Solved Sudden BSOD's relating to ntoskrnl.exe and HIDCLASS.SYS

[invisible777]

Hi,

This computer is a custom build, approx 3 years old and no issues up till now aside from perhaps 1 stray BSOD over a year ago.

This morning, I BSOD'ed out of nowhere. At the time I was using my computer for work: Thunderbird, Excel, Chrome, Firefox, Skype, Dreamweaver, among other apps were open. After the restart, I BSOD'ed again, approx 5 minutes after Windows reloaded. I was in the process of opening up the abovementioned applications to resume work. Thunderbird was the last application I opened prior to the second BSOD.

Both BSOD's were attributed to ntoskrnl.exe as per BlueScreenView.

Things I've done since:

- restarted, checked all drivers for updates. Checked and applied any available Windows updates.
- booted into safe mode, ran a malwarebytes scan. No malware. Ran Kaspersky scan, nothing.
- activated driver verifier and checked all options except Microsoft drivers.
- rebooted into normal mode. After about 1 hour of the computer being VERY sluggish (due to verifier I suppose?), I BSOD'ed the third time.
- rebooted, ran BlueScreenView which attributed the latest crash to HIDCLASS.SYS

I used to be good at these things, got spoiled by having a mostly error-free computer the past few years. Thanks in advance for taking time to help me.

 

[Pauly]

hidclass is a native windows driver, I would start with an sfc scan to verify windows components
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html
check temperatures for any signs of overheating

Your original bugcheck codes are 0xA which lists as STOP 0x0000000A: IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
unfortunately this is quite a vague bugcheck code, lightening up your startup and running a clean boot may help to narrow down likely causes
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...ation-conflicts-performing-clean-startup.html

 

[invisible777]

hidclass is a native windows driver, I would start with an sfc scan to verify windows components
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html
check temperatures for any signs of overheating

Your original bugcheck codes are 0xA which lists as STOP 0x0000000A: IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
unfortunately this is quite a vague bugcheck code, lightening up your startup and running a clean boot may help to narrow down likely causes
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...ation-conflicts-performing-clean-startup.html

Hi Pauly.

I ran the SFC scan using the elevated command prompt, which found nothing.

Then I installed CoreTemp to monitor temps (something I haven't done since first using this computer). 45-55 idle, only app open was Firefox typing this reply to you. I began re-opening all my other apps, Thunderbird, Chrome (30+ tabs) .... and temperatures spiked to near 90 on all 4 cores. Then BSOD. I attached the dmp file.

Upon restart / idle the 4 cores are around 69 then settled back to 45sh. Could verifier be playing a role in the spiking temps, as I've never had an issue with overheating before.

Appreciate your help.

 

[invisible777]

Going off the temperature issue, I opened my computer to discover dust everywhere. Cleaned it out well and continued to monitor temps. No BSOD since. I stopped verifier. Overnight, I came back to a frozen computer. No BSOD, no dump file, just bricked on the sleep/login screen.

 

[Pauly]

Make sure you get all that dust out especially around the cpu fan/heatsink fins, continue to monitor temps under load until you are satisfied you are no longer overheating

May be worth running prime95 or similar to stress test the cpu to prove temps are ok, then if you continue to have freezing problems we can look at that as a separate issue

 

[invisible777]

Thanks for your help Pauly. 36 hours of no BSOD or freezing. I think it was temperature related. The one case fan on the side was completely caked with dust, and the heatsink wasn't too pretty looking either. If the BSOD's return I'll poke my head back in. Thanks again.