[moswald80]

Hello,

I am posting to get some help with a computer that is suffering from frequent BSOD's. This is a work computer and it was put together by a guy who no longer works here. It has never run consistently well and we've worked off and on trying to figure out what is wrong but I really need to get it running well soon.

I started working on it in March (when the guy who built it left). I have built a few computers for home but it has been 5 or 6 years so I'm trying to get caught up. I thought I had figured out the problem when Memtest 86+ gave me tons of errors. I tried the DIMMs one at a time and have removed the faulty one. I have run Memtest overnight a couple times now without any errors and I did a fresh install of Windows thinking the faulty RAM may have corrupted some files during the previous install. But I am still getting several BSOD's per day. I really don't know what to try next or even where to start.

The details of the computer are:

OS – Windows 7 x64 (Retail Version)
Age of Hardware – 6 months
Age of (most recent) OS installation – 2 months
I have re-installed the OS several times

CPU - Intel i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad Core
Video Card - EVGA GeForce GTX 960 04G-P4-3969-KR 4GB FTW GAMING w/ACX 2.0+
Power Supply - EVGA 100-W1-500-KR 500W ATX12V / EPS12V 80 PLUS
Motherboard - MSI Z97 PC MATE
RAM - Corsair Vengeance Red 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 1600 MHz (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory
SSD - Samsung 850 EVO 250GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD
Wireless Adapter - ASUS PCE-AC68 Dual-Band Wireless-AC1900 PCI-E

System Manufacturer – N/A
Model Number – N/A
Desktop

I have attached the SysnativeFileCollectionApp.zip, Perfmon Report, and some Minidump files (I got a few BSOD's while generating the other files after the Driver Verifier was running). Please let me know if there is anything else you need. I really appreciate any help you can give me with this.

Thanks,

Mickey

 

[moswald80]

Well, I just tried Prime95 as suggested in the Memory Diagnostic page. Workers #2 - #4 failed after a few seconds. Worker #1 went for several minutes but then failed as well. Here is a screenshot:

Does this suggest that the other RAM chip is also bad or could this be a problem with the Processor? Is there another test I should run to help narrow down the possibilities?

Thanks,

Mickey

 

[Aus_Karlos]

Rounding errors are from the CPU. Is the CPU overclocked or do you have Turbo enabled?

 

[moswald80]

The CPU is not overclocked. I'll have to check on the Turbo this evening (I won't be able to work on it until after work). Is that a BIOS setting?

It ran for over 2 hours last night without a failure on the Small FFTs test (the one that is supposed to focus on the CPU). After that I updated the BIOS. Then I ran the Blend test again and it went for about an hour without a failure. I stopped the test and started it again and it failed very quickly again. I ran Memtest 86+ overnight last night and there were no failures.

Is there another test I should try?

Thanks,

Mickey

 

[Aus_Karlos]

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/19792/Intel-Processor-Diagnostic-Tool
Download this tool to check that all functions of the CPU are working.

 

[moswald80]

Thanks Karlos! Turbo Boost was enabled so I have disabled that. I'll try the Intel Diagnostic tool now.

 

[moswald80]

Okay, it passed the Intel Diagnostic tool. I brought the computer home with me tonight with the idea of switching the RAM from my home computer so I'm going to try that now and see how it does on Prime95 again.

 

[moswald80]

Okay, so far with the RAM from my home computer it has not failed any Prime95 tests or Memtest 86+. I'm feeling cautiously optimistic that the RAM was the main problem. I'm going to go through and update a few more drivers and try to use it as much as I can at work tomorrow to see if I get anymore BSOD's. Thank you for your help.

- Mickey

 

[moswald80]

Just an update: I got some new RAM (so I could get my home PC back together). I have been using this computer at work for a couple weeks now with no BSOD's. I believe my problem is solved. I guess I have learned that just because your memory passes memtest86+ doesn't mean it is 100% reliable. Thanks for your help.

- Mickey