Solved No BSOD/memory dump, Random Freezes, Event Log Analysis, Desperate

[Spixe]

My kingdom for a resolution! I've troubleshooted everything I can think of. My computer just randomly freezes.

I receive no BSOD either. It just stops responding, the monitor goes dead since it loses signal, yet the computer fans and HD lights continue to run. There is no response from it via mouse or keyboard however. No MEMORY.DMP files are created either.

I disabled automatic restart, so it doesn't reboot at least. Sometimes it freezes when I'm using it, other times in the middle of the night when I'm dead asleep.

To troubleshoot I've:
-Swapped out VGA cards. One seems to produce many more crashes (once or twice a day), but the other still crashes on occassion (once every couple of days) <-- could this be it? why the difference?
-Tested PSU, no problems.
-Reformatted and reinstalled OS
-Did full virus and malware scan with a half dozen different vendors, all came out clean.
-Used CPU temp monitoring software while running Prime95, temps are all fine.
-Ran Memtest overnight on my memory, all passed.
-Updated all drivers and windows updates, including Direct X
-Completely removed all video drivers, did a clean install of video drivers.
-Updated BIOS.
-Completely cleaned PC of dust, made it look brand new, all fans are fine, good ventilation.

The only "hint" I have is the event logs, but after searching the internet for a month on what it means, I'm still stuck. I will post what they say here in the hopes that some kind/smart soul will understand what its pointing at:

There are 2 Errors and 1 Critical in the log each time this happens. First, an error:

Event ID: 6008.
General Tab: The previous system shutdown at 8:56:45 AM on ‎11/‎29/‎2013 was unexpected.
Details Tab (Friendly View):
- System
- Provider
[ Name] EventLog
- EventID 6008
[ Qualifiers] 32768
Level 2
Task 0
Keywords 0x80000000000000
- TimeCreated
[ SystemTime] 2013-11-29T02:29:47.000000000Z
EventRecordID 14653
Channel System
Computer PhatBox
Security
- EventData
8:56:45 AM
‎11/‎29/‎2013
812950
DD070B0005001D00080038002D005F00DD070B0005001D00000038002D005F00C01200003C00000001000000C0120000000000006009000001000000834E0000

Binary data:
In Words
0000: 000B07DD 001D0005 00380008 005F002D
0008: 000B07DD 001D0005 00380000 005F002D
0010: 000012C0 0000003C 00000001 000012C0
0018: 00000000 00000960 00000001 00004E83

In Bytes
0000: DD 07 0B 00 05 00 1D 00 Ý.......
0008: 08 00 38 00 2D 00 5F 00 ..8.-._.
0010: DD 07 0B 00 05 00 1D 00 Ý.......
0018: 00 00 38 00 2D 00 5F 00 ..8.-._.
0020: C0 12 00 00 3C 00 00 00 À...<...
0028: 01 00 00 00 C0 12 00 00 ....À...
0030: 00 00 00 00 60 09 00 00 ....`...
0038: 01 00 00 00 83 4E 00 00 ....ƒN..

_______________________________________________________________

Now, the Critical:
Source: Kernel-Power
Event ID: 41
User: System
OpCode: Info
Task Category: (63)
Keywords (2)
General tab: The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.
Details tab (friendly view):
- System
- Provider
[ Name] Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power
[ Guid] {331C3B3A-2005-44C2-AC5E-77220C37D6B4}
EventID 41
Version 2
Level 1
Task 63
Opcode 0
Keywords 0x8000000000000002
- TimeCreated
[ SystemTime] 2013-11-29T02:29:40.053609600Z
EventRecordID 14657
Correlation
- Execution
[ ProcessID] 4
[ ThreadID] 8
Channel System
Computer PhatBox
- Security
[ UserID] S-1-5-18
- EventData
BugcheckCode 0
BugcheckParameter1 0x0
BugcheckParameter2 0x0
BugcheckParameter3 0x0
BugcheckParameter4 0x0
SleepInProgress false
PowerButtonTimestamp 0

__________________________________________________________

The final Error event:

Event ID: 1101
OpCode: Info
Task Category: Event processing
Keywords: Audit Success
General tab: Audit events have been dropped by the transport. 0
Details tab (friendly view):
- System
- Provider
[ Name] Microsoft-Windows-Eventlog
[ Guid] {fc65ddd8-d6ef-4962-83d5-6e5cfe9ce148}
EventID 1101
Version 0
Level 2
Task 101
Opcode 0
Keywords 0x4020000000000000
- TimeCreated
[ SystemTime] 2013-11-29T02:29:47.448022500Z
EventRecordID 21098
Correlation
- Execution
[ ProcessID] 1012
[ ThreadID] 1124
Channel Security
Computer PhatBox
Security
- UserData
- AuditEventsDropped
Reason 0
--------------------------------------
Please Help!

 

[carwiz]

I'm no smart soul but it looks to me like power faults. Start by checking all the connections from the power supply to the motherboard. A few disconnects and reconnect will clean the pins. Be sure all the pins in the connectors are fully seated. Sometimes a pin will get ejected from the connector (pushed out by the motherboard pins).

Next would be to verify the power supply voltages. These should not vary by more than +/- 5% on any of the rails.
One method is to down load and install HWiNFO64, if you don't already have a voltage monitor.

 

[Spixe]

Thanks for the reply carwiz.
Smart or not, I appreciate just ANY help right now, any ideas would be good ones.

I checked all the connections, they are all firm and solid with clean pins.
I verified the PSU voltages using HWiNFO64 and also a PSU tester, all voltages were within range and tested fine.

So I'm still clueless.

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

 

[carwiz]

Follow the instructions at the top of the page for including diagnostic files. Even if there's no dumps, the other files and info may help. It can save time and we won't be playing message tag.

http://www.sevenforums.com/bsod-help-support/96879-blue-screen-death-bsod-posting-instructions.html

Added:
What brand and model of PSU are you using? HWiNFO64 allows logging. Run it and log the temps and voltages while you're doing other things on the PC. Post the log as an attachment.

 

[Spixe]

The problem is I'm not getting a BSOD. It just freezes and I need to manually restart - most of the time, although I was surprised today to see that it had restarted on its own. No change in the event log though, same exact 3 errors I got as original posted, every time. Still, I don't get a BSOD, and I have my PC to do a full dump (kernel) on system crash, but it still does not produce a memory dump. Should I set it for a mini-dump or something else instead?

I'll set HWiNFO to alert me if the voltages flucuate. What do you think the high and low for that should be? I'm not knowledgeable with voltages, so I dunno if I should put 4 and 6 or more like 4.5 and 5.5, etc. How long should I let the log run for before I post it?

The PSU isn't even 6 months old yet. Here's a cut and paste from NewEgg of the one I have, as I'm not sure which info is most valuable: SeaSonic X Series X-850 (SS-850KM3 Active PFC F3) 850W ATX12V v2.3 / EPS 12V v2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Full Modular Active PFC Power Supply New 4th Gen CPU Certified Haswell Ready

 

[carwiz]

Set it for either but a mini-dump will work. You also MUST have a page file equal to your installed memory plus 1MB to create a dump file. Here's a tutorial on Dump Files. I need the other files whether you get dumps or not. They provide a detailed picture of your system and drivers.

Run the log for several minutes while you exercise the system hardware. The PSU is a good one but even good ones can fail. As already stated, the limit on voltage is +/- 5% on all voltage rails. (12v= 11.4 - 12.6) , (5v= 4.75 - 5.25) , (3.3v= 3.13- 3.46)

 

[Spixe]

will update soon

Hi Carwiz,
I appreciate you working with me on this.
I'll do what you said, but I'm trying one more thing first. My OS was on an SSD, and since as far as I can tell there are no real SSD diagnostic programs, I'm now running my OS off a different drive to see if I still get freezes or not. I had reformatted and reinstalled the OS on the SSD drive and that hadn't made a difference, so perhaps it's a drive problem. It's only been running 12 hours so far but I haven't had any freezes, then again I keep having to restart manually as I install programs that I need on a daily basis. If you don't mind, give me maybe a couple days to see if I get any system freezes again, if I do, then it's not a drive issue. If not, then hopefully problem solved. I'll reply as soon as I can confirm if its a drive issue or not. Thanks for all the advice so far, truly appreciate it!

 

[Spixe]

solved

Well, turns out that last little piece of trouble shooting I tried ended up solving the problem. I should have done that before I posted but unfortunately it didn't occur to me until the last minute. There is no way to to a diagnostics test on a SSD drive, not that will tell you there are any subtle problems that is, so I had to send an email to Crucial (manufacturer of the drive) explaining the problem that I stated above. This was there response:
____________
Thank you for contacting us. The behavior you are describing is consistent with TRIM commands not executing on the drive (which may result from lots of writing and rewriting, especially OS installs, not done on the OS level, and which can be blocked by a SATA controller running in IDE mode as you've indicated). The accumulation of 'junk' data from file deletions, even reformats, basically clogs up the drive and reduces or sometimes even halts performance and can even dismount the drive. A secondary feature called Garbage Collection activates when the drive is powered, but has no data throughput, for an extended period, and does background cleanup on our SSDs which can make up for the lack of TRIM.

If this is the cause of your drive's behavior, a period of idling the drive without any data being written or read actively will improve its performance. We recommend you perform this idle period on a desktop computer because it allows you to only connect the SATA power connection.
_____________
I did what they asked, ran it idle for about 12 hours, and then booted off it again. I'm now on day four of constant uptime, which I haven't been able to do for about two months, so that definitely solved the problem. I'm also thankful I don't have to buy any replacement PC components, ha. Anyway, just wanted to anywho who sees this know, perhaps this can help them in the future. I searched google for a month on this problem and found nothing. Hope this can help others. I appreciate your help as well carwiz. Until next time.

 

[carwiz]

+1 on your reputation for getting back to us. All of us appreciate when a new registered user comes back and posts information on the outcome of there situation. It can help thousands of others with the same problem. And it doesn't happen often enough so you deserve a hardy handshake and big thank you.

 

[Spixe]

Ha, thanks... but... wow, this is embarrassing... the problem still exists. Same thing as before, nothing changed except frequency of crashing now. Listening to the Crucial tech did seem to help, as like I said, I got a world more of uptime than I previously had. Hopefully that points to it really being an HD problem though and nothing else. I sent an email to crucial telling them it still happened, as their previous email said IF the "garbage cleaning" didn't work than it may be up for a warranty exchange. Hopefully if and after that happens, assuming it doesn't crash, I can say with 100% confidence that it was really the HD. Now all possibilities still exist. But at least I'm not out of options, as I'm still working with Crucial on the drive problem. Anyway, again, thanks a ton carwiz (for the rep too), I'll update this thread once I can confirm the problem (assuming I can).

 

[carwiz]

I was questioning myself why Crucial would say let the PC sit idle because Windows is never really idle. The disk drive is hit about once per second, or less, even when nothing is running. There's keep-alive and log entries occurring while Windows does self maintenance. You can see this happening if you have a drive activity light. You might try rebooting into the BIOS and let it sit for a while. I would keep an eye on the temperature of the CPU or listen for high fan speeds. The CPU may run at an elevated temperature while in BIOS mode.

The problem with TRIM is that you can't tell if it's running or not. The drive activity light is driven by the PC controller and TRIM occurs through the disk controller. The PC has nothing to do it when it occurs. I do this about every other month or so when I think about it.

 

[Spixe]

Actually it wasn't letting the PC / OS sit idle, it was letting the drive itself sit idle. That was done by hooking up the drive to a PC running an OS off a separate drive, and disconnecting any drive cables, only having the power cable hooked up to it. Thus the drive was on, but no reads or writes were being done to it. The OS was running off a completely different drive. I did that to temporarily fix this problem, or at least that's what I thought.

 

[carwiz]

Letting the PC sit idle was an early theory held by many including the manufactures. If you review some of my old posts, you'll see I disagreed with it from the beginning. It's since been "proven not to work". That was why I mentioned it. The "power only" setup on the SSD should work but I haven't tried it. The BIOS method works too and you don't have to pull cables, drives or use another PC. And I should have said, Garbage Collection instead of TRIM. I was graciously reminded of that by one of my smart soul colleagues here.

As for your renewed problem; If you've already checked on a firmware update for your drive, try increasing the page file size as well as increasing the available space on the drive by removing unnecessary files.

 

[Spixe]

The drive does certainly get full fast because it's not too big to begin with, only 64GB. You think increasing the page file size will stop the random crashes? Wouldn't a crash caused by the pagefile show up in the event viewer though? I'll give a try nevertheless. So I'm not getting any minidumps, and had recommended earlier it could be because the filesize is too low, what should I set it to? My currently have 4GB of RAM, and my pagefile size is set to be automatically determined by windows, and its current allocated to 4393MB. Should I increase it (even though I don't have more RAM... yet) to get the minidump working and for more troubleshooting?

The power only setup for the SSD certainly did increase the time between crashes, as before it'd crash at least once a day, and after I did that I got 4 days before my first crash. It's been up since that crash, 24 hours now, so at least it seems to be given me a bit of time between reboots.

 

[carwiz]

Follow the instructions for posting a BSOD here and as I noted in Post #6. There's really no time to chase a goose--I need to see your system details and how it's setup.

 

[Spixe]

Ah, OK, sorry about not doing this earlier, I had thought that because I never get a BSOD at all, as well as the fact that when I tried the first time, it said "Sorry, no dump file found," and *i thought* it didn't create any file to send. Turns out, oddly enough, after doing some testing this time, it was creating a whole new User/Desktop folder on another drive, so it was never being put on my desktop. Anywho, I see now it is created and it can still help, as you are looking for other system info. My apologies. Here is the rar (hope thats OK, not zip) attached. Let me know if there's anything else I can do to help.

Btw, Crucial agreed to RMA it. But like I said, I'm not 100% convinced it's the drive, but hopefully it is. I don't want you to help troubleshoot for nothing, but perhaps you can spot something in the logs that can give some more assurance as to it being a drive problem or not. Thanks either way.

 

[rageer]

Hey, I'm having the same issue as you. I installed a SSD on my laptop and I am getting random restarts with no blue screen or dmp file created.

 

[Spixe]

My problem ended up being the SSD. I did some kind of cache cleaning or something, physically, via disconnected the hardware and doing this or that, had to follow Crucials technical support so I suggest you ask them how to do the same. After that though the problems went away. Something about garbage building up over time causes it to randomly shut down.

 

[VelkoKO17]

Hi! I searching for my problem for months! And I think, I will find it here! My PC randomly restarts (like other posts) many times a day! Without warnins or BSoD, or dump files! I test everything that I can! Memtest, Videotest, HotCPU, Power supply, Mallware, Viruses, clean all fans and change heatsink. With no success! After a half a year I there was the same problem. I changed the CPU, and voila, the problem was sold! Until now! The same problem with the new CPU!

TEONIX-VANYA-четв_25_09_2014_г__154955,93.zip (1.41 MB) Here is my data! I'll be very gratefull if you help me!