SOLVED BSODs during games blamed by ntoskrnl.exe

[El Diablo]

Hello to anyone that replies or views this post, I would like to thank you ahead of time for taking the time to do so. I do want to say ahead of time I’ve never had a BSOD just browsing the internet or just sitting doing something mundane at the desktop. Recently I’ve been getting some BSODs that I can’t seem to figure out on my own, so I’m asking for some help. The first blue screen I got was last November ((I had only had the computer for 2 weeks at the most)) while trying to shut down the computer, which I believe happened one more time, but for some reason I had a feeling that it was caused by Steam not closing properly so now I close it myself before I shut down the computer. I really didn’t think anything of it at the time because it wasn’t reoccurring. I then went several months without one, the exact details aren’t entirely clear but I would guess that 85% of my blue screens are associated with playing games. I was used to having the occasional crash with any game, mainly Fallout: New Vegas and Skyrim, but on occasion Killing Floor as well. Then for some reason after I had put at least 450 hours on Killing Floor without one blue screen, I would get one pretty much every time that I played for about an hour. I have found hopefully a temporary workaround for this by running it in compatibility mode for Win XP SP3, disabling visual themes and desktop composition, no blue screen with that since. Then I started having blue screens with Fallout: New Vegas ((which I have about 73 hours on)) and Just Cause 2 ((with about 27 hours on)), only a couple if I recall correctly. I was overclocking my gpu some around this time (((Not anymore))) but even returning to the factory overclock of 900 MHz I was still having problems. I then got a blue screen while playing Skyrim ((75 gameplay hours or so)) only one but still frustrating. So far it seems that Fallout: New Vegas is the easiest to get a blue screen with some happening less than 5 minutes after starting a game. I haven’t been playing all the games that I have on Steam or tried playing all of them since this burst of blue screens started but I’ve never had a blue screen playing Arkham City or Serious Sam 3, which I think are both much more graphically intensive.
With most of the history out of the way I’ll say what I’ve already tried myself in an attempt to fix this. I downloaded Blue Screen View and it seems all but one of the dump files point to ntoskrnl.exe as the problem. I’ve also run driver verifier with only this driver checked on the list and didn’t even make it to the login screen without getting a blue screen. I’ve run Prime95 on the Small FFTs test for 10 hours without a problem; I’ve also stressed my gpu with Furmark’s burn in test, leveling out at 73C@74% fan speed without any issues.Memtest86+ has also been run for more than 3 complete passes with no errors as well, I believe it was 6 ½ hours total run time. So far that’s everything that I’ve done on my own, but since I can’t read dump files like a book as most of you can, I’m asking for your help. I’ll attach all the dump files I’ve accumulated so far as well. Once again to anyone that views or replies to this post, thanks again.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that both my cpu and gpu temps are below average from my research and shouldn't be part of the problem.

 

[Shintaro]

1/ Do you have any game devices attached? Joysticks etc..
2/ What kind of Keyboard/mouse are you using (brand and model No.)
3/ What do you have attached via USB?

 

[El Diablo]

The only devices I have attached are a Razer Deathadder 3.5G mouse model#RZ01-0015, which I believe has the latest drivers. My keyboard is a Saitek Gamers Keyboard, model# KU-0418. This has the lastest drivers I was able to find for it.

Other than that the only other things that are attached are some cheap USB speakers I've had forever, and a Turtle Beach X11 Headset.

 

[Shintaro]

Please check that you have the latest Chipset and USB drivers:
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3908#dl

 

[El Diablo]

Well this is what happened the last time I tried downloading drivers from Gigabyte's website. They never want to install themselves, and it doesn't matter if I run it or save it first. The file is a self unzipping 7zip file and after it unzips itself nothing happens.

From what I've read it's supposed to start an installation process after the files are unzipped.

I'm also sure that I'm downloading the correct format too, Win7 64x, which is what I have.

 

[Shintaro]

Strange, have you done an offline virus scan?
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/what-is-windows-defender-offline

 

[El Diablo]

I'll do that and post back with results.

I've run both ESET and Malwarebytes AntiMalware with no results.

Did you notice anything out of the ordinary in the dump files?

EDIT: Ok, I tried to run the offline virus scan and recieved an error.

Windows Defender Offline cannot be started, unable to detect a windows system drive caused by missing drivers, encrypted drive or corrupted Windows installation. Error Code: 0x8004cc01 if that's any help.

 

[Shintaro]

You can test you Seagate drives with http://www.seagate.com/staticfiles/support/seatools/SeaToolsDOS223ALL.ISO

Then try a System Repair.

How did you create the Defender image, download the image then burn it?

 

[Shintaro]

You really need to do Malware and virus scanning offline.
Some Malware is very clever and can only be cleaned offline, very annoying!

 

[El Diablo]

Yeah I used the disc burner that was included on the exe file.

So should I run my ESET and Malwarebytes both after disconnecting from the internet?

Are there any tricks to making sure that the Defender offline scan will run or do you think it's just being blocked by malware?

 

[Shintaro]

MS Defender should be a bootable CD. I think you have the option to download the ISO. Maybe try burning at a slower speed.

BTW Memtest should be run for at least 10 passes. https://www.w7forums.com/memtest86-memory-testing-t9067.html

But try to concentrate on getting the offline scan to go through first.

 

[Shintaro]

Is this where you went for your keyboard drivers?
http://www.saitekusa.com/uk/down/drivers.php

 

[El Diablo]

Yes that is where I downloaded my keyboard drivers.
I read on another forum that 3 was enough for Memtest, I'll rerun it for 10 after I finish with the Seagate HDD tool and get the antivirus working.

I didn't burn the Windows Defender as a .iso file, although I did have the option to. Just burning normally it still booted up fine and loaded, it just didn't work correctly hence the error.

Something else I didn't mention in my first post was that I ran chkdsk which ended up yielding no problems either.

 

[Shintaro]

OK, Good luck.
Let us know how you go.

 

[El Diablo]

Alright, I ran the Seagate tools disk for both hard drives and both came back without any problems after the long test. I'm not sure what happened but the first time I was running it, it froze. So I reran it for the second hard disk and it worked fine.

I also reburned Windows Defender offline, this time I burned the .iso image but I still can't get it ro run properly. Both disks get the same error, the one I mentioned in my other post. I even tried removing my password to login upon starting the computer but that did nothing.

After that I disconnected from the internet, rebooted and ran my ESET and Malwarebytes, both reported no viruses or malware.

Lastly, I ran Memtest86+ again last night. It went faster than I expected, doing 12 full passes without any errors. At the time that I checked it I thought it would only be halfway or so.

 

[Shintaro]

Ok, time for Driver Verifier.

(Borrowed from Zigzag3143 posts)

Driver verifier

Using Driver Verifier is an iffy proposition. Most times it'll crash and it'll tell you what the driver is. But sometimes it'll crash and won't tell you the driver. Other times it'll crash before you can log in to Windows. If you can't get to Safe Mode, then you'll have to resort to offline editing of the registry to disable Driver Verifier.

So, I'd suggest that you first backup your stuff and then make sure you've got access to another computer so you can contact us if problems arise. Then make a System Restore point (so you can restore the system using the Vista/Win7 Startup Repair feature).

Then, here's the procedure:
- Go to Start and type in "verifier" (without the quotes) and press Enter
- Select "Create custom settings (for code developers)" and click "Next"
- Select "Select individual settings from a full list" and click "Next"
- Select everything EXCEPT FOR "Special Pool", "Force Pending I/O Requests" and "Low Resource Simulation" and click "Next"
- Select "Select driver names from a list" and click "Next"
Then select all drivers NOT provided by Microsoft and click "Next"
- Select "Finish" on the next page.

Reboot the system and wait for it to crash to the Blue Screen.
Continue to use your system normally, and if you know what causes the crash, do that repeatedly.
The objective here is to get the system to crash because Driver Verifier is stressing the drivers out.
If it doesn't crash for you, then let it run for at least 36 hours of continuous operation.

Reboot into Windows (after the crash) and turn off Driver Verifier by going back in and selecting "Delete existing settings" on the first page, then locate and zip up the memory dump file and upload it with your next post.

If you can't get into Windows because it crashes too soon, try it in Safe Mode.
If you can't get into Safe Mode, try using System Restore from your installation DVD to set the system back to the previous restore point that you created.

 

[El Diablo]

I did this before which is how I Iearned I needed to get new keyboard drivers.

Looking at the .dmp files with BlueScreenview all of them suggest that ntoskrnl.exe is the problem, which is why I tried loading only ntoskrnl.exe through driver verifier. Well I didn’t even make it to the login screen before getting a blue screen with only ntoskrnl.exe loaded.

This is what made me start thinking that it's possibly corrupted, and seeing that Windows Defender offline won't load possibly because of Windows corruption enforces the evidence in my eyes of that being the problem.

I don't know though maybe I don't know what I'm talking about, but before I run it again tell me what you think of those statements.

Thanks again for all your help and time so far.

EDIT: I found and exe file in the chipset driver folder that I downloaded and extracted. Running it brings up ATI Catalyst Install Manager, which says it installs AMD USB Filter Driver, RAIDXpert, and AMD AHCI compatable SATA RAID Driver. I also got the Etron USB 3.0 driver to install correctly, but am unsure if the chipset driver is being installed or not.

 

[Shintaro]

Did you have those setting last time when you activated Driver Verifier?
Has it crashed anymore? If it has please upload the minidumps.

 

[El Diablo]

I had everything setup the way it says in that post you pasted, that actually looks like the same post that I saw when I ran it. At first I loaded only nonwindows drivers which gave me a blue screen 30 seconds upon login. I looked it up and it said it was the keyboard drivers so I updated those.

Then just out of curiosity since I was seeing ntoskrnl.exe in every .dmp file I loaded only that in Driver Verifier even though it's a windows driver just to see what would happen and that gave me a blue screen before even getting to the login screen. I was still able to boot in safe mode to turn it off though.

All the .dmp files I've had are linked in the first post I made since I haven't rerun driver verifier yet or tried playing a game that I know will give me a blue screen since the last one that I got, which caused me to be frusterated enough with it on my own to make this post. haha

 

[Shintaro]

It is very unlikely that a Windows exe caused the crash. That's why in Driver Verifier we say to only select 3rd party drivers.
Are you able to turn it back on and let me know what you did to crash it again.

Sorry this is taking so long.