Solved Erratic BSOD's after a few minutes, RAM prob working

[Bombax]

Hi all!

About three months ago my computer (2 yrs, custom, NOT overclocked afaik) would get BSOD's at mostly random points (once a day or so), which was unacceptable. By using memtest and Windows' own memtest I isolated the fault to a single of my 4 GB Corsair Vengeance RAM's. I took it out, and my computer worked fine for a while, so I decided 12 GB was enough.

But lately the problem has returned. Now I get BSOD's after every half hour or so of usage. Usually, Windows will do something strange first, such as stop responding, GUI elements freezing, explorer crashing, applications crashing to desktop... and then moments later, a BSOD and a restart.

So I took out all the RAM and returned to my supplier for reparations (including the one I took out earlier). I also bought another, new Corsair Vengeance 4GB while it was being fixed. I put it in and - still getting BSOD's! So the memory is probably not at fault.

What could be causing this? I've run chkdsk on all my discs and they seem to work fine (one fixed some unallocated areas). I've run memtest and it seems to work fine. Could it be the motherboard, or any of my harddrives - can the harddrives cause a BSOD? The CPU/fans? Is it a Windows problem? (My paging file never gets used, as I don't run out of memory). Any tips on things I can do to test and isolate the error would be hugely appreciated! (I have a Ubuntu Live CD to do tests on if needed)

(I've read the tutorial on dumps, so next time one happens I can post it here - what type of dump should I provide?)

Note some oddities:

• My user directory is installed on E:/, my 2 TB drive, instead of the 64 GB SSD where I keep Windows. I did this through a tricky installation process. This has never been a problem before though.
• My third drive has some backups and system images if they can be useful.
• One BSOD happened just *after* a file was fully saved, and when I opened it again, it was full of null bytes.

 

[Brink]

Hello Bombax, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Please read the instructions here: Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) Posting Instructions, and post back with the needed information. One of our BSOD experts should be by afterwards to further help.

 

[Bombax]

Thank you, Brink! I have uploaded the .zip in this reply.

 

[Arc]

You uploaded the SF Diag tool only, not its output.

 

[Bombax]

Incredibly clumsy of me Here is the correct zip.

EDIT: I analyzed the dump output with the program "WhoCrashed", which gives the following report:

"Bug check description: This indicates that a process or thread crucial to system operation has unexpectedly exited or been terminated.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem. This problem might be caused by a thermal issue.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver that cannot be identified at this time. "

"This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x75BC0)
Bugcheck code: 0xF4 (0x3, 0xFFFFFA800B524490, 0xFFFFFA800B524770, 0xFFFFF8000D9CE7B0)
Error: CRITICAL_OBJECT_TERMINATION"

Sounds like a software problem. I have some old images. Should I revert? Or is a complete reinstallation recommended? Any other advice from analysis of the dump files is welcome.

 

[Arc]

A Stop 0xF4 is a storage related bugcheck.

Make it sure that your Crucial M4 CT064M4SSD2 2.5" 64GB SATA III SSD is running with the latest firmware. One update is available there, Firmware Update 070H, dated 04/02/2013.
Crucial.com Product Downloads - Firmware Updates

Also, post teh screenshots of all your SSD/HDDs using CrystalDiskInfo - Software - Crystal Dew World.

 

[Bombax]

Thank you Arc! I downloaded a firmware updater, but when I ran it and Windows restarted, it said "Windows could not restart because of the following file: ***.mrb" (I think). It let me continue by pressing Enter and I could eventually start Windows again. Because the procedure looked nothing like in the firmware installation instructions I can only assume the update failed.

Here are the screenshots:

 

[Arc]

All the disks are looking fine

Now make it sure that the SSD firmware is properly updated. It may work as a guide: .......

If all is OK, then wait and observe the situation. Let us know how it is going.

 

[Bombax]

Thanks again! I'm afraid that after I ran the update software (whether it worked or not), my computer later got a BSOD. Nevertheless, here are the hardware ID's:

Thanks for the help

EDIT: Can't believe I missed this:

I'll run it with /F, and try updating the firmware again.

 

[Arc]

If possible, run the updater again.

 

[Bombax]

chkdsk fixed some problems in C:, but after I ran the updater it was the same result: a missing .mbr file, status 0x000000f, and the same version when I checked upon start.

 

[Bombax]

Thanks for the advice! After fixing it I noticed that there was a boot disc firmware option, so I went with that, and it seems successfully updated:

I'll run it through some stress tests and let you know if it is resolved.

EDIT: Sorry for the double-post. I had not noticed the topic posts had gone to page 2 already. :O

 

[Arc]

Perfect
View attachment 296172

Update is successful!! Now observe how the computer is working (normally, no stress test is needed at this point). Let us know about it.

 

[Bombax]

Perfect! After the firmware update I don't seem to be getting anymore BSOD. Thanks you soooo much! Though I won't know why the firmware was damaged, I'm happy it's working again, been alright for many hours! Thank you thank you!

 

[Arc]

Perfect! After the firmware update I don't seem to be getting anymore BSOD. Thanks you soooo much! Though I won't know why the firmware was damaged, I'm happy it's working again, been alright for many hours! Thank you thank you!

Firmware was not damaged. It gone backdated.

If you use a SSD, you need to keep the firmware up-to-date.
The latest firmwares work good with the combination of latest BIOS and the latest storage controller. Your BIOS was not very old, and your storage controller was msahci.sys (the system native controller); so I did not suggest you to update those.

Let us know for any further issue.