Random BSOD's every 1-2 hours, error hal.dll

[Duffed]

Hi guys, I've been getting this for over 3-4 months now.. and I have done a system restore twice and it's not helping.. the BSOD still lives. The BSOD occurs in a random fashion, even during browsing the internet with just a few tabs, sometimes during idle (happened a few times when I leave home and left my laptop idle)

I notice that every time the BSOD is about to appear, my laptop fan goes all noisy. Not sure if that actually has anything to do with it.

I've even tried running on Ubuntu and got crashes too.. although with no description.. it just froze.

Also when I tried to run perfmon /report, I get an error when trying to generate a report saying:

"An error occured while attempting to generate the report.
The wait for the report generation tool to finish has timed out. "

specs are:

ASUS G53 Sw 3D:
Intel Core i7 2630QM 2.0 Ghz (upto 2.9ghz Turbo Boost), 6MB L3 Cache
Win 7 Home Premium 64bit
8GB DDR3 Ram
NVIDIA GTX 460M 1.5GB
650GB SATA 5krpm
Bluray DVD Combo
Atheros Wireless Card
Realtek LAN Card

I have attached all the stuff I could think of relating to the BSODS:

 

[FredeGail]

Hello Duffed and Welcome to SevenForums! rb:

Would likely be a Memory corruption as it's even crashing on your Ubuntu also. So the first thing we're going to do, is to test your sticks of memory.

MemTest86+

Please read this Tutorial.

Pay attention to part 3:

The goal is to test all the RAM sticks and all the motherboard slots.

Check your motherboard manual to ensure the RAM sticks are in the recommended motherboard slots. Some motherboards have very specific slots required for the number of RAM sticks installed.

If you get errors, stop the test and continue with the next step.

1. Remove all but one stick of RAM from your computer (this will be RAM stick #1), and run Memtest86 again, for 7 passes.
Be sure to note the RAM stick, use a piece of tape with a number, and note the motherboard slot.
If this stick passes the test then go to step #3.

2. If RAM stick #1 has errors, repeat the test with RAM stick #2 in the same motherboard slot.
If RAM stick #2 passes, this indicates that RAM stick #1 may be bad. If you want to be absolutely sure, re-test RAM stick #1 in another known good slot.
If RAM stick #2 has errors, this indicates another possible bad RAM stick, a possible motherboard slot failure or inadequate settings.
3. Test the next stick of RAM (stick #2) in the next motherboard slot.
If this RAM stick has errors repeat step #2 using a known good stick if possible, or another stick.
If this RAM stick has no errors and both sticks failed in slot#1, test RAM stick #1 in this slot.
4. If you find a stick that passes the test, test it in all the other motherboard slots.

If Part 2 testing shows errors, and all tests in Part 3 show errors, you will need to test the RAM sticks in another computer and/or test other RAM in your computer to identify the problem.

In this way, you can identify whether it is a bad stick of RAM, a bad motherboard, or incompatibility between the sticks.

Carry on.
Frederik

 

[Duffed]

I've also posted about this on microsoft answers; and their response was the following:

"This issue occurs because resource rebalancing is triggered after you hot plug a PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) device. During the rebalancing process, the system does not configure the Max Payload Size value correctly on the root port of the PCI Express bus. The incorrect value causes a mismatch between the root port of the PCI Express bus and the device on the PCI Express bus. Therefore, the operating system triggers a Machine Check Architecture (MCA) exception, and the operating system returns a “0x00000124” exception."


I've also tried their suggestions:

Method 1: Disconnect all the external devices (printers, scanner, USB (universal serial bus) drives, etc...) Except mouse and the keyboard and then boot up.

Method 2: Run Memory Diagnostics test to check for any memory problems. Refer the below mentioned link for the same.

.. but alas, all the same.. Memory's all good, and the did the first bit as well.. nothing changed.

Please please help!

 

[Duffed]

Hello Duffed and Welcome to SevenForums! rb:

Would likely be a Memory corruption as it's even crashing on your Ubuntu also. So the first thing we're going to do, is to test your sticks of memory.

MemTest86+

Please read this Tutorial.

Pay attention to part 3:

The goal is to test all the RAM sticks and all the motherboard slots.

Check your motherboard manual to ensure the RAM sticks are in the recommended motherboard slots. Some motherboards have very specific slots required for the number of RAM sticks installed.

If you get errors, stop the test and continue with the next step.

1. Remove all but one stick of RAM from your computer (this will be RAM stick #1), and run Memtest86 again, for 7 passes.
Be sure to note the RAM stick, use a piece of tape with a number, and note the motherboard slot.
If this stick passes the test then go to step #3.

2. If RAM stick #1 has errors, repeat the test with RAM stick #2 in the same motherboard slot.
If RAM stick #2 passes, this indicates that RAM stick #1 may be bad. If you want to be absolutely sure, re-test RAM stick #1 in another known good slot.
If RAM stick #2 has errors, this indicates another possible bad RAM stick, a possible motherboard slot failure or inadequate settings.
3. Test the next stick of RAM (stick #2) in the next motherboard slot.
If this RAM stick has errors repeat step #2 using a known good stick if possible, or another stick.
If this RAM stick has no errors and both sticks failed in slot#1, test RAM stick #1 in this slot.
4. If you find a stick that passes the test, test it in all the other motherboard slots.

If Part 2 testing shows errors, and all tests in Part 3 show errors, you will need to test the RAM sticks in another computer and/or test other RAM in your computer to identify the problem.

In this way, you can identify whether it is a bad stick of RAM, a bad motherboard, or incompatibility between the sticks.

Carry on.
Frederik

Okay, I just did a 10 hour Memtest with 5 Passes (on 8Gb ram 2x4gb, wanted to leave it longer but had to make an urgent skype call. So far nothing wrong with my sticks I take it?

Please HELP!

 

[FredeGail]

Do you have any new dumps to be uploaded?

Fred.

 

[Duffed]

Yeah, here:View attachment 183503

 

[FredeGail]

Something went wrong.

Check your %\Windows\Mindump and make sure you zip the latest dump file and attach it here.

Fred.

 

[Duffed]

HereView attachment 183505

 

[FredeGail]

Thank you.

It indicates some arguments with your processor.

*******************************************************************************
*                                                                             *
*                        Bugcheck Analysis                                    *
*                                                                             *
*******************************************************************************

WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR (124)
A fatal hardware error has occurred. Parameter 1 identifies the type of error
source that reported the error. Parameter 2 holds the address of the
WHEA_ERROR_RECORD structure that describes the error conditon.
Arguments:
Arg1: 0000000000000000, Machine Check Exception
Arg2: fffffa8009cff028, Address of the WHEA_ERROR_RECORD structure.
Arg3: 00000000b2000000, High order 32-bits of the MCi_STATUS value.
Arg4: 0000000000010005, Low order 32-bits of the MCi_STATUS value.

Please test your processor with Prime95

Prime95 will test the stability and heat problems by stressing it.

Fred.

 

[Duffed]

Okay, can you tell me exactly what I'm looking for? After a few seconds of starting it I get 4 of my cores to hover around 70-90c

 

[FredeGail]

Okay, can you tell me exactly what I'm looking for? After a few seconds of starting it I get 4 of my cores to hover around 70-90c

If it's around 90C you definitely want to stop it.

Anyway, were some errors shown?

 

[Duffed]

It's hovering around 82-86 on all my cores (Core 0-3, checked with Core Temp..4cores 8threads) No errors yet.

 

[Duffed]

I got another BSOD during the Prime 95 stress test, attached the mindump:View attachment 183540

 

[FredeGail]

Hello Duffed, sorry for late reply.

The dump was again attached to your processor.
Do you have a friend, workmate, family-member or whatsoever you can rent a CPU from? I'm not sure it's able to boot because of incorrect drivers, but it's worth a try.
Make sure it's the right socket and connect the fan.

Fred.

 

[Duffed]

Are you suggesting me to open up my laptop and switch cpu? If so, I think I'd rather just RMA this back.. but since I have uni assignments due in two weeks I figured to try and find an alternative way to get this fixed.

 

[FredeGail]

Are you suggesting me to open up my laptop and switch cpu? If so, I think I'd rather just RMA this back.. but since I have uni assignments due in two weeks I figured to try and find an alternative way to get this fixed.

Oh it's a laptop yeah. You should definitely return it if so.

Fred.