Solved Random BSODs, usually ntkrnlmp.exe

[ImJustSaiyan]

Hello, I'm having some trouble here after a long time without crashes (as you can see by the dates of the dumps), any help would be greatly appreciated. If any additional info is necessary, please ask. Thank you.

 

[Arc]

Daemon Tools, Alcohol 120% and Power Archiver Pro uses SCSI Pass Through Direct (SPTD), which is a well known BSOD causer. Uninstall Daemon Tools at first. Then download SPTD standalone installer from Disk-Tools.com, and execute the downloaded file as guided below :

• Double click to open it.
• Click this button only:
• 
• If it is grayed out, as in the picture, there is no more SPTD in your system, and you just close the window.

Test your RAM modules for possible errors.
How to Test and Diagnose RAM Issues with Memtest86+
Run memtest for at least 8 passes, preferably overnight.

If it start showing errors/red lines, stop testing. A single error is enough to determine that something is going bad there.

If memtest comes free from errors, enable Driver Verifier to monitor the drivers.
Driver Verifier - Enable and Disable
Run Driver Verifier for 24 hours or the occurrence of the next crash, whichever is earlier.

   Information

Why Driver Verifier:
It puts a stress on the drivers, ans so it makes the unstable drivers crash. Hopefully the driver that crashes is recorded in the memory dump.

How Can we know that DV is enabled:
It will make the system bit of slow, laggy.

   Warning

Before enabling DV, make it sure that you have earlier System restore points made in your computer. You can check it easily by using CCleaner looking at Tools > System Restore.

If there is no points, make a System Restore Point manually before enabling DV.

   Tip

• If you fail to get on the Desktop because of DV, Boot into Advanced Boot Options > Safe mode. Disable DV there. Now boot normally again, and try following the instruction of enabling DV again.
• If you cannot boot in Safe mode too, do a System Restore to a point you made earlier.

Let us know the results, with the subsequent crash dumps, if any.

 

[ImJustSaiyan]

Uninstalled Daemon Tools, no SPTD in the system, and I'll leave Memtest running overnight before enabling DV. Thanks for the help.
EDIT: Also, what program should I use for ISO mounting?

 

[Arc]

EDIT: Also, what program should I use for ISO mounting?

All the ISO mounting programs are kind of troublesome. I would not recommend any of those.

Use either 7-zip (free) or Winrar (little price). Both of them can extract any type of disk image files. So the basic job will be done equally good.

 

[ImJustSaiyan]

Thanks for the tip. Memtest came free from errors after 8 passes, but I got one BSOD before enabling DV and two after it. DV started running today at ~3:30 PM (GMT-2) and was disabled just now.

 

[Arc]

When a DV enablem BSOD itself blames the memory, then it cannot be any driver issue.

If you are certain that memtest passed without any red line, take the following tests ....

Stress test the Graphics Card using Furmark.
Video Card - Stress Test with Furmark

Stress test the CPU.
Hardware - Stress Test With Prime95

If both of them are free from errors, too ..... it is a matter to think on something that is beyond testing, so we cannot blame it .... that is the motherboard.

 

[ImJustSaiyan]

That would be interesting. I did both tests recently and although I'm not exactly sure about the beginning of the BSODs, I don't remember any before exchanging my motherboard to allow a second GPU in CrossFireX mode. I sold the additional card some time ago and I still have the first mobo, so it would actually be great if that's the case. The problem started much before the date of the first dump, but I did several clean installs attempting to solve it by myself. I thought of everything, except the motherboard. Because the PSU is new, the voltages are good (decent difference between idle and full load, inside the optimal range) and all the temperatures are fine I was sure it wouldn't be a hardware issue, maybe something related to basic drivers such as Catalyst or Synapse. I'll do them again but I have to ask if you are sure it couldn't be anything else, if the results of DV are really enough to tell it's a hardware fault. Thanks

EDIT: There's tearing in FurMark even at 11 FPS, though.

 

[ImJustSaiyan]

Did both tests again, same results with FurMark but I only ran Prime95 for 1 hour because my core temperature reached 67C, without any errors though. I'm going to wait a little bit longer before changing my motherboard but, supposing you're right and it is simply impossible to be a driver issue, couldn't the HDD be the cause of the problem?

 

[Arc]

Chance is minimum. Still, as you have doubt, take a test.

Seatool for dos: SeaTools | Seagate download

• Burn it in a blank cd. boot from the CD, click on "Accept", wait for it to finish detecting the drives, then in the upper left corner select "Basic Tests", then select "Long Test" and let it run.

The situation is making me think about the motherboard. But as it is not possible to test, we cannot blame it directly.

 

[ImJustSaiyan]

Before testing the HDD I decided to try CHKDSK, would you mind taking a look at this for me? It seems that there was free space marked as allocated, no idea what that means...

Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.

A disk check has been scheduled.
Windows will now check the disk.

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 5)...
Cleaning up instance tags for file 0x1aa97.
482560 file records processed. File verification completed.
1040 large file records processed. 0 bad file records processed. 2 EA records processed. 44 reparse records processed. CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 5)...
565820 index entries processed. Index verification completed.
0 unindexed files scanned. 0 unindexed files recovered. CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 5)...
482560 file SDs/SIDs processed. Cleaning up 933 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 933 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 933 unused security descriptors.
Security descriptor verification completed.
41631 data files processed. CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
36696584 USN bytes processed. Usn Journal verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
482544 files processed. File data verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...
84746093 free clusters processed. Free space verification is complete.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the
master file table (MFT) bitmap.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the volume bitmap.
Windows has made corrections to the file system.

976657407 KB total disk space.
636848952 KB in 439630 files.
206152 KB in 41632 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
617927 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
338984376 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
244164351 total allocation units on disk.
84746094 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:
00 5d 07 00 f9 57 07 00 93 1e 0d 00 00 00 00 00 .]...W..........
00 04 00 00 2c 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ....,...........
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................

Windows has finished checking your disk.
Please wait while your computer restarts.

 

[Arc]

That is not any big issue. Some file blocks should be marked as free but that is not. But not to be worried cause ....

Windows has made corrections to the file system.

 

[ImJustSaiyan]

The HDD passed the test and I got some more BSODs today as well. I suppose it's time to replace the motherboard.

 

[Arc]

Best of luck

 

[ImJustSaiyan]

We may have finally made some progress... it looks like you were right and the problem is actually the motherboard, but it's not necessarily a defective hardware. I changed the BIOS settings from "Normal" to "ASUS Optimal" and I'm almost a week without BSODs (they were occurring at least twice a day). As I remember messing with this thing before with no luck, let's wait a little bit more before marking it as solved. Thank you for the help so far.