BSOD happening randomly and I can't pinpoint a reason

[jimnme]

Hi all,

I've been having BSOD problems and it seems to be random. I can't pinpoint any times or activities in common when it is happening. Before the blue screens started I had problems for about a week with my computer freezing up after being idle for a couple of hours. It never froze while I was using it, just after leaving it for a while. Now it's just going to bluescreen. Sometimes it stays on my screen and sometimes it bluescreens then instantly restarts.

I'm attaching my file per instructions and sure hope I did it right and have included the information needed.

Thank you so much.

 

[Arc]

Hi jimnme.

Your BSODs are all different.

• BugCheck 7F: UNEXPECTED_KERNEL_MODE_TRAP
• BugCheck 1E: KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
• BugCheck A: IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

So apparently it may involve an amount of jobs to identify the source of the issue.

Initially I am suggesting three options for you.

Uninstall Avira, at least as a test (Stop A+ Stop 7F; so there is a chance that the resident virus scanner is causing the issue). Use Microsoft Security Essentials as your antivirus with windows inbuilt firewall, and free MBAM as the on demand scanner.
Download, install and update those, and then run full system scans with both of them, one by one.

Test your RAM modules for possible errors.
How to Test and Diagnose RAM Issues with Memtest86+
Run memtest for at least 8 passes, preferably overnight.
If it start showing errors/red lines, stop testing. A single error is enough to determine that something is going bad there.

In the very latest BSOD, it is seen that the display driver is malfunctioning.

fffff880`0db37400  fffff880`07db2e7dUnable to load image \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\nvlddmkm.sys, Win32 error 0n2
*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for nvlddmkm.sys
*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for nvlddmkm.sys
 nvlddmkm+0x8f4e7d

The installed version is 331.58 WHQL. Update it to 331.82 WHQL.

Let us know the results. Will decide about our next course of actions seeing those.

 

[jimnme]

Thank you so much for your help. I will tell you how far I have gotten and what is now going on.

1. I uninstalled Avira and installed both Microsoft Security Essentials and MBAM.
2. I updated the Nvidia drivers to the one you suggested.
3. I have not yet been able to do full scans on either the Microsoft Security Essentials or the MBAM as I get BSOD again and the computer restarts.
4. On last restart I got this error: Bootmgr image is corrupt. The system cannot boot.

I think this is worse than I thought and not sure where to go from here.

Should I do the memtest? I can do that even without windows booting.

Thank you so much,
Michelle

 

[Arc]

4. On last restart I got this error: Bootmgr image is corrupt. The system cannot boot.

I think this is worse than I thought and not sure where to go from here.

Follow it:
Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Start

Should I do the memtest? I can do that even without windows booting.

No harm in it. Go for it.

 

[jimnme]

Ok, I let the memtest run for 7 hours before I went to bed. It was on pass 4. I left it running through the night and when I got up it had frozen somewhere in pass 4 through the night. It wasn't responding at all.

I am currently troubleshooting the windows failure part right now. I was able to boot into safe mode and am running the malwarebytes. I will report back after I have gone through all of those steps.

Thank you!

 

[jimnme]

Ok, here is everything I have done and the results:

1. Uninstalled Avira and installed Microsoft Security Essentials and MBAM.
2. Could not do full tests due to BSOD restarts.
3. Updated Nvidia drivers as suggested.
4. Ran Memtest86+. It froze up through the night after 4 passes.
5. Did troubleshooting steps for booting as suggested. I was able to run full scan with Malwarebytes in safe mode with networking. Ran System recovery/startup repair 3x with no problems found. Computer now boots.
6. Ran sfc /scannow as administrator with no integrity problems found.

 

[Arc]

4. Ran Memtest86+. It froze up through the night after 4 passes.

It is the interesting part.

Memtest runs on itself, totally outside of windows. Now if it is also causing problems, then the issue is with the hardware. It may be the memory modules itself, it may be the CPU that is failing, it may be the PSU too, or it may be the motherboard.

Try to run memtest once again.

Stress test the CPU.
Hardware - Stress Test With Prime95

The other two things, we cannot test those using any test software. They need to be replaced with another hardware to test them. If the other hardware working good, our present hardware are faulty.

 

[jimnme]

Thank you,

I will run try the memtest again and the cpu stress test. I will post back but it will be several hours for those to run.

Thanks again for all of your help.

 

[jimnme]

Ok I have a question. When doing the stress test with Prime95 how high is too high for the temp to go. After less than 5 minutes my temps are at 76.

 

[Arc]

76 degrees are somehow tolerable. If it goes over 80 degrees, stop testing. We need to concentrate on reducing heat in that case.

 

[jimnme]

Ok, here is my update:

For the stress test the temperature never went over 76, it actually went down to 75. I ran it for a little over 2 hours and it didn't report any kind of problems.

Something else curious happened. Once when I restarted the computer yesterday it wouldn't boot and was giving me 1 long beep and 2 short beeps. When I looked that up it appeared to be a ram. I cleaned the ram and put it back in and it booted.

The second time I ran the memtest it got through 7 passes without any problems. I just realized I was supposed to let it go for 8 Do I need to run it again and let it complete 8 full cycles?

So my questions is, do you think that the ram would be causing all of those problems or do I have some other hardware stuff happening?

 

[Arc]

Misplaced RAM may cause those issues. As you have re-seated those, now give it a time and observe the situation.

 

[jimnme]

Well it's been over a day and I haven't had a problem yet. I suppose it's too early to tell but I think things are looking good right now!

Thanks again for all of you help.