SOLVED random bsod's.

[apathyRecharge]

SOLVED: random bsod's.

hello everyone!

back in july i built my first pc (hurray) and experienced no problems, but more recently since september maybe i keep arbitrarily experiencing lockups and bsod's (even the bsod's lockup sometimes). they appear to be occurring more frequently now which is obviously a problem, so i was hoping you could help me stop them.

specs:
win7 home premium 64-bit
intel i5-2500k
p8z77-v lx
xfx radeon 6870
x2 2gb corsair vengeance 1600mhz
64gb samsung 830 ssd primary drive
750gb sata-ii 7200rpm secondary drive
corsair gs600 psu

here is a link to my dump file. i ran memtest to see if it was my ram derping up but the test showed fine results, and it doesn't crash when i'm playing games on the highest settings (only if i'm browsing tumblr or whatever) so i kind of doubt it's the gpu. i disabled hardware acceleration in both mozilla nightly and flash to be sure, though.

hopefully it's an easily fixable problem like downgrading drivers. i read somewhere that it could be a power shortage due to having more than 9 screw supporting the mobo or something, or that it could be from having the front panel audio set to hd.

anyway, any and all help is very much appreciated. if you'd like me to post more information, please ask.

edit: just crashed on me again. i went through the bios and changed the front panel from hd>ac97. another thing i forgot to mention is that whenever it crashes, it'll struggle to start back up again (in that it'll start up, turn itself off, start up, turn itself off, and then start up properly) but that didn't happen when i changed it to ac97 so hopefully it's working now.

here's the second minidump.

 

[TrainableMan]

I'm not a BSOD expert but I did look at your DMPs and nothing really stands out. It points to the W7 kernal and one of them also points to HAL.DLL but these are system files and more likely innocent bystanders left holding the bag. I didn't check individual drivers but I do see your drivers are all at least within the W7 release period.

There was a BIOS update for your board 2 weeks ago and another 2 days ago "for stability" so I would definitely download the one from 2 days ago.

And there was an update to the SSD software "Magician Software (Software)" a week ago which I don't suspect would be a problem but you might check on that. Firmware of the SSD was updated in January, if you haven't installed that then I suggest you do.

Hopefully it's the BIOS but other than that, I've seen suggestions to install Driver Verifier which watches over drivers and should help pinpoint driver issues but as I said I'm no BSOD expert and I've never used it myself.

600W should be enough power unless it's defective. You tested the RAM which is good. Any overclocking I would reset to factory. And if you haven't run a good A/V scan, you should (see HERE).

 

[apathyRecharge]

thanks for the reply! certainly a helpful post.

from what you've said i would think it's the bios, although i'm not sure why it would have worked fine for the first month or so before deciding to crap out on me. anyway, i've downloaded the latest version and i'll flash it now. hopefully i don't muck it up because i've never flashed a bios before, but it seems fairly straightforward.

again, thanks very much for the response.

edit: back from flashing the bios, everything went better than i expected! hopefully that solved the bsod issue~

 

[TrainableMan]

Most BIOS flashes are done right from inside Windows these days. The most important thing is that you don't loose power during those 30seconds or so because if the flash doesn't complete you end up with a brick for a MOBO. Best is to make sure you are plugged into a UPS battery backup, worst is to do it in a thunderstorm or in a country with frequent random power outages. Glad that worked OK for you.

I would also verify your SSD is on the January firmware and if you use that SSD software then update that, too.

If you get more BSODs then post the DMPs.

 

[apathyRecharge]

alright, so i left this for two weeks for a more long-term test to see if what i tried worked.

i haven't gotten any bsod's since i flashed the bios, and for a time it even fixed the lock-up issues. in the past week or so however, lock-ups have occurred more frequently (i've had 5 lock-ups in the past two days). they don't occur if i'm playing games, only if i'm browsing the internet or if i leave my pc on overnight.

does windows generate any error files like dmps for lockups that i could post?

 

[Shintaro]

When you say "lock ups" can you be more specific?
For example what apps were you running when it "locked up"?
Or did leave the computer running and not touch it for a time, only to return to find it "locked up"?

You can turn on Driver Verifier. The crash dump files (when it crashes) will be in c:\windows\minidump

(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:

1. Go to Start and type in "verifier" (without the quotes) and press Enter
2. Select "Create custom settings (for code developers)" and click "Next"
3. Select "Select individual settings from a full list" and click "Next"
4. Select everything EXCEPT FOR "Special Pool", "Force Pending I/O Requests" and "Low Resource Simulation" and click "Next"
5. Select "Select driver names from a list" and click "Next"
6. Then select all drivers NOT provided by Microsoft and click "Next"
7. 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.

 

[apathyRecharge]

i loaded the driver verifier and rebooted but it wouldn't load into windows. i saw the "starting windows" screen but soon after it brought me back to the "Asus" screen that lets you access the bios, and when it tried to boot into windows again it told me to launch startup repair.
i did notice that a DIMM light on my motherboard flashed during this, though. could the issue be incompatible RAM? i would have thought it just wouldn't have booted at all had that been the case, and the RAM i bought (2gb DDR3 1600mhz) is supported by my mobo.

to clarify, when i say "lock-up", i mean i'll be surfing the internet when suddenly my mouse will freeze, my keyboard will freeze, and whatever music was serenading me will decide to do a skrillex job and just start going "duh-duh-duh-duh" and glitching out. the only way i can fix it is by rebooting.

the programs i have open are bblean (a shell that works on top of explorer), foobar2000, mozilla nightly, skype, steam, rainmeter, and a few instances of cygwin. bblean always worked fine for me on a previous pc so i would be surprised if that was the culprit.

 

[Shintaro]

- Have a look in your motherboards manual, Chapter 2 for timings of your RAM and position of RAM in the slots. Are they correct?
http://www.asus.com.au/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/P8Z77V_LX/#download

I see that in post#1 you ran Memtest, but I would probably run it again.https://www.w7forums.com/memtest86-memory-testing-t9067.html
Something made Driver Verifier unhappy. The problem is there is no real way of knowing what that is.

Have a look in the event viewer for errors. Or export the logs and post them.

Hope this helps.

 

[apathyRecharge]

i checked event viewer and it seems like the problem is related to the kernel. i've attached the log for the 18th november (yesterday, when it locked up three times), except for some internet issues which showed up in there as well.

http://www.thekokiris.net/SwitchRenn/Errors.zip

also, i checked the manual and my timings and the position of the sticks appears to be correct.

thank you for your assistance thus far. (i forgot to utilize that "Thanks" button for both yourself and TrainableMan up until now, oops)

 

[Shintaro]

Are you able to run Memtest? Needs to be for 10 passes.

 

[apathyRecharge]

i'm going to give that a shot when i go to bed, i'll let you know how it goes.

 

[apathyRecharge]

hopefully nobody minds the double post~
i left the memtest you linked running overnight for 15 passes and it said no errors were found.

 

[Shintaro]

Do you still have problems? Please post the crash dump files if you do.

 

[apathyRecharge]

Do you still have problems? Please post the crash dump files if you do.

oops, forgot to post an update. i brought it into a tech shop and they ran some diagnostics on it and told me that the problem was my dvd drive, so i disconnected it and wouldn't you know, no more bsod's.

windows freezing on me still persisted, so i investigated further. i was using microsoft's ahci drivers, so i switched to intel's and disabled the lpm on the port my ssd is connected to and so far i haven't had any lockups. i only did that like 2 days ago so it could still be a problem, but as of now my system is running perfectly.

thanks to trainableman and shintaro for helping me on this issue. i'll mark the thread as "solved" for now.