System instability, with BSOD

[Luke T]

Hi,

I've had my system for just over a year, with no crash issues until this week. I am trying to narrow down what has changed to cause this. The problems:

*********skip to the next break if you want the short version

-starting Thursday, my machine would hard-freeze at random intervals of about every hour with no blue screen, requiring a hard reboot.

The suspects:

1) I moved across country last week, and had my computer shipped via UPS. I sent it in the same packaging it was sent to me in, but it's possible it got shaken up.

2) There were Windows 7 critical updates released this week.

3) I installed a scientific word processor I got from another student this week. I just followed the readme that was with it but, in retrospect, I suspect the installation may have included a 3rd party crack to avoid having to register. I did a system restore to before I installed it, but I don't know whether that would necessarily undo any damage that may have been done.

4) There were a couple of minor hardware changes (different plug-and-play monitor, logitech webcam added).

I tried what I could think of, including sfc /scannow, but even once got a hard freeze while in BIOS setup. The last thing I tried was to reseat my video card, which I had unseated to ship the machine. I did that last night and left my machine running overnight. It has not hard frozen since, easily the longest run since Thursday.

**************************

However, I did just get a BSOD moments ago (see attachment). I reset my TCP/IP since that was implicated, but who knows if that is the real cause given all this trouble. Any help diagnosing this would be most appreciated.


Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, OEM, original install
Machine is 13 months old, no issues until last Thursday

 

[FredeGail]

Hello Luke T & Welcome to SevenForums!

:ar: First thing to do.

Uninstall your ATI Graphic driver, and install the newest version once again. The currently one is broken.

*******************************************************************************
*                                                                             *
*                        Bugcheck Analysis                                    *
*                                                                             *
*******************************************************************************

Use !analyze -v to get detailed debugging information.

BugCheck 116, {fffffa80088e8010, fffff8800841145c, 0, 2}

Unable to load image \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\atikmpag.sys, Win32 error 0n2
*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for atikmpag.sys
*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for atikmpag.sys
Probably caused by : atikmpag.sys ( atikmpag+745c )

Followup: MachineOwner

:ar: LMVM *atikmpag.sys*

3: kd> lmvm atikmpag
start             end                 module name
fffff880`0840a000 fffff880`0845a000   atikmpag T (no symbols)           
    Loaded symbol image file: atikmpag.sys
    Image path: \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\atikmpag.sys
    Image name: atikmpag.sys
    Timestamp:        Wed Apr 20 03:22:32 2011 (4DAE3558)
    CheckSum:         00050398
    ImageSize:        00050000
    Translations:     0000.04b0 0000.04e4 0409.04b0 0409.04e4

Even though it's quite new. But there might be a newer on available.

Best Regards,
FredeGail

 

[Luke T]

:ar: First thing to do.

Uninstall your ATI Graphic driver, and install the newest version once again. The currently one is broken.
--------------------

Thanks for such a quick reply. I had the latest one installed, but I redownloaded it and reinstalled it to be safe. Is there a "second thing" to do, or should I just update on this thread as events dictate?

 

[FredeGail]

:ar: First thing to do.

Uninstall your ATI Graphic driver, and install the newest version once again. The currently one is broken.
--------------------

Thanks for such a quick reply. I had the latest one installed, but I redownloaded it and reinstalled it to be safe. Is there a "second thing" to do, or should I just update on this thread as events dictate?

Just update it and upload any incoming dump (if any).

Best Regards,
FredeGail

 

[Luke T]

Another BSOD

Had about 2 days of stability after resetting TCP/IP and reinstalling video driver, as recommended, then had another BSOD today. Info attached. Help!

 

[Luke T]

Another blue screen after another 2 days - all three have come while playing a game in full-screen mode.

The system hung on the blue screen (ie, did not auto restart), so I had to hard reboot. Error in Event Viewer says "unable to produce a minidump file from the full dump file", and sure enough there isn't one. As the full dump file is > 600 MB, I'll not attach it. The blue screen read:

0x0000007e (0xFFFFFFFFC0000005, 0xFFFFF88004525FFB, 0xFFFFF880053C6698, 0xFFFFF880053C5EF0)

*** dxgmmx1.sys - Address FFFFF88004525FFB base at FFFFF88004505000, DateStamp 4ce799c1)

 

[Luke T]

And again, a BSOD--and again, it seized up while creating the dump file. Error was "A driver has overrun a stack-based buffer." No driver named on the blue screen.

Any leads?

 

[Luke T]

Scanned my computer today, and got another BSOD during the Avast boot-time scan. Then the system froze during the startup repair sequence (no BSOD). Then a BSOD during the next startup repair, but the system hung during the blue screen, so no minidump (and hadn't actually gotten the computer fully started since the first BSOD, so that one was overwritten). Then the computer wouldn't post for a couple of tries. Just started it up now without startup repair.

Am I right to suspect flaky hardware? It's been 5 days now with no response on this board--is that normal and I should just keep waiting?

 

[Luke T]

And another, this time with no blue screen at all. I've read that can be an issue with power. I will say, all of these issues started once I got to this new apt, and I do happen to be using a different power strip than I used to. Any chance building wiring, etc, could cause this kind of behavior?

 

[Luke T]

Another BSOD, but I've changed the settings to generate only the minidump file, which allowed the dump to complete for the first time in 4 days. It's attached.

 

[Luke T]

And another.

 

[Luke T]

Blue screens much more regularly now - the latest 2 attached.

 

[Luke T]

For the record: this has been resolved by some combination of the following: I reseated my graphics card and RAM, and because I was getting high temperature readings, I cleaned out my CPU heatsink (which it turns out had a fair bit of debris in it) and installed an additional case fan. No crashes for 7 days.

 

[nikolayy]

Hi there...

What you mean exactly by resetting ram and graphics...
I am as well one trying to solve PC crashes :banghead: so any help is much appreciated

 

[Luke T]

Hi there...

What you mean exactly by resetting ram and graphics...
I am as well one trying to solve PC crashes :banghead: so any help is much appreciated

Not resetting--reseating. That means physically removing the item from the board, ideally cleaning it, and putting it back in to make sure it is sitting properly in its slot.

 

[MvdB]

Hello, looks like you've been left on your own here after initial help. Sorry about that. I'm not on a system that can do debugs right now but I promise to check first thing in the morning. Meanwhile please make sure you post everything we need, not just the dumps...http://www.sevenforums.com/crashes-debugging/96879-blue-screen-death-bsod-posting-instructions.html

 

[Luke T]

Hello, looks like you've been left on your own here after initial help. Sorry about that. I'm not on a system that can do debugs right now but I promise to check first thing in the morning. Meanwhile please make sure you post everything we need, not just the dumps...http://www.sevenforums.com/crashes-debugging/96879-blue-screen-death-bsod-posting-instructions.html

Thanks for following up. I think I did get it resolved (see above), so feel free to help others instead. If you do end up analyzing my dump files, though, please do let me know if you see something that doesn't fit with my diagnosis (see above also). I believe I did post all the requested information earlier in the thread as well.

 

[MvdB]

Ah, thx for that... Any idea what your tmps were before cleaning?

 

[Luke T]

Ah, thx for that... Any idea what your tmps were before cleaning?

I had someone ask me my temps, so I went to BIOS and my processor was 62C. He said that's suspiciously high. I checked the specs for it (AMD Phenom II x4 965), and its max temp is 62C. I went back and watched it in BIOS, and it would get to 62C and keep going, but I would shut it off then, so no idea how hot it actually got. I will say that I had my machine hang once in BIOS setup when I was having trouble, and it was in general much more likely to crash when doing something that taxed the processor.

I suspect perhaps reseating the RAM was the key, but staying on top of the CPU temperature can't be hurting.

 

[Luke T]

Seemingly-resolved issues return

Hello, looks like you've been left on your own here after initial help. Sorry about that. I'm not on a system that can do debugs right now but I promise to check first thing in the morning. Meanwhile please make sure you post everything we need, not just the dumps...http://www.sevenforums.com/crashes-debugging/96879-blue-screen-death-bsod-posting-instructions.html

Sadly, I'm back. Recapping, I started having issues after I shipped my machine to where I spent August, but I had seemingly resolved the issues there--the machine didn't crash for over a week. But now having shipped it back home, I am again having blue screens and lockups. I've attached the six minidumps I've had in the last 72 hours or so. I think I've posted all of the other requested info earlier in this thread, but let me know if I'm missing something (or if updated info would be useful).

I've still been monitoring core CPU temp, and it's idling in the 40s, maxing out in the low 60s under load, so I don't think that's it. I've reseated the memory and graphics card a few times--no luck. I also ran memtest86+, and made 7 passes with no errors. (I'm told I may want to go back and do one stick at a time to be sure, but at any rate 7 error-free passes makes me think it's not likely to be a memory issue.) I've also run a full system scan with Avast, and a quick scan with Malwarebytes, with no issues detected.

Any clues in the minidumps? Am I correct to think that, given the variety in the error messages, this is likely to be a hardware, not software, issue?