Random crashes BSOD, dump file won't zip

[kuurt]

Just writing this comment to get my post back on the first page so someone can see it. My computer crashed twice again last night (as mentioned in comment #20). Do those dump files tell us anything?

 

[Thedoctor44]

This dump doesn't show much, I'm thinking of a storage issue compared to a driver problem.

Download and run CrystalDiskInfo then post a screenshot of your drive.

CrystalDiskInfo - Software - Crystal Dew World

 

[kuurt]

I don't know how to use this software, but it looks like it just automatically runs when you start it up. I guess you just want a picture of this:

 

[Thedoctor44]

That looks good enough to me.

You say you've ran SeaTools and disk checks?

 

[kuurt]

I have run dskchk and speccy, but I never heard of seatools until now. I just downloaded it, so I'll run it now.

 

[Thedoctor44]

Run SeaTools to see if your HDD or SSD is failing

Post back the results.

I posted it in the first reply which you never posted back on.

It's alright though, sometimes we miss things, just post back the results after the test

 

[kuurt]

Looks like you can do different kinds of tests with Seatools. I didn't know which test to do. I did the "short drive self check" and the "S.M.A.R.T. Check". And it said my hard drive passed both of them. Let me know if you need me to do any of the other tests.

 

[Thedoctor44]

The Long Generic Test is recommended.

 

[kuurt]

I thought that was going to take hours, but it only took one hour to do a long generic test. It also passed.

 

[Thedoctor44]

Go into the device manager, are there any :warn: symbols?

I admit, I'm starting to run out of ideas.

This can be caused by drivers, specifically pool leakage but I'm seeing none of that.

Your C media driver is still getting flagged, I might have to look into this more.

Did sfc /scannow fix all the errors?

 

[kuurt]

There aren't any symbols/warnings in device manager.

Like I said earlier, I actually don't have a C media sound card. My sound card is Diamond Multimedia extreme sound, but their website was down for a few days when I reinstalled my OS, and Windows 7 seem to find another driver from C media that seemed to work. But, after you mentioned the error message related to it, I went and downloaded and installed the latest diamond multimedia driver for my sound card since their website is back online. I'm not sure why you're still seeing an error message with C media, maybe I need to uninstall that, you think?

I don't think sfc/scannow found any errors to fix.

 

[Thedoctor44]

I would uninstall the C media driver then install the one from your manufacturer's website.

 

[kuurt]

It appears that the sound that is built into my Asus motherboard was originally C-Media (I think). But, at some point I installed another sound card (Diamond Multimedia) because the mic jack on the one built into the motherboard stopped working. So, I have since been using the sound card that I installed (Diamond) because I need the mic. But, somehow the Diamond sound card and it's drivers must have been working with the C-Media drivers that Windows 7 downloaded. I know that doesn't make any sense, but if I disable the C-Media drivers, the Diamond sound card and it's drivers stop working. I know for a fact that the sound was coming from the Diamond sound card because I have my speakers plugged into that card and the mic was working.

I have tried both uninstalling and disabling the C-Media drivers before reinstalling the Diamond Multimedia drivers, but it seems that the Diamond Multimedia Drivers will not install unless the C-Media drivers are installed first. It doesn't make any sense to me. I thought that the C-Media drivers were for the sound built into my motherboard, but now I'm not so sure. Because, like I said, when I disable the C-Media my sound stops working.

I don't know how to fix the error messages that you saw. In device manager it actually says "C-Media PCI audio device". I'm assuming that is my built in sound and not the Diamond Multimedia card I installed in a PCI slot, right? The only other one listed there is NVIDIA, and I would think that would be my NVIDIA graphics card. I just don't know why the one that says C-Media seems to control the Diamond Multimedia sound card. And why is there no mention of Diamond Multimedia in Device Manager?

 

[kuurt]

PC crashed again today. For some reason it didn't make a dump file. I can see the last dump file was dated 6/3 - six days ago. Once again the Event Viewer under System says "The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Ide\IdePort4". Source: atapi. And again it repeats that error over and over again (29 times) right before it crashed.

I know that has something to do with my PC crashing - it has to since I always see that in Event Viewer right before my crashes. This time I had my Toshiba external hard drive plugged in when it crashed. TheDoctor44 asked earlier in this post if any of my devices were USB 3, and this is the one device I have that has blue in the connector so it probably is USB 3 - if that could be causing an issue.

I'm starting to think this external hard drive might have something to do with my crashes because this time I had it plugged in when it crashed and last time i had unplugged it shortly before it crashed. After my crashes I usually have trouble getting Windows to boot back up. I often try to do a boot repair and it usually won't work. I go into "detail" to see what it can tell me and it says that it detects no hard drive or the hard drive is not responding.

Sometimes, this time included, I get an error message telling me that if I recently plugged in a device like a camera or music player to unplug it now and restart the computer. This time I actually had something plugged in (the external hard drive) but usually I don't. I'm starting to think my external hard drive which is USB 3 could be conflicting with my hard drive and causing it to stop responding or something. Could this controller error on IdePort4 have something to do with my external hard drive? Could IdePort4 be the USB port where I plug in my external hard drive on the front of my PC?

 

[Thedoctor44]

Download CrystalDiskInfo.
run it then post a screenshot of your drives in the application.

 

[kuurt]

here it is:

 

[Thedoctor44]

Sorry my bad, I forgot we already looked at the drive with CrystalDiskInfo earlier I have to say... I'm starting to run out of ideas now.
Any other dump files?

 

[kuurt]

Yes here's another dump file. My computer crashed several times in a row today. Crashes are occurring more frequently. At one point it even said that it couldn't find my OS on the disk. At one point start up had issues, and while doing a chkdsk it crashed again. At one point it said something about my system files - some problem with that. But, i think all of these problems were caused by the crashes. I'm not sure if I got those issues taken care of or not. After that I finally managed to get back on here in safe mode. I just did a sfc/scannow and it didn't find anything, but I'm going to do another chkdsk after this and follow that up with the sfc/scannow again.

I'm pretty sure I'm close to having to reinstall the OS again if it keeps getting worse like this. You said you thought the problem might be driver related - Do you think it would help if I started uninstalling as many of my programs as I can? Maybe one of them is causing my computer to crash.

Also, I have the memtest on disk now. I ran it yesterday - 2 passes and it didn't find any problems with my RAM. But, I can see it will take at least 12 hours to do 11 passes, so I was planning on doing that tonight, overnight. As long as my computer will let me.

Anyway, here's my latest dump file - sure hope it says something useful:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ubkazny0qlilwnj/MEMORY.DMP

 

[Thedoctor44]

Have you ran a System File Checker?

If not then...

   Information

Go into an Elevated Command Prompt (Run as administrator) and type in sfc /scannow
If it finds errors reboot and run the scan two more times

It might be but it appears your HDD is healthy and you keep getting serious errors that say it cannot find your OS on the disk. It looks like either bad OS corruption or a bad drive, despite the tests.

Let me know how that goes, I personally would try an OS clean install which I don't recommend to many people unless it gets bad.

 

[kuurt]

I did run the sfc/scannow from an elevated command prompt, and it didn't find anything. I suppose it could be a bad hard drive, but I just seriously doubt it because I bought this hard drive maybe a year ago. And the reason I did so was because I was facing the same issue then (random crashes) as I am now and I thought my hard drive was bad. Like wise, I have done a clean install 3 or 4 times now, and every time I start having these issues. I've actually been on this forum once before and couple of other guys tried to help me figure this issue out, and they also weren't able to figure it out in time - it eventually got so bad I had to reinstall the OS. But, the computer does seem like it runs better when I first reinstall the OS, and over time the crashes become more and more frequent. Maybe I need to update the drivers for my motherboard or something.