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[SOLVED] Increasingly frequent BSODs, various codes

3K views 41 replies 2 participants last post by  Patrick 
#1 · (Edited)
I've been getting BSODs with increasing frequency over the past month. Ever since building this system I'd get them every so often (once a quarter maybe) but not enough to cause any alarm, usually coinciding with a new driver suite being available for the video card. Lately they've been happening more often and I can't pin down any common denominator. The error codes are varied and they happen at totally different times of day and have nothing to do with how long the machine has been on or how hard it's running. I usually have the same 4 or 5 tabs open in firefox when I'm on it, but it's happened when there's been no browser open as well. Firefox has also been crashing on me at least once a day, but I think that may be related to the newest releases being buggy, as it just started happening with release 30 & 31.

So far I've done the following diagnostics-

-Used Driver Sweeper to completely remove my video card drivers (event viewer had been throwing a lot of code 7000 which ended up being related to a legacy driver and stopped when I got rid of it) and reinstalled the newest non-beta driver suite.
-Ran the windows memory test 3 times and it's come back clear (RAM = G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-8GBRL - Newegg.com)
-Speccy doesn't show anything out of the ordinary (see SS below)
-I -haven't- run driver verifier yet, just because I tried running that a year or two ago and it just ran for an hour then made the machine freeze up (no bsod, just freeze) and I had to do a system restore in safe mode
-I haven't downloaded or installed any new software recently. The last major change I made was back in April when the controller on my external hard drive failed so I took the drive out of the enclosure and put it in an extra bay. There haven't been any problems with it since. A few days before these BSODs began I moved physically to a new apartment, but it was a short trip and I can't imagine anything could have been damaged internally in that process. I've since opened it up and dusted it out and nothing looks out of the ordinary.

· OS - Vista/ Windows 7 ?

-Windows 7 Home Premium
· x86 (32-bit) or x64 ?
-x64
· What was original installed OS on system?
-Windows 7 Home Premium
· Is the OS an OEM version (came pre-installed on system) or full retail version (YOU purchased it from retailer)?
-Full retail version that I bought and installed when I built the system
· Age of system (hardware)
-Built in fall 2011
· Age of OS installation - have you re-installed the OS?
-Windows was re-installed when I added an SSD in summer 2012
· CPU
-AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb Quad-Core 3.4GHz Socket AM3 125W Processor
· Video Card
-SAPPHIRE 100314-2SR Radeon HD 6870 1GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16
· MotherBoard
-GIGABYTE GA-880GA-UD3H AM3 AMD 880G HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
· Power Supply - brand & wattage
-Corsair 650w
· System Manufacturer
-homemade
· Exact model number (if laptop, check label on bottom)
-homemade

Laptop or Desktop?
-desktop

Thanks in advance for your assistance. Even though I'm not as active on the forum as I'd like to be, this place has been a fantastic resource for me over the years both personally and professionally.
 

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#2 ·
Re: Increasingly frequent BSODs, various codes

Hi,

SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION (3b)

This indicates that an exception happened while executing a routine that transitions from non-privileged code to privileged code.

This error has been linked to excessive paged pool usage and may occur due to user-mode graphics drivers crossing over and passing bad data to the kernel code.

Code:
0: kd> ln fffff88013f8096c
(fffff880`13f80940)   [COLOR=Red]dxgmms1!VidMmDestroyAllocation+0x2c[/COLOR]   |  (fffff880`13f809bc)   dxgmms1!VidMmOpenAllocation
The exception occurred in dxgmms1!VidMmDestroyAllocation+0x2c. This is the DirectX MMS, specifically the video memory manager destroying allocations.

--------------------------------

1. AODDriver2.sys is listed and loaded in your modules list which is AMD Overdrive; also in EasyTune6 for Gigabyte motherboard. Known BSOD issues in Win7 & 8.

Please uninstall either software ASAP! If you cannot find either software to uninstall, or it's not installed, please navigate to the following filepath:

C:\Program Files\ATI Technologies\ATI.ACE\Fuel\amd64\AODDriver2.sys and rename AODDriver2.sys to AODDriver.2old and then Restart.

2. AppleCharger.sys is listed and loaded which is the GIGABYTE On/Off Charge driver. See here for details - GIGABYTE ON/OFF Charge

Very troublesome software, so please uninstall ASAP!

3. Remove and replace avast! with Microsoft Security Essentials for temporary troubleshooting purposes as it's very likely causing conflicts:

avast! removal - avast! Uninstall Utility | Download aswClear for avast! Removal

MSE - Microsoft Security Essentials - Microsoft Windows

4. Ensure you have the latest video card drivers. If you are already on the latest video card drivers, uninstall and install a version or a few versions behind the latest to ensure it's not a latest driver only issue. If you have already experimented with the latest video card driver and many previous versions, please give the beta driver for your card a try.

5. I see various Gigabyte bloatware installed, such as Easy Saver. These are unnecessary bloatware and I would uninstall all Gigabyte software ASAP.

Regards,

Patrick
 
#3 ·
Re: Increasingly frequent BSODs, various codes

Patrick,

Thanks for your recommendations, just finished implementing all of them. I'm noticing some increased performance after getting rid of Avast (oddly enough I started using it instead of AVG due to how bloated AVG was). I appreciate the heads-up on the Gigabyte software, I'd always just assumed they were necessary for the mobo to run which is very unlike me as I'm big on eliminating unnecessary applications.

Wednesday I'd run the memtest for 7 passes and it was clear. I also found that my realtek audio & network drivers were out of date despite Windows telling me otherwise. While looking in device manager for any other out of date devices or other anomalies, I came across this thread which applied to my current setup. I followed the poster's instructions in that thread and the linked one and it also seemed to have positive effects as I've not had a BSOD, browser crash, or other machine freeze up since then.

Even though I tend to be a pessimist by nature it looks like the issue may be solved. Should nothing else happen I will post back here tomorrow and ask that the thread be closed, unless forum policy dictates otherwise.

Thank you and the rest of the staff for all your hard work. I always learn a lot just reading many of the threads on here.
 
#4 ·
Re: Increasingly frequent BSODs, various codes

Edit-

I'm getting this error in event viewer, which I'm assuming is related to renaming that AODdriver or removing the related programs. I'm not seeing any obvious culprit in the services tab of msconfig, is there something in the registry I need to remove, or is this something I can safely ignore?
 

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#5 ·
Re: Increasingly frequent BSODs, various codes

My pleasure, let me know by tomorrow or so if the BSODs have stopped and I'll go ahead and close it.

The error in Event Viewer is benign, you can safely ignore it. It's simply notifying you that Windows attempted to load the module, but it cannot (because we renamed it).

Regards,

Patrick
 
#6 ·
Re: Increasingly frequent BSODs, various codes

Well it looks like I spoke too soon. Everything was working fine the last few days then this morning I got another BSOD as well as a firefox crash. The screen also blanked for a second, then came back up with an error notice saying the AMD display driver had stopped working and recovered. I got rid of the old minidump logs and re-collected the most recent one with your software and am attaching it below. This one featured some new codes I'd not gotten before, looks to be related to a USB 3.0 driver, though I will defer to your expertise.
 

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#7 ·
Re: Increasingly frequent BSODs, various codes

In this field, there's a lot of 'speaking too soon'.. don't worry :')

MEMORY_MANAGEMENT (1a)

This indicates that a severe memory management error occurred.

Code:
BugCheck 1A, {[COLOR=Red]5003[/COLOR], fffff70001080000, 13d1e, 20bdb009}
- The 1st parameter of the bug check is 5003 which indicates the working set free list is corrupt.

Code:
1: kd> lmvm gdrv
start             end                 module name
fffff880`07cd9000 fffff880`07ce2000   gdrv       (deferred)             
    Image path: gdrv.sys
    Image name: gdrv.sys
    Timestamp:        Thu Mar 12 23:22:29 [COLOR=Red]2009[/COLOR]
FWIW, I still see Gigabyte Easy Saver's driver loaded. Did you uninstall?

Regards,

Patrick
 
#8 ·
Re: Increasingly frequent BSODs, various codes

Sorry, must have missed Easy Saver when I was clearing out those Gigabyte applications before. It's gone now. Googling the nusb3xhc.sys code lead me to investigate the usb 3.0 host controller and root hub which turned out to be old. They've since been updated with the current drivers as well.

A working set free list is corrupt is often a hardware issue, correct? Is there anything I can do to troubleshoot that further?
 
#10 ·
Re: Increasingly frequent BSODs, various codes

Well, things looked great all weekend. I had the machine running for 15+ hours at a time on several sessions and didn't have any BSODs or app crashes and nothing suspicious in event viewer and was starting to feel good about things again. Sure enough, I got another this morning. This time it was listing Msfs.SYS as the offending file.
 

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#11 ·
Re: Increasingly frequent BSODs, various codes

Let's run a Memtest for NO LESS than ~8 passes:

Memtest86+:

Download Memtest86+ here:

Memtest86+ - Advanced Memory Diagnostic Tool

Which should I download?

You can either download the pre-compiled .ISO that you would burn to a CD and then boot from the CD, or you can download the auto-installer for the USB key. What this will do is format your USB drive, make it a bootable device, and then install the necessary files. Both do the same job, it's just up to you which you choose, or which you have available (whether it's CD or USB).

Do note that some older generation motherboards do not support USB-based booting, therefore your only option is CD (or Floppy if you really wanted to).

How Memtest works (you don't need to read, it's only for those interested in the specifics):

Memtest uses algorithms (specifically two), namely moving inversion & what is deemed Modulo-X. Essentially, the first algorithm fills the memory with a pattern. Starting at the low address, it checks to see if the pattern was changed (it should not have been), writes the patterns complement, increments the address, and repeats. Starting at the highest address (as opposed to the lowest), it follows the same checklist.

The reason for the second algorithm is due to a few limitations, with the first being that not all adjacent cells are being tested for interaction due to modern chips being 4 to 16 bits wide regarding data storage. With that said, patterns are used to go ahead and ensure that all adjacent cells have at least been written with all possible one and zero combinations.

The second is that caching, buffering and out of order execution will interfere with the moving inversions algorithm. However, the second algorithm used is not affected by this. For starting offsets of 0-20, the algorithm will write every 20th location with a pattern, write all other locations with the patterns complement, repeat the previous one (or more) times, and then check every 20th location for the previously mentioned pattern.

Now that you know how Memtest actually works, it's important to know that the tests it goes through all mean something different. It goes from Test 0 through Test 12, many of which use either one or the other algorithm discussed above, among many other things.

Any other questions, they can most likely be answered by reading this great guide here:

FAQ : please read before posting

Regards,

Patrick
 
#12 ·
Re: Increasingly frequent BSODs, various codes

Since you'd mentioned the memtest in your last post I went ahead and ran it last night from around 11-6. It didn't find any errors but if you recommend that I run it for again or for longer, I can do so overnight tonight. Here's a screenshoot (sorry, I didn't notice till just now that the edges got cut off)
 

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#14 ·
Re: Increasingly frequent BSODs, various codes

Sure thing, I'll run it this evening and post my results in the morning. I left both RAM sticks seated as they were when I ran the initial test. Is it recommended that I test them separately?

Throughout the day I've gotten 4 BSODs which I believe is almost an all time high. Three of them happened while I was watching videos (two on VLC, one streaming) and the fourth happened within minutes of rebooting after the third. I'm attaching the newest log.
 

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#16 ·
Re: Increasingly frequent BSODs, various codes

Good to hear, let's go ahead and enable Driver Verifier to see if we have any driver conflicts:

Driver Verifier:

What is Driver Verifier?

Driver Verifier monitors Windows kernel-mode drivers, graphics drivers, and even 3rd party drivers to detect illegal function calls or actions that might corrupt the system. Driver Verifier can subject the Windows drivers to a variety of stresses and tests to find improper behavior.

Essentially, if there's a 3rd party driver believed to be causing the issues at hand, enabling Driver Verifier will help us see which specific driver is causing the problem.

Before enabling Driver Verifier, it is recommended to create a System Restore Point:

Vista - START | type rstrui - create a restore point
Windows 7 - START | type create | select "Create a Restore Point"
Windows 8/8.1 - Restore Point - Create in Windows 8

How to enable Driver Verifier:

Start > type "verifier" without the quotes > Select the following options -

1. Select - "Create custom settings (for code developers)"
2. Select - "Select individual settings from a full list"
3. Check the following boxes -
- Special Pool
- Pool Tracking
- Force IRQL Checking
- Deadlock Detection
- Security Checks (only on Windows 7 & 8/8.1)
- DDI compliance checking (only on Windows 8/8.1)
- Miscellaneous Checks
4. Select - "Select driver names from a list"
5. Click on the "Provider" tab. This will sort all of the drivers by the provider.
6. Check EVERY box that is NOT provided by Microsoft / Microsoft Corporation.
7. Click on Finish.
8. Restart.

Important information regarding Driver Verifier:

- Perhaps the most important which I will now clarify as this has been misunderstood often, enabling Driver Verifier by itself is not! a solution, but instead a diagnostic utility. It will tell us if a driver is causing your issues, but again it will not outright solve your issues.

- If Driver Verifier finds a violation, the system will BSOD. To expand on this a bit more for the interested, specifically what Driver Verifier actually does is it looks for any driver making illegal function calls, causing memory leaks, etc. When and/if this happens, system corruption occurs if allowed to continue. When Driver Verifier is enabled per my instructions above, it is monitoring all 3rd party drivers (as we have it set that way) and when it catches a driver attempting to do this, it will quickly flag that driver as being a troublemaker, and bring down the system safely before any corruption can occur.

- After enabling Driver Verifier and restarting the system, depending on the culprit, if for example the driver is on start-up, you may not be able to get back into normal Windows because Driver Verifier will detect it in violation almost straight away, and as stated above, that will cause / force a BSOD.

If this happens, do not panic, do the following:

- Boot into Safe Mode by repeatedly tapping the F8 key during boot-up.

- Once in Safe Mode - Start > Search > type "cmd" without the quotes.

- To turn off Driver Verifier, type in cmd "verifier /reset" without the quotes.

- Restart and boot into normal Windows.

If your OS became corrupt or you cannot boot into Windows after disabling verifier via Safe Mode:

- Boot into Safe Mode by repeatedly tapping the F8 key during boot-up.

- Once in Safe Mode - Start > type "system restore" without the quotes.

- Choose the restore point you created earlier.

-- Note that Safe Mode for Windows 8/8.1 is a bit different, and you may need to try different methods: 5 Ways to Boot into Safe Mode in Windows 8 & Windows 8.1

How long should I keep Driver Verifier enabled for?

I recommend keeping it enabled for at least 24 hours. If you don't BSOD by then, disable Driver Verifier. I will usually say whether or not I'd like for you to keep it enabled any longer.

My system BSOD'd with Driver Verifier enabled, where can I find the crash dumps?

- If you have the system set to generate Small Memory Dumps, they will be located in %systemroot%\Minidump.

- If you have the system set to generate Kernel Memory Dumps, it will be located in %systemroot% and labeled MEMORY.DMP.

Any other questions can most likely be answered by this article:

Using Driver Verifier to identify issues with Windows drivers for advanced users

Regards,

Patrick
 
#17 ·
Re: Increasingly frequent BSODs, various codes

I tried driver verifier a year or so ago and had bad luck with it (it's highly likely I got some settings wrong or something of that nature), however I'll give it another shot and keep you updated on the progress.
 
#19 ·
Re: Increasingly frequent BSODs, various codes

Verifier has been running for about 14 hours now and hasn't BSODed yet. It's been just sitting idle for most of that time but today I'll try using it like normal to see if anything triggers it.
 
#21 ·
Re: Increasingly frequent BSODs, various codes

It's been about 23 hours so far and I've not had anything out of the normal happen. I just left it idle last night but today I've used it normally on and off. Would you recommend I keep it running overnight this evening as well?
 
#23 ·
Re: Increasingly frequent BSODs, various codes

Will do, I'll post any results in the morning.

Once again, thanks for all of your assistance in this matter. As someone who also does IT volunteer work, I realize you and the rest of the staff do this on your own time and greatly appreciate your help.
 
#24 ·
Re: Increasingly frequent BSODs, various codes

I look forward to your update. In most cases, if DV can't reproduce a BSOD soon after enabling it, we may not have a driver problem. However, there are rare cases in which it's a driver that isn't loaded until the user does something specific (if it's such a specific problem). Again though, we'll wait until a crash with DV enabled until I start making any recommendations.

It's my pleasure, I'm glad to assist.

Regards,

Patrick
 
#25 · (Edited)
Re: Increasingly frequent BSODs, various codes

Once again I kept DV running overnight (it's been going a little over 36 hours now) and no BSODs. I've done pretty much everything to do on this machine as far as normal use goes. As I've mentioned before there really hasn't been any common denominator as far as what has been happening when they've occurred - sometimes it'll happen after having the machine on for half an hour, sometimes it happens every few days. When I got several in a row the other day I was watching video during most of them, but that's not happening this time.

If you need me to screenshot any of the verifier results let me know. According to the output settings, all of the drivers have been loaded save for dump_diskdump.sys.
 
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