random BSOD - W7 pro 64bit - no idea as to why

[givolini]

Hello.
Every once in a while I get a blue screen. No idea as to why: checked ram, changed hard disk, made a clean install, updated all drivers.
I'll appreciate your assistance.
Thank you!
Giorgio

 

[Vir Gnarus]

Do you have any minidumps in /Windows/Minidump directory? That will help greatly. Otherwise, I'm stumped, especially given that your event logs are all in what looks to be italian.

 

[givolini]

Here's what I found, thanks

 

[Vir Gnarus]

Unfortunately neither crashdump is definitive. You'll have to turn on Driver Verifier and provide us crashdumps for any new crashes you may experience when DV is on. Also, I recommend that overnight you run Memtest. If you see any red on the screen when you come back to it, you have a hardware problem, and it's most likely your RAM.

 

[givolini]

I've already checked all of the ram sticks with memtest (four cycles), and had no errors.
I'll turn on driver verifier, and see what turns up.
Thanks

 

[givolini]

Today I ve installed Anydvd HD, and my system crashed two times already.
I'm enclosing all of the minidump files I could find.
Thanks for the help!

 

[Vir Gnarus]

Unfortunately it appears Driver Verifier was not active at the time of these crashes. Can you ensure that it's turned on and properly set up as instructed by the article I linked too in my previous post, and allow a couple crashes to occur while it's on so you can send us the crashdumps? Thanks. Remember that you must restart the PC after you set everything up. If you let it crash before so, the settings will be lost and DV will not be active.

On the other hand, there may be some hardware failure involved here given what I'm looking at from these crashdumps. You may wanna run Memtest86+ overnight to see if you have bad RAM, and then follow up with CHKDSK then finally a few drive tests using Seatools. For Seatools, it's preferable you run the bootable DOS version and run all tests except Advanced ones. The Long Generic will take a good while so best to plan ahead and do that one overnight.

 

[Poimetheus]

Download bluescreenview. Use that to check bug codes.

 

[Vir Gnarus]

Yes, the client can initially determine what crashes they're experiencing by running the crashdumps through Bluescreenview. Any 0xC4 crashes are especially noteworthy as they're crashes caused by Driver Verifier when it has detected a fault. Those are the ones that are worth looking at. Regardless though, any new crashdumps will be ok.

 

[givolini]

I've run the Seagate DOS tools, long generic test, and passed it. The RAM has been checked, fine too.

I've turned on the Verifier with the settings you told me, but, when restarted, Windows would not finish loading: I would put in the password, and then it just froze. No blue screen, no minidump files. Just stuck.

I've had to disable the verifier in safety mode.

Evidently, there is something mighty wrong, but... where does that leave us?

p.s. just in case, I own a Shuttle Prima XPC SX38P2 Pro. I've installed the proper drivers from the Shuttle website.

 

[givolini]

Ok, I think I managed to identify the driver responsible for my OS freezing.
I've run he driver verifier separately on the different drivers, and this is the one my OS froze up on: bdfm.sys version 0.5.1847.1196 built by WINDDK. It's a Bitdefender driver: I use the 2011 Internet security suite.

What do you think?

In case that is the responsible driver, can anybody suggest a good antivirus suite, perfectly compatible with Windows 7 64bit?
Thanks.

 

[givolini]

I've reluctantly installed the 2013 edition of Bitdefender Internet security. I hate it already (for reasons I'm not going to bore you with), but the damn driver is not in the system anymore.
I've had a couple of crashes (FIrefox and Thunderbird), but so far no blue screens (and I've also re-installed Anydvd HD again - yesterday my pc crashed four times in a row, after I installed Anydvd HD).
In case of new BSOD, I'll post an update.

 

[Vir Gnarus]

Free AV solutions are pretty good nowadays, with MSE (Microsoft Security Essentials) being top dog atm. Though if you want a pay one that has more options and features, I've been hearing frequently that ESET has been most impressive.

When you ran Memtest, did you run it for only one pass? Make sure to do it overnight so that it'll run several passes of all tests on all your RAM. Most RAM issues do not manifest on the first couple passes but after consistent usage they start flaring up.

You'll also wanna run the rest of the Seatools tests (besides Advanced). Long generic doesn't show up all problems, neither does any of the other tests, but altogether they comprehensively test all manner of functions on the drive.

Other than that, we'll just have to see how it goes for now.

 

[givolini]

I ran Memtest for four-five passes, no errors.
As of today, after I've installed the 2013 edition of Bitdefender internet security, I've had non more BSOD (though I'd rather not being overtly optimist just yet).

Thanks a lot for the ESET suggestion, I'll check it out. I was thinking about installing Kaspersky, but I used that a couple of years ago and had some problems too (can't recall what sort of), so I wouldn't mind trying something different.

If I don't get any more BSOD for a reasonable time, I'll mark this post as solved.
Thanks again.

 

[Vir Gnarus]

I personally haven't had much problem with Kaspersky. They are very effective with rootkits, for one, and have one of the better AV engines. Can't say much about their stability though (be it good or bad) since I haven't used it long enough to determine that.

Glad to hear the BSODS seem to have puttered out. I figured older AV that's pre-Windows 7 would definitely cause trouble, and this would be no exception to that rule. It's often necessary to upgrade AV software to accomodate a new OS, even if it would mean purchasing an upgrade.