No BSOD or minidump, just persistent crashes

[jeffjohnson]

Windows 7 Home Premium - persistent crashes several times per day but no BSOD and no minidump though I'm configured to produce one.

Machine has been running perfectly fine since 2010. Crashes began on July 31 2015 (machine had been down for a month prior to that while I was on holiday). The crashes usually SEEM to happen while scrolling online, Firefox, Chrome, but not exclusively as it's also happened while watching a movie on VLCPlayer, and also while editing in Photoshop. Nvidia driver is up to date.

Nothing immediately obvious and always bugcheckcode 0 on the Kernel-Power critical event that shows up on reboot.

Machine vacuumed out. Temperatures seem ok. Tried un-installing a batch of Windows updates that were added on the day the crashes first started July 31 but that had no effect. Have checked and updated drivers with DriverMax and SuMo. Have run through Tweaking.com Windows repair utility. I've tried other avenues but I admit to having no clue why this is occurring.

I've held off re-insalling Windows in the hope a fix can be found, so any help would be welcome.
Cheers, Jeff.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Hello and welcome Jeff mate being an old machine and that I ma pedantic about eliminatory processes I like to start with the basic stuff and work up.

Now the very first thing I like to look at is the PSU and as you will obviously know no PSU no machine

So please do this first up and post back preferably a pic but at least the rail voltages

Using HW Info

PART A:

You can test the volts onthe PSU with HW Info HWiNFO,HWiNFO32/64 - Download <download the right bit version and close the right hand window select Sensorsand scroll down to the power section where you will see what the volts aredoing see my pic. In my pic the section (Nuvoton)with VBATT is a dead give away you are in the section for the rail voltages.There are other section titles and one that pops up often is ITE

Now the voltage on thedifferent rails have to be within 5% =+/- of what is required or the machinewill not work properly if at all.

See this for the railvoltage info

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/power-supply-specifications-atx-reference,3061.html (Section 2.)

The original right handwindow shows the machine running and is handy for that but for looking at thecomponents in some detail close it and use the main left hand side panel

FOR OTHER COMPONENTS

PART B:

Open each small squarewith + in it on the section the components are in and then click on theindividual component/s (it willhighlight in blue) - in the right hand side will appear all sorts of detailsincluding brands speeds and other essential info that particular device. Seepic for example.

 

[jeffjohnson]

Much appreciated and many thanks for the input! I'd been looking for a monitoring tool like HWiNFO but never found one as good cheers! Voltage rails info pic attached. Noticed the +5V and 5Vstandby going a little lower especially when I tried re-creating the crash - most often when scrolling through long online image-heavy pages (ebay or flickr etc) but am not certain how low is too low for comfort? I've set up a monitor, maybe it'll be more obvious after the next crash. Your expertise is very welcome, please let me know if there's anything of note to you here. Thanks again, Jeff.

**edit, of course +/- 5% of the 5V would be 4.75 to 5.25 so these seem ok?

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Yep they look ok mate only I wouldbe keeping a close eye on that rail.



The other thing is too that I am nota fan at all of any tweaking programs per se' the only tweaking I do with allmy machines come form this http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/11728-optimize-windows-7-a.html andI do use CCleaner of course and if you really want to keep the disk squeakyclean I use this http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/818-disk-cleanup-open-use.html itwill of course clean dump files but if you suspect there are any beforehandthen it is a good idea to post them using these

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/174459-dump-files-configure-windows-create-bsod.html

&

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

I suppose all the drivers for the graphicsare up to date and myself I always use manufacturers sites for them as theWindows feature is sort of rather sad.

This is the latest I can find for the GPU which does appear to be a tad old http://www.geforce.com/drivers/results/56378and it might be worth trying out thiswith it http://www.carrona.org/furmark.html

Next obvious target is the hard drive and there two testsyou could run or I would and they are SeaTools for Windows | Seagate this will test the drive for any bad sectors etc and this one will physically check the surface of the disk / platters and to some extent the read / write actuating arms MiniTool Partition Wizard | Best partition magic alternative for Windows PC and Server see my pic on how to run this.

Now all these runs may take some time especuially the surface test with the Partition Wizard.
My next target would be the RAM and you can use this but please make sure the test is run for at LEAST 8 PASSES or it is useless running it - overnight is good http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/105647-ram-test-memtest86.html this test is the only one we recommend the Windows feature again very sad.

You did mention temps too just out of curiosity what were they use Speccy if you like https://www.piriform.com/speccy/download


PS if the errors in memtest come up before pass 8 then you can stop it

 

[jeffjohnson]

Many thanks again for this info. Have been running through the various protocols. Crashes still happening sporadically but I haven't finished trying everything you've suggested... Nvidia drivers up to date, no notable changes to recorded voltages prior to last few crashes. Furmark stress test just ran for 20 min or so with no problems. Maybe I missed the point of it though. Latest crashes surfing Google streetview then simply typing in Notepad. Not sure what the common thread might be but I'm still working on this per your suggestions and just wanted to say thanks in the meantime, cheers Jeff.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Jeff I might just suggest you remove the GPU and run the graphics with your board graphics if it is something real simple like street view with Google. Lets just see what happens the driver for that on board graphics should be loaded when the install was done.

If you use HW Info you can find the make and model of the board and then bring up the graphics entry as well see pic

 

[jeffjohnson]

Thanks again for the info. It's been very helpful. The motherboard is an aged Biostar / Phoenix N61PB-M2S As far as I can see the BIOS is as up to date as available as there's no free support for these things now. The Graphics is NVidia GeForce 6150SE nForce 430 which looks to me like it's integral to the motherboard? I can't see anything to remove.

Been trying a few different tests... Couldn't get the memtest to boot from USB but went ahead and tested the machine on each of two 2Gb memory cards singly. The machine is stable with one card installed and the other removed in either of the two slots. Oddly, when I put both cards in the machine crashes again while scrolling etc. Any further thoughts appreciated.

Regards, Jeff.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Yes Jeff mate well sounds like a dead slot perhaps instead of having 2GB sticks - a 4GB or 8GB might suffice. Mind you finding the that size might prove to be a challenge. I know there are some on EBay for older stuff but you are taking a punt eh?

So HW did not come up with the board model?? and you could also access the RAM info too.

Now for the drivers you could try this SlimDrivers - Download I use it on occasions but do uninstall it after you have finished with it because it is a nagger.