BSOD randomly, started freezing, ntoskrnl.exe and atikmdag.sys

[iRoman]

I have a 6 months old computer and I've been getting BSODs for a few weeks now but it started recently freezing so I'm having to type this from safe mode. I tried fixing the atikmdag.sys BSOD but with no results.

 

[Thedoctor44]

Your AMD display driver is causing issues.

Unable to load image \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\atikmdag.sys, Win32 error 0n2
*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for atikmdag.sys
*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for atikmdag.sys
Probably caused by : atikmdag.sys ( [COLOR="Red"]atikmdag+27837[/COLOR] )

It's not really outdated but you could try updating it to a newer version, not the latest version though.

2: kd> [COLOR="Green"]lmvm atikmdag[/COLOR]
start             end                 module name
fffff880`0f425000 fffff880`10115000   atikmdag T (no symbols)           
    Loaded symbol image file: atikmdag.sys
    Image path: \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\atikmdag.sys
    Image name: atikmdag.sys
    Timestamp:        [COLOR="red"]Fri Dec 06 21:19:43 2013[/COLOR] (52A23F6F)
    CheckSum:         00CA856E
    ImageSize:        00CF0000
    Translations:     0000.04b0 0000.04e4 0409.04b0 0409.04e4

These instructions are useful if you are using a desktop, not a laptop.

How-To Install AMD Catalyst? Drivers For A Windows® Based System

 

[iRoman]

I updated my drivers to the newer version but not the newest and although I didn't get a BSOD for a few hours I now got one too. BlueScreenView says it was caused by ntoskrnl.exe+75bc0 with the error message 0x00000050. Thanks for the reply. I'm also uploading the newest dmp files.

 

[Thedoctor44]

I'm thinking bad RAM personally.
Here's why.

BugCheck [COLOR="Red"]50[/COLOR], {[COLOR="blue"]ffffd8a00e574ab0[/COLOR], 0, [COLOR="Orange"]fffff880073a840f[/COLOR], 7}

The first parameter is the memory address that was referenced.

The third parameter is the address that contains the instruction that referenced the bad address which is the 1st parameter.

1: kd> r cr2
[COLOR="Red"]cr2=ffffd8a00e574ab0[/COLOR]

The first address is stored in the 2nd Control Register that contains the Page Fault Linear Address (PFLA), when a page fault occurs it stores the address that was being referenced before the page fault handler is sent out.

1: kd> [COLOR="green"]!pte ffffd8a00e574ab0[/COLOR]
                                           VA ffffd8a00e574ab0
PXE at FFFFF6FB7DBEDD88    PPE at FFFFF6FB7DBB1400    PDE at FFFFF6FB76280390    PTE at FFFFF6EC50072BA0
contains 0000000000000000
[COLOR="red"]not valid[/COLOR]

Here we can see that the address being referenced was invalid.
Lets keep that in mind...

1: kd> [COLOR="Green"]kv[/COLOR]
Child-SP          RetAddr           : Args to Child                                                           : Call Site
fffff880`09911df8 fffff800`0310253b : 00000000`00000050 ffffd8a0`0e574ab0 00000000`00000000 fffff880`09911f60 : nt!KeBugCheckEx
fffff880`09911e00 fffff800`03083cee : 00000000`00000000 ffffd8a0`0e574ab0 fffffa80`069f8f00 00000000`00000000 : nt! ?? ::FNODOBFM::`string'+0x43781
fffff880`09911f60 fffff880`073a840f : 00000000`0001c000 fffff880`09912128 fffff8a0`15336350 fffffa80`00000002 : nt!KiPageFault+0x16e (TrapFrame @ [COLOR="Green"]fffff880`09911f60[/COLOR])
fffff880`099120f0 fffff880`0738e3e7 : fffffa80`06b9ec01 fffffa80`0c18c010 00000000`020d0008 00000000`0000002d : [COLOR="Red"]dxgmms1!VIDMM_GLOBAL::ReferenceDmaBuffer+0x39b[/COLOR]
fffff880`099121e0 fffff880`0730715e : fffffa80`0acb9000 00000000`00000200 fffff880`09912900 00000000`00000000 : dxgmms1!VidMmReferenceDmaBuffer+0x43
fffff880`09912230 fffff880`07306923 : fffff8a0`00000001 fffff8a0`01f46cd0 fffff880`099128b0 00000000`00000000 : dxgkrnl!DXGCONTEXT::Render+0x326
fffff880`09912840 fffff960`001c14be : 00000000`039ae2f0 00000000`039aebf8 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 : dxgkrnl!DxgkRender+0x3e7
fffff880`09912ab0 fffff800`03084e53 : fffffa80`07580060 fffff880`09912b60 00000000`00328c37 fffffa80`0b3448d0 : win32k!NtGdiDdDDIRender+0x12
fffff880`09912ae0 000007fe`fe1b13fa : 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 : nt!KiSystemServiceCopyEnd+0x13 (TrapFrame @ fffff880`09912ae0)
00000000`039ae2b8 00000000`00000000 : 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 : 0x000007fe`fe1b13fa

There we can see the trap frame for the page fault that we want, as well as a dma buffer routine which seems suspicious.

1: kd> [COLOR="Green"].trap fffff880`09911f60[/COLOR]
NOTE: The trap frame does not contain all registers.
Some register values may be zeroed or incorrect.
rax=[COLOR="Blue"]ffffd8a00e574ab0[/COLOR] rbx=0000000000000000 rcx=000000000000008a
rdx=00000000020d0008 rsi=0000000000000000 rdi=0000000000000000
rip=fffff880073a840f rsp=fffff880099120f0 rbp=fffff88009912900
 r8=fffffa800ac49008  r9=0000000000000002 r10=0000000000650025
r11=0000000080002280 r12=0000000000000000 r13=0000000000000000
r14=0000000000000000 r15=0000000000000000
iopl=0         nv up ei ng nz na pe nc
dxgmms1!VIDMM_GLOBAL::ReferenceDmaBuffer+0x39b:
[COLOR="Red"]fffff880`073a840f[/COLOR] 488b38          mov     rdi,qword ptr [rax] ds:[COLOR="Blue"]ffffd8a0`0e574ab0[/COLOR]=????????????????

You can see that fffff880`073a840f referenced Rax which results in a complete memory write to ffffd8a0`0e574ab0.

1: kd> [COLOR="Green"]!pte ffffd8a0`0e574ab0[/COLOR]
                                           VA ffffd8a00e574ab0
PXE at FFFFF6FB7DBEDD88    PPE at FFFFF6FB7DBB1400    PDE at FFFFF6FB76280390    PTE at FFFFF6EC50072BA0
contains 0000000000000000
[COLOR="Red"]not valid[/COLOR]

1: kd> [COLOR="Green"]dd ffffd8a00e574ab0[/COLOR]
ffffd8a0`0e574ab0  ???????? ???????? ???????? ????????
ffffd8a0`0e574ac0  ???????? ???????? ???????? ????????
ffffd8a0`0e574ad0  ???????? ???????? ???????? ????????
ffffd8a0`0e574ae0  ???????? ???????? ???????? ????????
ffffd8a0`0e574af0  ???????? ???????? ???????? ????????
ffffd8a0`0e574b00  ???????? ???????? ???????? ????????
ffffd8a0`0e574b10  ???????? ???????? ???????? ????????
ffffd8a0`0e574b20  ???????? ???????? ???????? ????????

This is a very strong indication of bad RAM.

Memtest86 will test your RAM

   Information

Run Memtest86 for at least 8 passes so we get enough information to confirm that your RAM isn't failing

That being said, you appear to have this program installed...

[COLOR="Red"]DAEMON Tools Lite[/COLOR]	"c:\program files (x86)\daemon tools lite\dtlite.exe" -autorun	Patrik-PC\Patrik	HKU\S-1-5-21-2215756303-2610815555-3833992958-1000\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

Daemon Tools/Alcohol is known cause of BSODs.

Registry and SPTD problems | DAEMON Pro Help
How to remove sptd.sys from system

1. Uninstall Daemon Tools.
2. Download the SPTD standalone installer and follow these steps:
3. Double click the executable to open it
4. Click the button shown below

If the button it is grayed out, as shown in the image, there is no more SPTD installation on your system, and you can just close the window.

 

[iRoman]

I removed Daemon Tools but still get BSODs. I tried running Memtest but it keeps freezing for me before it even finishes the first pass. I did once get 468 errors before it froze so I don't know if that number isn't a bit too high. I searched for solutions to the freezing of Memtest but all I got was that I should try disabling legacy USB support in BIOS and tried it but after that I couldn't even start Memtest because everytime I booted from my USB it launched Windows normally.

 

[Thedoctor44]

Any errors in Memtest indicate bad RAM.

How much RAM do you have?
If you have more than one stick then then you'll need to swap your RAM sticks around to determine whether or not it's the RAM sticks or motherboard DIMM slots.

If the output is like this then you have bad RAM so the stick(s) need replacing.

Test|Slot 1|Slot 2
RAM 1| Error | Error
RAM 2|Good|Good

If the output is like this then you should replace the motherboard, however you can leave that DIMM slot empty although it's not advised to use a system with a faulty motherboard.

Test|Slot 1|Slot 2
RAM 1| Error |Good
RAM 2| Error |Good