Solved BSOD - primarily when using Lightoom (sometimes just randomly)

[odessit40]

i'll give it a shot and report my findings...it's getting more and more frustrating
Could this be a hard drive issue where the phtoos are stored?

 

[odessit40]

question: WhoCrashed identifies 2 culprits - hal.dll and ntoskrnl.exe - what are those files and how can they be fixed?

 

[essenbe]

Yes, It's possible, but what makes you think that?

 

[odessit40]

every time i run lightroom (which references that specific drive), the system causes a BSOD
i'll try to move the same image to my OS disk and try to export...and report back on my findings

 

[essenbe]

question: WhoCrashed identifies 2 culprits - hal.dll and ntoskrnl.exe - what are those files and how can they be fixed?

Both are Windows system files, and do not cause crashes. It is something else or something altered system files.

 

[essenbe]

Do you have driver verifier enabled? If you had BSODs, upload the new minidump files please.

 

[odessit40]

Verifier crashed as soon as I loaded into OS
will run the memdump collection now and post

PS. memdump is the same from 6/15

I loaded into Win7....i plugged in the USB drive , and the screen turned fuzzy and system crashed (not BSOD)

 

[odessit40]

Mcafee uninstalled, ran Lightroom for pics of a different drive - still BSOD
i am about to kick my PC

 

[essenbe]

Don't kick it, yet. Just bear with us and we will hopefully figure it out.

 

[odessit40]

Thanks, guys.
I am a semi-professional photographer who cannot work on this craft...and the pics i cant process...are the ones from my wedding. So you can imagine how frustrated I am

 

[essenbe]

Odessit, please do one thing for me, Look on the package your ram came in or on a white sticker on the side of the ram. it will tell you the frequency it runs at and the first 4 timings and the voltage. You will se something like 9-9-9-34 21.5V 1333. once you know that, go into bios and look at your sata controller, it should be set to AHCI or IDE. Now, set optimized defaults in bios (usually F5) once you have set that, go to your ram and set the timings, frequency and voltage specified on the ram, go to your sata controller and set it exactly like it is now then go to the boot order and set the DVD as 1st boot device and the hard drive Windows is installed on as 2nd boot device. Then Save and exit. Tell me if that makes a difference. I have also asked some others to come in to assist you. After we have done all of this, I am still not sure whether you have a hardware problem or a bad driver causing this. The dump filed seem to indicate a bad driver and so does driver verifier. But it acts like bad hardware to me. Hardware I can handle usually. But, you may be without use of your computer for a couple of days in order to figure this out, if you are willing.

 

[Arc]

I have seen a couple of instances where SABERTOOTH 990FX R2.0 did not run perfectly when all the DIMM slots were occupied. can you remove two RAMs and run the computer with 8 GB RAM, just to see if it makes any difference or not?

 

[essenbe]

I have seen a couple of instances where SABERTOOTH 990FX R2.0 did not run perfectly when all the DIMM slots were occupied. can you remove two RAMs and run the computer with 8 GB RAM, just to see if it makes any difference or not?

In my opinion that constitutes a bad board, although you are usually better off only using 2 sticks of ram ( it only uses 1 of the 2 memory controllers and puts less strain on the CPU) However the board has 4 slots and should be able to utilize all 4. IMO, if it can't and run properly using all 4, it's a defective board. But, I agree with Arc, try with only 2 sticks.

 

[odessit40]

I tried it with both boards - and 1,2,3, and 4 sticks configs...same results
will take a look at the BIOS settings now

 

[essenbe]

Good. Do you have another computer or one you could use for a few days??

 

[odessit40]

i have a laptop but this is my primary
Why?

 

[odessit40]

just set my ram to 9-9-9-24 1.5v

 

[odessit40]

Crashed out again...

 

[essenbe]

OK. How is it doing? and are you having issues with anything other than Lightroom? Refresh my memory. Also, can you list all the tests you have done, please? I asked that because, drastic times require drastic measures. We have run almost every test, I think. That's why I would like you to list everything you have done. I think it would help all involved to see them all in one place. Did your Dad ever tell you, "I'm taking you to the woodshed"? I think it's time we took your computer to the 'woodshed'. Nothing real drastic, but you may not be able to use it as you normally do for a few days, maybe even several days. Every dump file I have run of yours, indicates to me that it is a third party driver. I'm going to try to lead you into finding out which one that is.

If you can, I would like you to call Adobe technical support and tell them what is happening and tell them we have tested every piece of hardware on your machine, and you would like to know what would cause Lightroom to crash every time you start the program. At least that's what I would do. They know their software better than anyone.

 

[odessit40]

I ran memtest (8 passes)...no errors
Tested each stick in each slot
Prime95..no problem
Swamped Motherboard - problem continues
Clean install of OS
McAfee removed
Driver verifier - crashes the OS almost immediately
SFC - no violations
Voltage and timing adjust on RAM

I've browsed the web and LOT of people seem to be reporting this, i think this has to do with the unstable version of Lightroom. I may go back and reinstall prior version from 5.4...