Solved Constant BSODs the past week or so

[essenbe]

What utility are you using? You should not use a utility to update drivers, update drivers yourself from the Motherboard's/Manufacturer's web site.

 

[Chimi]

I'm using the one by Intel. I'm pretty sure it only works for Intel drivers. I haven't seen it recommend updating any other drivers and Intel recommends using it unless it's a bad idea.

Intel® Driver Update Utility

 

[essenbe]

Chimi, let's try something else. This will make your computer seem to run slow and a little sluggish, but use it anyway. There is always a risk of having to reinstall Windows, but we are going to take every precaution to see that that does not happen. I want you to use it and do anything you want to do with the computer and run it at least 24 hours of actual use, not just idling. Do anything you want and if there is something you do to make it BSOD, do it a lot. What we are going to do is put stress on all drivers NOT supplied by Microsoft. Sort the drivers by Provider and select all drivers not supplied by Microsoft. The first thing I want you is manually create a Restore Point, the link to how to do that is below. It is the same link to how to turn it off.

   Warning

Be sure to create a System Restore point before proceeding further http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/697-system-restore-point-create.html

Driver Verifier - Enable and Disable
Run Driver Verifier for 24 hours or the occurrence of the next crash, whichever is earlier.

   Information

What is Driver Verifier:
It puts stress on the drivers, and tries to make the faulty driver crash the computer. It is designed this way, to attempt to trap the offending driver.

What you will notice:
It will tend to make the computer rather slow and sluggish because the drivers are being stressed.

   Warning

Before enabling DV, make sure you have created a system restore point before enabling Driver Verifier. make a System Restore Point manually before enabling DV.

   Tip

• If you fail to get on the Desktop because of DV, Boot into Advanced Boot Options > Safe mode. Disable DV there. Now boot normally again, and try following the instruction of enabling DV again.
• If you cannot boot in Safe mode, do a System Restore to a point you made earlier.

Let us know the results, with the subsequent crash dumps, if any.

Chimi, what we are doing is putting extra stress on all of the third party drivers trying to make the one at fault crash the computer and catching it in the dump file. So, for once, if you have a BSOD, it isn't a bad thing.

 

[Chimi]

I ended up getting another crash with Driver Verifier enabled. By the looks of the blue screen, it looked like it was the nVidia driver again.

 

[essenbe]

You're right

*******************************************************************************
*                                                                             *
*                        Bugcheck Analysis                                    *
*                                                                             *
*******************************************************************************
Use !analyze -v to get detailed debugging information.
BugCheck 3B, {c0000096, fffff88005a88cb9, fffff880080322f0, 0}
*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for nvlddmkm.sys
*** ERROR: [COLOR=red]Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for nvlddmkm.sys[/COLOR]
Probably caused by : nvlddmkm.sys ( nvlddmkm+7ecb9 )

Try another driver, maybe an earlier one, and install it the same way, like this,
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/327414-nvidia-drivers-avoid-problems.html

 

[Chimi]

Alright, I rolled it back and so far so good. I'll keep an eye on it and let you know if anything happens.

 

[Chimi]

So everything has been going great until today when I was playing WoW and I was blue screening like it was the 4th of July. I had 3 blue screens in the span of an hour. They were the first I've had in the last couple days.

 

[essenbe]

Chimi, did you follow the guide I linked to, when you installed the last driver? If you did, you had a very clean install and there was nothing to roll it back to. If you didn't, please follow the guide I have linked to so you will get a clean install and have no other drivers to conflict with your new ones.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/327414-nvidia-drivers-avoid-problems.html

 

[essenbe]

Chimi, the 3 dump files all list a different thing. There is nothing consistent about the problem you have other than several of them have not blamed but mentioned problems with Audiology.exe which is a sound driver from Creative The 3 you just uploaded show:

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL (a)
An attempt was made to access a pageable (or completely invalid) address at an
interrupt request level (IRQL) that is too high.  This is usually
caused by drivers using improper addresses.
If a kernel debugger is available get the stack backtrace.
Arguments:
Arg1: 0000000000000044, memory referenced
Arg2: 0000000000000002, IRQL
Arg3: 0000000000000001, bitfield :
 bit 0 : value 0 = read operation, 1 = write operation
 bit 3 : value 0 = not an execute operation, 1 = execute operation (only on chips which support this level of status)
Arg4: fffff800034ce018, address which referenced memory

This one also mentioned Audiology.

BUGCODE_USB_DRIVER (fe)
USB Driver bugcheck, first parameter is USB bugcheck code.
Arguments:
Arg1: 0000000000000006, USBBUGCODE_BAD_SIGNATURE An Internal data structure (object)
 has been corrupted.
Arg2: fffffa800c4f9c70, Object address
Arg3: 0000000066725045, Signature that was expected
Arg4: 0000000000000000

Use !analyze -v to get detailed debugging information.
BugCheck D1, {ffffffff00000007, 2, 0, fffff880030c0a07}
Probably caused by : afd.sys ( afd!AfdPoll32+427 )
Followup: MachineOwner

So far nothing is consistent. Every dump has had a different cause and a different bug code. I believe we have had Bug codes of 1E, A, fe, 3B, D1 in this thread. All blame something different, from Graphics driver to USB driver to network problems and sound drivers. That, in my experience is usually a sign of memory problems. If you haven't already, please turn off Driver Verifier.

Please Run Memtest86+

   Information

Please download from this site only http://www.memtest.org/ in the middle of the page are the Download links, you can download the ISO.zip or the Auto USB Flash Drive installer.zip

Extract the Zip file. If you chose the ISO image, burn it to a CD using Windows Disk Image Burner or any Image burner you may have. If you downloaded the Auto USB installer, extract it, insert your USB 2.0 Flash Drive and take note of the drive letter. Run the installer, select the Flash Drive Letter, check the format box and press next. It will install memtest86+ to a flash drive. You can use either V4.20 or V5.01. Boot from your selected media. If you use V5.01 it will tell you to press certain buttons at the start, please press no buttons. The test will begin on it's own and continue to run until you stop it. It needs to run for 8 complete passes or until you receive an error. If you receive an error, stop the test. Even 1 error is a fail. Each pass tests a different part of the ram and each of the 10 tests in each pass tests something different. It takes a minimum of 8 passes to completely test the ram, more passes are better. It is quite a long test and will take several hours depending on how much ram you have. Due to the time length it is best to run overnight. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask​

 

[Chimi]

I'll go ahead and do that tonight since I have to use my computer today to do some work. I've tested the RAM sticks multiple times however and they keep coming up fine. I did have some memory corruption last year so I had to buy new RAM, so the sticks I have currently are relatively new (maybe 3 months old). I've even tested these new sticks even up to a few days ago and they still come up error free. But I'll give it another shot and see if something changed.

I guess my question is, is it possible it's a motherboard issue? Because I'll be honest, I'm more than willing at this point to just drop the money on a new motherboard or video card or whatever it is. Only reason I bring up motherboard is because the scope of the issues. Ever since this problem has started, like you said, it's been a wide scope of problems from ethernet to USB to sound to video card. And no matter how many times I try to find updated drivers, it doesn't fix the problem. So I don't know if my motherboard is just toast at this point and it's time for an upgrade or what.

Anyway, I do appreciate all the help you've given me. And I will test the RAM asap.

 

[essenbe]

Yes, it'sossible it's a motherboard issue. We'll check into that. There is no test for the motherboard, but after testing everything else we can eliminate about everything except the motherboard and the PSU.

 

[Chimi]

So I ended up getting another BSOD yesterday that said "Memory Management." That didn't sound good so I immediately did the memtest. Everything is still coming up fine and no errors. I did each stick individually and then did both sticks together and all three tests came up with no errors. I even let the two stick test go for 10 tests.

Here is the BSOD I got yesterday in case it has anything important in it.

 

[essenbe]

Chmi, you said you let it run for 10 tests. Are you doing the 8 passes? Each pass has 10 tests, for 8 passes with 8 GB of ram should take about 9.5-10 hours.

Your dump file

[COLOR=red]MEMORY_MANAGEMENT[/COLOR] (1a)
    # Any other values for parameter 1 must be individually examined.
Arguments:
Arg1: 0000000000041284, A PTE or the working set list is corrupt.
Arg2: 000000000d198001
Arg3: 0000000000004605
Arg4: fffff70001080000

 

[Chimi]

Oops sorry. Shouldn't have posted without having some morning caffeine first, heh. But yeah, I meant 10 passes. I let it run for close to 12 hours over night.

 

[essenbe]

Oh, OK no problem. I do the same thing all the time.

 

[essenbe]

Chimi, have you updated the SSD to the latest firmware? I know we have run the online virus scans, memtest, Seatools, Driver Verifier and a couple of graphics card benchmarks, all showing no problem. Is that correct? If so, how do you feel about a clean install? If you want to do one, I'd like you to do it just a little different. I can give you some help.

 

[Chimi]

Yeah, all that is correct. And the firmware on my SSD is also the most updated.

I'd be willing to try anything at this point. Just a note, I did reinstall Windows before I posted on here originally thinking it was time for a clean install. But if you have another way of me doing it, I'm open to it.

 

[essenbe]

Try going into BIOS and telling me the values of your +12V, +5V and +3.3V.

 

[Chimi]

Hey there, sorry it took a bit to get back to you. Been doing Valentine's Day stuff. Not by choice obviously, haha.

But anyway, things have kind of changed. For Valentines Day my girlfriend actually bought me a new processor and motherboard. Not because of the problems I've been having, but I've wanted to go to an i7 for a bit now and she surprised me with one. So with that said, I'm going to do a clean install of everything regardless. Is there a certain way you would recommend I do in the install? Do you need me to get those values for the new motherboard?

Just as reference in case you need it, the new CPU and Motherboard is an i7 3790k and MSI Z97-Gaming 5 LGA 1150 ATX

I haven't installed them yet. Figured I'd hear from you first just in case the CPU/Motherboard isn't what is causing the problems I am having.

 

[essenbe]

Sounds like a great girlfriend and a very nice rig. Get me the values from Bios. A clean install on which rig? If the new one I would just do the install and see if you have problems. Here is a good tutorial on how. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html Download your Drivers and put them on a flash drive. Be sure you have the LAN driver, so you can get on the internet. I always install the Chipset drivers first, then the rest. Then the Windows updates. Install all of the important and recommended updates.