Seemingly random BSODs, when accessing win explorer, chrome, games,etc

[shuttyt]

I first had blue screens when doing even menial tasks, not when stressing hardware. I ran memcheck on my two ram sticks for days in all ports, always came out clean with no errors. Checked hard drives, all came out clean with no bad sectors.

I ran driver verifier and found that i had a multimedia driver, motuaw.sys, which was corrupt, so i updated and had no bsods. Then a few days ago, bsods started coming back and more frequently, as the time stamps may show.

I havent ran verifier since updating my motuAW driver, and when i did previously, it would crash on startup.

Pulling my hair out, please help.

 

[shuttyt]

also, if it helps, bluescreenview keeps pointing to ntoskrnl.exe as a consistent culprit. I know this may not indicate much, as bluescreenview does that, I heard.

 

[FredeGail]

Hello shuttyt and welcome to Sevenforums.

A .nfo file is needed.

To get this: Start Menu -> Type msinfo32 into the Search programs and files box -> When it opens, go to File, Save -> Save as msinfo32.nfo and save in a place you will remember -> Let it finish the process of gathering and saving the system info -> Right click the .nfo file, click send to compressed (zipped) folder -> Upload the .zip file here.

BSOD Analyse

It's funny you mentioned the motuAW.sys driver. I've rolled my eyes on a batch utility, that produced all your 3rd party drivers. motuAW.sys, as I've never heard of - came up.

Concerns

MotuAW.sys Thu Apr 26 22:41:05 2012 (4F99B2E1)

MotuAW.sys is not very known. As far as I'm concerned it's not digitally signed by Microsoft. If you're running this device with a driver you've installed yourself, try to uninstall the current driver, and let Windows 7 choose the solution.

:info: Backup recommended before troubleshooting this
Click Start | Search for 'Device Manager' | Find your Audio Device product | Right Click it | Select Properties | end with Uninstall Driver in the Driver Tab.

Reboot.

3rd party drivers

GEARAspiWDM.sys Mon May 18 14:17:04 2009 (4A1151C0)
SynUSB64.sys Fri Jun 26 15:30:11 2009 (4A44CD63)
intelppm.sys Tue Jul 14 01:19:25 2009 (4A5BC0FD)
amdxata.sys Fri Mar 19 17:18:18 2010 (4BA3A3CA)
netr28ux.sys Wed Jun 8 04:40:42 2011 (4DEEE12A)
HECIx64.sys Thu Nov 10 01:52:25 2011 (4EBB2049)
Rt64win7.sys Fri Feb 3 14:00:02 2012 (4F2BDA52)
iusb3hub.sys Mon Feb 27 11:56:50 2012 (4F4B6172)
iusb3xhc.sys Mon Feb 27 11:56:53 2012 (4F4B6175)
iusb3hcs.sys Mon Feb 27 11:58:49 2012 (4F4B61E9)
MpFilter.sys Fri Mar 9 12:05:26 2012 (4F59E3F6)
nvhda64v.sys Wed Apr 18 19:07:54 2012 (4F8EF4EA)
[U]MotuAW.sys Thu Apr 26 22:41:05 2012 (4F99B2E1)[/U]
MAWWAVE.sys Thu Apr 26 22:41:12 2012 (4F99B2E8)
nvlddmkm.sys Tue May 15 09:35:36 2012 (4FB20748)
SCDEmu.SYS Thu May 31 03:33:23 2012 (4FC6CA63)
[URL="http://www.carrona.org/dvrref.php#GEARAspiWDM.sys"]GEARAspiWDM.sys[/URL]
[URL="http://www.carrona.org/dvrref.php#SynUSB64.sys"]SynUSB64.sys[/URL]
[URL="http://www.carrona.org/dvrref.php#intelppm.sys"]intelppm.sys[/URL]
[URL="http://www.carrona.org/dvrref.php#amdxata.sys"]amdxata.sys[/URL]
[URL="http://www.carrona.org/dvrref.php#netr28ux.sys"]netr28ux.sys[/URL]
[URL="http://www.carrona.org/dvrref.php#HECIx64.sys"]HECIx64.sys[/URL]
[URL="http://www.carrona.org/dvrref.php#Rt64win7.sys"]Rt64win7.sys[/URL]
[URL="http://www.carrona.org/dvrref.php#iusb3hub.sys"]iusb3hub.sys[/URL]
[URL="http://www.carrona.org/dvrref.php#iusb3xhc.sys"]iusb3xhc.sys[/URL]
[URL="http://www.carrona.org/dvrref.php#iusb3hcs.sys"]iusb3hcs.sys[/URL]
[URL="http://www.carrona.org/dvrref.php#MpFilter.sys"]MpFilter.sys[/URL]
[URL="http://www.carrona.org/dvrref.php#nvhda64v.sys"]nvhda64v.sys[/URL]
MotuAW.sys <--- [COLOR=Red]Not available on the Driver Reference Table[/COLOR]
MAWWAVE.sys <--- [COLOR=Red]Not available on the Driver Reference Table[/COLOR]
[URL="http://www.carrona.org/dvrref.php#nvlddmkm.sys"]nvlddmkm.sys[/URL]
[URL="http://www.carrona.org/dvrref.php#SCDEmu.SYS"]SCDEmu.SYS[/URL]

Best Regards,
Frederik.

 

[shuttyt]

heres the msinfo.

For the motu drivers, it's a driver set for a bit of hardware that i have for audio editing.

MOTU.com - PCI-424 Compatibility

i had problems with them before and had to reload the drivers, but since then, i havent had blue screens with association to this driver. I had quite a few dmps pick this one up, but through collaboration with a few other people, we found it and updated it.

Windows will not find a suitable driver for this bit of hardware.

 

[FredeGail]

So just to clarify, you had it updated just now?

Best Regards,
Frederik.

 

[shuttyt]

i updated about a couple of weeks ago. I completely wiped it from my system and did a clean reinstall, and that was when i disabled driver verifier. If you notice the time stamps, that was the 15th of july, and everything since then just started happening.

 

[FredeGail]

Yes I see. What happens if you uninstall it from the Device Manager, and just leave it uninstalled. Eventhough Windows couldn't find the driver, does it work properly?

Best Regards,
Frederik

(Sent from Tapatalk)

 

[shuttyt]

I just tried it to no avail. Windows will not allow this device to function without its drivers.

I also just ran into a slight problem with reinstalling the drivers. When attempting to reinstall, I found that there was no box to select for my desired drivers. (The installer is a multi driver installer, so there was a choice between a PCI unit, USB/Firewire, and microbook) It seems that PCI drivers are registered somewhere as having been installed, and so I cannot perform an install of it again. Should I have to clean this up in my registry to actually continue? Or would you say that I should try to contact the manufacturer?

Also, if you don't mind me asking (since i am curious), what is the danger behind drivers that aren't digitally signed?

 

[FredeGail]

Should I have to clean this up in my registry to actually continue?

Registry cleaners can ruin your whole system, so I wouldn't start doing it. It's obviously the Motu driver that's the problem. I'd maybe suggest you to do a http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html
, and then just go for all the Windows 7 drivers has for your hardware, for the time being.

Or would you say that I should try to contact the manufacturer?

I would yes, their driver ain't working as they should.

Also, if you don't mind me asking (since i am curious), what is the danger behind drivers that aren't digitally signed?

Microsoft can't find re-installations for them, they attend not to work properly with the OS itself. And most importantly, Microsoft haven't tested them!

I hope this helps,
Frederik.

 

[shuttyt]

So I decided to try to just do a complete new install on a different drive, and boot from there, but during the win 7 installation, i got a BSOD. keep in mind that this is still in the boot-from-CD stage.

As far as im concerned, this can only really point to hardware. Am i correct in doing so? And if i were to assume anything, I can only say that it would be the mobo.

 

[FredeGail]

So I decided to try to just do a complete new install on a different drive, and boot from there, but during the win 7 installation, i got a BSOD. keep in mind that this is still in the boot-from-CD stage.

As far as im concerned, this can only really point to hardware. Am i correct in doing so? And if i were to assume anything, I can only say that it would be the mobo.

Yes, you're correct. We can start doing some hardware diagnoses. The first one we'd begin with, is the memory sticks as they're likely to produce and generate BSODs.

   Warning

:info: Note that the below instructions may break your WARRANTY rules. If you're unsure check manuals, separated warranty papers, stickers on computer for secure permission.

To ensure that we'll know if it's the slots on the motherboard that's broken, or the sticks itself - we have a little procedure we'll recommend. Remove 1 stick, scan the other with Memtest in the current slot. After 7 passes, move the stick to another slot and scan, and so on and so forth until you've scanned all the sticks, and all the slots, one by one.

Memtest86+ - Advanced Memory Diagnostic Tool

Best Regards,
Frederik.

 

[shuttyt]

oh, I've already ran two days worth of passes with both of my sticks in all slots. I guess I should have mentioned that.

I also ran chkdsk and the manufacturers diags on all my drives, no bad sectors.

Other than that, all I'm using is a GPU and motu media card, which i took out for testing anyways.

Is it possible that it could be caused by the cpu?

 

[FredeGail]

Yes, everything is possible.

So as it is right now, you can't boot into Windows 7 at all, because it didn't finish the installation? If you want to give it a try, you can install Ubuntu for the moment.

Ubuntu why & how

For a trial, try downloading a copy of Ubuntu and see if your system will crash.
By that, we'd have an idea if Windows 7's drivers and system is broken. You can try it out on a
flash drive if you so desire.
Go to Ubuntu.com | Download the image | See how to create a bootable flash drive
Leave it running for some time and report your results.

Best Regards,
Frederik.

 

[shuttyt]

i still have my original load of windows on another drive i could use. I was going to try a clean windows load, but then it crashed.

I think I will give ubuntu a go though.

 

[FredeGail]

Oh alright.
Take all the time you'll need.

Best Regards,
Frederik.

 

[shuttyt]

its been a while, but only because I sent my mobo back in to ASUS as an RMA. I got it back, and immediately got several bluecreens.

I decided that I needed to isolate some more variables. I stuck in a 2gb kingston memory stick into an absolutely clean win 7 load, no drivers or anything loaded. I've done this before and got bluescreens on a clean load, however, I decided to try this with a different stick of ram.

I didnt receive any immediate bluescreens and did some research while waiting. I found out that my specific model of ram was not on the "qualified vendor list". What was listed was the same module type but only as an 8gb stick, not as a 4gb. Mine was not listed at all (even though the model is the same, excepting one digit signifying size). The kingston stick WAS listed, so i started wondering if perhaps this stick was not really configured properly with the board.

I then decided to try to tweak some settings under the bios. I started to look under the settings to see if perhaps the bios configured the modules improperly. The board automatically detected the ram and recommended settings, however, i noticed that under XMP, only one variable was changed: the voltage. The voltage was boosted from the native 1.5V to 1.65V. I decided, just for kicks, to test the OC tuner feature, just to see what it gave me. It, of course, tuned the voltage up as well.

Doing some research on XMP settings with ASUS motherboards, I saw a few posts talking about how occasionally ASUS boards will undercut the power to the ram, so some slight tweaking may be required and/or advised.

Is this accurate? Could it be a factor? Would using this XMP setting be recommended?

 

[FredeGail]

Well ah, if your sticks ain't on the vendor list, it doesn't mean that they're not supported. Frankly, the vendor list is like a list of all those sticks they have tested as far as I'm concerned. Though as you said, voltage and clock changes may take place if ASUS haven't tested these sticks for whatever reason.
As long as you only stay within the areas of your factory clock and voltage, you should have no problems changing it back and forth. It's just a question about being a little careful otherwise they get fried.

What happens if you put everything on [AUTO]?

Good job,
Fred.

 

[shuttyt]

the auto setting puts everything down to 1.5v, but some posts that i saw said that on occasion, asus boards will send less than it claims to do. They said that manually inputting the voltage is more reliable. I'm not necessarily sure as to the validity of this statement, but as far as I'm concerned, the only thing to do at this point is to change out the ram (even tho the ram i've used is verified as good), change out the CPU, or change out the board. Essentially, I would have to buy a new board as i dont have one i can couple with the CPU I have.

Just in case it helps, I included the SF diag reports for the absolutely clean load, no drivers, but also no activity. I let it idle and found later that it had blue-screened.

 

[Layback Bear]

Just a thought: My Asus motherboard with Kingston ram (1.65 volts) will not work with XMP. The speeds and volts go to high. I have good results setting Dram volts manually at 1.64 volts. I have also tried it at 1.5 volts. Seam to work well their also.
I recommend just setting your bios to default, (Auto). After you and Fred get your problems sorted out you can tinker with bios if you desire.

 

[shuttyt]

ok, thats sounds good then. I was just afraid that perhaps the xmp setting would have been better suited, or rather that the auto setting was not configuring properly. which still leaves me with nothing other than a suspicion of the mobo and cpu. *sigh*