Random BSOD, likely driver related?

[yeoleg]

Hello all!

I recently built a new computer. I installed Windows 7 Ultimate x64 and all of my drivers, and everything seemed to be going fine until I received a BSOD my second day into having completed the build.

Things I've tried:

* Running Memtest86. I only had time to let it complete two passes, which took a little over an hour. Both were returned error free.

* Driver Verifier. I set it to verify all non-Microsoft drivers and began receiving a BSOD before Windows could even finish booting. I traced this to my installation of Daemon Tools Lite and then uninstalled this program. Now when I follow the same Driver Verifier protocol, Windows freezes at the "Welcome" screen, but does not throw up a BSOD or reboot.

I've attached the results of the SF Diagnostic Tool. Any help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
yeoleg

 

[Arc]

Hello yeoleg.

fffff880`03ccc728  fffff880`030feb6aUnable to load image \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\aswSnx.SYS, Win32 error 0n2
[COLOR=Red]*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for aswSnx.SYS
*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for aswSnx.SYS
 aswSnx+0x4ab6a[/COLOR]

Uninstall Avast using Avast Uninstall Utility.
Use Microsoft Security Essentials as your antivirus with windows inbuilt firewall, and free MBAM as the on demand scanner.

Download and install those, and then run full system scans with both of them, one by one.

Let us know the results.

 

[yeoleg]

Hi Arc!

Thanks for the reply. I uninstalled Avast using the tool you provided and installed MSE; I then ran a full scan of my system. After a very long time the scan ended and had found 8 potentially malicious files. All of them, however, were in directories I hadn't even thought of in years (they were all on my storage drive). I deleted/quarantined them nonetheless. I ran a quick scan with MBAM and it turned up with nothing. I haven't had time to do a full scan yet, but will get to it today.

Any other thoughts? Aside from the BSOD, the other issue I've been having is with random Windows Explorer crashes. Near the end of my MSE scan yesterday, this was happening constantly (WE would crash, I'd tell Windows to restart the program, it would crash again, etc.). I have no idea why this has been happening either. Is there a way for me to troubleshoot that?

Thanks so much for any help,
yeoleg

 

[Arc]

http://www.sevenforums.com/crash-lo...-explorer-exe-crashing-issues.html#post903148

Try it.

 

[yeoleg]

Hi Arc,

Thanks for the reply. I tried everything listed in that thread and Windows Explorer is still crashing. I've attached one of the dump files created from following step #5, as the thread linked to by Capt. Jack Sparrow no longer exists and I have no idea how to gather any information from it. Does this shed any light on anything?

Thanks,
yeoleg

 

[yeoleg]

Also, no BSOD since I uninstalled Avast. Could that have been it?

yeoleg

 

[Arc]

That is what I have told you in post 2.

Is explorer crashing everywhere, or in some particular folders? Do you have any custom theme installed with modified explorer.exe?

 

[yeoleg]

That is what I have told you in post 2.

Is explorer crashing everywhere, or in some particular folders? Do you have any custom theme installed with modified explorer.exe?

I know that was what you were implying. I'm just surprised that such a well-known, well-used, and well-reviewed antivirus program could be causing BSOD. I'm fine with MSE though, especially if my computer is stable!

There seems to be no rhyme or reason as to when or where Explorer crashes. It'll seem like it has gone away and then out of nowhere it'll crash continuously for a few minutes, sometimes forcing me to log off and back on again (which fixes the issue temporarily). I don't have any custom themes installed.

 

[Arc]

SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker

Let it have a go.

If you search the Crashes and Debugging threads, you will find at least 50 crashes due to Avast in last month. No, I am not saying anything against Avast. Its a good program, but sometimes it crashes.