Computer bluescreens / Help please

09/01/2013 12:09:13 AM · #1

I'm posting here out of desperation and faith in the community. This week my computer started acting funny. When playing a game (Guild Wars 2), the game would crash. Then the bluescreens started. This afternoon it got substantially worse, and I often now can't get into Windows without a bluescreen. I'm leaning toward some driver error rather than a hardware, but the randomness is confusing and worrying me that it could be hardware. I've tried a bunch of things, but would appreciate input.

Here's what I've tried and what I know:
Cleaned and blew out the computer case. It was surprisingly clean already.
I've run a memory test on RAM. - OK
I've done a boot scan of my C drive. - OK
Avast virus scan - OK

msconfig - Disabled all except Windows services - Seemed okay for a few reboots. Need to test more.
msconfig - Disabled all except Windows and Avast services - Bluescreened at least once - Note: I actually had to reinstall Avast, because it wouldn't let me reactivate it initially.

SafeMode - Works like a charm
SafeMode with network - Works like a charm

System repair/restore - The crashes have caused Windows to need to repair and restore at least 3 times.

The errors seem random, so I started keeping track of a few:
1st crash
win32k.sys FFFFF96000096A2B base at FFFFF96000020000, DateStamp 51aeb1a7

0x0000003B (0x00000000C0000005, 0xFFFFF96000096A2B, 0xFFFFF8800282CB60, 0x0000000000000000)

2nd crash
0x0000003B (0x00000000C0000005, 0xfffff8000334cfa4, 0fffff880025ac5e0, 0x0000000000000000)

3rd crash
0x000000F4 (0x0000000000000003, 0xfffffa8010b06b30, 0xfffffa8010b06e10, 0xfffff8000338c0d0)

Random log-in error
Explorer.exe error
The instruction at 0xfdce15b5 referenced memory at 0x0000011. the memory could not be written

4th crash
0x00000050

5th crash
0x0000001 (0x00000000779712FA, 0x0000000000000000000, 0x00000000002000000, 0xfffff880040c3b06)
APC_INDEX_MISMATCH

6rd crash
0x000000F4 (0x0000000000000003, 0xfffffa8010952360, 0xfffffa8010952640, 0xfffff800033c60d0)

Message edited by author 2013-09-01 00:42:00.

09/01/2013 11:51:54 AM · #2

The fact that it started when you were playing a game makes me think that it may first have shown up only when stressing the hardware, which would point toward hardware. If it is related to heat (stress) then the machine may run fine under some conditions. There is evidence in the errors you reported that memory errors are occurring. If a memory test passed, that would lead me again toward a stress/heat related problem. Could be a memory component, or on older (pre-Sandy Bridge Intel and pre-2011 AMD) it could be chipset (northbridge) related. It could be an interconnection problem as well.
If you run in safe mode, and you stress the system, can you get it to crash?

Another possibility is that you have "creeping bad sectors" on your hard drive. If data is corrupted as it is being swapped, there will be trouble. The fact that Windows has had to be repaired hints that things may not be all well in that department; normally a blue screen failure is highly unlikely to be able to affect the OS installation.

So here are some tests I would try:
1.) Run diagnostics on the hard drive. Make sure any data is backed up.
2.) Run an extended memory diagnostic, like memtest86, on RAM, running under safe mode
3.) To determine whether the failures are stress-related, use a system "torture test" like Prime95.

09/01/2013 12:24:22 PM · #3

Thanks for your response

kirbic.

I've started a "torture test" in SafeMode with networking and will leave it up while I do my morning stuff. ReadMe files say I should leave it up for 6-12 hours, but if there's a problem that it will likely crash within minutes. I'll run the other tests you recommend in a bit. If all else fails, I'll leave the torture test going overnight. I'll report back any findings.

09/01/2013 12:42:44 PM · #4

If it can run that test without errors for an hour or four, it is very unlikely to be a heat or memory related problem.

09/02/2013 10:10:32 AM · #5

Yesterday was rough... but here's an update.

I continued to run the Prime95 stress test with no problems. I ran diagnostics and they came back fine. I decided since everything was already backed up I would reformat the drive and reinstall windows rather than try to find an obscure corruption. After struggling all day to get the updates installed on the new install I realized that the installation didn't actually wipe the drive even though I went through the custom install and told it to. I realized this, because Avast wouldn't run after a fresh install and because there was a few of the old folders (like a test of CS2 that I tried). I assume Avast was still seeing remnants of the previous build somewhere, but it wouldn't let me uninstall it either. I figured I'd play around on it anyway for awhile to test if it was stable. It indeed was quite stable. I logged into the game I had been playing, and it ran beautifully. I let the Prime95 run on it again for awhile, and again it was fine.

I'm up early this morning to force it to format in the repair Command Prompt. I figure a true format (with scanning for bad sectors) is the best way to know if it's software or hardware. Hopefully my next post will be rainbows and fluffy bunnies.

Message edited by author 2013-09-02 10:12:24.

09/03/2013 01:33:00 AM · #6

Well, I don't know about fluffy bunnies, but it's up and hasn't crashed in hours since the format and install.

I had another rough bout of installing the Windows Updates even with the completely clean install, including 1 bluescreen. The updater kept getting stuck or forgetting that I had any updates to install, and I had to keep using the updater repair tool. Avast installed correctly this time, and I just completed a several hour (like all day) gaming session with no issues. I'm not investing much in this install though, because I don't have a lot of faith in it. I still think there's something wrong, but at least I know now that it's likely not software. I'm leaning towards failing RAM, mainly because it's the cheapest possible component, heh. Everything is still under warranty though, so I guess it doesn't matter.

If crashes continue, I'll take out a stick at a time to troubleshoot and pray I can isolate it to that. For now though, it's running fine.

Again, thanks for your help

kirbic.

09/03/2013 07:34:47 AM · #7

My money at this point is on the hard drive, and if it has this level of problems it will fail, and soon. A full surface scan would tell the tale, either confirming or denying my hypothesis.

09/03/2013 11:40:17 AM · #8

Originally posted by kirbic:

My money at this point is on the hard drive, and if it has this level of problems it will fail, and soon. A full surface scan would tell the tale, either confirming or denying my hypothesis.

Is that different than the sector scan that was done when I formatted the drive? I also did the "Error-checking" that's under the Properties/Tools for the drive. What surface scan thingy would you recommend?

09/03/2013 06:21:44 PM · #9

I gave up after another bluescreen this morning. I took it in to a local shop to have them make everything magically better.

09/03/2013 06:52:42 PM · #10

Originally posted by aliqui:

... What surface scan thingy would you recommend?

For future reference, since you won't need it for this go-round, there are a bunch of good tools, many of which are not free. Oddly, Hitachi offers their Drive Fitness Test software for download by anyone, and it will work on most local drives, including those attached via USB. They don't need to be Hitachi drives, though it returns additional info for those. The extended surface test will take quite some time to run, but will find and report all truly bad sectors.