Solved Experiencing Random BSODs, error 0x00000050

[Frost65]

I have recently been experiencing random BSODs for reasons I cannot determine.

Two weeks ago I started getting BSODs frequently and so I began to do some digging. I seemed to narrow it down to my RAM so I ran memtest 86+ on all my sticks individually but they came up with no errors. After reseating my RAM and putting everything back together the problem disappeared. I've played games, browsed the web, and watched movies with no problem. I experienced no BSODs until yesterday.

Yesterday I left my computer on overnight to let it do it's weekly virus scan. When I woke up it had BSODed and found the error message waiting for me. However, the rest of the day it operated perfectly fine.

Today I just turned it on and after about an hour or so it randomly BSODed on me. The only thing running was Firefox.

At this point I'm not sure what exactly is going on. I still have a suspicion it might be my RAM but all my tests have shown that it's fine and I'd rather not buy new RAM if I don't have to.

Any help that could be provided would be greatly appreciated.

 

[koolkat77]

Welcome

Most of your dumps refer to BugCheck 50

BSOD Index | Usual causes: Defective hardware (particularly memory - but not just RAM), Faulty system service, Antivirus, Device driver, NTFS corruption, BIOS

1. What antivirus are you using? (I may have missed it in the msinfo file)
2. Please get the latest version of your BIOS

   BIOS Version/Date    American Megatrends Inc. 080015, [COLOR=Red]8/6/2010[/COLOR]

3. Run the file checker & reboot if it finds integrity violations. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html
4. One of your dumps show nvlddmkm.sys. Get the latest drivers for it. nvlddmkm.sys nVidia Video drivers Drivers - Download NVIDIA Drivers

   *******************************************************************************
   *                                                                             *
   *                        Bugcheck Analysis                                    *
   *                                                                             *
   *******************************************************************************
   
   Use !analyze -v to get detailed debugging information.
   
   BugCheck D1, {fffff8880e4b4ff8, 2, 1, fffff8800f54b04e}
   
   Unable to load image \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\nvlddmkm.sys, Win32 error 0n2
   *** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for nvlddmkm.sys
   *** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for nvlddmkm.sys
   Probably caused by : [COLOR=Red]nvlddmkm.sys ( nvlddmkm+12b04e )[/COLOR]
   
   Followup: MachineOwner

   0: kd> lmvm nvlddmkm
   start             end                 module name
   fffff880`0f420000 fffff880`10097000   nvlddmkm T (no symbols)           
       Loaded symbol image file: nvlddmkm.sys
       Image path: \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\nvlddmkm.sys
       Image name: nvlddmkm.sys
       Timestamp:        [COLOR=Red]Sat Oct 15 12:07:55 2011 (4E99233B)[/COLOR]
       CheckSum:         00C61687
       ImageSize:        00C77000
       Translations:     0000.04b0 0000.04e4 0409.04b0 0409.04e4

5. As for your ram, have you some other modules? (by lending from a neighbor or friend - & which are compatible with your motherboard of course)

Keep us posted

 

[Frost65]

1. I am using Norton Security Suite, which comes free with Comcast.

2. I'm a bit confused. Are you asking if I have the latest version or telling me I do not? I do believe I have the latest version of my BIOS if you are asking.

3. I preformed the scan and it got stuck twice and said SFC cannot preform this operation. It then BSODed on me. After I rebooted I ran it again and it finished successfully and said that there were corrupted files but it could not fix them. I tried to run it again (as the tutorial you linked suggested to run it 2-3 times to fix errors) but it got to 19% and said it couldn't preform the operation. I then shutdown my computer b/c it was displaying odd behavior. It did create a log it said if you think I should retrieve that. I ran it from w/in windows in elevated command prompt if that makes a difference. I can rerun it from boot if you think that's better.

4. I am up-to-date on my graphic drivers. Though I can uninstall and reinstall them if you think that's necessary.

5. I do not have any extra RAM on hand to swap out. However, if necessary I might be able to get my hands on some.

Thanks for all the help so far I really appreciate it. I can only figure out so much before I get lost and I have no idea how to read a lot of the logs it gives you.

 

[koolkat77]

Thanks for the detailed reply.

I'm on the first stages of debugging and you get the award for being the most co-operative OP so far! Haha,

Coming back to the BSODS :focus:

• Follow this tutorial for a different method to run the system file checker. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/139810-sfc-scannow-run-command-prompt-boot.html

Are you sure you're video drivers are up to date? From my analysis I found (See the text in red):

Image path: \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\nvlddmkm.sys     Image name: nvlddmkm.sys     Timestamp:        [COLOR=Red]Sat Oct 15 12:07:55 2011 (4E99233B)[/COLOR]

15.Oct.2011 So, they do require updating to the latest.

Take you're time and do the above and keep us posted.

 

[Frost65]

Thanks!

Okay I tried to run it from boot but it BSODed to a "fatal system error" while loading the windows files from the disk. I tried a second time and got another BSOD. I decided not to try again.

As for the graphic driver I don't know why it's showing that. B/c my nvidia control panel and other tools show my driver as version 301.42 which came out in May this year. Maybe it's an old driver that didn't uninstall correctly?

This just came to mind so I thought I'd put it out there. But I'll defer to your judgement if you think otherwise. From my understanding the windows files being loaded are being loaded into RAM. If that is the case the fact that it BSODs while trying to load them into RAM seems to indicate a something is wrong there.

 

[koolkat77]

Do all in the quote below and post back

Run some hardware checks.

• If you are overclocking any hardware, please stop.
• Run Disk Check with both boxes checked for all HDDs and with Automatically fix file system errors checked for all SSDs. Post back your logs for the checks after finding them using http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/96938-check-disk-chkdsk-read-event-viewer-log.html (you may need to search for wininit instead of chkdsk).
  For any drives that do not give the message:
  Windows has checked the file system and found no problems
  run disk check again as above. In other words, if it says:
  Windows has made corrections to the file system
  after running the disk check, run the disk check again.
• Run the short and long tests with SeaTools for HDDs.
  SeaTools for Windows
  
  SeaTools for DOS​
• Monitor temperatures during the following tests.
  Use the following programs to monitor the temperatures.​
  • Real Temp is a good CPU temperature monitor.
  • Speccy - System Information - Free Download will monitor all hardware temperatures.
  • HWiNFO, HWiNFO32 & HWiNFO64 - Hardware Information and Analysis Tools can be inaccurate for CPU temperatures, but is a good program for GPU temperature monitoring.
  
  

  • Use FurMark: VGA Stress Test, Graphics Card and GPU Stability Test, Burn-in Test, OpenGL Benchmark and GPU Temperature | oZone3D.Net to test the graphics card GPU. Let it run until the GPU temperatures even out or until the GPU temperatures reach a dangerous level (you can find the max temperature for your card on either the nVidia or AMD sites; if you are not sure, ask us). The goal is to get a steady temperature, find out if the GPU is overheating, or to see if there are any artifacts present in the test itself: look for strange pixelated patterns on the screen or colors that do not look like they belong. Then use the |MG| Video Memory Stress Test 1.7.116 Download to test your graphics card memory. Let the memory test run for at least seven passes; the more the better.
  • Run http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/100352-hardware-stress-test-prime95.html to determine any hardware problems. Run all three tests for a few hours each. If you get errors, stop the test and post back here.
  • Follow the steps for doing CPU stress test using IntelBurnTest

 

[Frost65]

I am not overclocking any of my hardware.


Tried to run chkdsk and as it was going through it BSODed. Rebooted in safe mode and attempted to run chkdsk in there. BSODed again. Neither time did it come anywhere close to finishing the test.


When I went to boot my computer to run Seatools (I’ve been using my laptop to access the internet and post and only turning my computer on to run the tests since it tends to BSOD after sitting there and hour and I don’t want to damage it) it froze after the windows logo came up but before the blue logon screen. I had to do a hard restart. After that it logged on fine but I shut it down normally.


I have used several of those stress tests in the past and never had problems with overheating or crashing. I’ve used furmark before and usually have Coretemp running in the background, which monitors CPU temp. My CPU temp holds steady at 28-31 C at idle. Overheating hasn’t been a problem ever in the past for me, though

I realize something could have broken in the interim.


Sorry for not following directions entirely but I was following my earlier hunch and removed my two extra memory modules. After doing this my system has become more stable. Since doing this I have been able to run the tests you told me too w/out getting BSODs.

I went back to the SFC scan you told me to run and ran it from within windows (I made a repair disc and tried to do it from boot but when I get to the part to select which operating system to fix it doesn’t show my install. I know you can load drivers for your HDD so I checked online to find ones for my HDD and none exist. So since I can’t see it in the boot version I just tried to do it within windows. Maybe this is caused by having a dualboot?). Running The SFC scan w/in windows it did say it found corrupt files and was unable to fix some of them. So I ran it again as the tutorial instructed. Same thing, some corrupt files unable to fix. I ran it 2 more times with the same results. I’ve attached the log from the scans.


The last thing I did was run chkdsk as instructed. Chkdsk completed without any issues or crashes. It told me it the drive was clean. While it was running it didn’t report any damaged sectors or files.
Again I’m sorry for not following directions. I was just worried that all the BSODs would damage my computer and doing the tests always resulted in a crash so I thought to avoid that I’d try this. My initial tests in memtest 86+ showed all my memory was good but I tested them all in the same slot. Which means that if the memories all fine then it might be one of the dimm slots on my mobo.


I further tested this by redoing the the memtest86+ and the RAM checks out. I haven’t had any issues since pulling the memory out of the extra dimm slots and even have swapped some memory with it and it’s been stable.

 

[Dave76]

Good information and trouble shooting so far.

I am not overclocking any of my hardware.

Tried to run chkdsk and as it was going through it BSODed. Rebooted in safe mode and attempted to run chkdsk in there. BSODed again. Neither time did it come anywhere close to finishing the test.

When I went to boot my computer to run Seatools (I’ve been using my laptop to access the internet and post and only turning my computer on to run the tests since it tends to BSOD after sitting there and hour and I don’t want to damage it) it froze after the windows logo came up but before the blue logon screen. I had to do a hard restart. After that it logged on fine but I shut it down normally.

I have used several of those stress tests in the past and never had problems with overheating or crashing. I’ve used furmark before and usually have Coretemp running in the background, which monitors CPU temp. My CPU temp holds steady at 28-31 C at idle. Overheating hasn’t been a problem ever in the past for me, though I realize something could have broken in the interim.

Good steps, always a good idea to start eliminating the hardware.

Sorry for not following directions entirely but I was following my earlier hunch and removed my two extra memory modules. After doing this my system has become more stable. Since doing this I have been able to run the tests you told me too w/out getting BSODs.

Since you have four RAM slots and 12GB RAM, did you buy them at the same time?
Same brand and frequency and timings?
Did you leave the 2x2GB cards or the 2x4GB cards installed?

This can sometimes be fixed by adjusting the RAM settings.
Can you download CPUZ and post a snip of the CPU, Mainboard, Memory, and SPD tabs.
For posting the information , enter 'Snipping tool' in the Start button > Search box, hit enter. Select the area you want to post and save to a convenient place.
How to Post a Screenshot in Seven Forums
Go to your BIOS and tell us what the CPU, RAM and the CPU integrated memory controller voltages are.

I went back to the SFC scan you told me to run and ran it from within windows (I made a repair disc and tried to do it from boot but when I get to the part to select which operating system to fix it doesn’t show my install. I know you can load drivers for your HDD so I checked online to find ones for my HDD and none exist. So since I can’t see it in the boot version I just tried to do it within windows. Maybe this is caused by having a dualboot?). Running The SFC scan w/in windows it did say it found corrupt files and was unable to fix some of them. So I ran it again as the tutorial instructed. Same thing, some corrupt files unable to fix. I ran it 2 more times with the same results. I’ve attached the log from the scans.

The last thing I did was run chkdsk as instructed. Chkdsk completed without any issues or crashes. It told me it the drive was clean. While it was running it didn’t report any damaged sectors or files.
Again I’m sorry for not following directions. I was just worried that all the BSODs would damage my computer and doing the tests always resulted in a crash so I thought to avoid that I’d try this. My initial tests in memtest 86+ showed all my memory was good but I tested them all in the same slot. Which means that if the memories all fine then it might be one of the dimm slots on my mobo.

The problem may be caused if the repair disk was made from a non SP1 version of Windows 7.
What is your other dual boot OS?
Do you have a OS image backup?

I further tested this by redoing the the memtest86+ and the RAM checks out. I haven’t had any issues since pulling the memory out of the extra dimm slots and even have swapped some memory with it and it’s been stable.

Always test RAM in different slots.
Did you run memtest86+ with all four RAM cards installed?
How many passes did you let memtest86+ run for on the previous tests?

Do you still only have two RAM cards installed?

Post the CPUZ and BIOS setting info requested and we can adjust the settings to see if that will help.

Your last crash:

STOP 0x000000D1: DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
Usual causes:  Device driver
*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for nvlddmkm.sys
IMAGE_NAME:  nvlddmkm.sys
FAILURE_BUCKET_ID:  X64_0xD1_nvlddmkm+12b04e

This may be caused by the RAM issue.
You may want to uninstall your Nvidia driver, run Driver Sweeper, then install a new version.

Your System Event Logs stopped in July, so no current useful info there.
Same for the App Event Logs which stopped in September.

Unloaded modules:
fffff880`0a5d2000 fffff880`0a5d8000   RTCore64.sys

This driver is known to cause crashes in Windows 7.
If you have any ECS utilities installed, un-install them for testing purposes.
Also, RivaTuner or MSI Afterburner.

Unloaded modules:
fffff880`0a001000 fffff880`0a1f9000   EX64.SYS

Looks like you may be having issues with Norton Anti-Virus, we can look at that later.

tdrpman.sys  Mon Nov 12 21:36:33 2007 
tifsfilt.sys Wed Aug 29 20:37:29 2007
timntr.sys   Wed Aug 29 20:38:23 2007

This driver is out of date and should be removed.
What version of Acronis or Seagate DiscWizard are you using?
If you're using Seagate DiscWizard They have a new version available (V.14387).

 

[Frost65]

Since you have four RAM slots and 12GB RAM, did you buy them at the same time?
Same brand and frequency and timings?
Did you leave the 2x2GB cards or the 2x4GB cards installed?

I did not buy them at the same time but they are the same brand and frequency timings.
I currently have the 2X4GB cards installed.
Here are the screens:
View attachment 230721
View attachment 230722
View attachment 230723


The BIOS reported my CPU vcore at 1.056v and my vdimm at 1.500v Those were the only ones I could find.

The problem may be caused if the repair disk was made from a non SP1 version of Windows 7.
What is your other dual boot OS?
Do you have a OS image backup?

My other OS is Win XP professional x32 SP3.
I don't think I have an OS image backup. I have some image backups of xp. But none of my win 7 install.

Always test RAM in different slots.
Did you run memtest86+ with all four RAM cards installed?
How many passes did you let memtest86+ run for on the previous tests?

Do you still only have two RAM cards installed?

Post the CPUZ and BIOS setting info requested and we can adjust the settings to see if that will help.

I ran memtest86+ with all four RAM cards two weeks ago when the issue appeared and it came up with errors. However, when I then tested each one individually they checked out.

There’s a weird thing about my mobo that doesn’t really allow me to test RAM in each of the slots individually. It’s been like that since I bought it. Basically it won’t boot with just one stick in slot 1 or 3. It will boot with a pair in just one and three but for some reason it won’t allow my gpu to work so you can’t see anything on the screen. Everything works and the gpu’s fan turns on and everything, but the screen’s just black. The primary slots on my board are 2 and 4. So when I tested individually I tested them all in slot 2.

As for passes I only did one pass on each stick.

I still only have two RAM cards installed. 2X4GB in slots 2 and 4.

You may want to uninstall your Nvidia driver, run Driver Sweeper, then install a new version.

Okay uninstalled the driver. Ran the sweeper. Reinstalled w/ a fresh download from the nvidia site.

This driver is known to cause crashes in Windows 7.
If you have any ECS utilities installed, un-install them for testing purposes.
Also, RivaTuner or MSI Afterburner.

I know I don’t have RivaTuner or MSI Afterburner installed. I don’t think I have any ECS utilities installed but if I do I don’t know what or where they are. Can I just remove the driver via driver sweeper?

Looks like you may be having issues with Norton Anti-Virus, we can look at that later.

Okay. Just let me know.

This driver is out of date and should be removed.
What version of Acronis or Seagate DiscWizard are you using?
If you're using Seagate DiscWizard They have a new version available (V.14387).

Okay. Uninstalled DiscWizard from the add/remove programs list. Installed the latest version.

Thanks for all the help so far I really appreciate it.

 

[Dave76]

Your welcome.
Good feedback, it helps.

The most important issue is the SFC scan failure.
The report shows a lot of failures, many processor related.
The fastest way to fix this is to try a System Restore to a point before the crashes started.
How to Do a System Restore in Windows 7

If that doesn't work or you don't have the right restore point then you need to re-install Windows 7.
I recommend a clean install but you can do a repair install.
How to Do a Clean Installation with Windows 7
How to Do a Repair Install to Fix Windows 7
A Repair Install can take up to 6-10 hours or more depending on how many programs you have, just let it run.

If/when doing the Repair or Clean install, have only 2 RAM cards installed in slots 2 and 4.

When your system is stable make an Image Backup with DiscWizard, this makes fixing issues like this very easy.

Depending on which way you decide to go, uninstall or update these programs.

• Uninstall Norton Security Suite, use MSE at least until your system is stable.
  Microsoft Security Essentials*
  
• Uninstall CPUZ and install the latest 1.61 version. The above snips are showing errors in some readings.

Do not use the CD that came with the motherboard, D/L all drivers from the motherboard support site.

FYI, memtest86+ needs to run a minimum of 7 full passes, best to run overnight.
If you get any errors you can stop the test.
When memtest86+ gives errors with all RAM cards installed and passes with individual cards it usually means the settings need adjusted. This can happen after the system has been running stable for years, it's usually due to component wear.

Let us know if you have any questions.

 

[Frost65]

I did do a system restore when this all first started happening 2 weeks ago. It didn't fix things then. However, I will do one now and see if it works. After I do the system restore should I be able to put my other ram back?

Updated cpuz.

Thanks for the tip about memtest86+. Good to know for future testing.

I have a few questions:

1. You mentioned the SFC scan is the most important part. But I only was able to run it from w/in Windows. Does this make a difference? I know if there were files it needed to correct but that windows was currently using it wouldn't have been able to fix them.

2. Since pulling out the RAM in slots 1 and 3 my system has been stable and I haven't had any BSODs. If this is the case is a clean/repair install necessary or do you think the RAM is not the cause of the problem?

3. You said to only have slots 2 and 4 filled if I do the clean/repair install. If I do would I be able to fill the others afterward? After confirming it's stable.

4. Would uninstalling and reinstalling Norton be good enough? Just curious. Happy to use MSE for a bit if necessary.

5. You mentioned that many of the errors where processor related. Are you suggesting that my CPU is failing?

 

[Dave76]

Do you have an earlier restore point than the last one?
If you do then try it.

After any fixes you try, run with only two RAM cards installed for a while, if it's stable add the other two RAM cards.

1. Did you re-boot after each SFC run?
A re-boot will repair any files that were running while the SFC scan was ran.

2. This is the second most important issue, we can work on this after your OS files errors are fixed.
If you try fixing the RAM issue now, we can't be sure if the OS errors are causing problems.
After the Restore/Repair/Clean install, and all the Windows updates are installed, drivers loaded (if needed), when the system is stable with two RAM cards installed, you can install the remaining two RAM cards and we can adjust settings if needed.

3. Yes, see my comments in #2.

4. There are known Norton issues with some Windows 7 systems, when trying to find what is causing system crashes it is best to remove as many possible causes as we can. Your dump file showed that Norton was an Unloaded module, which means there is an issue with it.
You should uninstall Norton, then run the Norton uninstall/removal app from Symantec, then install MSE.
Any program that we remove can be re-installed after your system is stable. Install one at a time and test for stability before installing another.

5. Could be corrupt drivers, IMC (Integrated Memory Controller) issue cause by the RAM not running correctly, or a faulty CPU.
More likely one or both of the first two.
If issues persist after fixing the OS and RAM issues then we can test the CPU.

You motherboard manual:
P55H-CM (V1.0)

Ram info from page 12, confirming what you have stated. But, you should be able to test one RAM card in slot #4.
FYI, if you need to test RAM again.
View attachment 230986

 

[Frost65]

I well I tried a restore pt prior to Sept 5th. which is when the issue came back. It when through the process fine then shut down. When it rebooted it POSTed then let me pick my OS from the dualboot screen as normal. After that it said windows failed to started and I could choose b/w startup repair and start windows normally. I chose startup repair. Startup repair did its thing and completed successfully. I then went and redid all the updates you had told me to do (discwizard and cpuz).

I can look for a restore point further back if you think that I should. One before it first happened.

1. I did not reboot after each SFC run. I didn't realize I was supposed to. Should I try running them again and reboot after each?

2. That makes sense. Sorry for being so persistent about it. I'm much more experienced with hardware then software so I tend to think in those veins when troubleshooting.

4. Okay I'll uninstall Norton for the moment.

5. Good to know and glad you were able to confirm it.

So I see to main options at the moment, try and even earlier restore point or rerun SFC and reboot afterwards like I'm supposed to and see if that actually fixes things. Which one would you suggest?

 

[Dave76]

Glad to hear some progress is being made.

1. Yes, run SFC with a re-boot after each run, three times even if it says it's fixed the files.

2. No problem, ask any questions you have.

4. Best way to proceed and save some time.

Run SFC with re-boots first, hopefully that will repair the faulty files.
If that doesn't help then use an earlier restore point.

Let us know the progress.

 

[Frost65]

I've uninstalled Norton.

Ran SFC 6 times with reboots after each. No improvement. Still says there are files that that it couldn't fix.

I also don't have a restore point any older then the one I already used.

It's looking like I might have to do a clean/repair install. While I know that a clean install is always better I think I'm going to have to go with a repair install. I don't have the time to reinstall all my programs and things.

Of course if you have other suggestions or ideas I'm open to them.

As I side note my computer has remained stable so far and I haven't had any problems recently. I also redid the memtest on the RAM individually, letting it go for 7 passes on each and they came up with no errors. So if it is RAM related it's gotta be the DIMM slots. Though I'm getting the sense that it might not be as related to that as it is to these corrupted windows files.

 

[Dave76]

Just remember that a Repair Install can sometimes take up to 10 hours or more, depends on how many programs you have installed.
Let it run until it finishes, don't stop it unless you have saved any data in that partition and want to do a clean install.

You should make a DiscWizard image backup of that partition before you start, just in case.

It could be the corrupt Windows files causing the crashes.
If your RAM passes individual testing and fails with all four cards installed, it usually can be fixed by adjusting the settings.
We can look at that after the Windows files are fixed.

Let us know your progress.

 

[Frost65]

Okay. I won't be able to do the clean install until tomorrow probably so I'll update then.

Out of curiosity next time I do a clean install how would you recommend I partition out my HDDs?

Right now I've got Windows and everything all on one big partition. I've got a 1TB drive I use as my main drive. My main concerns would be running games off of other partitions (since I mainly use my computer to game) but also personal files (music, pics, etc).

 

[Dave76]

It is best to put all programs, including games, in the same partition as the OS.
All data, pictures, video, music, pretty much everything except the OS and programs, in a separate partition.
This will also make it easier to make your Image backups and restore the OS partition if needed, not risking your data partition.

It will depend on the size of all your programs.
I had no problem with my first 40GB SSD, with OS and all programs, my 120GB SSD is partition into two with Win7 and Win8, all data on the HDDs.
Unless you need to optimize your HDD space, I would make the OS/programs partition 60-80GB, even 100GB if you can spare the space.

Move all your personal data to another HDD, then make a DiscWizard Image of your C drive for safety.

You can post a snip of your Disk Management if you want advice on the best way to make the changes.
Have you used Free Partition Software - MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition 7.6
The Partition Wizard Bootable Flash Drive is the recommended method.
This program is very good and recommended by many members here.

Let me know if you have any questions.

 

[Frost65]

Thanks for all the advice. I'll definitely keep it in mind when doing my next install of Windows.

I have not used that software before.

I did the Repair install and everything went perfectly smooth. Just finished doing all the updates.

 

[Dave76]

You're welcome.

Let us know if you still have any RAM issues.