Seemingly Random BSOD

[MarkFB]

I've recently (3 weeks ago) upgraded my PC and performed a fresh install of Win7 Home Premium x64 SP1.
The last week or so I seem to have started getting BSODs pointing at wininit.exe.

I've attached the minidumps and other data in the zip attachment. I've included two mini dumps, one was yesterday when I had avast antivirus installed. I have now replaced with Microsoft Security Essentials as I read avast could cause issues. It was to no avail, still BSODs.

Any help or pointers of things to try would be greatly appreciated.

 

[usasma]

We've been seeing a lot of issues with SSD's and Intel mobo/chipsets. I suggest that you get the latest firmware updates for your SSD from the SSD manufacturer's website - and that you must have the absolute latest RST (Rapid Storage Technology) drivers from the Intel Download Center (FYI - RST is the new name for the Matrix Storage Manager): http://downloadcenter.intel.com
I also suggest the latest chipset drivers from the Intel Download Center.

In this case your MSINFO32 report states that this device isn't installed:

PCI Simple Communications Controller PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_1C3A&SUBSYS_844D1043&REV_04\3&11583659&0&B0 The drivers for this device are not installed.

It's a part of your motherboard's chipset drivers - so please update them ASAP (from the Intel Download Center). FYI - your chipset is listed as the P67 Express chipset.

Temporarily remove ZoneAlarm - that'll tell you if it's causing the BSOD's. Use the Windows Firewall for testing. If you must have finer control, try this free utility: Windows7FirewallControl : Sphinx Software

Uninstall MSI Afterburner - it has known issues with some Win7 systems.

For the equipment that you have installed, a 650 watt PSU probably won't be able to handle full demand for power from the system. I'd suggest a minimum of 1000 watts for this system (4 hard drives, high end video, 8 gB of RAM, etc). To test, disconnect all but the SSD to see if it increases the time between BSOD's.

The ctac32k.sys driver dates from 2008 - please update your Creative sound card to the latest Win7 drivers (don't use Vista drivers). If you can't locate Win7 drivers, please post back for suggestions.

The 2 memory dumps blame wininit.exe and csrss.exe. I'd suggest starting with one of these free online scans to ensure that your current protection hasn't been compromised: Free Online AntiMalware Scanners (read the details at the link)

You have a wireless driver that dates from 2009: athrx.sys Tue Jun 09 14:06:49 2009 (4A2EA4B9)
If this is a wireless USB device, then I'd suspect this driver also. Please uninstall the wireless USB device (then remove it from your system) and see if that helps with the BSOD's.

BSOD BUGCHECK SUMMARY

[font=lucida console]
Built by: 7601.17514.amd64fre.win7sp1_rtm.101119-1850
Debug session time: Tue Apr 26 12:36:23.908 2011 (UTC - 4:00)
System Uptime: 0 days 0:03:31.110
BugCheck F4, {3, fffffa800b6dfb30, fffffa800b6dfe10, fffff80002d8bdb0}
Probably caused by : wininit.exe
PROCESS_NAME:  wininit.exe
DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID:  VISTA_DRIVER_FAULT
BUGCHECK_STR:  0xF4
FAILURE_BUCKET_ID:  X64_0xF4_IMAGE_wininit.exe
Bugcheck code 000000F4
Arguments 00000000`00000003 fffffa80`0b6dfb30 fffffa80`0b6dfe10 fffff800`02d8bdb0
BiosVersion = 1401
BiosReleaseDate = 02/22/2011
CPUID:        "Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2500K CPU @ 3.30GHz"
MaxSpeed:     3300
CurrentSpeed: 3310
¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨``
Built by: 7601.17514.amd64fre.win7sp1_rtm.101119-1850
Debug session time: Mon Apr 25 12:34:02.503 2011 (UTC - 4:00)
System Uptime: 0 days 3:28:30.705
BugCheck F4, {3, fffffa800b716430, fffffa800b716710, fffff80002dd0db0}
Probably caused by : csrss.exe
PROCESS_NAME:  csrss.exe
DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID:  VISTA_DRIVER_FAULT
BUGCHECK_STR:  0xF4
FAILURE_BUCKET_ID:  X64_0xF4_IMAGE_csrss.exe
Bugcheck code 000000F4
Arguments 00000000`00000003 fffffa80`0b716430 fffffa80`0b716710 fffff800`02dd0db0
BiosVersion = 1401
BiosReleaseDate = 02/22/2011
CPUID:        "Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2500K CPU @ 3.30GHz"
MaxSpeed:     3300
CurrentSpeed: 3310
¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨``
  
  [/font]

 

[MarkFB]

Thanks for the response it has given me a couple of good suggestions to try, in the meantime I have a few bits of info:
- RST Drivers I am using are 10.1.0.1008
- Chipset Drivers, yesterday I installed 9.2.0.1030 which also cured the PCI Simple Comms Device issue. Sadly I got another BSOD after I had done this as I thought this could have been the cure.
- Zonealarm, I'll give this a go although I like being able to stop programs accessing the web without my knowledge. Feels kind of safer.
- MSI Afterburner, OK will uninstall although I am not running anything.
- 650W PSU. If the other things fail, I will give this a try. Crashes are occurring when I am not loading the system at all though (surfing web, using word). I can game quite happily and it won't necessarily BSOD. I would expect PSU issues to occur more when under load.
- ctac32k.sys is the latest driver for the Soundblaster X-Fi Gamer on the Creative website. It is part of their 2_18_0015 suite of drivers. If you could suggest a more up to date one I will try it.
- Malware. I've run AdAware, MBAM, MSE, Avast, AVG (AVG and MBAM from my old OS install on the raid) and BitDefender on-line scan. Thus far no malware or viruses have turned up.
- Wireless driver athrx.sys. I'm using an Abit Airpace PCI-E wifi card. This doesn't have Win7 drivers so after a bit of research on the web it is Atheros chipset so I installed Win7 Atheros AR5006X driver which worked fine with my old 'raid' OS. Again, I will remove as last resort.

It's a shame the minidump isn't a bit more conclusive. When it does BSOD I also get a Kernel-Power (Event ID: 41) critical failure logged. Can I get any closer to the root cause looking at this in more detail?

Once again, thanks for the help, fending off a re-install would be great if possible.

 

[Airbot]

There's a 10.5.0.1022 version of the Intel RST drivers. That particular version is not WHQL, but you could give them a shot. There are some other versions there also, some WHQL, some non-WHQL. This site is a safe. Site is regularly updated with the latest version (Beta and WHQL).

I myself am running this version with no problems on my Vertex2.

intel drivers pour Raid/Sata/Ata/Ahci