Solved Win7 x64 Random Crashes

[doa]

For about the past month my machine has started crashing randomly. It may happen after login, after an hour of use or even freeze during boot IIRC.

I have installed WinDbg and looked at the results of my dump files and got varying causes. From this it looks like a mixture of drivers, a USB issue and or a video issue.

My machine was stable and running fine until about a month ago and it was not too long ago that I reinstalled Windows 7 x64. I haven't installed tons of software.

I've updated many drivers, including video, network, audio, webcam and so on ...

I built the machine myself and the parts were good quality at the time of building which was almost exactly 4 years ago now. This is the first time I have had any trouble with it.

I have run MemTest overnight and that was fine too.

I have onboard USB, a PCI Card which is USB 2.0, and a PCI Card which is USB 2 / Firewire. Most USB devices are connected to the onboard USB. The USB PCI Card has a webcam connected and the USB / Firewire card only has a Camcorder connected to the firewire port.

If it helps I will open the case to identify individual components ... but the basics should be in my signature.

Any pointers in the right direction would be much appreciated

 

[karlsnooks]

you might want to check with creative labs for a software update.

ctac32k.sys                Wed Jul 02 03:38:22 2008

From your specs I couldn't determine the precise model info to check for an update.

Either Speccy or SIW (links in my sig) will provide your with info to fluff out your specs without having to take the cover off of the computer.

 

[karlsnooks]

I'm really lazy so what I'd do is disconnect everything not essential and see if the problem still occurs. If problem gone, then add back in, only one device at a time.

If you are more industrious then the driver verifier which comes with win 7, Verifier.exe, is excellent. There is a tutorial here on using it. Let's see, ah yes:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/101379-driver-verifier-enable-disable.html

I didn't look at it. I'll do that in a little bit. I've used it. I'll see if I can't find the short description of using it. Main thing is to know to boot into safe mode, go to a command prompt and type Verifier /reset if your system freezes up.

 

[doa]

Thanks for the suggestions, I will take a look and post back the results ...

 

[doa]

According to the Creative Software AutoUpdate software that I installed a few days ago I have the latest soundcard drivers: SB Xi-Fi XtremeGamer 2.18.15.

I have disconnected all USB devices too and will see how it goes from there ...

 

[karlsnooks]

Let us know the results of running the driver verifier.

 

[doa]

I enabled verifier.exe and rebooted and my computer blue-screened during boot. I don't see any new dump files in c:\windows\minidump and the blue screen disappeared quickly so I could not read the cause very well.

 

[karlsnooks]

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[FONT=&quot]MEMORY DUMPS - REQUIREMENTS[/FONT]


Enable automatic management of the Paging file
WIN + PAUSE/BREAK key combo |
Advanced system settings (left-hand side) |
Advanced tab, Performance section, Settings |
Advanced tab, Virtual Memory section, Change |
checkmark Automatically manage paging file size for all drives |
OK | OK | OK



STARTUP AND RECOVERY SETTINGS
WIN + PAUSE/BREAK key combo |
Advanced system settings (left-hand side) |
Advanced tab, Startup and Recovery section, Settings |
in the System Failure section, checkmark Write an Event to the system log and uncheck Automatically restart|
Under Write debugging information, select Small memory dump |
in the Small dump directory: box, enter %SystemRoot%\Minidump | OK


If you get a crazy message from Win 7 about your paging file being too small, then just ignore the message since we have already made sure that the paging file is set to be managed by Win 7.

ENABLE THE WINDOWS ERROR REPORTING SERVICE
WIN key | type SERVICES.MSC | ENTER |
Scroll down to Windows Error Reporting Service |
Rt-clk on Windows Error Reporting Service | Properties |
General tab | for Startup type, choose Automatic |
In Service status, Start button (unless grayed out) | OK

​

 

[doa]

My machine just froze with no USB devices attached ...

I am just looking through the list of drivers in Verifier.exe and something jumped out - I am about 100% sure that the blue screen during boot when verifier.exe was running was dtsoftbus.sys (which I assume is Daemon Tools Lite).

I did update it a while ago and have since switched to Virtual Clone Drive (but Daemon Tools is still installed).

Anyway I have adjusted my settings as per the above post and will try verifier.exe again for good measure. I seem to recall something about Daemon Tools and Win 7 recently saying that there were issues too ...

 

[doa]

Just verified my last post - it was dtsoftbus01.sys that caused the BSOD during boot with verifier.exe running.

 

[karlsnooks]

Daemon has been known to cause problems. Uninstall and then see if problem still exists.

 

[doa]

Uninstall Daemon Tools Lite in Safe Mode - re-enabled verifier.exe and have booted into Windows Fingers crossed now ...

 

[doa]

Well so far so good - no crashes! Thanks for your help - it is very, very much appreciated!

 

[karlsnooks]

Helping someone like you who follows procedures is a real pleasure on our part. If new problems show up, be sure to yell. If you feel that the problem is solved, then mark the thread as such.

 

[doa]

I'm pretty sure that my machine would have crashed by now if the problem was not solved so I am going to Mark as Solved. Thanks again for your help!