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[SOLVED] Random BSOD's, constant crashes while playing games

3K views 5 replies 2 participants last post by  Patrick 
#1 · (Edited)
(I don't use English in my real life, so sorry for any lingual mistakes.)

Hello everyone. I have two problems with my PC. It likes to randomly restart from time to time. Sometimes when I browse the web, sometimes when I play a game.

Second problem shows up when I play games. Ocassionally I can play for an hour without problem, but another time game CTD's after five minutes three times in a row. It happens with almost every title I own.

My PC specs are:

CPU - i5 661 3.33GHz LGA1156 Box
Mobo - Gigabyte GA-H55M-S2H Intel H55 LGA 1156 (with latest bios installed - one of my futile attempts to fix my problem)
GPU - Gigabyte AMD Radeon HD7850 2GB/256 bit PCI-E OC
OS- Windows 7 64bit, full retail - I reinstalled it after a format few months ago (again - I was trying everything I can do to fix it)
Power Supply - Zalman ZM600-GT 600W

I own this PC for almost 3 years now. GPU and PSU are 1 year old, because I upgraded it. Problems with BSOD's and CTD's happened on my old configuration, but it didn't bother me that much back then.

All the fans are working, I ran CPU and RAM testing software a while ago without any bad results. I used temperature monitoring tools while playing games, and it never showed even a sign of overheating.

I have no idea what could be the cause of these crashes. Maybe it's a hardware issue, but I don't really know how to determine which part could be broken.

Finally - I made this dump zip file as described in the tutorial for posting bsod problems. I'm not entirely sure I've done it right, because both programs were open for 30 minutes and one that starts using "BSOD_W8-7-Vista_v2.64_jcgriff2_.exe" file showed waiting for system info line constatnly. I closed both programs and put the folder in the archive.

Anyway - hope somebody helps me. I'm ready to cooperate.
 

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#2 ·
Re: Random BSOD's, constant crashes while playing games

Hi,

Of the attached DMP files, we are seeing:

PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA (50)

This indicates that invalid system memory has been referenced.

Usual causes are a bug in a device driver, hardware related memory issues, corrupt NTFS volume, anti-virus software.
SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION (3b)

An exception happened while executing a routine that transitions from non-privileged code to privileged code.

This bugcheck is generally related to a video driver issue.
Interestingly enough, we have an ATI/AMD based bugcheck in these DMP files: A0000001

If we take a look at the stack:

Code:
[FONT=Courier New]STACK_TEXT:  
fffff880`03d63768 fffff880`048a211c : 00000000`a0000001 00000000`00000005 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 : [COLOR=Red][U][B]nt!KeBugCheckEx[/B][/U][/COLOR]
fffff880`03d63770 00000000`a0000001 : 00000000`00000005 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 : [COLOR=Red][U][B]atikmdag+0x2311c[/B][/U][/COLOR]
fffff880`03d63778 00000000`00000005 : 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 fffffa80`05764078 : 0xa0000001
fffff880`03d63780 00000000`00000000 : 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 fffffa80`05764078 fffff880`03d637d0 : 0x5[/FONT]
As you can see from the stack, atikmdag (ATI/AMD video driver) is what triggered the BSOD.

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. You can use beta drivers if newest version / previous versions do not help.



If drivers are not the issue, run a Memtest for NO less than ~8 passes:



Memtest86+:



Download Memtest86+ here:
http://www.memtest.org/



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).



How Memtest works:



Memtest86 writes a series of test patterns to most memory addresses, reads back the data written, and compares it for errors.



The default pass does 9 different tests, varying in access patterns and test data. A tenth test, bit fade, is selectable from the menu. It writes all memory with zeroes, then sleeps for 90 minutes before checking to see if bits have changed (perhaps because of refresh problems). This is repeated with all ones for a total time of 3 hours per pass.



Many chipsets can report RAM speeds and timings via SPD (Serial Presence Detect) or EPP (Enhanced Performance Profiles), and some even support changing the expected memory speed. If the expected memory speed is overclocked, Memtest86 can test that memory performance is error-free with these faster settings.



Some hardware is able to report the "PAT status" (PAT: enabled or PAT: disabled). This is a reference to Intel Performance acceleration technology; there may be BIOS settings which affect this aspect of memory timing.



This information, if available to the program, can be displayed via a menu option.



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



http://forum.canardpc.com/threads/28864-FAQ-please-read-before-posting
 
#4 ·
Re: Random BSOD's, constant crashes while playing games

Hi,

Yes, but obviously the former is way more likely (your memory). You could test one stick at a time if you'd like.

I'd recommend contacting the manufacturer of your RAM and setting up an RMA.

Regards,

Patrick
 
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