Solved BSOD on startup and safe mode, doesn't seem hardware related.

[rugs]

This problem has me stumped. I've always been able to find solutions on these forums and correct any problems I have had in the past. Apologies for troubling all of you, but I haven't been able to figure this one out on my own and after 10 days I figured I should ask for help. Unfortunately I don't have any of the logs required to post. I do have older minidump logs and a CBS log, but they are from the initial BSOD, not the current one. I can post if you think they will be helpful.


I was receiving random BSODs for a few months now. They would happen at very specific clicks, but not all the time. Like activating an excel cell or skipping forward on a video file.

Steps I took and things that happened, might be slightly out of order and I might have forgotten a few.

• 
  MSE online virus scan
  verifier
  windows update
  Intel update (advised graphic card update)
  hanged on reboot
  forced shutdown
  *no longer able to startup, but would boot in safe mode
  tried running startup repair but kept saying it needed to restart
  ran startup repair until it said the errors cannot be fixed
  *no longer able to boot in Safe Mode (would get stuck on classpnp.sys)
  created bootable windows USB
  ran chkdsk - no errors
  ran memtest - no errors
  swapped ram out - no changes
  ran bootrec
  ran sfc - said system repair pending
  ran sfc some more, gave same message
  ran MSE offline scan - found techbrolo.r, cleaned and deleted
  still crashing at startup with no access to safe mode

To check my hardware I swapped hard drives and installed windows on the same system and ran all the updates without any problems.

I also ran tests on the original HD on another computer while connected as an external with no errors found.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.



I have attached screen shots of the crashes, they listed these errors:

Original BSOD:

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

*** STOP: 0x000000A (0xFFFFFA802D82A2A0, 0x0000000000000002, 0x0000000000000001, 0xXFFFFF8000358A4B6)

Latest BSOD:

*** STOP: 0x000000C9 (0x000000000000022E, 0xFFFFF880045E7684, 0xFFFFF980072BAE10, 0x0000000000000000)

Startup Repair:

Problem Event Name: StartupRepairOffline
Problem Signature 01: 6.1.7600.16385
Problem Signature 02: 6.1.7600.16385
Problem Signature 03: unknown
Problem Signature 04: 21199235
Problem Signature 05: ManualRepair
Problem Signature 06: 6
Problem Signature 07: 0xc9
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033



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[axe0]

Hi rugs,

Welcome to the 7forums

This sounds to me like the file system of Windows got corrupted while troubleshooting.
Before troubleshooting, how much time has passed between the MSE scans?
Also, was the result of the first MSE scan that no malware was detected?

MSE online virus scan
verifier
windows update
Intel update (advised graphic card update)
hanged on reboot
forced shutdown
*no longer able to startup, but would boot in safe mode
tried running startup repair but kept saying it needed to restart
ran startup repair until it said the errors cannot be fixed
*no longer able to boot in Safe Mode (would get stuck on classpnp.sys)
created bootable windows USB
ran chkdsk - no errors
ran memtest - no errors
swapped ram out - no changes
ran bootrec
ran sfc - said system repair pending
ran sfc some more, gave same message
ran MSE offline scan - found techbrolo.r, cleaned and deleted
still crashing at startup with no access to safe mode

 

[rugs]

Hi rugs,

Welcome to the 7forums

This sounds to me like the file system of Windows got corrupted while troubleshooting.
Before troubleshooting, how much time has passed between the MSE scans?
Also, was the result of the first MSE scan that no malware was detected?

Thanks!

The scans were about 7-8 days apart.

Yes, the first scan did not detect anything.

 

[rugs]

The problem causing the initial crash was a bad stick of ram. One of my Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB sticks was bad. Not sure why it didn't show up in the initial test, i'll just guess that I did something wrong.

What caused the subsequent BSODs was my system BSODing in the middle of an intel update due to the bad ram stick. It must have screwed up my windows.

I ended up reinstalling windows and Crucial sent me a new stick of ram free of charge and all is fine now. I did have to format my SSD though, for some reason the windows install kept crashing, maybe it was a bad MBR, who knows...

Conclusion: Check and double check all your hardware first before messing with windows. Had I caught the ram the first time around I wouldn't have wasted a few weeks on this.