Solved BSOD playing Guild Wars 2/ Watching videos online

[aplewis]

Ok, so last week my hard drive went out on me, and was completely unrecoverable. After looking into it more, I decided that I had to replace it with a new one. I ended up ordering and installing a "WD Blue 500 GB Mobile Hard Drive: 2.5 Inch, 5400 RPM, SATA II, 8 MB Cache - WD5000BPVT". Afterwards, I had a friend help me download windows 7 (64 bit) from Dreamspark (my college has some Microsoft products which we can download for free), and we installed it on the new hard drive. I also picked up Office 2010.

From there, I started trying to re-install the things I had lost on my old hard drive, mostly just games at this point. I will try my best to remember and describe everything that I have done so far, so please bear with me. I have Steam, so I began by reinstalling that as well as the few games that I have through it (I'm mostly a console gamer, and only play a few games on a Compaq laptop). I also reinstalled Guild Wars at this point. By now, I had not run into any errors or crashes, was just installing the things I wanted to put on the new hard drive. I had used the internet a few times for Facebook and emails, and even worked on a project using Excel, but had no issues.

However, when I started having more free time and began watching videos and playing Guild Wars 2 again, I started getting system crashes and BSODs. I think the first came from watching a tv show online, but it might have been Guild wars, I can't remember. Basically, the video or game will freeze, the sounds repeats (a harsh buzzing sound), and then I get the BSOD after the display "glitches out" on me. The first few times, I just restarted the computer as I was told without really looking at the information that the BSOD gave me. But when it continued to happen, I got with my friend and we tried figuring out what could be causing it.

I can't remember all of the specifics, but basically we decided that it was probably a display/ video/ graphics driver, so we tried downloading updates for the ATI drivers. We even tried completely uninstalling all of the ATI/ADM drivers and running a sweeper to clean up the scraps, and then downloading just the basic Microsoft drivers. This never seemed to work, since every time I got into Guild wars or a video online, a crash would eventually happen. At one point I was able to play Guild Wars for over 2 hours, but recently it has crashed within 5 minutes every time. In short, I've tried various levels/ updates of driver software without any success.

In terms of the actual errors I am getting from the BSODs, the majority say "driver irql not less or equal", or have the error code 0x000000D1, and the most recent one of these had the file "dxgmmsl.sys". I also had one recently that was "system service exception", "0x0000003B", and had the file "dxgcrnl.sys".

I have attached the dump files that I was told to make, so hopefully that can be of some use. If anyone willing to help ends up needing more information, I'll try to check this thread daily and try to provide what you need. Any help will be much appreciated, thanks!

 

[aplewis]

So, I tried looking at more forums and posts on my issue to see if I could find a possible fix, since I haven't had any replies yet. I found one that suggested downloaded a hot fix for windows update, as well as re-uninstalling my graphics setup and then trying to reinstall it again. Long story short, I did all of that and had a new update in windows update which was for my specific driver. Downloaded it and since then have been able to watch youtube videos for about 2 hours. I will continue to watch videos as a test, hopefully nothing goes wrong. Later on, I'll try playing games (some of the quickest crashes happened on those) and see if I've fixed the problem.

 

[Anak]

Hi aplewis, welcome to 7F!

My apologies that no one has stopped by yet.


Your first and second .dmp files on;

Fri Dec  6 19:51:53.257 2013 (GMT-5), 
BUGCHECK_STR:  0x3B

PROCESS_NAME:  winlogon.exe, 

[U][B]Then:[/B][/U]
Wed Dec 11 02:50:27.822 2013 (GMT-5)
DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID:  VISTA_DRIVER_FAULT

BUGCHECK_STR:  0xD1

PROCESS_NAME:  HIDCLASS.SYS

Both involve System files/drivers.


The last one on Wed Dec 11 15:07:45.146 2013 (GMT-5) points to your guild game.

DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID:  VISTA_DRIVER_FAULT

BUGCHECK_STR:  0xD1

PROCESS_NAME:  Gw2.exe

But, all this becomes a moot point since you and your friend diagnosed the problems and all seems fine for now. Good job on the sleuthing.


Some questions, thoughts:

• Is the problematic machine your console or the laptop?? I did find the answer (See bullet two) but you need to be more specific, and it would help if you filled out your system Specs. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/180324-system-info-see-your-system-specs.html It can also help fill in your specs automatically, see step #5, but you need to use the Internet Explorer browser to do so.

• The specs on the machine in your .dmp files (Presario CQ62 Notebook PC) could use more memory, the three MB is pushing the limits when streaming videos or playing games. This is just a sampling of what's out there. I claim no affiliation to Crucial, you will have to enter the proper suffix to your CQ62 to find the proper pricing I don't know if it is a 238DX or not: Computer memory upgrades for HP - Compaq Presario CQ62-238DX Laptop/Notebook from Crucial.com

• How long have you had the notebook, does it get warm or hot to the touch??

• Did the new operating system (OS) and Office program from dreamspark validate okay??

• Steam can be problematic, I would use fresh copies of that and Guild Wars2. Are you downloading them from a reputable site??

Links for help:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/73420-hardware-identification.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/314096-drivers-find-update-outdated-drivers.html

 

[aplewis]

Thanks for the reply! Since that post yesterday, I haven't had a chance to play guild wars for more than 50 minutes total, and as I said earlier I have had no problems with streaming videos. So hopefully I won't run into any problems, when I get a chance to play later today.

To answer some of your questions:

• the problematic machine is the laptop
• I figured that my laptop was pushing the limits of streaming videos/ gaming. The thing that confused me was the fact that all of my games at least worked without crashing before I got the new hard drive.
• I have had the notebook since 2010, and it occasionally gets hot or warm. The actually failed a few months ago and I replaced it, but have since been using secondary cooling outside of the laptop to be safe. I have been planning to get a desktop after I graduate college in the spring, and am just trying to keep my laptop working until then.
• The new operating system and Microsoft office seem to have validated ok from dreamspark, as far as I can tell.
• I received Guild Wars 2 from the company itself, and re-downloaded all of my steam games recently. Something that makes me hopeful is that yesterday when I logged into Guild Wars 2, a screen came up saying "repairing data archives", and the game completely re-downloaded without me having to try and do so manually. I've taken this as a sign that the things I fixed yesterday helped, since guild wars had never done this before (and the fact that it didn't crash in 5-10 minutes as before)

Thanks again!

 

[aplewis]

Well, it seems that the problem hasn't been fixed...

I have attached the new crash information. I have also updated my system information as requested. this time, the error message was SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION, and the stop code was 0x0000003B. I looked it up, and found an article with a hotfix here: Stop error code 0x0000003B (SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION) on a computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 when you use some IEEE 1394 devices , but I'm not planning on using it unless someone responds to this and says I should. If possible, take a look at all of the crashes, since I suspect that they're not all the same.

I've also noticed that there was no .dmp file for for today (12-15-2013), so I might not have had the system set to make a dump file (although it made the original ones?). I'll check and make sure it's all set for the future.

In an unrelated note, would it be a bad or a good idea to try and completely start from scratch and reinstall windows on the new hard drive? Since I had no issues with the old one before it broke, I must have done something wrong when reinstalling programs. Is it feasible/ safe to just "wipe" the hard drive (wouldn't even know how to do that) and try again?

 

[Anak]

Thank you for updating your specs and answering my questions. I haven't been able to devote much time on the forums because of the snow removal I've had to do, but I shouldn't be more than a day behind you.

The third bullet down you mention: "The actually failed a few months ago and I replaced it," would that be the cooling fan?


Now for your second reply:

Some info for your exception:
STOP 0x0000003B: SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION:
Cause
This error has been linked to excessive paged pool usage and may occur due to user-mode graphics drivers crossing over and passing bad data to the kernel code.

Your new drive doesn't look to be a 1394 device, but it wouldn't hurt to try the hotfix. That brings to mind the matter of windows updates. Have you been able to successfully install all updates?

All the crashes/.dmp's were the same the only difference was the modified date they were all 12-17-2013. The first run; one was 12-06, and two were 12-11.

Have you thought about that graphics driver? You might want to make sure your update took. the one I found is: AMD Catalyst™ Driver for AMD Radeon™ HD 4000, HD 3000 and HD 2000 Series

There are also browser settings to disable hardware acceleration you may want to try that.

• IE is, Tools >Internet Options >Advance tab >Accelerated graphics, No check mark.
• FF is, Tools >Options >Advance tab >Browsing >Use hardware acceleration when available, No check mark.
• Chrome is, Settings >Advanced Settings >System >Use hardware acceleration when available, No check mark.

This would be the perfect time to try a clean install of the OS since it is new and you haven't added a lot to it.

Here's two tutorials you can follow:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/219487-clean-reinstall-factory-oem-windows-7-a.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html

 

[aplewis]

To answer your first question, yes, I meant to say cooling fan.

I'll look into that hot fix you mentioned, and I've already unchecked the accelerated graphics in my browser. I should have more time this weekend to try and fix this (in the middle of finals week right now), and if all else fails, I should be able to find the recovery disks (at home) that were made when I bought the computer.
Thanks again.

 

[Anak]

Your welcome,

Some helpful links:
Compaq Presario CQ62 Notebook PC and HP G62 Notebook PC
Maintenance and Service Guide 147pg .PDF
See page 47 for HDD swap, and Chapter 7 for Backup and Recovery. Items listed in Table of Contents menu are clickable:

Performing an HP System Recovery (Windows 7) | HP® Support

Setup & Install for Compaq Presario CQ62-200 Notebook PC series - HP Support Center

For the HDD if you would like to go over some of the procedures:
WD Blue | Mobile 2.5-inch Hard Drives Make sure of the jumper settings, and all connections are secure.

How to physically install, set jumper settings, and set up a Serial ATA, EIDE, or SSD drive in Windows 7, Vista, XP, and 2000, Secondary link: Operating System Installation for Windows 7

Let me know if I forgot anything or can help find anything for you, break a leg on those finals!

 

[aplewis]

Well, my computer hasn't crashed since the last time I'm posted the dump files (5-ish days?), so I will mark this thread as solved. Fingers crossed that it stays that way. Thanks again for all of the help!

 

[Anak]

Your welcome.

If you have the time (with the holiday rush) could you elaborate on what you have done to alleviate your problem? It would be most helpful not only to myself, but to any other members that may find themselves in a similar situation with their Presario Notebooks.

Did it have something to do with:

• The new Hard Disk Drive (HDD) installation?

• Graphics Drivers?

• Was it Steam or the Guild Wars2 game?

• Did you re-install the operating System (OS)?

Please elaborate.

 

[aplewis]

Well, my computer actually just crashed 4 times yesterday, so my problem isn't fixed as I'd hoped. I had no issue for about a week or more until that happened. Although, the driver that caused the crash was win32sys or something like that, which I had seen a few times before. However, it wasn't the most common crash before yesterday.

I'm going to re-install the operating system using the recovery disks i got when I bought the laptop (I'm home from college now and didn't have them with me originally). Hopefully that will fix my problem, since I suspect that my OS download wasn't perfect.

 

[aplewis]

Sorry for posting so much, but my computer is finally fixed. I reformatted the hard drive and reinstalled windows 7 using the recover disks that were at home. I haven't had any issues since then, so I am positive at this point that the windows 7 professional OS that I installed from Dreamspark was to blame. I downloaded that with a friend on his computer, put it on a flash drive, then used that to install my operating system (when I originally set up my new hard drive). I don't know if the download itself was bad or if an error occurred somewhere else in the download/ installation process. As of right now, I haven't checked to see if my drivers are up to date, which also makes me think the operating system was to blame. Thanks again for the help.

 

[Anak]

Your welcome,

I didn't reply to your post of three days ago because you had a plan of action and I wanted to wait until you finished with it.

All three operations could have been at fault:

• A bad download from Dreamspark.
• A corrupt flash drive.
• Causing a bad installation.

I wouldn't worry too much with the driver updates, first:

• If you have a new trial with an anti-malware program that came with the recovery disks run with that until it expires and then go with one you like. MSE works well with Windows and is free.
• Make sure the OS is Updated, run Windows Update from the Control Panel.
• Install the Office 2010, you will have to run Updates again to check that Office is updated.
• Set-up your email.
• Add your social media clients,
• Then give it a few days under normal operation and see how it goes.

Then try the GW2 game, from what I understand it doesn't need Steam in order to play: Guild Wars 2 is not coming to Steam. - Steam Users' Forums, but if you insist, there is a way to use Steam as an overlay?? I don't game so I don't know that much about the ins and outs. Guild Wars 2 on steam? - Steam Users' Forums

Some thoughts:
I would believe your OS has reverted to the Home Premium x64 version using the recovery disks, and that 3GB of memory is a bare-bones requirement to run the 64bit version so, you could try GW2, but I wouldn't be too impressed until I added more ram.

If all goes well with your machine in a week or so, it would be appreciated if you came back to mark your thread solved.

Have a happy and prosperous new year!

Anak