Frequent, random BSOD

[majimeotoko]

View attachment 209925 - Mar 19 2012

This is for my sister's computer which I built about 3 years ago. She lives across the country so I don't have direct access to the system but ask me anything you need to know. When she gets home from work today I'll run SystemInfo on her rig and update my profile with that info. Off the top of my head she's running Win7 Pro x64 Retail, no re-installs.

I probably should have been more proactive in fixing this we're 3 years into the build and it restarts with random BSODs all the time. She can hardly use it. In the beginning it was RAM related as confirmed by Memtest86+ and other tools, so we RMA'd that but the problems have continued. We didn't reinstall the OS after that so there may be file system corruption; however I SFC'd and used other tools to repair things so I think we're OK there.

The only other unusual thing I should mention is that she's using a wireless card on her desktop and its connection drops very frequently. I thought the driver might be problematic but it's too much hassle - between the BSODs and the Wi-Fi drops - to remote in to troubleshoot this. Thanks very much for your help, experts. I'm out of my league

 

[Maguscreed]

not on my machine with debugger installed right now, I have a suggestion for the wireless problem though.
To Disable Selective Suspend:

open the control panel
go to power options (you may have to set view to small icons)
click change plan settings
in the window that opens:
click change plan settings
click change advanced power settings, expand usb and ensure usb selective suspend is disabled.

(if it is an actual card inside the machine the method is to go into the device properties and set it to performance mode there)

 

[majimeotoko]

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll try it as soon as she turns the system on tonight. IIRC it's a PCMCIA card in a PCI adapter (or a PCI wireless adapter) so I'm not so sure about the power options tweaks but I'll try anything

 

[majimeotoko]

Selective suspend was not enabled for the PCI wireless adapter. Neither were there any settings related to power or performance in the card's properties in Device Manager. The crashes are continuing.

I looked around for some debug tools to analyze the minidumps myself. From what I read, the high number of ntoskrnl and other system file-"related" crashes indicates a hardware fault of some kind.

Is there any guidance possible on what steps to take from here? Or perhaps a second opinion on the BSODs? BTW I added some of her system specs from SystemInfo. Ask me if you need more details.

 

[Maguscreed]

To clarify one thing kernel crashes are the most generic kind there are, they can be caused by pretty much anything. You only start worrying about hardware if you specifically see a whea uncorrectable error or a 7f message with it.
If you want to pursue that line of thought here is the typical instructions for a 7f failure.
http://www.sevenforums.com/crash-lockup-debug-how/35349-stop-0x124-what-means-what-try.html

 

[majimeotoko]

Thanks for the link. At this point I'm not really interested in chasing that particular rabbit. At least not until someone with more experience than me has a look at those minidumps. One thing to note is that there are far fewer dumps than crashes. I'll be looking around for something to maybe help improve that.

 

[Maguscreed]

You can try and force it to write minidumps

To ensure minidumps are enabled:

Go to Start, in the Search Box type: sysdm.cpl, press Enter.
Under the Advanced tab, click on the Startup and Recovery Settings... button.
Ensure that Automatically restart is unchecked.
Under the Write Debugging Information header
Select Small memory dump (256 kB) in the dropdown box (the 256kb varies).
Ensure that the Small Dump Directory is listed as %systemroot%\Minidump.
OK your way out.
Reboot if changes have been made.

 

[majimeotoko]

Yes, I had it set like that before but changed it so that remote sessions would not end for the day after one BSOD. BTW I've added dumps since 3/19 into the ZIP file attached to this post; there's only 8 additional usable ones, but I hope they help.

View attachment 210362

 

[Maguscreed]

What apple device are you using?
I'm noticing the fault in several of these is being blamed on 'applemobiledev'


May want to try reinstalling the software related to it.

 

[majimeotoko]

I think she has an iPod. IIRC AppleMobileDev drivers are related to iTunes' device connectivity functions in Windows and are installed alongside it but can be installed/reinstalled separately.

I will try reinstalling just the AppleMobileDev package next time I get on her system and see if that helps.

 

[Maguscreed]

Do it from apple's store/site and not from the disc though. My guess is it's using something it found automatically or that came on an install disc. It is not very uncommon for those drivers to turn out to be outdated. Especially when dealing with mac gear. As windows update surprisingly doesn't hold so much support for those devices. My guess would be due to licensing pain between the two companies.

 

[majimeotoko]

I'll try that later today but I recall using Apple Software Update (which surprisingly works on Windows) to keep those drivers in shape. I have Safari for Windows on my own computer and it runs like shit despite being fully updated though, so it wouldn't shock me if Apple's other Windows programs are subpar. I'll let you know.

 

[Maguscreed]

I switched to android devices.
They work just as good as the apple stuff and there is an enormous selection.

 

[majimeotoko]

Erm, iPod not iPhone haha. We're both on WP7 anyway but thanks for the tip.

 

[majimeotoko]

I'm here on my sister's PC now and it just went down a couple times. I replaced the Apple Mobile Device driver components from the latest iTunes installer (I used the x64 drivers, is this recommended?) a couple days ago and the system seemed to be running fine before this.

Please check the latest version of the minidump ZIP to see if you can find out anything. Thanks.
View attachment 212169

 

[writhziden]

The latest crashes were network related. This could mean a corrupted network adapter driver, corrupted audio driver, or corrupted antivirus software. In some cases, it can also mean your antivirus or firewall software is not compatible with your system.


You should re-install the drivers and software mentioned above. For the software, Start Menu -> Control Panel -> Uninstall a program to uninstall, and then download a fresh version and install it.

To fully re-install a driver, use the following steps.

1. First, download the latest driver. Then do the next steps.
2. Click Start Menu
3. Right Click My Computer/Computer
4. Click Manage
5. Click Device Manager from the list on the left
6. Find the device you are trying to uninstall by expanding the appropriate set of devices
7. Right click the device
8. Click Uninstall (do not click OK in the dialog box that pops up after hitting Uninstall)
9. Put a tick in Delete driver software for this device (if this option is available, otherwise just hit OK) and hit OK
10. Restart your computer only if Windows asks you to.
11. Install the latest driver for the device.

Alternatively:

1. Login as an adminstrative user.
2. First, download the latest driver. Then do the next steps.
3. Click Start Menu
4. Click Control Panel
5. Click Hardware and Sound
6. Click Device Manager (the last link under Devices and Printers)
7. Find the device you are trying to uninstall by expanding the appropriate set of devices
8. Right click the device
9. Click Uninstall (do not click OK in the dialog box that pops up after hitting Uninstall)
10. Put a tick in Delete driver software for this device (if this option is available, otherwise just hit OK) and hit OK
11. Restart your computer only if Windows asks you to.
12. Install the latest driver for the device.

Please upload your msinfo32.nfo file. To get this: Start Menu -> Type msinfo32 into the Search programs and files box -> When it opens, go to File, Save -> Save as msinfo32.nfo and save in a place you will remember -> Let it finish the process of gathering and saving the system info -> Right click the .nfo file, click send to compressed (zipped) folder -> Upload the .zip file here.

 

[majimeotoko]

I may have mentioned it earlier, but we are using a PCI WiFi adapter for the wireless connectivity on this PC and it acts up a lot so it wouldn't surprise me if that is the source of some crashes. The hardware itself is quite old so there may not even be proper Win7 (especially x64) drivers available for it.

For now I am attaching the msinfo32.nfo file as requested ... or maybe not. System Information keeps crashing at the end of the file creation process and doesn't release the file, resulting in a corrupt msinfo.nfo. I've zipped and uploaded it anyway but be aware that this file won't open in System Information.

View attachment 212552

We're out of town for the next few days but the system will remain on so I will try to remote in and continue diagnostics. In particular I will try to capture the system specs using another tool and upload them here. Let me know if you have any preference for the software I'll use to do that. Thanks again.

 

[writhziden]

You are correct; the file supplied was corrupted. Try a different method: Please upload your msinfo32.txt file. To get this: Start Menu -> Type msinfo32 into the Search programs and files box -> When it opens, go to File, Export -> Save as msinfo32.txt and save in a place you will remember -> Let it finish the process of gathering and saving the system info -> Right click the .txt file, click send to compressed (zipped) folder -> Upload the .zip file here.


Since it keeps crashing while creating the information, I would recommend checking for system corruption.

• 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.
  
  
• Check Windows for corruption. Run http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html up to three times to fix all errors with a restart in between each. Post back if it continues to show errors after a fourth run or if the first run comes back with no integrity violations. Use OPTION THREE of http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html to provide us with the sfcdetails.txt file if errors occur.

 

[majimeotoko]

That method seems to have worked (for exporting from System Information). I think the Windows Error Reporting log was too big before or something.

View attachment 212768

I'll run the other checks over the next few days but thought I should mention that I've been seeing errors related to "Peer Name Resolution Protocol service" and "Peer Name Resolution Protocol cloud" since I changed WLAN Auto Config service to always restart immediately (error handling set to always restart).

I did that because WLAN Auto Config retarts twice and then stays down by default, which was one of my original issues. I'm looking at the post you made above and will try to reinstall some of the things you mentioned but give me some time because I'm remoting in. Thanks.

 

[writhziden]

Nothing in the info file to indicate problems. Let us know the results of the corruption checks.