Windows 7 BSODs continue

I've now reinstalled Windows 7 Professional several times, both 64-bit and 32-bit. All of the resultant systems have suffered from BSODs.

2 or 3 times (less frequently than BSODs) the PC freezes / locks / stops. Nothing happens, the mouse laser goes out. Has to be powered down and rebooted.

Apart form the NIC and USB3 drivers, all were loaded by Windows itself.

The most recent install went BSOD during the actual install "Finalising Installation" phase, long before I'd had chance to do any localisation. The dumps, as far as I can see, point to any specific faulting item.

This installation BSOD made me think of hardware issues - despite the PC running XP Pro fine for 7 months.

Basic System Spec:
CPU: 2.80 gigahertz Intel Core i5 760
Motherboard: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. P55-USB3
Memory: 4 Gbytes - 2 x 2Gbytes Hyperam DIMMs
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GT 430
Sound Card: Integrated
Hard Drive: 1 Tb Seagate ST31000528AS (partitioned C: 150Gb / D: rest)

I've twice run MEMTEST86 overnight - no problems found.
I've twice run Hiren's HDD Scan - no problems found.
I've reset the BIOS to Optimized Defaults - still BSODs.
I've swapped the memory modules round - still BSODs.
I've run on one of the two memory modules - still BSODs.
I've changed the BIOS Performance Enhance option from Turbo to Standard - still BSODs.
I've also reset the BIOS to 'optimized defaults'.

I'm beginning to run out of ideas as to what it might be.

A friend wondered if it was a 'bad' copy of Windows - it's the full retail version purchased from Amazon UK.

I've posted all details and diagnostics on the Windows 7 Forum, though nothing back as yet.

Any help/thoughts would be most appreciated.

If you can get windows to actually start up find as many drivers for win 7 as you can from the manufacturers websites and don't rely on what windows installs.

I don't know if that will help but it should eliminate the possibility of a faulty driver being issued.

The BSOD frequency varies from 1 or 2 a day to once every 2 or 3 days, the longest BSOD-free period I got was 6 days. So my work is all being done on this W7 system - just having to save things regularly.

There seem to be 2 schools of thought about the best way to get drivers for a W7 system. As advocated by those on the W7 forum is to let Windows install the drivers and update them as appropriate. The other school is to use the latest drivers from the manufacturers' web sites. I've tried both and it makes no difference. Bearing in mind that one of the BSODs was during the actual W7 install before I had even got a chance to think about drivers, I'm not convinced it's a driver issue. I'll admit that all the dumps, as analysed by WhoCrashed, show the fault in one of the standard Windows modules, e.g. Kernel, NTFS File System,and the like, it smells of either a driver-like issue, however I'm still inclined to wonder about the hardware.

I've thought about reverting to XP and seeing if I get BSODs with that - if so then it points to hardware, if not then either it's not hardware or it's something to do with the way W7 interacts with the hardware that's finding the fault.

All in all very frustrating.

It might be worth recording the error code from the BSOD. That will give an indication of where to look.

Having seen your previous "tests" quoted, have you tried different equivalent PSU with matched DC voltage rails and DC powers? The possible reason is "glitches" in your DC rail/rails which may easily cause BSOD too!! Perhaps also a simple "reserting" EACH connector of your MD to make sure that there is NO simple "poor connections" that may cause your BSOD due to physical vibrations etc.

Edited by deleted (Fri 28-Oct-11 11:03:45)

I'd try swapping the HDD and SATA cable next... probably the easiest next thing to try, since you've reinstalled the OS just recently, hopefully not too much of a pain to reinstall YET again.

I had it happen (unusually) on a recent install on a brand new PC but the error code enabled me to find a solution. In my case it was an incorrect BIOS setting that Windows7 mistook as the lack of an OEM RAID driver.
Just Google the error code or look it up on Microsoft's website.

Have you checked the memory chips, I had a similar problem when I first built my machine and it was one faulty memory chip that caused the problem. Replaced that and everyhting has benn ok since.

Plug in a spare video card if you've got one. Alternatively, try installing XP drivers for your GeForce GT.

An abbreviated copy of the WhoCrashed dump analysis is below if it is useful. The only commonality is that they are all in standard MS modules rather than something that points to a faulting area.

Crash Dump Analysis
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Crash dump directory: C:\Windows\Minidump
Crash dumps are enabled on your computer.

On Thu 27/10/2011 22:49:28 GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\102811-17113-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x7CC40)
Bugcheck code: 0x50 (0xFFFFF80001262980, 0x0, 0xFFFFF800030E98B6, 0x0)
Error: PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA

On Thu 27/10/2011 22:49:28 GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\memory.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntkrnlmp.exe (nt!KeBugCheckEx+0x0)
Bugcheck code: 0x50 (0xFFFFF80001262980, 0x0, 0xFFFFF800030E98B6, 0x0)
Error: PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA

On Thu 27/10/2011 22:01:46 GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\102711-19952-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x7CC40)
Bugcheck code: 0x1A (0x31, 0xFFFFFA8005309840, 0xFFFFF8800727B000, 0xFFFFF8A0099969A0)
Error: MEMORY_MANAGEMENT

On Wed 26/10/2011 21:10:48 GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\102611-16161-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x7CC40)
Bugcheck code: 0x1A (0x31, 0xFFFFFA8006814C30, 0xFFFFF8800A901000, 0xFFFFF8A003106FE0)
Error: MEMORY_MANAGEMENT

On Tue 25/10/2011 21:01:41 GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\102511-17550-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x7CC40)
Bugcheck code: 0x3B (0xC0000005, 0xFFFFF80002EC721F, 0xFFFFF880091F1D10, 0x0)
Error: SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION

On Mon 24/10/2011 16:40:09 GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\102411-15366-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x7CC40)
Bugcheck code: 0xF4 (0x3, 0xFFFFFA80049EF060, 0xFFFFFA80049EF340, 0xFFFFF800031948B0)
Error: CRITICAL_OBJECT_TERMINATION

On Thu 20/10/2011 22:25:53 GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\102011-17784-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntfs.sys (Ntfs+0x5A88)
Bugcheck code: 0x24 (0x1904FB, 0xFFFFF88006E810B8, 0xFFFFF88006E80910, 0xFFFFF80002D16711)
Error: NTFS_FILE_SYSTEM

On Wed 19/10/2011 08:31:19 GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\101911-24242-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x7CC40)
Bugcheck code: 0x1A (0x31, 0xFFFFFA80041BE410, 0xFFFFF880049C3000, 0xFFFFF8A01B1BA4A1)
Error: MEMORY_MANAGEMENT

On Wed 19/10/2011 08:09:52 GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\101911-29686-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x7CC40)
Bugcheck code: 0x50 (0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF, 0x1, 0xFFFFF880010BE39F, 0x0)
Error: PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA

On Wed 19/10/2011 05:46:12 GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\101911-22495-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x7CC40)
Bugcheck code: 0x1A (0x31, 0xFFFFFA8005EBAC10, 0xFFFFF8800C4DB000, 0xFFFFF8A00205206C)
Error: MEMORY_MANAGEMENT

On Wed 19/10/2011 04:49:43 GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\101911-24897-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x80640)
Bugcheck code: 0x1A (0x31, 0xFFFFFA8004CFFAF0, 0xFFFFF88000B6D000, 0xFFFFF8A00676CF01)
Error: MEMORY_MANAGEMENT