HELP with BSOD!

[Old Man of UO]

HELP with BSOD! - SOLVED

I am getting the BSOD in Win 7 x64 about once a day now. I need help diagnosing the source, where to begin looking and what to look for.

This started about 3 weeks ago, and went almost a week before the second BSOD, then a couple days, now about once per day. Windows only tells me that it's a device or driver crash, to unload and reinstall... almost useless info. I've done the virus/ spyware scans, and the first line of defense things.

I am guessing it is a hardware failure, motherboard or power supply, but not sure how to test. My computer has a Gigabyte MB and Antec power supply, AMD Quad, not over clocked. I don't think that I have loaded any new drivers recently, no new hardware.

Help please?

 

[RawHeadRex]

I am getting the BSOD in Win 7 x64 about once a day now. I need help diagnosing the source, where to begin looking and what to look for.

This started about 3 weeks ago, and went almost a week before the second BSOD, then a couple days, now about once per day. Windows only tells me that it's a device or driver crash, to unload and reinstall... almost useless info. I've done the virus/ spyware scans, and the first line of defense things.

I am guessing it is a hardware failure, motherboard or power supply, but not sure how to test. My computer has a Gigabyte MB and Antec power supply, AMD Quad, not over clocked. I don't think that I have loaded any new drivers recently, no new hardware.

Help please?

ok there is a conflict obviously. right click my computer , left click manage.
in the left column, expand EVENT VIEWER. Expand Windows Logs. Look under Application and System for RED ERRORS that coincide with your bsod's. Usually something will lead up to the blue screens that will show in Event Viewer. For example I have errors in Application whose Source is Side by Side, some kind of conflict occurs yet is not bad enough to crash my system so i let it go. If it did, i would have to uninstall Nero Toolkit because that's the source. Under System, i have an error regarding Windows media Player Network Sharing Service because I turned that service off long ago so the system thinks there is an error because it won't auto start.


after that, check memory imho. download memtest86, read up on it, test your memory one by one. pain in the mobo but needs to be done. could be hard drive too i guess, dL speedfan and run the free SMART test on said hd. click on "perform an indepth online analysis of this hard disk" and see results. imho i doubt its the mobo or powersupply, just sayin'.

 

[Skylark SP]

Please post the exact STOP codes from the BSOD please. I know some of them can be hair-tearingly frustrating in terms of "helpfulness" but some of them actually give significant clues as to what "done the deed." It is useful to have these to reference because sometimes, the same machine will generate different codes for BSOD events - i.e. the machine may throw BSODs 2x on the same day but the STOP codes referenced at the events are not the same, and that can provide clues as well.

You may need to tweak your system settings in order to obtain the STOP codes. In Windows XP, these settings are under My Computer --> Properties --> Startup & Recovery. I am uncertain if the location is different for Windows 7. Uncheck the Automatically Restart option, so the screen stays up until you manually shut it down, to allow you a chance to write down the STOP codes.

Another thing...if you have a pre-built system such as Dell or HP, check the manufacturer's site to see if ANY new hardware drivers or BIOS updates have been released. Even though you have not manually made changes, that doesn't mean Windows Update didn't make some behind the scenes changes that are not playing nice with certain drivers that were perfectly fine before.

-Skylark

 

[Guido_LS]

I am getting the BSOD in Win 7 x64 about once a day now. I need help diagnosing the source, where to begin looking and what to look for.

This started about 3 weeks ago, and went almost a week before the second BSOD, then a couple days, now about once per day. Windows only tells me that it's a device or driver crash, to unload and reinstall... almost useless info. I've done the virus/ spyware scans, and the first line of defense things.

I am guessing it is a hardware failure, motherboard or power supply, but not sure how to test. My computer has a Gigabyte MB and Antec power supply, AMD Quad, not over clocked. I don't think that I have loaded any new drivers recently, no new hardware.

Help please?

Wild guess - RealTek HD audio built in sound? Dollars to donuts, you go on the web, get the reference drivers from Realtek, or this link (my personal webspace - I hosted it for the clan in CoD I play in) and your problems will go away. Download Here.

Something about the drivers go haywire, and downloading them again from either the MB manufacturer or letting MS obtain it just doesn't work.

 

[Old Man of UO]

Thanks for the replies... I have been traveling for work and finally home. I will look into your suggestions.

As far as the BSOD code... I should clarify that I only got the BSOD the very first time it crashed, and every time after that it was just a hard reboot - no BSOD. This makes if very hard to track down.

I did a bunch of head scratching, and the best guess I have is it traces back to a Java update that froze during the update. I had to uninstall and reinstall the Java update to get that to work, and the problems followed a few days after that. Maybe a coincidence. But I no longer think it is a hardware issue.

I have since reinstalled the ATI video drivers and it seems "stable," going 4 or 5 days since the last crash, but still don't feel comfortable with it.

Thanks for the suggestions, they are appreciated with this VERY frustrating problem.

 

[RawHeadRex]

Thanks for the replies... I have been traveling for work and finally home. I will look into your suggestions.

As far as the BSOD code... I should clarify that I only got the BSOD the very first time it crashed, and every time after that it was just a hard reboot - no BSOD. This makes if very hard to track down.

I did a bunch of head scratching, and the best guess I have is it traces back to a Java update that froze during the update. I had to uninstall and reinstall the Java update to get that to work, and the problems followed a few days after that. Maybe a coincidence. But I no longer think it is a hardware issue.

I have since reinstalled the ATI video drivers and it seems "stable," going 4 or 5 days since the last crash, but still don't feel comfortable with it.

Thanks for the suggestions, they are appreciated with this VERY frustrating problem.

right click my computer\left click properties\advanced tab\startup and recovery settings\uncheck automatically restart during system failure. GL

 

[gjohnson5]

right click my computer\left click properties\advanced tab\startup and recovery settings\uncheck automatically restart during system failure. GL

this is a better option for actually looking at te blue screen error

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html

 

[RawHeadRex]

this is a better option for actually looking at te blue screen error

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html

totally agree, he said his rig doesn't show the blue screen so he can't get the irq less than string. just making sure 'restart after crash' isn't checked.

 

[Old Man of UO]

right click my computer\left click properties\advanced tab\startup and recovery settings\uncheck automatically restart during system failure. GL

THANKS! I did not know about this setting. I just checked it after getting another hard-reboot.

This is getting very annoying, and I would completely rebuild my computer if it just didn't take so long to reinstall all the software.

 

[Skylark SP]

THANKS! I did not know about this setting. I just checked it after getting another hard-reboot.

Guessing you missed it in my earlier post?

-Skylark

 

[Old Man of UO]

Guessing you missed it in my earlier post?

-Skylark

More like, I read your post too quickly. But your point about the Windows Updates is certainly likely... there have been several updates since I started having problems.

Anyway to rebuild all drivers without having to do them one at a time?

I have a self-built system running Win 7 x64, if that matters.

 

[Old Man of UO]

FINALLY FOUND THE %$#!! PROBLEM -

Thanks to Skylark's and RawHeadRex's help. This is a new on to me, a corrupted virtual swap file. I got the BSOD messages to show, but kept indicating a likely hardware memory failure. I reset my memory chips and video cards, same thing. The Enhanced Client would randomly close on me, making me also think it was those. Mem tests did not show any memory chip errors.

The only thing I could think of doing was resetting the virtual memory from letting Windows manage it to a fixed page size, and that fixed the problem. I have no idea why rebooting the computer or running chkdsk /f /r didn't fix it, so I guess I don't understand how the swap file works.

Anyway, it's fixed now and I am not getting the random EC closures either.

BIG THANK YOU TO EVERYONE POSTING!!