Solved Frequent & random BSODs for months on new laptop, various error codes

[Noc]

Frequent & random BSODs for months on new laptop, various error codes

I’ve been plagued by chronic and unpredictable BSODs since day one of using my Toshiba Satellite P70-A. I’ve found and tried countless solutions; none have worked. Apologies for the length of the case history below, but I’d rather explain as much as I can to avoid confusion later.

The lappy came with Windows 8 when I first bought it online (mint condition). I immediately swapped for Windows 7, then ran SlimDrivers and Windows Update until no new updates were found. Laptop is kept on automatic updates.

For privacy/security reasons, the Windows 7 partition is encrypted with TrueCrypt. Plenty of others have done the same without issue, so I doubt that’s the problem.

Almost at once, the computer began to BSOD on occasion and has continued ever since, despite numerous updates since. The crashes occur at random, at least once every 24 hours of continued operation or so, though often sooner. The error codes listed vary and have included (from memory) “DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL” and “MEMORY_MANAGEMENT”.

Use of Driver Verifier (enabling all checks on all drivers) results in near-instant BSODs during start-up (“A device attempting to corrupt the system has been caught. The faulty driver currently on the kernel stack must be replaced”, error code 0x000000c4). I had to disable Driver Verifier in Safe Mode to get it to stop crashing the system before it could finish loading.

Online research led me to believe the variety and nature of the error codes might indicate a memory issue. A PC repair shop ran extensive hardware tests for a couple days (including MemTest86) and gave my machine a clean bill of health, all but guaranteeing the problem is with the software.

Also, I just had another BSOD (“IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL”) and had to retype all of this. Fun. (Last time, it cost me a month’s worth of work due to data corruption. That was oodles of fun.)

So far, I’m unable to pinpoint any specific program(s) or configuration(s) that may be causing all this.

I’m officially out of ideas. I’m no expert, so please point out anything I may have missed, no matter how obvious. Attached is the DM Log Collector .zip as recommended. (I would attach the latest memory dump, but it’s 800 MB …)

Growing desperate for answers, so thanks in advance for any help.

 

[YoYo155]

Welcome to SF .

No dump files are present in the folder, you can manually check the minidump folder.

C:\Windows\minidump

If dump files are present in that folder copy them to the Desktop, zip and upload in your next post.

 

[Noc]

Welcome to SF .

Thanks! Too bad it isn’t under less annoying circumstances …

No dump files are present in the folder, you can manually check the minidump folder.

C:\Windows\minidump

If dump files are present in that folder copy them to the Desktop, zip and upload in your next post.

The minidump folder is empty as my system was configured to do full kernel dumps instead. I’ve just changed the settings in Startup and Recovery; I’ll upload a .zip with the next minidump when the next crash inevitably occurs. (Quick etiquette Q: Should I upload that .zip as an edit to this post, or create a new post with it?)

 

[Noc]

Okay, just had a BSOD. Error code: “MEMORY_MANAGEMENT”. Minidump .zip is attached. (Please let me know if I should edit previous posts with these .zip uploads instead.)

 

[Noc]

Aaand another one. Error code “BAD_POOL_HEADER”; WinDbg pointed to “Pool_Corruption”.

Incidentally, I finally found my laptop’s official support page and then upgraded my BIOS. However, all other driver downloads are for Windows 8. I presume it would be unwise to download and install them anyway under Windows 7? (If I’m asking questions like that, you know I’m running out of ideas …)

 

[Noc]

TWO crashes. Both with error code “0x0000007F”. Didn’t even have time to post about the first before the second hit. I am losing my freaking mind.

This is the only computer I have. I blew $800 on this POS. Not being a wealthy person, that’s basically all I had. And now I can’t get any work done at all.

Both minidumps attached. From now on, I’ll just keep editing this post with future dumps and info unless I get another reply.

EDIT (07/13/14 2:02 AM) – New crash. Added fifth minidump. Also, I uninstalled Kaspersky Internet Security 2014 in favor of Microsoft Security Essentials, which I’d read might help. (Other than a mildly faster startup time, it hasn’t.)

EDIT #2 (7:07 AM) – And another crash: “BAD_POOL_HEADER”. Sixth minidump added.

 

[Noc]

Update since last time:

Someone linked me to a Toshiba support page that actually offers Win7 drivers for my laptop, something I’d been unable to find until now (the Canadian help page is useless, all drivers listed are for Win8). I downloaded and installed all relevant available drivers (except for ones where a more recent version was already installed). Things seemed to run smoothly for a few hours.

Then I received the following error: “Windows has encountered a critical problem and will restart automatically in one minute. Please save your work now.” At the time, I didn’t think much of it since at least it wasn’t a BSOD.

So of course, I then had a BSOD. “SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION” or something similar. Opening the minidump (attached to this post) in WinDbg points to “memory corruption”.

Can anyone please help?

 

[YoYo155]

Hi Noc .

I would like to start with testing the RAM
and if it receives a clean bill of health we'll go from there.

:ar: Testing the RAM:

Test and Diagnose RAM Issues with Memtest86+:

• RAM - Test with Memtest86+

   Tip

• :info: Pay close attention to part 3 of the tutorial "If you have errors"
• :tip: Test the RAM with Memtest86+ for at least 7-10 passes. It may take up to 22 passes to find problems. Make sure to run it once after the system has been on for a few hours and is warm, and then also run it again when the system has been off for a few hours and is cold.

When done with the testing procedure take a picture and upload it here.

:ar: This will help you to determine where the issue is origination from (if any):

First run it with all the existing/installed RAM modules. If it comes with no error, all is good.

But if it starts showing errors, Stop testing. Errors/red lines means one or more RAM is faulty. But the fault may occur due to a faulty DIMM slot, too, which is a motherboard component. Using memtest86+, you can discriminate between a faulty RAM and a faulty motherboard.

How? Say you have two RAM sticks and two DIMM slots. You obtained errors at the test with all RAM sticks installed. Now, remove all the sticks but one. Test it in all the available slots, one by one. Continue the same procedure for all the available sticks.
How to make the inference that is it a RAM issue or it is a motherboard issue? Suppose you have got the result like that:

test|Slot1|Slot2
RAM1| Error | Error
RAM2|Good|Good

It is a RAM, a bad RAM.

But if you have got a result like that:

test|Slot1|Slot2
RAM1| Error |Good
RAM2| Error |Good

It is a motherboard issue. The particular slot is bad.

 

[Noc]

@YoYo155 —

Thanks for the reply. I’ll run MemTest86+ overnight. I don’t expect it to reveal any hardware issues, however, since as I mentioned in my OP, I’ve already had it tested by a PC repair expert who used MemTest86 for two days straight and gave my laptop’s hardware a clean bill of health.

 

[Noc]

OP here: I doubt this will be of much help, but after extensive troubleshooting and testing (all hardware tests came back clean), I was unable to ever fix the BSODs, both under Windows 7 and 8.1. Even now, with a clean and minimal 8.1 installation, it still occasionally crashes with “memory corruption” errors, so it seems there may be some underlying hardware problem with the P70-A. All I can suggest at this point is to try and put your warranty to use, if you still can.

Sorry.

 

[anthmich]

i know very old thread

I know this is old... but just thought i'd let everyone know about this gremlin of a laptop.
My mom has one, bsod all the time... simple fix.. only populate 2 ram slots. thats it.
remove mother board take out ram from backside of board, this way in the future you can change ram configs later.

Regardless of os installed from linux, osx or windows it still crashes with 3 or more slots filled. with only 2 slots occupied everything runs flawlessly.