Stable for a while, now crashing again (and often)

[josh99ta]

All the crash info is attached in zipped folders (BSOD file + performance monitor HTML file). All system specs are in the drop-down at the bottom of the post. The only change is that I've added an additional 1TB WD Caviar Black 7200rpm internal drive also. All hardware is less than 1 year old as is the Windows 7 install.

There were no real changes that happened. I was having some crazy crashing issues related to RAM, but since I adjusted timing a while back it's been rock solid. Last week it started crashing randomly though and seems to do it completely on a whim.

Thanks for any help in diagnosing this. It's driving me nuts. I've lost so much work that I've been right in the middle of because the system suddenly decides to crash (Google Chrome and Firefox are both crashing randomly too while the system is up, which never happened before either, wondering if they're related or if it's just a coincidence).

 

[Maguscreed]

CRITICAL_STRUCTURE_CORRUPTION (109)
This bugcheck is generated when the kernel detects that critical kernel code or
data have been corrupted. There are generally three causes for a corruption:
1) A driver has inadvertently or deliberately modified critical kernel code
 or data. See http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/driver/kernel/64bitPatching.mspx
2) A developer attempted to set a normal kernel breakpoint using a kernel
 debugger that was not attached when the system was booted. Normal breakpoints,
 "bp", can only be set if the debugger is attached at boot time. Hardware
 breakpoints, "ba", can be set at any time.
3) A hardware corruption occurred, e.g. failing RAM holding kernel code or data.
Arguments:
Arg1: a3a039d898a5753a, Reserved
Arg2: 0000000000000000, Reserved
Arg3: f53a8e25ce8654d8, Failure type dependent information
Arg4: 0000000000000101, Type of corrupted region, can be
    0 : A generic data region
    1 : Modification of a function or .pdata
    2 : A processor IDT
    3 : A processor GDT
    4 : Type 1 process list corruption
    5 : Type 2 process list corruption
    6 : Debug routine modification
    7 : Critical MSR modification

Debugging Details:
------------------


BUGCHECK_STR:  0x109

CUSTOMER_CRASH_COUNT:  1

DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID:  VISTA_DRIVER_FAULT

PROCESS_NAME:  System

CURRENT_IRQL:  0

LAST_CONTROL_TRANSFER:  from 0000000000000000 to fffff80002c76740

STACK_TEXT:  
fffff880`02fda5d8 00000000`00000000 : 00000000`00000109 a3a039d8`98a5753a 00000000`00000000 f53a8e25`ce8654d8 : nt!KeBugCheckEx


STACK_COMMAND:  kb

SYMBOL_NAME:  ANALYSIS_INCONCLUSIVE

FOLLOWUP_NAME:  MachineOwner

MODULE_NAME: Unknown_Module

IMAGE_NAME:  Unknown_Image

DEBUG_FLR_IMAGE_TIMESTAMP:  0

BUCKET_ID:  BAD_STACK

Followup: MachineOwner
---------

This suggests a possible hardware failure, primarily memory.
Are you familiar with how to run memtest86?

 

[josh99ta]

I am familiar with memtest. Could my RAM timing be off, or does it point specifically towards faulty hardware? I know memtest would tell me that, and I'll set it up and run it later when I don't have work that has to be finished.

I'm so discouraged with this RAM. Seems like every time I have any problems it's the RAM's fault. Was before, and it took a lot of playing with the timing to get the system stable. I'm not tech savvy at all so I just need something that works.

If it does turn out to be the RAM, what is some good replacement RAM (8GB minimum) that would work well with the rest of my setup?

 

[Maguscreed]

if you know the specs for your ram cpu-z should be able to show you if it's operating normally or not.
If you have any degree of overclock at all I would remove it.

 

[josh99ta]

I have CPU-Z. What am I looking for?

The issue I had before was that my RAM says 2.1V but mobo says 1.8V, not stable at 2.1V. I'm at 1.9V right now and can back it down to 1.8V if it will help in theory (in application I don't see any stability difference between 1.8V and 1.9V, 2.0V or more and it crashes).

All CPU-Z info attached via snipping tool captures.

 

[Maguscreed]

lol looks like we have very similar systems actually. I am using OCZ reaper ram it is supposed to be at 2.1 even though it seems most motherboards spd it to a lower voltage, you can verify yours on corsair's site I would go with what the manufacturer says, not what the motherboard defaults to on that front.

 

[cluberti]

Honestly, this looks a lot like a crash in spsys.sys that I saw recently on a Server 2008 R2 machine. Unfortunately, this almost always is caused by the fact that the PFN for this image in memory is corrupt, and as such the memory descriptor list pointer points to an incorrect memory location and causes a crash the next time it is accessed. Windows would not do this, but bad hardware or malicious software could, although the latter would be very rare. Given you've previously had memory issues on this machine, I think the former is far more likely, unfortunately.

 

[josh99ta]

Is OCZ Reaper generally considered to be good RAM? Like I said I want 8GB minimum. Am I better with 4x2 or 2x4?

 

[DeanP]

CRITICAL_STRUCTURE_CORRUPTION (109)
This bugcheck is generated when the kernel detects that critical kernel code or
data have been corrupted. There are generally three causes for a corruption:
1) A driver has inadvertently or deliberately modified critical kernel code
 or data. See http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/driver/kernel/64bitPatching.mspx
2) A developer attempted to set a normal kernel breakpoint using a kernel
 debugger that was not attached when the system was booted. Normal breakpoints,
 "bp", can only be set if the debugger is attached at boot time. Hardware
 breakpoints, "ba", can be set at any time.
3) A hardware corruption occurred, e.g. failing RAM holding kernel code or data.
Arguments:
Arg1: a3a039d898a5753a, Reserved
Arg2: 0000000000000000, Reserved
Arg3: f53a8e25ce8654d8, Failure type dependent information
Arg4: 0000000000000101, Type of corrupted region, can be
    0 : A generic data region
    1 : Modification of a function or .pdata
    2 : A processor IDT
    3 : A processor GDT
    4 : Type 1 process list corruption
    5 : Type 2 process list corruption
    6 : Debug routine modification
    7 : Critical MSR modification

Debugging Details:
------------------


BUGCHECK_STR:  0x109

CUSTOMER_CRASH_COUNT:  1

DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID:  VISTA_DRIVER_FAULT

PROCESS_NAME:  System

CURRENT_IRQL:  0

LAST_CONTROL_TRANSFER:  from 0000000000000000 to fffff80002c76740

STACK_TEXT:  
fffff880`02fda5d8 00000000`00000000 : 00000000`00000109 a3a039d8`98a5753a 00000000`00000000 f53a8e25`ce8654d8 : nt!KeBugCheckEx


STACK_COMMAND:  kb

SYMBOL_NAME:  ANALYSIS_INCONCLUSIVE

FOLLOWUP_NAME:  MachineOwner

MODULE_NAME: Unknown_Module

IMAGE_NAME:  Unknown_Image

DEBUG_FLR_IMAGE_TIMESTAMP:  0

BUCKET_ID:  BAD_STACK

Followup: MachineOwner
---------

This suggests a possible hardware failure, primarily memory.
Are you familiar with how to run memtest86?

ANALYSIS_INCONCLUSIVE likely means Corrupted Dump File.
Please get more BSOD and then upload those dump files.

 

[josh99ta]

Can you repeat that in layman's terms? Sorry, like I said I'm not very tech savvy at all. I'm barely scraping by here.

I ran the test. There have problem been close to a dozen crashes over the past week. Do I have to run this after each crash or would they be cataloged somewhere? I have the Seven Forum diagnostic tool also and it's what I used before to post crash dumps. Should I use that or would it pull up the older dumps?

 

[Maguscreed]

when you crash again upload the new dump file.

If you are bored in the meantime you can let memtest run over night. As you want 5 to 7 passes with it.

 

[josh99ta]

Will run memtest tonight (or try to). Kept crashing last night, and I've got too much work to do today to run it now. Here is the latest crash dump info though...

 

[cluberti]

The latest one was a 3b bugcheck, but with a minidump it's almost impossible to say why. However, you still have spsys in there, meaning it's probably another memory-related issue. See my previous post in this thread for an explanation if you missed it, but at this point I'd strongly suggest not using this machine until you're sure the RAM is stable.

 

[josh99ta]

What if I HAVE to use the machine? I have to get work done and don't really have a choice not to use it. All work is backed up across the three internal drives and one external so if it crashes in the middle of something it's not a huge concern...just means I'll have to redo whatever it is I was doing from the last save point. Or by running it do I run a risk of messing up something bigtime?

I read your last reply but most of it was Greek to me. As I said, I'm not terribly tech savvy. This is a home-built system, but it was built by a good friend of mine who is actually good at this kind of stuff. It was rock solid stable on XP and when I upgraded to Windows 7 I've had issues left and right (had to change mobo and graphics card because neither were getting along with W7, and now memory issues).

 

[cluberti]

If your data is backed up, you should be OK. That was (and is) always the worry.