Solved BSOD When using new MSI Nvidia 460 GTX

[EilaDoll]

Ok, so here is the issue in detail. I just got a graphics card for my birthday a few weeks ago. I got an MSI Nvidia 460 GTX M2D1GD5/OC2 (Factory overclocked) card. I was upgrading from an Nvidia 7600 GT 256MB card. I did a clean install of all of the drivers for my graphics card, removed all of them, rebooted into safe mode, installed the new drivers, rebooted, and moved on. Not too long after getting up and running, I had a black screen then the message saying the driver stopped responding but that it recovered. Not long after that, I ended up with a blue screen crash. I thought, ok, weird, maybe it's the drivers. I then went to the Nvidia website and got the newest drivers (301.42) and did another clean install. That seemed to do the trick. But a couple days later, another blue screen appeared with a different message. I tried every driver that I could find that claimed to be stable. At this point, I decided I would check to see if somehow my computer was at fault. I switched back to my old graphics card and it runs like a dream so far. No blue screens, no hang ups, no sign of any trouble. It appears to be something with the driver as far as I can tell, but I'm no computer expert. I'm handy with a computer, but this part is a bit beyond me. At one point, I went so far as to completely format my HDD and re-install windows to see if maybe there was some sort of old driver left behind. Didn't solve it. The blue screens come at random and I get a full out array of different crashes. So far I've had:

1) PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA
2) UNEXPECTED_KERNEL_MODE_TRAP
3) SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION
4) BCC: 0x00000101
5) SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
6) BCC: 0x00000101

I attached a zip file containing the dump files from the crashes.

 

[EilaDoll]

I forgot the jcgriff thing so here it is.

 

[usasma]

SP1 isn't installed, please do the following:

Installing Windows 7 Service Pack 1
1. Visit the PC manufacturer's website and update ALL drivers. DO NOT use Windows Update or the "Update drivers" function of Device Manager.
2. Check Device Manager for any unknown/disabled devices - if there are unknown/disabled devices, fix them with the latest drivers from the device manufacturer's website (not the PC Manufacturer)
3. Visit Windows Update and get all updates (may take repeated visits)
4. Visit Windows Update and get Service Pack 1 (usually under Important Updates). Read these notes for installing SP1: Steps to follow before you install Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 from the Microsoft Download Center
NOTE: For Vista, read these notes:

Read these notes for installing Vista SP1: Learn how to install Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1)
Read these notes for installing Vista SP2: Learn how to install Windows Vista Service Pack 2 (SP2)

5. Visit Windows Update and get any other available updates. May take repeated visits, but keep it up until you get several "Windows is updated" results.
If you're having difficulties with installing a Service Pack, please use the SURTool from this link: What is the System Update Readiness Tool?
Also, check out this troubleshooting link from Microsoft: Troubleshoot problems installing Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2

I have had limited success in installing updates/Service Packs when using a "clean boot". I suspect that I'm just bypassing the problem - and that it can come back to bite me in the butt later on.

Daemon Tools (and Alcohol % software) are known to cause BSOD's on some Win7 systems (mostly due to the sptd.sys driver, although I have seen dtsoftbus01.sys blamed on several occasions).
Please uninstall the program, then use the following free tool to ensure that the troublesome sptd.sys driver is removed from your system (pick the 32 or 64 bit system depending on your system's configuration): DuplexSecure - FAQ Afterburner (along with Riva Tune and EVGA Precision) are known to cause BSOD's on Win7 systems. Please uninstall it immediately.

If overclocking, please stop while we're troubleshooting and return the system to stock (standard) values.
Feel free to resume the overclock once the system is stabilized.

Please uninstall the Western Digital software as it's drivers date from 2008

Your antivirus program dates from 2011. Please:
- download a fresh copy of the latest version of your antivirus
- uninstall the current antivirus from your system
- install the freshly downloaded copy, immediately update it and perform a full system scan

If the BSOD's continue after this, please run the following free diagnostics: Hardware Diagnostics. Start with the video diagnostics as this seems to be a video problem.

If the above steps don't stop the BSOD's, please zip up and upload any new memory dumps with your next post - and we'll see what we can figure out from there.

The following info is just FYI, I've already addressed the issues that I saw in the above paragraphs

- Further info on BSOD error messages available at: http://www.carrona.org/bsodindx.html
- Info on how to troubleshoot BSOD's (DRAFT): http://www.carrona.org/userbsod.html
- How I do it: http://www.carrona.org/howidoit.html

3RD PARTY DRIVERS PRESENT IN THE DUMP FILES

[font=lucida console]
SmartDefragDriver.sys Fri Nov 26 04:29:40 2010 (4CEF7E04)
amdxata.sys           Fri Mar 19 12:18:18 2010 (4BA3A3CA)
aswFsBlk.SYS          Tue May 10 07:59:36 2011 (4DC928A8)
aswMonFlt.sys         Tue May 10 07:59:47 2011 (4DC928B3)
aswRdr.SYS            Tue May 10 07:59:58 2011 (4DC928BE)
aswSP.SYS             Tue May 10 08:04:06 2011 (4DC929B6)
aswSnx.SYS            Tue May 10 08:04:06 2011 (4DC929B6)
aswTdi.SYS            Tue May 10 08:02:40 2011 (4DC92960)
dtsoftbus01.sys       Fri Jan 13 08:45:46 2012 (4F10358A)
dump_nvstor64.sys     Fri Apr 09 05:22:41 2010 (4BBEF1E1)
nvhda64v.sys          Wed Apr 18 13:07:54 2012 (4F8EF4EA)
nvlddmkm.sys          Tue May 15 03:35:36 2012 (4FB20748)
nvlddmkm.sys          Wed Aug 03 05:08:32 2011 (4E391010)
nvmf6264.sys          Thu Mar 04 20:04:39 2010 (4B9058A7)
nvstor.sys            Fri Mar 19 16:45:11 2010 (4BA3E257)
nvstor64.sys          Fri Apr 09 05:22:41 2010 (4BBEF1E1)
wdcsam64.sys          Wed Apr 16 04:39:08 2008 (4805BB2C)
[/font]

http://www.carrona.org/drivers/driver.php?id=SmartDefragDriver.sys
http://www.carrona.org/drivers/driver.php?id=amdxata.sys
http://www.carrona.org/drivers/driver.php?id=aswFsBlk.SYS
http://www.carrona.org/drivers/driver.php?id=aswMonFlt.sys
http://www.carrona.org/drivers/driver.php?id=aswRdr.SYS
http://www.carrona.org/drivers/driver.php?id=aswSP.SYS
http://www.carrona.org/drivers/driver.php?id=aswSnx.SYS
http://www.carrona.org/drivers/driver.php?id=aswTdi.SYS
http://www.carrona.org/drivers/driver.php?id=dtsoftbus01.sys
http://www.carrona.org/drivers/driver.php?id=dump_nvstor64.sys
http://www.carrona.org/drivers/driver.php?id=nvhda64v.sys
http://www.carrona.org/drivers/driver.php?id=nvlddmkm.sys
http://www.carrona.org/drivers/driver.php?id=nvmf6264.sys
http://www.carrona.org/drivers/driver.php?id=nvstor.sys
http://www.carrona.org/drivers/driver.php?id=nvstor64.sys
http://www.carrona.org/drivers/driver.php?id=wdcsam64.sys

BSOD BUGCHECK SUMMARY

[font=lucida console]
Loading Dump File [C:\Users\John\_jcgriff2_\dbug\__Kernel__\071412-35069-01.dmp]
Built by: 7600.17017.amd64fre.win7_gdr.120503-2030
Debug session time: Sat Jul 14 16:22:23.838 2012 (UTC - 4:00)
System Uptime: 1 days 18:56:43.352
BugCheck 1000007E, {ffffffffc0000005, fffffa8000000007, fffff8800aeca938, fffff8800aeca1a0}
Probably caused by : Unknown_Image ( ANALYSIS_INCONCLUSIVE )
DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID:  WIN7_DRIVER_FAULT
PROCESS_NAME:  System
BUGCHECK_STR:  0x7E
FAILURE_BUCKET_ID:  X64_0x7E_ANALYSIS_INCONCLUSIVE
Bugcheck code 1000007E
Arguments ffffffff`c0000005 fffffa80`00000007 fffff880`0aeca938 fffff880`0aeca1a0
BiosVersion = F1
BiosReleaseDate = 12/24/2010
SystemManufacturer = Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
SystemProductName = M68MT-S2P
¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨``
Loading Dump File [C:\Users\John\_jcgriff2_\dbug\__Kernel__\071512-16286-01.dmp]
Built by: 7600.17017.amd64fre.win7_gdr.120503-2030
Debug session time: Sun Jul 15 12:51:13.644 2012 (UTC - 4:00)
System Uptime: 0 days 0:07:28.158
BugCheck 50, {fffff8800a1f6f42, 0, fffff80002c50143, 0}
Probably caused by : ntkrnlmp.exe ( nt!RtlpVirtualUnwind+157 )
DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID:  WIN7_DRIVER_FAULT
BUGCHECK_STR:  0x50
PROCESS_NAME:  elementclient.
FAILURE_BUCKET_ID:  X64_0x50_nt!RtlpVirtualUnwind+157
Bugcheck code 00000050
Arguments fffff880`0a1f6f42 00000000`00000000 fffff800`02c50143 00000000`00000000
BiosVersion = F1
BiosReleaseDate = 12/24/2010
SystemManufacturer = Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
SystemProductName = M68MT-S2P
¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨``
Loading Dump File [C:\Users\John\_jcgriff2_\dbug\__Kernel__\071512-16879-01.dmp]
Built by: 7600.17017.amd64fre.win7_gdr.120503-2030
Debug session time: Sun Jul 15 12:43:02.648 2012 (UTC - 4:00)
System Uptime: 0 days 1:25:23.162
BugCheck 7F, {8, 80050031, 6f8, fffff80002c8dbfb}
Probably caused by : ntkrnlmp.exe ( nt!KiDoubleFaultAbort+b2 )
BUGCHECK_STR:  0x7f_8
DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID:  WIN7_DRIVER_FAULT
PROCESS_NAME:  elementclient.
FAILURE_BUCKET_ID:  X64_0x7f_8_nt!KiDoubleFaultAbort+b2
Bugcheck code 0000007F
Arguments 00000000`00000008 00000000`80050031 00000000`000006f8 fffff800`02c8dbfb
BiosVersion = F1
BiosReleaseDate = 12/24/2010
SystemManufacturer = Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
SystemProductName = M68MT-S2P
¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨``
Loading Dump File [C:\Users\John\_jcgriff2_\dbug\__Kernel__\071512-17596-01.dmp]
Built by: 7600.17017.amd64fre.win7_gdr.120503-2030
Debug session time: Sun Jul 15 11:16:58.349 2012 (UTC - 4:00)
System Uptime: 0 days 3:21:06.502
BugCheck 3B, {c0000005, fffff80002dfc90d, fffff8800a4785d0, 0}
Probably caused by : ntkrnlmp.exe ( nt!ExAllocatePoolWithTag+53d )
DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID:  WIN7_DRIVER_FAULT
BUGCHECK_STR:  0x3B
PROCESS_NAME:  elementclient.
FAILURE_BUCKET_ID:  X64_0x3B_nt!ExAllocatePoolWithTag+53d
Bugcheck code 0000003B
Arguments 00000000`c0000005 fffff800`02dfc90d fffff880`0a4785d0 00000000`00000000
BiosVersion = F1
BiosReleaseDate = 12/24/2010
SystemManufacturer = Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
SystemProductName = M68MT-S2P
¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨``
Loading Dump File [C:\Users\John\_jcgriff2_\dbug\__Kernel__\071512-19016-01.dmp]
Built by: 7600.17017.amd64fre.win7_gdr.120503-2030
Debug session time: Sun Jul 15 07:55:09.268 2012 (UTC - 4:00)
System Uptime: 0 days 15:29:51.183
BugCheck 101, {21, 0, fffff88002f63180, 2}
Probably caused by : Unknown_Image ( ANALYSIS_INCONCLUSIVE )
BUGCHECK_STR:  CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT_6_PROC
DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID:  WIN7_DRIVER_FAULT
PROCESS_NAME:  devenv.exe
FAILURE_BUCKET_ID:  X64_CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT_6_PROC_ANALYSIS_INCONCLUSIVE
Bugcheck code 00000101
Arguments 00000000`00000021 00000000`00000000 fffff880`02f63180 00000000`00000002
BiosVersion = F1
BiosReleaseDate = 12/24/2010
SystemManufacturer = Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
SystemProductName = M68MT-S2P
¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨``

[/FONT]

 

[EilaDoll]

A few questions...
{1. Visit the PC manufacturer's website and update ALL drivers. DO NOT use Windows Update or the "Update drivers" function of Device Manager.}
There is no PC manufacturer's website unless you mean the drivers for the individual parts from their website as I ordered my pc piece by piece and put it together myself.

Daemon Tools.
Is there another program that wont cause a BSOD with Windows 7 that I can use to mount .iso images? I use them for larger groups of multiple files (i.e. Downloaded MMO game installers).

Overclocking.
The card came pre-overclocked (factory overclocked). Should I still drop it down in speed?

Western Digital.
Please uninstall the Western Digital software as it's drivers date from 2008
I need this program to manage my external HDD and there are no updates for this specific one, I've checked that. Suggestions?

Anti-Virus.
It's as up to date as I can get it, I'm using Avast! Free and it's the latest one.

 

[usasma]

Driver updating is a tricky subject - but, in this case, the PC Manufacturer can be construed as the mobo manufacturer. Other drivers for devices not on the mobo would be obtained from the device manufacturer's website.

In most cases we're looking for the most current drivers - which are most often at the device manufacturer's website. But often they're a real PITA to find - so we then suggest that you get the majority from the PC Manufacturer/motherboard manufacturer's website.

Daemon Tools - I used to recommend other programs, but found that the security on those websites wasn't very good (and people were getting infected). Don't use Alcohol software either, as they use the same drivers - but beyond that it's up to you what you use. Good luck!

This is another tricky thing (the overclocked-from-the-factory video card). In most cases it's not necessary to fiddle with it - but we have to remember it in case you're having video issues.

As for the Western Digital software - I only use Western Digital drives on my system and have no need for their software. What specific function do you use? Maybe one of the other posters can suggest a replacement app for you?

I don't keep track of the versions of antivirus software, so if 2011 is the latest driver from Avast, then that's what you've got.

 

[EilaDoll]

Thank you for the reply. I know the drivers I have for the motherboard come from the GIGABYTE website, I'll double check to be sure they're the latest ones. I know the sound card that came built into my PC case is Nvidia high definition audio, so I'll check on that one, though I think I updated it a couple days ago.

I used another mounting program before, Virtual Clone Drive. I'll check that out and see if it has caused any issues for anyone before I go back to it, or search around and see if I can find something clean. (Don't need to use any of my iso files for a while so I'm not too worried about uninstalling Daemon tools.)

The video card. Since my issue got progressively worse over the span of three weeks with obvious deteriation of the stability, I called the company I bought it from and they said that it sounded like a hardware issue and that they'd exchange it. (Hoping that it was a hardware issue and that this helps solve it.)

The Western Digital program I use for the back up, I like to manually manage which folders/files it backs up. There are a few things that aren't in typical back up programs that I need. (i.e. I write programs with Visual Studio 2010 and I like to keep my source files backed up so I can reference them later or improve on a program.)

With my anti-virus, I'll be sure to double check that it's up to date with the latest drivers but I'm pretty sure it is as it warns me when there are new versions of the program.

As a side Question:
I swapped back to my Nvidia 7600 GT when I started this post. With my 460 GTX I would have bluescreened by now, but I've had 0 issues running my 7600 GT card. No hang ups, black screens, or BSOD. The BSOD only started happening after I got that card and hasn't happened since I took it out.

It looks like my two graphics cards are using the same 301.42 drivers from Nvidia (The one for the specific card, of course), but only the GTX 460 crashes. Think it's the hardware issue?

 

[usasma]

If you get BSOD's with one card, but not with the other - I'd certainly suspect the card.
You can throw a bunch of tests at it, but the only certain test for a card is replacing it with another one (as you've done)..

Can you return the 460 GTX for another one?

 

[EilaDoll]

Yes, actually, I did that the day after I posted this. Since I only had the card since June 21st, I was still within the exchange dead-line and actually, the new card is supposed to get here tomorrow in the afternoon. Hopefully it will be a "Plug it in an voila" situation. I'm pretty convinced it was the card for a couple reasons:
1. Replacing the 460 GTX with my old 7600 GT solved the BSOD.
2. The 460 GTX had no errors initially but became progressively more unstable through out the course of a couple weeks (I'm guessing memory failure).

I do appreciate all the help here and I'm deffinitely working to solve the issues you've mentioned as well, just to be safe as possible. BSOD is amazingly good at driving me insane in the middle of a game, especially an MMO where you have to find a full team of people to get something done then get half way through and PC says bye-bye for you.

 

[EilaDoll]

Ok, so now I've got my new card. I did a clean install of all the drivers to be safe. When I re-installed them, I skipped the 3D Vision drivers and other software such as PhysX. I've removed Afterburner and Daemon tools. I've updated my windows, no more updates available. I ran the card without any trouble. Now here is the kicker. Some of the games I like to play (For example, Homefront) require PhysX. So I got PhysX installed again and after about two hours. Black screen "nvlddmkm" stopped responding and has recovered (Exactly what the old card did). So, great, back to square one. Then, I said ok, that's annoying, but I let it slide to see what would happen. Not long after, complete black screen hard freeze. Sounds froze, computer stopped loading anything, screen black, no recovery messages, no BSOD, just total lock down. I had to hard-boot my computer again. No new dump files or anything. So here is what I got:

The description for Event ID 14 from source nvlddmkm cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer.

If the event originated on another computer, the display information had to be saved with the event.

The following information was included with the event: 

\Device\Video5
CMDre 00000001 000000c0 ff1fe203 00000007 00000000

I got that at 8:35:05 AM.
After playing with it for an hour or so, I noticed that there were only two changes I had made to the computer.
1. Installed PhysX
2. Installed Virtual Clone Drive

Think it was VCD this time and Daemon Tools last time, or was PhysX the culprit both times?

 

[EilaDoll]

I turned on driver verifier and have it set to all drivers on my computer. After doing that, I rebooted and got instant BSOD for SmartDefragDriver.sys so I uninstalled smart defrag as well.

 

[usasma]

BSOD's are complex creatures and it's not always simply a one-step fix.

Running Driver Verifier was a good move, let's hope that it was SmartDefrag that was the problem.

Once you turn Driver Verifier off, wait and see if it BSOD's again (or if you get the "driver recovered" error again).

 

[EilaDoll]

So far I've still got driver verifier running. Had one BSOD but that was when I tried to use WinCDEmu. My PC apparently hates mounting programs. I used the portable version though, so when I rebooted the issue was fine. It gave me some kernel handle exception error of some sort but smooth now. I heard that it's best to let verifier run for 36 hours at least so I figure I'll go ahead and do that. Other than the WinCDEmu issue and the SmartDefrag, everything is working fine. I even re-installed PhysX to test with the driver verifier and so far, smooth as a whistle.

 

[usasma]

The 36 hour rule was made up by me ( Driver Verifier Settings ). It was my best guess as to how long it should take to get a BSOD that was Driver Verifier enabled. You've already got that, so there shouldn't be any need to continue to run Driver Verifier.

 

[EilaDoll]

Just turned off Driver Verifier. Sorry the response took so long, didn't notice the email about your response. Since I haven't had any issues since I got rid of the Smart Defrag program, I'm hoping the PC is fixed. Though that makes me curious, I've used Smart Defrag for years, why would it suddenly become an issue when I install a new graphics card and drivers for that card? Just happened that the card's and program's drivers didn't like each other?

 

[usasma]

Here's my theory (well 2 theories actually)

1) I wonder if the Smart Defrag driver had a little "bug" in it that lay unaccessed and undiscovered for years. It took an update to Windows to access that little bug and that made the bug's presence known.

2) I wonder if there's an interaction between the graphics drivers and the Smart Defrag drivers (sorta similar to what I thought above). That would mean that a new function in the graphics driver accessed the "bug" in the Smart Defrag driver (or it could be the other way around with Smart Defrag accessing a bug in the graphics driver).

 

[dwarfer66]

Why do you always say install service pack 1, if you have updated windows already, why do you need this?

 

[usasma]

Service Packs are needed because they also contain fixes that you don't get through regular Windows Update channels.

 

[EilaDoll]

Good news. Since my last post where I turned off driver verifier, so far, the computer has ran seamlessly since. No "driver has recovered" crashes, no black screens, no freezes, no lag spikes, and -yay- no BSODs.