BSODs occurring on a fresh Win7 install - could be Avast related

[djn3rd]

Installing Windows 7 64 bit home premium on a machine. This is the second machine of an identical pair. Computer One of the pair of machines works fine, no BSOD's. The second machine has had blue screens almost since the very beginning.

I installed windows 7 64 bit home premium on a SSD. Install went fine as far as I could tell.

I used double driver to copy all of non Microsoft drivers from the working computer to the second computer. This appeared to go fine except the Atheros Valkyrie BootROM driver won't install correctly using doubleDriver. The working The device driver installation Wizard says that the Atheros Valkyrie BootRom is ready to use but when looking at the hardware list there is a yellow warning sign next to the Atheros Valkyrie BootROM entry.

I'm having BSOD upon booting up and logging in to Windows. It seems like I will get a BSOD, then power cycle the machine and then I won't have a BSOD until I reboot and login again. It seems like there is a pattern of login, BSOD, then reboot and login with no BSOD, then reboot, login and get a BSOD again.

I spent a long time just rebooting , loging in, getting a BSOD then rebooting, then loging in, etc to try and see if I could find any patterns.

I have tried a few things to try and isolate the problem which I think might be associated with AVAST (note: computer One (working comuter) has the same version of AVAST internet security with no problems at all). On reason I suspect Avast is that a few of the BSOD were from aswSnx.SYS which is an Avast file.

The main thing I tried was uninstalling avast which seemed to dramaticaly end the BSOD with only getting one BSOD after trying.

I tried booting with Hiren and using the memtest software which did not find any problems with the ram.

I have tried using verifier but the computer dosen't seem to generate any BSOD while verifier is running. The only time a BSOD was generated while verifier was running was after I left the machine runing for 37 hours and came back to a BSOD but no additional information from verifier.

I'm looking to see if by looking at the dumps it can be confirmed/determined that it is indeed Avast causing these BSODs so I can switch to another antivirus before I start depending on this machine.

 

[Arc]

Avast is causing the BSODs, for sure.

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*                        Bugcheck Analysis                                    *
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Use !analyze -v to get detailed debugging information.

BugCheck FC, {fffff88003ea1811, 8000000220a0c963, fffff8800546b6f0, 2}

*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for[URL="http://www.carrona.org/drivers/driver.php?id=aswSnx.SYS"] aswSnx.SYS[/URL]
*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for [URL="http://www.carrona.org/drivers/driver.php?id=aswSnx.SYS"]aswSnx.SYS[/URL]
Probably caused by : [URL="http://www.carrona.org/drivers/driver.php?id=aswSnx.SYS"]aswSnx.SYS [/URL]( aswSnx+3811 )

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

Uninstall Avast using Avast Uninstall Utility. Use Microsoft Security Essentials as your antivirus with windows inbuilt firewall, and free MBAM as the on demand scanner.
Download, install and update those, and then run full system scans with both of them, one by one.

Check that the INTEL SSDSA2M080G2GC is running with the up-to-date firmware.
Intel® High Performance Solid-State Drive — Update your Intel® SSD Firmware using the Intel® Solid-State Drive Toolbox

Let us know the results. You got lots of BSODs lately. These two steps will at least minimize the situation. Then we will work on the further issues, if needed.

 

[djn3rd]

BSODs back

There have been several BSODs on the persons computer after I tried following the instructions in the last post.

Here is where I am confused these BSODs have not resulted in a dump file. I just checked the settings under system->advanced System Settings ->Startup and Recovery -> settings and write debuggin information has Kernel Memory Dump selected.

After the last few BSODs I unchecked overwrite any existing files.

The most recent BSOD was this morning (7-3-2013). I confirmed that it was a BSOD (showed them a image of a typical BSOD). It looks like there is a listing in the event logs and i think that's included in this zip from the SF Diagnostic Tool.

One interesting difference between the two virtually identical computers (main difference is a different printer and a usb webcam but might differ in DVD drive and different SSD drive) is that the Atheros Valkyrie BootROM appears to work fine (no yellow ! in the icon next to the device name on the machine that doesn't have any issues but on the machine that has the BSODs there is a yellow ! showing an issue. I tried to remove the Atheros Valkyrie BootROM and then re-install with drivers transferred from the working machine. At first I couldn't remove the Atheros Valkyrie BootROM but then I could remove it. I then rebooted and installed via double driver then rebooted.

Device driver installation Wizard reports the drivers were successfully installed on this computer with Drivername: Atheros Communications (BTAH_BUS) with a status of ready to use. Rebooting and looking at the Hardware listing under the Computer entry on Devices and printers still shows a yellow exclamation icon next to the Atheros Valkyrie BootRom entry. Looking under the Atheros Valkyrie BootRoom properties and under the Device status says:

Windows cannot verify the digital signature for the drivers required for this device. A recent hardware or software change might have installed a file that is signed incorrectly or damaged, or that might be malicious software from an unknown source. (Code 52)

This is about all the details I can think off. Its strange because the other machine never has BSODs or really any errors and the computer that does have BSOD is basicaly identical (CPU, RAM, Motherboard, etc)

Thanks for the help.

 

[Arc]

As per the data you uploaded, the last BSOD was on 19.06.

View attachment 275039

Make it sure that the crash dump recording is properly configured.

Follow it: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/174459-dump-files-configure-windows-create-bsod.html
Go to Option Two, Point 2. Download the .reg file and merge it in registry by double clicking it.

Now wait for another BSOD. When it occurred, search the .dmp files manually in the default path: C:\Windows\Minidump or %SystemRoot%\Minidump. See if the crash dump is recorded or not (hopefully it will be recorded).Post it following the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) Posting Instructions.

 

[djn3rd]

Person reported another BSOD today (7-5-2013). She took a picture of it to prove that she was getting BSODs. The picture isn't clear enough to show the details. Again there is no sign of a memory generated.

I have looked at both %SystemRoot%\MEMORY.DMP (which should have generated a new DMP file given I have un-selected "Overwrite any existing file" and had kernel memory dump selected as far as writing debugging information). The last MEMORY.DMP is 6-19-2013 6:45AM.

I also looked in %SystemRoot%\Minidump which is the location set for the small memory dump (256K) and found no recent dmp files (most recent is 6-19-2013 6:45AM).

One question I have is what type of memory dump should I have selected: Small Memory dump or Kernel Memory dump?

I am going to follow Arc's instrucions and Download the .reg file and merge it in registry by double clicking it.

Hopefully any BSODs will generate memory dump as i think those memory dumps are pretty vital regarding solving this problem.

 

[djn3rd]

I just followed Arc's instructions to download the .reg file from http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/174459-dump-files-configure-windows-create-bsod.html - Option Two Point Two: Configure Dump File Settings with a REG File Download - To have Windows Create a Small memory dump (Minidump) File on BSOD

I have downloaded that .reg file and merged into the registry.