Solved Complete rebuild but still getting BSOD

[Laith]

What hard drive controller are you using currently?

 

[IWVC]

the one that came on the mother board - Gigabyte 970A-DS3 as I haven't installed anything else.

 

[Laith]

Try unplugging the boot drive and run on the backup drive.

 

[IWVC]

I don't see the point of that. The backup drive is my original hard disc. I reloaded Win 7 several times before trying a new disc and clean install to cure the apparently random crashes. The same disc worked for many years running WinXP until I decided that with no further XP support being offered and many programmes then being written for Win 7 I'd upgrade and take the opportunity to move to a 64bit platform. Although i don't subscribe to the "you must have a virus" answer frequently given to any otherwise unknown crash, I was beginning to believe it hence the complete reinstall on a new disk to avoid any possibility of virus contamination! The backup copy is of course taken from the clean install on the new (current) C drive.

 

[axe0]

Please remove Gigabyte software, it is known for causing bluescreens and it seems you are using a Gigabyte driver dating 3 years before Windows 7 was released.

Please boot in your BIOS, search for the 3.3v, 5v and 12v values and let us know what they are.

Have you checked Gigabyte for driver updates and installed them?

 

[IWVC]

OK Sorry about gaps between replies, the PC is taking a lower priority with other things at home at present.

I thought, but can't be sure, that when I rebuilt the PC with the new Hard disc after using the original motherboard CD to load drivers it offered to download the latest drivers from the Gigabyte web site. However to be on the safe side I have tried to check if later drivers are available and have hit problems finding any new drivers. I had already followed through the usual links on the site to support, then mother board and then drivers (the same link as the ones you advised me on) which then loaded up AMD's Catalyst software. The attached screenshot shows the page. The link I used was the one for chipset.

Presumably having scanned the PC when it installed it does not give me any information on the MB drivers, only allowing changes to power management and Performance - enabling changes to clock speeds. A screenshot of Catalyst is also attached. So no help in updating basic drivers. There is a link to a Gigabyte programme via their FAQ page called Download centre which is claimed to check drivers and link to updated ones, but this doesn't seem to want to install or work on my system. Possibly an old programme that won't work on Win7 64bit?

I checked the voltages as I booted up this time and
3.3v = 3.245v
5v = 5.070v
12v = 12.024v

I did manage to update the Etron USB3 driver but as I only connect an external USB3 driver occasionally I can't see that being the route of my problem. It's crashed twice since then anyway....

Ian C

 

[axe0]

If you have CCC installed, please remove it and try to update the chipset drivers again.

 

[IWVC]

That's the problem, the Gigabyte link to drivers only loads up CCC. I have removed CCC and tried again with the same result.

 

[IWVC]

OK the longest period without a crash for a while. I decided to replace the RAM with a matched pair of 4GB units in place of the two 4GB units which had been bought at different times. having pulled the case out I thought that I may as well try using all 4 chips together, one in each of the available slots. Although the new Crucial chips (PC3 14900) are capable of running at higher speeds the RAM speed is limited to 667MHz - the speed of the slowest chip (PC3 10700). Now I appear to have a stable PC with 5 days without a crash. I don't understand why but fingers crossed!

Ian C

 

[Laith]

I have my fingers crossed aswell.

 

[IWVC]

OK I'll mark this one solved even though I'm not entirely certain it is - or what actually cured it!
From 28/10/15 to 21/1/16 ( roughly 3 months) I had 48 BSOD's. As I don't use the PC every day there were many nights when I had 2 or 3 crashes. After installing the additional memory (see post #29 above) I went 18 days without a problem. Then it crashed once followed by another 2 days later. But since I've had 6 days of fairly heavy use (for me - everything is relative) without a problem. So I think I'm ahead at the moment....

Ian C