Solved Random BSODs during gaming and general computer usage.

[Dandy621]

Hello.

I recently ordered a new PC from an online company after my other PC broke (they replaced the whole PC besides the old PSU and transferred all the HDD information to a new one), the PC worked well for about a month and recently it's started having BSODs, which leads me to believe it's driver related or maybe due to a program I have installed.

Is Windows 7 . . .
- x86 (32-bit) or x64 ?
x64
- the original installed OS on the system?
Windows 7 is the only one that's been installed on the system
- an OEM or full retail version?
It was purchased from a company online that built the PC for me then sent it, so I guess full retail?


- What is the age of system (hardware)?
The hardware is new as it's a recently bought PC
- What is the age of OS installation (have you re-installed the OS?)
3 years now, I had a PC before with the same OS, I just transfered it to a new one

System Specs:
AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1055T Processor
Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. GA-880GMA-UD2H
Award Modular BIOS v6.00PG
4.00 GB RAM
(1) Hitachi HDS721010CLA332 ATA Device (2) Multiple Card Reader USB Device
(1) AMD High Definition Audio Device
ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 7601 Multiprocessor Free Service Pack 1

If included the DMPs of the last few crashes, if I have done anything wrong or you need more information please tell me, and thank you for taking your time to help.

 

[JMH]

Nice post Dandy 621


These crashes were caused by memory corruption/exception (Cx05) probably a driver.
Please run these two tests to verify your memory and find which driver is causing the problem.

* If you are overclocking anything reset to default before running these tests.
In other words STOP!!!

* If you have a Raid update its Driver.



Memtest.

*Download a copy of Memtest86 and burn the ISO to a CD using Iso Recorder or another ISO burning program. Memtest86+ - Advanced Memory Diagnostic Tool

*Boot from the CD, and leave it running for at least 5-7 passes.

Just remember, any time Memtest reports errors, it can be either bad RAM or a bad motherboard slot.

Test the sticks individually, and if you find a good one, test it in all slots.

Any errors are indicative of a memory problem.

If a known good stick fails in a motherboard slot it is probably the slot.

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






Driver Verifier

Using Driver Verifier is an iffy proposition.
Most times it'll crash and it'll tell you what the driver is.
But sometimes it'll crash and won't tell you the driver.
Other times it'll crash before you can log in to Windows.
If you can't get to Safe Mode, then you'll have to resort to offline editing of the registry to disable Driver Verifier.

I'd suggest that you first backup your stuff and then make sure you've got access to another computer so you can contact us if problems arise.
Then make a System Restore point (so you can restore the system using the Vista/Win7 Startup Repair feature).

In Windows 7 you can make a Startup Repair disk by going to Start....All Programs...Maintenance...Create a System Repair Disc - with Windows Vista you'll have to use your installation disk or the "Repair your computer" option at the top of the Safe Mode menu .

Then, here's the procedure:
- Go to Start and type in "verifier" (without the quotes) and press Enter
- Select "Create custom settings (for code developers)" and click "Next"
- Select "Select individual settings from a full list" and click "Next"
- Select everything EXCEPT FOR "Low Resource Simulation" and click "Next"
NOTE: You can use Low Resource Simulation if you'd like.
From my limited experimentation it makes the BSOD's come faster.
- Select "Select driver names from a list" and click "Next"
Then select all drivers NOT provided by Microsoft and click "Next"
- Select "Finish" on the next page.

If you are using win 8 add these
- Concurrency Stress Test
- DDI compliance checking

Reboot the system and wait for it to crash to the Blue Screen.
Continue to use your system normally, and if you know what causes the crash, do that repeatedly.
The objective here is to get the system to crash because Driver Verifier is stressing the drivers out.
If it doesn't crash for you, then let it run for at least 36 hours of continuous operation.
Reboot into Windows (after the crash) and turn off Driver Verifier by going back in and selecting "Delete existing settings" on the first page, then locate and zip up the memory dump file and upload it with your next post.


If you can't get into Windows because it crashes too soon, try it in Safe Mode.
If you can't get into Safe Mode, try using System Restore from your installation DVD to set the system back to the previous restore point that you created.

Thanks to JCGriff2 & Usasma.

Sysnative Forums

Driver Reference Table (DRT)

Using Driver Verifier to identify issues with Windows drivers for advanced users

Driver Verifier

Using Driver Verifier (Windows Drivers)

 

[Dandy621]

Yesterday I encountered 2 more BSODs just after writing my post, one was win32k.sys and the other was ntfs.sys (which leads me to believe it's a HDD corruption since this is needed during boot up for the harddrive to work)

I did a DSKCHK which took around 4 hours, everything seemed fine though I do remember it saying at the end that it has fixed empty disk sectors that were allocated no space, it said this twice.

I then ran a Memtest for 12hours last night and into this morning, that came out as 11 passes and 0 fails. I'm really not sure what's wrong if the problem is memory corruption, possibly faulty hardware.

What do you guys recommend I do now? Maybe Driver Verifer? Is there any test that can throughly test out my Harddrive and find errors/corruptions? I've left the 2 DMPs that struck last night, hopefully they can shed some light on the situation

Edit: I just did a sfc /scan and I got Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violation. So i'm still not sure what's wrong! Hopefully the DSKCHK fixed the problem, i'll have to see if I get another BSOD today.

Edit2: I started Driver Verifier and I am going to leave the computer on for 24 hours. I will post if the PC BSODs in the meanwhile

 

[zigzag3143]

Both of these crashes were blamed on a memory exception but neither was driver verified. Either it wasnt enabled or the faulting driver wasnt ticked.

One way to test is to type "verifier /query" if there are drivers being verified it is enabled, if no drivers it isnt.

 

[Dandy621]

Hello Zigzag,

Some more unfortunate news that adds to the mystery of my BSODs. About an hour ago I was doing a full system scan using MalwareBytes, about halfway-thru it was interrupted by a BSOD that didn't have the usual information (what caused it, errors codes etc) and it for some reason stopped the minidump at 95% and froze there. I waited 5 minutes but it didn't seem to be going anywhere so I restarted my PC, I was going to post the DMP here but it wasn't even saved.

I started the Malwarebytes scanner again since I didn't finish it and about a few minutes in my PC shutdown without any BSOD, it beeped 3 times and when it rebooted I got this message:

The system has experienced boot failures because of overclocking. Last settings in BIOS setup may not coincide with the current H/W states.
Current CPU speed: 14.0 x200MHz
Current memory speed: 1333MHz
Current HT speed: 2000MHz

It then asked me if I wanted to change the overclock settings in the BIOS but I passed that and went straight to rebooting the PC like normal (since I don't have any clue about OC'ing).

I've switched driver verifier back on and waiting for the PC to BSOD so I can hopefully get you the DMP you need, i'm starting to think it might be hardware errors not software or drivers

 

[JMH]

FYI...

Overclocking - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Dandy621]

I am reading into fixing my OC to a stable one, though I have no idea why my PC cannot handle it, the temperture is always under 30oC because of water cooling, perhaps the motherboard I have is the problem.

Anyway, I just received 2 BSODs with Driver Verifier switched on to all the non-microsoft corporation drivers. One happened whilst browsing Firefox and another as soon as I logged into the PC.

I hope these help

 

[zigzag3143]

These two were still related to memory exception. If your memory passed most likely a driver. If verifier doesnt find the mis behaving driver you may want to check all drivers.

 

[Dandy621]

I'm almost certain it's a system file that's causing the BSODs. I've checked every driver for the driver verifier and I am going to leave the PC for a while, though having every driver checked has brought my pc to a laggy halt. I will post if any BSODs happen in the meantime

 

[Dandy621]

I think I might have found the problem! If someone can take a look for me, these 2 BSODs happened around the same time and are both to do with my ATI graphics kernal driver whilst I was using Driver Verifier

 

[zigzag3143]

I think I might have found the problem! If someone can take a look for me, these 2 BSODs happened around the same time and are both to do with my ATI graphics kernal driver whilst I was using Driver Verifier

Both were:

VERIFIER_ENABLED_VISTA_MINIDUMP
Could not read faulting driver name
Probably caused by : atikmdag.sys

Related to atikmdag.sys ATI Radeon Kernel Mode Driver.


What the above means is The ATI driver is probably the cause but verifier did not catch the driver mis behaving. Thats why it said "could not read faulting driver name"

At this point I would concentrate on the driver/card/etc.

Start by removing the current driver using this method
When upgrading your graphic driver you MUST remove all traces of the current driver.

In order to do that we recommend using
Phyxion.net - Driver Sweeper

When it is removed then download and install the fresh copy.

 

[James7679]

I am reading into fixing my OC to a stable one, though I have no idea why my PC cannot handle it, the temperture is always under 30oC because of water cooling, perhaps the motherboard I have is the problem.

zz and jmh, hope you don't mind me jumping in, along side.

Dandy621. As already stated, please stop Overclocking until your BSODs are resolved. Overclocking incorrectly, or beyond what your system can handle will cause any number of BSODs. Also, seeing that you have a Gigabyte MoBo, please make sure that you uninstall EasyTune and Smart6. There are aspects of these programs that can cause a lot of issues. EasyTune is a SoftClocking utility. Any Overclocking that is done, must be done within the BIOS, otherwise, certain damage will result. Go into the BIOS and select "Load Fail Safe settings." After doing so, please upload all of the tabs from CPUz.

 

[Dandy621]

Thank you for your responses!

James7679 I did what you said and selected "Load Fail Safe settings", I get a new screen when booting saying "SATA running in IDE mode" it then asks me if I want to change it, but I have no idea what that even means! So i'm just ignoring it for now. Hopefully my PC is stable now

I uninstalled my old AMD catalyst and display drivers and used Driver Sweeper to completely get rid of all the drivers, i've re-installed the latest ones and the latest CCC. I've read that CCC is the cause of a lot of problems, would you reccommend another software that allows me to change OCs and other things?

 

[James7679]

In response to your question about Overclocking software; No, there is no Overclocking software that should be used within the OS. All CPU Overclocking should be done via the BIOS. There are overclocking utilities for the GPU that are safe to use within the OS, but let's not worry about that for now. You need to get stable and clear up your BSOD issues before even considering an Overclock of any kind. Thank you for the screen shots. Keep an eye on things and let us know how you proceed. As far as the hard drive setting, did you install the hard drive to run in ahci originally or ide?

 

[Dandy621]

As far as the hard drive setting, did you install the hard drive to run in ahci originally or ide?

I have no idea, i'm not particularly computer savvy and have no idea what ahci or ide means! I should read up on it before I touch it, maybe ring the company that built the PC for me.

Anyway I just ran a 15 minute stress test on my GPU with Furmark after installing the new drivers, no artifacts or problems it seems. I'm going to leave the PC on another day with driver verifier to see if anything happens.

 

[James7679]

Good job Dandy. That sounds like a good idea. Let us know how things progress.

 

[zigzag3143]

All yours James. We are out.

 

[Dandy621]

I'm marking the thread as solved, I still get the occasional BSOD but it's very rare now and i can finally go a full day of gaming without it happening. I've been able to enjoy 3 days now of 7 hour a day Diablo 3 gaming!

Thanks very much everyone

 

[JMH]

Thanks Dandy for posting back.
Good luck & safe surfing.