Uptick in BSODs and Instability - Random times, Looking for Culprit

Hi there,

Thanks for taking a look at the post. In recent days I have seen a definite uptick in the number of BSODs I've been receiving.

The BSODs were fairly infrequent but my failure to find a cause has me quite frustrated and they seem to have increased - I have done the very basics of checking for driver updates, running windows memory diagnostic, running chkdsk and sfc scan now with no obvious cause - though I should say I'm fairly new to Windows troubleshooting in general with this being the first PC I have built, but hope to improve. The most common BSOD is IRQL_Not_less_or_equal but with one or two others - they all appear to be driver related given ntoskrnl.exe - is that correct? Or could it be hardware realted even if the scans didn't show any issues?


Minidump files are (hopefully) attached correctly. I'd really appreciate it if someone could assist me with tracking down the cause of the issue so I can hopefully fix it and get a better feel for BSOD troubleshooting.

I should mention I do work quite hectic hours so my replies may be slightly delayed.

All help Appreciated.

Hi LochLowry,

Welcome to the Ten Forums BSOD forum.

Please perform the following steps:

1) Open administrative command prompt and type or copy and paste:
2) sfc /scannow
3) dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
4) chkdsk /scan
5) When these have completed > right click on the top bar or title bar of the administrative command prompt box > left click on edit then select all > right click on the top bar again > left click on edit then copy > paste into the thread

6) chkdsk /r /v
Run this command on all drives using the syntax: chkdsk /r /v C: or chkdsk /r /v D: changing the drive letter to the applicable drive.
The command may take many hours so plan to run overnight.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>chkdsk /r /v C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Cannot lock current drive.

Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another
process. Would you like to schedule this volume to be
checked the next time the system restarts? (Y/N)

Type: Y
reboot

7) Use the text and images in this thread to find the chkdsk reports in the event viewer > copy and paste > notepad > post a share link into the thread using one drive, drop box, or google drive

8) Run HD Tune: (free or trial edition) (all drives)
Post images for results on these tabs:
a) Health SMART)
b) Benchmark
c) Full error scan

9) Make sure that there is no over clocking while troubleshooting.

10) In the left lower corner search type: system or system control > open system control panel > on the left pane click advanced system settings

a) > on the advanced tab under startup and recovery > click settings > post an image of the startup and recovery window into the thread.

b) > on the advanced tab under performance > click on settings > on the performance options window > click on the advanced tab > under virtual memory > click on change > post an image of the virtual memory window into the thread

11) If the computer has Ccleaner (do not install the software if it is not already installed) > click windows tab > scroll down to system and advanced > post an image into the thread

12) There are two log collectors: DM and BETA
The BETA log collector at some time will replace the DM log collector.
The BETA log collector will collect more useful files and folders.
Run the BETA log collector and post a zip into the thread.
And for any BSOD during the thread post a new BETA zip into the thread
BSOD - Posting Instructions - Windows 10 Forums
https://www.tenforums.com/attachment...-v2-beta15.zip
(extract all > open)

13) Open file explorer > this PC > C: > in the right upper corner search for C:\windows\memory.dmp > if the file size is < 1.5 GB then zip > post a share link into the thread using one drive, drop box, or google drive

14) uninstall the Nvidia GPU driver using DDU (display driver uninstaller)
15) re-install the Nvidia GPU driver from the Nvidia website
16) make sure that you check the clean install box and if available install the physx driver.

Display Driver Uninstaller Download version 18.0.0.4 (or newer version if available)
Display Driver Uninstaller: How to use - Windows 7 Help Forums
NVIDIA
Download Display Driver Uninstaller - MajorGeeks

Code:

Name	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070
PNP Device ID	PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1B81&SUBSYS_51733842&REV_A1\4&1C3D25BB&0&0019
Adapter Type	GeForce GTX 1070, NVIDIA compatible
Adapter Description	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070
Adapter RAM	(1,048,576) bytes
Installed Drivers	C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nv_dispi.inf_amd64_e59b844303b9907e\nvldumdx.dll,C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nv_dispi.inf_amd64_e59b844303b9907e\nvldumdx.dll,C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nv_dispi.inf_amd64_e59b844303b9907e\nvldumdx.dll,C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nv_dispi.inf_amd64_e59b844303b9907e\nvldumdx.dll
Driver Version	25.21.14.1701
INF File	oem7.inf (Section108 section)
Colour Planes	Not Available
Colour Table Entries	4294967296
Resolution	1920 x 1080 x 60 hertz
Bits/Pixel	32
Memory Address	0xF6000000-0xF70FFFFF
Memory Address	0xE0000000-0xFEC2FFFF
Memory Address	0xF0000000-0xF1FFFFFF
I/O Port	0x0000E000-0x0000EFFF
IRQ Channel	IRQ 54
I/O Port	0x000003B0-0x000003DF
I/O Port	0x000003C0-0x000003DF
Memory Address	0xA0000-0xBFFFF
Driver	c:\windows\system32\driverstore\filerepository\nv_dispi.inf_amd64_e59b844303b9907e\nvlddmkm.sys (25.21.14.1701, 19.45 MB (20,395,400 bytes), 30/11/2018 21:59)

Code:

nvlddmkm.sys Thu Nov 15 15:36:40 2018 (5BEE0308)

Thanks for the steps. Hopefully, all done correctly:

Steps 1-5)

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.17134.407]
(c) 2018 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>sfc /scannow

Beginning system scan. This process will take some time.

Beginning verification phase of system scan.
Verification 100% complete.

Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.17134.1

Image Version: 10.0.17134.407

[==========================100.0%==========================] The restore operation completed successfully.
The operation completed successfully.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>chkdsk /scan
The type of the file system is NTFS.

Stage 1: Examining basic file system structure ...
1545728 file records processed.
File verification completed.
12673 large file records processed.
0 bad file records processed.

Stage 2: Examining file name linkage ...
375 reparse records processed.
1636566 index entries processed.
Index verification completed.
0 unindexed files scanned.
0 unindexed files recovered to lost and found.
375 reparse records processed.

Stage 3: Examining security descriptors ...
Security descriptor verification completed.
45420 data files processed.
CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
33860584 USN bytes processed.
Usn Journal verification completed.

Windows has scanned the file system and found no problems.
No further action is required.

511340965 KB total disk space.
379569468 KB in 1123694 files.
348148 KB in 45421 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
1664697 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
129758652 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
127835241 total allocation units on disk.
32439663 allocation units available on disk.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>

6-7) tenforumschkdsk.txt - Google Drive

8)
525GB SSD:
Attachment 216323
Attachment 216324
Attachment 216326

3000GBHDD:
Attachment 216327
Attachment 216328
Attachment 216329

9) Dialed back RAM overclock.

10)
a)Attachment 216330
b)Attachment 216331

11)Attachment 216332

12)Attachment 216333

13) No dump files in MiniDump folder. Couldn't find C:\Windows\memory.dmp

14-16) Done

Thanks for your help.

1) For startup and recovery system failure:
a) uncheck automatically restart
b) reboot to maintain settings

It can be easy to miss BSOD crashes when automatically restart is checked.
With automatically restart unchecked you should see a BSOD window with bugcheck and : (
Sometimes you may see a misbehaving driver in the form *.sys
At the very beginning of a BSOD dump you may see a % counter.
If you see it allow it to rise to 100% before rebooting so that there is sufficient time to create the dump file.

2) For Ccleaner uncheck:
Windows log files

3) Turn off Windows fast startup:
Turn On or Off Fast Startup in Windows 10 | Tutorials

Thanks. I am familiar with the BSOD screen.

Steps completed successfully, however, I've experienced some memory management BSODs since:Attachment 216391

Open file explorer > this PC > C: > in the right upper corner search for: C:\windows\memory.dmp > zip > post a share link into the thread using one drive, drop box, or google drive

Code:

Crash dump found at C:\WINDOWS\MEMORY.DMP
Creation date: 12/06/2018 15:12:56
Size on disk: 756 MB

Run Memtest86 for 8 or more passes:
MemTest86 - Official Site of the x86 Memory Testing Tool
Use a camera or smart phone camera to take a picture of the results and post an image into the thread.
The computer has 16 GB RAM.
It will take many hours to check the RAM and a substantial portion of the testing can be done overnight.
Just one error is a test fail and the testing can be aborted.
Then remove all RAM modules.
Re-seat one RAM module and test each RAM module in the same DIMM for 8 or more passes.
For every test post an image of the results into the thread.

Memory Zip: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BSN...ew?usp=sharing

Memtest ran 8 Passes 0 Errors:
Attachment 216560Attachment 216560

Whooops... that was a time-consuming error.

Ran correct version of memtest got a pretty much instant error using 2 X 8GB:
Attachment 216652

Swapped to one 8GB stick: Errors:
Attachment 216653

Second stick had no errors: Ran through 8 passes but it was split into two 4 pass runs, I don't know if that makes a significant difference:
Attachment 216654


I removed the erronious 8GB stick and left the one with no errors - should I look into replacing the defective RAM?

WIll re-install Nvidia drivers to one that is not 25.21.14.1701 or 25.21.14.1722.

Nice progress.
When replacing RAM it is best to use in pairs to prevent compatibility issues.
Sometimes RAM testing produce no errors and there can be computer crashes related to RAM incompatibility.
This is typically found by removing one module and having computer stability.

For RAM testing purposes a minimum of 8 passes are used due the the rate of false negatives.
A false negative is a test pass when there is malfunctioning RAM.
It sometimes takes passes into the teens and twenties to find malfunctioning RAM.