Random BSOD on new custom builds

[Alan White]

I have two custom-built desktops to the spec in my profile. The supplier built the hardware and I installed the OS and applications. Almost from the start both machines have experienced random BSODs, on average roughly every two or three days, as well as other issues such as programs closing unexpectedly.

I haven't been able to determine any pattern to the problem though I do have a suspicion that it's somehow related to being woken from sleep as a number of BSODs occurs at or around 04:00 when the machines wake for backup etc.

I believe that Windows and device drivers are up to date. I ran Memtest for ten passes (~16 hours!) on each machine with no errors reported.

I've attached the output from SF Diagnostic Tool on one PC as I guess it will be easier to focus on one PC at a time.

I'm grateful for any suggestions.

 

[Boozad]

Welcome to 7F.

1: Your Intel Graphics driver has been flagged.

*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for igdkmd64.sys
*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for igdkmd64.sys

3: kd> lmvm igdkmd64
start             end                 module name
fffff880`0482d000 fffff880`04cdb000   igdkmd64 T (no symbols)           
    Loaded symbol image file: igdkmd64.sys
    Image path: igdkmd64.sys
    Image name: igdkmd64.sys
    Timestamp:        [COLOR=Red][B]Tue Aug 05 16:47:18 2014[/B][/COLOR] (53E0FC86)
    CheckSum:         00491E83
    ImageSize:        004AE000
    Translations:     0000.04b0 0000.04e4 0409.04b0 0409.04e4

:ar: Look for an updated version here.


2: AVG is also causing issues.

fffff880`031fb2a8  fffff880`02d868c4Unable to load image avgidsdrivera.sys, Win32 error 0n2
*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for avgidsdrivera.sys
*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for avgidsdrivera.sys
 avgidsdrivera+0x1c8c4

:ar: Uninstall AVG using the tool linked below and nstall MS Security Essentials and MalwareBytes.

   Note

Make sure you uncheck the 'Enable Free Trial' box when installing MalwareBytes.

   Information

AVG Uninstaller:


Download

 

[Alan White]

Many thanks for the speedy reply.

Intel Graphics
I've updated to the latest from Intel. I did previously have a later version (and still had BSODs) but downgraded to the one on the Gigabyte website in the expectation that Gigabyte would have tested compatibility .

AV
AVG uninstalled (no easy task - required several attempts with both Control Panel and the remover file).
MS Security Essentials and MalwareBytes installed as instructed. Scanned with both - nothing found.

Is there anything else you'd like me to do now, or is it just a case of wait and see? (I hate random/intermittent faults!)

 

[Boozad]

Yes just run the machine as usual and test stability. Those were the two problems I could find in all of your logs so it's just a case of wait and see at the moment. If you do receive any more BSODs post up new logs straight away and we'll get them looked at.

 

[Alan White]

Unfortunately the problem has recurred. I applied the changes recommended to both machines and both machines have since crashed, on both occasions immediately after being woken from sleep.

I've run SF Diagnostic Tool on both machines and this time have attached the output from both. The machines are theoretically identical (though they don't both have all the same software installed). Perhaps the logs on one or the other will give a clue to the problem on both.

If you prefer to concentrate on just one machine at a time then let me know and ignore the attached file for White-2.

One oddity which may or may not be relevant: running SF Diagnostic Tool on White-1 always takes ~15 minutes to process MSinfo32.nfo and results in a 42Mb file; the same thing on White-2 takes seconds and gives a 1.5Mb file.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Boozad]

Hi Alan, on machine #1 could you please open an elevated command prompt, copy and paste sfc /scannow into the cmd window and hit enter.

Then run chkdsk http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/433-disk-check.html

Post back with the results.

 

[Alan White]

Hi, Boozad. Sorry, that's useful information I should have posted sooner. I run SFC on a schedule twice a week on both machines, just to keep an eye on things. Very occasionally one will return an error but if I change nothing, reboot, and re-run SFC then no problems are found. Not sure what that says

I've just run sfc /scannow on White-1 and it says:
Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.

 

[Boozad]

OK, run the chkdsk.

 

[Boozad]

Also, out of interest, do you run this on a regular basis?

View attachment 338077

 

[Alan White]

I ran chkdsk /f on both C:\ & D:\. D:\ reported no problems but C:\ had minor errors so I ran chkdsk /r on it just to be sure. No doubt the problems were caused by the crashes rather than the other way round? Output attached.

Yes, AOMEI is, after much analysis and testing, my backup program of choice. I run a full backup of C:\ weekly and incrementals daily. Comments?

 

[Boozad]

Firstly just to be sure can you run SeaTools to check the integrity of the HDD. If chkdsk did find errors on C: it's best to be completely sure the disk isn't degrading. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/313457-seatools-dos-windows-how-use.html

Also could you stop running AOMEI. I didn't notice that on your system at first but a lot of your dumps could possibly be down to a backup utility, let's prove or disprove that next.

 

[Alan White]

All quick tests on both drives passed. I'll run a Long Generic on drive 0 (C:\) later today when I have three hours spare.

Ii would be a shame if the problem turned out to be AOMEI - it's by far the best free backup program I've found. I'll stop running it for a few days and disable its service.

 

[Boozad]

There are other backup alternatives if that does turn out to be the problem. I prefer using Macrium images myself.

 

[Alan White]

Passed the Long Generic test.

I looked at some reviews for Macrium but didn't actually try it. If I remember rightly it's just an imaging tool: it doesn't have file restore or incremental backups.

I suggest we leave things like that for now and see what happens with AOMEI disabled. I'll report back either in a week or so or when the next BSOD occurs.

Thanks for your help so far - much appreciated.

 

[Boozad]

You're welcome Alan.

Macrium doesn't do file backups but its imaging function is priceless (in my opinion of course). I do manual backups of my files to an external USB 3.0 HDD, but I image my drives weekly as a fail safe. I find imaging a much better option really for a multitude of reasons, although I'm not poo-pooing backing up at all. Macrium also offers incremental imaging if memory serves me correctly.

We'll cross that bridge when we come to it but see how your system runs now. I haven't looked at the second PC at all yet, I'll get round to that tomorrow if you give me a nudge. It will be interesting to see if the symptoms are the same, I just wanted to sort out PC #1 first.

 

[Alan White]

Hi, Boozad. I hope you had a good weekend.



You'll recall that we're currently testing whether AOMEI Backupper was a problem. Time for an update...

I had a memory error reported by a program (KeePass). That needed a reboot before I could start that program again.

Then the machine locked up while it was in hybrid sleep. It woke up as scheduled but the monitor remained off and the machine was unresponsive. I had to turn it off then it resumed from the hibernation file but still didn't work properly so another reboot was required.

Then a BSOD this morning. Minidump attached just in case there's anything useful in there.

From this I conclude that AOMEI Backupper isn't the cause so I plan to re-enable it unless you object.



You'll recall that the computer supplier supplied only the hardware - all the software choices and installation are my own work.

Therefore what I really need to do is isolate whether the problem is hardware or software. I've done memtest on both machines and I've run a long test on one of the disks, all without error. I'm going to get WD's diagnostics (as all the drives are WD) and run some more tests on the disks. Are there any other hardware tests you can recommend?

What I'd normally do in this situation, given that I have two identical machines, is swap components from one to the other. But that won't help in this case as both are experiencing similar problems, and for this reason my feeling is that the cause is software.



I spent the weekend looking through the event viewer and resolving any serious issues it reported. From my research, most of them seemed to be irrelevant but at least cleaning up the dross makes it easier to see the real problems.

I'll leave it up to you to decide if you want to spend time on the second machine. They are theoretically identical and I'm reasonably confident that the problem and cause are the same on both. Looking at the second machine might give more information or just confuse the situation.



My plans - feel free to comment and/or add:
Perform any more possible tests on the hardware.
As the majority of BSODs occur at or very soon after waking from sleep for nightly maintenance I'm going to focus on that, firstly by not waking the machines for a few days.



* I recently had a problem on another machine (not one of these two). The symptoms were random hangs and crashes and everything pointed to a failing disk (not the system disk) but the diagnostics always came up clean so I looked elsewhere without success. Only when the disk failed completely was my diagnosis confirmed. So the diagnostics don't always help .

 

[Boozad]

Alan I'll get onto this tonight, sorry I've been really busy the past few days. Don't enable AOMEI just yet, just because it's disabled doesn't mean it's not doing something in the background. I can't lok at the logs just yet as I'm at work.

 

[Alan White]

Thanks, Boozad.

I have made progress - of sorts. I've determined from the event logs that the problem isn't, as I first thought, occurring when the computer wakes from sleep. Rather, the problem is created at the time of putting the computer to sleep. It doesn't go to sleep cleanly so when it wakes up Windows thinks there's been an abnormal shutdown and produces the BSOD. So analysing the dumps isn't going to reveal anything, I think.

My next task, therefore, is to determine why it's not going to sleep cleanly, and why it's only doing it every n sleeps (where n is a number I'm hoping to determine). If you've any ideas I'd really appreciate them.

 

[Boozad]

Well the first thing I can think of is testing the RAM, as you probably know Sleep writes to RAM so if there's a problem there maybe that's the cause.

Download and run MemTest86+ to test your RAM.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/105647-ram-test-memtest86.html

   Note

View attachment 338707

Run MemTest86+ for at least 8 passes. Ideally set it off before you go to bed and leave it overnight, we're looking for zero errors here. A single error will show something's going bad with your RAM.

 

[Alan White]

Already done. I ran Memtest for ten passes (~16 hours!) on each machine with no errors reported. I'm thinking PSU but they're a hassle to change on these machines and I first need to see if I've got a suitable replacement. I don't want to buy one because these are new machines so if the PSUs need replacing then the supplier will do it. But I first need to prove it to myself.

That said, I'm still inclining to software. I'd really like to pin down the circumstances of the failure - always the hardest part of these sort of problems .