BSOD only while playing Civ V

[asuddenmorning]

My custom built computer gets BSODs, seemingly only while playing Civ V. I've been trying to figure it out for months, but I've made no progress. Hoping to find some help here! Let me know if there's anything I can add to the thread to be more useful. I've got all my specs filled in I believe, and I'm using WhoCrashed to parse the crash dumps. While this isn't the only one, this does seem to be the most common:

On Sun 9/14/2014 12:33:28 AM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\091314-17487-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: dxgkrnl.sys (dxgkrnl+0x6F63) 
Bugcheck code: 0x100000EA (0xFFFFFA80088B8B50, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0)
Error: THREAD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_DRIVER_M
file path: C:\Windows\system32\drivers\dxgkrnl.sys
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: DirectX Graphics Kernel
Bug check description: This indicates that a thread in a device driver is endlessly spinning.
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 a standard Microsoft module. Your system configuration may be incorrect. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver on your system which cannot be identified at this time.

edit: attached debug

 

[Golden]

fffff880`02bab878  fffff8a0`00000001
fffff880`02bab880  fffffa80`08712d28
fffff880`02bab888  fffff880`04c45c6cUnable to load image \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\atikmpag.sys, Win32 error 0n2
*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for atikmpag.sys
*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for [COLOR="red"][B]atikmpag.sys[/B][/COLOR]
 atikmpag+0xbc6c
fffff880`02bab890  fffffa80`078e73c0
fffff880`02bab898  00000000`00000000
fffff880`02bab8a0  00000000`00000000
fffff880`02bab8a8  fffff880`04644038 dxgkrnl!DXGADAPTER::AcquireDdiSync+0x30
fffff880`02bab8b0  fffffa80`0d2b3010
fffff880`02bab8b8  fffff880`043ad619Unable to load image \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\VirtuWDDM.sys, Win32 error 0n2
*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for VirtuWDDM.sys
*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for [COLOR="Red"][B]VirtuWDDM.sys[/B][/COLOR]
 VirtuWDDM+0x8619
fffff880`02bab8c0  fffffa80`088ea000
fffff880`02bab8c8  fffffa80`08712d28

Uninstall the current ATI driver, reboot, then run Windows Update and install the ATI driver offerred under the Optional updates.

The VirtuWDDM driver appears to be corrupted. I can't find any downlaod locations for it - I recommend uninstalling this product completely for now.

 

[asuddenmorning]

Thank you very much for responding, it's very much appreciated. I have uninstalled Virtu, seems like a likely candidate for my problems. Upon looking it up it's some sort of integrated graphics nonsense that came with my mobo.

When you said uninstall ATI drivers, I made the assumption that that's the same as uninstalling Catalyst Control Center? If that's not the case I apologize, please let me know what is the correct way to accomplish it. With that in mind, I then checked windows update, and did not see any option updates to replace it, so I'm without GPU it would seem. What would you recommend?

 

[Golden]

Sorry, I should have been clearer : uninstall all ATI graphics drivers. When Windows reboots, it will use a generic driver, Windows Update will then offer a tested driver. Install and use that.

 

[asuddenmorning]

Again I apologize for my naivete. So I had reinstalled CCC, just to get my hdmi through my first graphics card back.

I went to Device Manager, and unistalled all the drivers listed under Display Adapter: two related to my GPUs, and one for intel. This made me lose my screen, so I switched to VGA through though mobo.
I did NOT uninstall CCC.
After reboot, I checked windows update, and installed this (the only option)

Intel Corporation - Graphics Adapter WDDM1.1, Graphics Adapter WDDM1.2 - Intel(R) HD Graphics 3000
Installation date: ‎9/‎13/‎2014 11:18 PM
Installation status: Successful
Update type: Optional
Intel Corporation Graphics Adapter WDDM1.1, Graphics Adapter WDDM1.2 software update released in January, 2014

I then was able to use my hdmi through my primary GPU, and readjusted screen settings using CCC.

Did I do this right?

 

[Golden]

Lets see if the system stays stable.

 

[asuddenmorning]

Will do. The crash is notoriously difficult to recreate. In 50 hours of play I will sometimes not have the crash, and other times have it 4 times in an hour. I will let you know.

 

[asuddenmorning]

Okay, probably at least 10-15 hours of play. I thought everything was finally solved, but had another crash. As I believe I mentioned in the first post, the whocrashed.exe summary is seldom the same, the only factor that's consistent is Civ V. It's not at all the most cpu/gpu-intensive game I play, so it's odd that it's the only one.

 

[Golden]

*******************************************************************************
*                                                                             *
*                        Bugcheck Analysis                                    *
*                                                                             *
*******************************************************************************

Use !analyze -v to get detailed debugging information.

BugCheck 1A, {41790, fffffa8004aec6b0, ffff, 0}

Probably caused by : ntkrnlmp.exe ( nt! ?? ::FNODOBFM::`string'+35084 )

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

Mmm....nothing definitive. Lets go hard-core.

Please do the following:

Run Driver Verifier for 24 hours or the occurrence of the next crash, whichever is earlier.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/101379-driver-verifier-enable-disable.html

Driver Verifier will cause your computer to run very sluggishly - this is normal. What it is trying to do is force your system to BSOD and isolate the offending driver/s. When it does, reboot, disable driver verifier, reboot as normal and upload the new dmp file/s here.

I recommend creating a system restore point before turning on driver verifier:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/697-system-restore-point-create.html

If your system fails to boot to desktop once driver verifier is enabled, turn it off by booting into Safe Mode:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/69585-safe-mode.html

 

[asuddenmorning]

So on the initial reboot after enabling driver verifier it apparently crashed after bios but before I'd seen any sign of Windows loading. I then rebooted normally, and it loaded up fine. I've attached the .dmp and whatever else is in the zip, and I'll leave verifier running for now. Should I be trying to play Civ to recreate it, or will this take care of that for me?

Thanks again for helping out.

 

[Golden]

Use the PC as normal and try play Civ too.

 

[asuddenmorning]

After leaving it running all night without a crash, I used the computer for a couple hours this morning. Eventually got a crash, that repeated itself 2 times after reboot so I disabled Verifier. Seems it's Avast related.

 

[Golden]

*******************************************************************************
*                                                                             *
*                        Bugcheck Analysis                                    *
*                                                                             *
*******************************************************************************

Use !analyze -v to get detailed debugging information.

BugCheck C4, {e3, fffff88003f9a54f, 370010, 0}

*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for aswSP.sys
*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for aswSP.sys
Probably caused by : [B][COLOR="Red"]aswSP.sys[/COLOR][/B] ( aswSP+2854f )

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

Confirmed - Avast is indeed the problem. Uninstall it completely and replace it with MSE (it never causes BSOD's).

Monitor for further BSOD's and keep us updated.

 

[asuddenmorning]

Hi Golden, Thank you so much for your help with this issue. I haven't been playing as much Civ, but I haven't yet seen a BSOD in what I've played. I'm going to mark this as solved for now, as it could be months before I rack up enough hours to say so beyond doubt. Again, I really appreciate your assistance. Take care.

 

[Golden]

 

[asuddenmorning]

Speaking of could be months....Finally got another BSOD, of course again it was during Civ. Worth noting, the game did receive it's first major update in over a year, maybe or maybe not related. Of course I've kept Avast off of my PC. I did update CCC I believe, not sure how to verify that.

 

[Golden]

ffff880`06d808a0  fffffa80`0a4b9900
fffff880`06d808a8  fffff880`100ba038 dxgkrnl!DXGADAPTER::AcquireDdiSync+0x30
fffff880`06d808b0  fffffa80`0c4044e0
fffff880`06d808b8  fffff880`0400aef8Unable to load image \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\atikmpag.sys, Win32 error 0n2
*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for atikmpag.sys
*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for atikmpag.sys
 atikmpag+0xaef8
fffff880`06d808c0  fffffa80`078c5400
fffff880`06d808c8  fffffa80`08a49928
fffff880`06d808d0  00000000`00000001

Revert to the earlier version of the display driver....the one prior to updating CCC.

 

[asuddenmorning]

Okay, I think I'm at an impasse. I can't figure out how to accomplish that without causing other major issues. Here's what I've tried:

1. Deleting the drivers from device manager leaving CCC intact: Windows Update doesn't provide any drivers, and somehow whenever I restart the drivers are back (I did check delete).
2. Uninstalling CCC: Windows update still doesn't provide me with any drivers, and computer requires a hard reset. Somehow old AMD drivers show up in Device Manager.
3. Reinstalling CCC, then rolling back the drivers to the old ones: CCC won't start anymore.

The thing is without CCC, I can't overscan. So I'm stuck with a 1+ inch black border around my monitor, and I'm not sure if crossfire is even enabled. I get the feeling this methodology I guessed at isn't at all what you had in mind. Can you perhaps let me know where I went wrong? In the old logs is there a way to find the version number that was stable, and maybe I can go and try to download that from AMD?

edit: wanted to update where I am now. After the 3rd step I tried, I went to device manager and updated my drivers from there. I think I'm just back to the original driver, but I can get at CCC and overscan works