 460 requires a 450W PSU.

View attachment 273837

 

[OvercastSunburn]

Also, unless you changed it, your model shipped with a 250W PSU and Nvidia says the GTX 460 requires a 450W PSU.

I changed my PSU to a compatible model years ago when I bought the thing and realized that the GTX wasn't going to work without one. Good spot!

You can find your firmware by clicking the start button, type device manager, click on the device manager that appears, expand disk drives, right click on properties. Click the details tab, in the center it will say Device Description, click that and the next entry down is hardware ID, select that. The last numbers on the right will be your firmware. In the screenshot below, you will see I have a Samsung with Firmware DXMO5BOQ. The latest Firmware for Crucial is 070H. If you still think it is the SSD, You can try using Crystal Disk Info, which is pretty much reading the SMART readings, and Koolkat gave you the best advice about installing on another hard drive to see if the problem goes away.

But in relation to the issue at hand this screenshot shows that my firmware is either at 0 or at 0002, which is NOT 070H. So the firmware updating tool is not functioning properly? Or, perhaps, my ssd is no longer functioning properly?

I am pretty sure I gave crystaldiskinfo a shot earlier, but I ended up not being able to detect anything because it uses RAID... Is there an alternative to cdi that I can use?

 

[essenbe]

Is your SSD in Raid? With what? If it is in Raid, that is most likely whay you can't update the firmware. There is really little advantage to raiding an SSD. Also, the firmware on your SSD may very well be your issue. Crucial had a bug in their firmware where after, I think 5000 hours of operation, it would frequently malfunction. That was fixed fairly quickly with a new firmware.

 

[OvercastSunburn]

Is your SSD in Raid? With what? If it is in Raid, that is most likely whay you can't update the firmware. There is really little advantage to raiding an SSD. Also, the firmware on your SSD may very well be your issue. Crucial had a bug in their firmware where after, I think 5000 hours of operation, it would frequently malfunction. That was fixed fairly quickly with a new firmware.

I guess I am letting my noob status show here, but what are the alternatives to RAID, and how would I go about changing to one of these configurations? Would it be in the BIOS?

 

[essenbe]

If you have your drives raided, you are not getting full advantage of your SSD. You will need to go into bios and break the raid and reinstall Windows. Before you do that, be sure you back up your personal information to an external drive. With raid there is no other option but reinstall. Once you do that we can guide you to a good install on the SSD. But, you will need to install in AHCI mode. Don't use IDE mode. Once you break the raid, everything you have will be lost, so be sure to back everything up first.

 

[OvercastSunburn]

If you have your drives raided, you are not getting full advantage of your SSD. You will need to go into bios and break the raid and reinstall Windows. Before you do that, be sure you back up your personal information to an external drive. With raid there is no other option but reinstall. Once you do that we can guide you to a good install on the SSD. But, you will need to install in AHCI mode. Don't use IDE mode. Once you break the raid, everything you have will be lost, so be sure to back everything up first.

So assuming I have already backed everything up, and I have my windows 7 install disc, (I will have to make one yet) how do I do a "good" install?

btw, thanks for your help thus far. I really appreciate it.

 

[essenbe]

First please post a screenshot of disk management. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/274797-disk-management-post-screen-capture-image.html
Also, please download AS SSD and post a screenshot, you don't have to run the test if you don't want to. Just be careful about the junk they try to download with it. It is a benchmark test for SSDs. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9733-screenshots-files-upload-post-seven-forums.html

 

[OvercastSunburn]

First please post a screenshot of disk management.

done.

Also, please download AS SSD and post a screenshot, you don't have to run the test if you don't want to. Just be careful about the junk they try to download with it. It is a benchmark test for SSDs. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9733-screenshots-files-upload-post-seven-forums.html

and done.

 

[essenbe]

You do not appear to be in Raid But, something is wrong with your SSD. It should have run the test unless you aborted it. I'm not sure this will work, but give it a try. It's how to change from IDE to AHCI, but the registry settings should be the same for ahci, no matter where you are now. Follow the tutorial exactly, go to the registry, make the changes, reboot. On startup go straight to bios and change the sata controller to ahci mode. If it boots, you should see windows loading drivers, it will then ask you to reboot again and you will be in ahci mode. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/61869-ahci-enable-windows-7-vista.html The registry settings may already be configured correctly, but make sure. You are running AMD's ahci driver now. Your sata controller is in raid, I guess.

 

[OvercastSunburn]

You do not appear to be in Raid But, something is wrong with your SSD. It should have run the test unless you aborted it. I'm not sure this will work, but give it a try. It's how to change from IDE to AHCI, but the registry settings should be the same for ahci, no matter where you are now. Follow the tutorial exactly, go to the registry, make the changes, reboot. On startup go straight to bios and change the sata controller to ahci mode. If it boots, you should see windows loading drivers, it will then ask you to reboot again and you will be in ahci mode. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/61869-ahci-enable-windows-7-vista.html The registry settings may already be configured correctly, but make sure. You are running AMD's ahci driver now. Your sata controller is in raid, I guess.

I aborted the test because you said I did not have to run it... After the most recent BSOD (about 45 minutes ago now) my computer will no longer even boot up windows normally. I ran the startup repair utility, and was able to boot normally. I changed the registry value to 0, and then rebooted and changed the sata controller setting to ahci. When i rebooted, I got another, different BSOD, and then I ran the startup repair utility again. It couldnt find a solution, so I changed the bios setting back to raid, and was able to boot.

 

[essenbe]

If you are willing to gamble a little, in device manager expand IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers. At the bottom you should see an entry with AMDSBS in the name, right click that and select update driver, then select from my computer. You should get a browse window. Navigate to C:/Windows/System32/Drivers. Once there look for MSAHCI.SYS and select that. Then reboot and go back into bios and select AHCI. We have to get you to boot in AHCI or IDE mode in order to update the firmware on your SSD. Raid will not allow the firmware update. I'm hoping the firmware update will fix your problem. Even if it does not, the SSD needs the new firmware. I think we could do it if we could find a bootable updater.
The firmware update instructions are here. http://www.crucial.com/firmware/m4/070H/Crucial_m4_Windows_Utility_Tool_Instructions_070H.pdf

 

[essenbe]

OK, I found it here Crucial.com Product Downloads - Firmware Updates. When you get there you will see 3 download firmware buttons. The first one is for windows 7, the second one is for windows 8, the third one is for a manual update. Download the instructions also at the same link. You will download an .ISO file. (Just select save as and use your desktop.) Just click it and the windows disk burner will open. Put a blank CD in the drive and burn the iso to the CD. Leave it in there. Go to bios, change to ahci mode, change the boot order to boot first from DVD drive. Save and exit. You should get a message on the screen to press any button to boot from DVD. Be quick you only have a few seconds. It should boot from the cd drive. Follow the instructions to update the firmware, shut down and change the bios back to raid until I can figure out how to get it to boot in AHCI. If that does not work, try changing to IDE in bios and update the firmware.

 

[essenbe]

Do you have 2 operating systems on that computer?

 

[OvercastSunburn]

Do you have 2 operating systems on that computer?

I only have windows 7 on the computer.

 

[OvercastSunburn]

OK, I found it here Crucial.com Product Downloads - Firmware Updates. When you get there you will see 3 download firmware buttons. The first one is for windows 7, the second one is for windows 8, the third one is for a manual update. Download the instructions also at the same link. You will download an .ISO file. (Just select save as and use your desktop.) Just click it and the windows disk burner will open. Put a blank CD in the drive and burn the iso to the CD. Leave it in there. Go to bios, change to ahci mode, change the boot order to boot first from DVD drive. Save and exit. You should get a message on the screen to press any button to boot from DVD. Be quick you only have a few seconds. It should boot from the cd drive. Follow the instructions to update the firmware, shut down and change the bios back to raid until I can figure out how to get it to boot in AHCI. If that does not work, try changing to IDE in bios and update the firmware.

Oddly enough, this totally worked! The firmware is now updated, and I am still running it in RAID. Honestly, if that fixed the BSOD issue, I won't be reinstalling windows.

 

[essenbe]

That's great news, if it worked. It really wasn't 'oddly enough'. Firmware updates never work if the controller is set to raid. Their normal firmware worked from inside Windows, and you could only boot if the controller was set to raid. But, we could change the controller and boot into a dvd drive, update the firmware, then change the controller back so you could boot into Windows. Does that make sense?

As I understand it, you have an SSD and another mechanical hard drive on your computer. Is that correct? I would like you to disconect one of the 2 wires to the mechanical hard drive and see if your computer will still boot. The partial screenshot you showed, shows 2 100MB system reserved partitions. That is what Windows boots from, so which one is it booting from? I am going to show you a screenshot of disk management so you will know what I'd like to see. Yes, I know I have a lot of hard drives. This is the server I've been trying to build, so...., but it will show what I would like to see.
View attachment 273955

 

[OvercastSunburn]

That's great news, if it worked. It really wasn't 'oddly enough'. Firmware updates never work if the controller is set to raid. Their normal firmware worked from inside Windows, and you could only boot if the controller was set to raid. But, we could change the controller and boot into a dvd drive, update the firmware, then change the controller back so you could boot into Windows. Does that make sense?

I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but I know how it worked... (I am an undergrad for comp eng, believe it or not) I'm merely surprised at the janky style that we got it to work. I mean, we changed the configuration, changed something, and then changed the config back. Though in hindsight, I dont think many work arounds are stylish or intuitive.

As I understand it, you have an SSD and another mechanical hard drive on your computer. Is that correct?

Yep!

I would like you to disconect one of the 2 wires to the mechanical hard drive and see if your computer will still boot. The partial screenshot you showed, shows 2 100MB system reserved partitions. That is what Windows boots from, so which one is it booting from? I am going to show you a screenshot of disk management so you will know what I'd like to see. Yes, I know I have a lot of hard drives. This is the server I've been trying to build, so...., but it will show what I would like to see.

my computer will still boot as windows boots from my ssd for faster startups.