BSODs trying to update graphics driver

I have a Realtek HD Audio device to, so I installed the latest WHQL driver.
The first time I ran setup.exe it went through some of the install then had to restart, I believe what it did was uninstall the current driver.
After the reboot, it did the install again without me doing anything and this time did the full install. One more reboot and all is well. Sounds works and I'm now at the 6.0.1.7874 7/6/2016 version.

That's a different failure:

Code:

BugCheck C5, {8, 2, 0, fffff801b5e4ff48}

*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for WinVDEdrv.sys
*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for WinVDEdrv.sys
Probably caused by : Pool_Corruption ( nt!ExDeferredFreePool+798 )

Followup: Pool_corruption
---------

0: kd> lmvm WinVDEdrv
start             end                 module name
fffff800`18a80000 fffff800`18ac0000   WinVDEdrv T (no symbols)           
    Loaded symbol image file: WinVDEdrv.sys
    Image path: \??\C:\Windows\SysWow64\WinVDEdrv.sys
    Image name: WinVDEdrv.sys
    Timestamp:        Fri Jul 15 07:24:05 2011 (4E202355)
    CheckSum:         00041B9A
    ImageSize:        00040000
    Translations:     0000.04b0 0000.04e4 0409.04b0 0409.04e4

winvdedrv.sys is part of Folder Lock and developed by NewSoftwares.net, Inc. according to the winvdedrv.sys version information.

winvdedrv.sys's description is "Virtual Encryption Driver"

winvdedrv.sys is digitally signed by NewSoftwares.net Inc. SDN. BHD..

winvdedrv.sys is usually located in the 'c:\windows\syswow64\' folder.

The date on the driver is very old, 2011. Either uninstall Folder Lock or update it to a later level.

I started about 6 months ago or so. I did a lot of dump reading back when I worked for IBM so was very familiar with the concept.
It just takes time and a willingness to do a lot of reading and looking at dumps handled by others. I've looked at lots and lots of threads handled by axe0, Arc and Essenbe.

It's fun most of the time though it gets a bit tedious when the dump doesn't contain anything useful for figuring out what is happening.

chopstxnrice said:

On a side note, because of all this, I decided to look into how to read dmp files with windows sdk, hopefully I can get to the point where I can help others!

It is the same with many others, started to analyze dumps because they wanted to help others with their BSOD issues :)
Though I didn't wait with helping someone until I was at a certain level, I started immediately after I had the setup proper. Learning throughout the practice is a good method

Sorry to revive this, but I just got a new BSOD randomly, not doing anything out of the ordinary. Never had this BSOD before with this hardware (~5 years). Tried to look at dmp - is it suggesting it's caused by RAM errors? I don't remember exactly, but I'm pretty sure I ran memtest when I first got these sticks years ago and it was fine.

edit: after getting this BSOD a second time in the same day, decided to run memtest, immediately getting lots of errors. Never had memory problems until today.

BugCheck C1, {ffffcf8043262fb0, ffffcf804326239b, 330050, 32}
Probably caused by : memory_corruption ( nt!MiCheckSpecialPoolSlop+8a )
Followup: MachineOwner
---------
3: kd> !analyze -v
*******************************************************************************
Bugcheck Analysis
*******************************************************************************

SPECIAL_POOL_DETECTED_MEMORY_CORRUPTION (c1)
Special pool has detected memory corruption. Typically the current thread's
stack backtrace will reveal the guilty party.
Arguments:
Arg1: ffffcf8043262fb0, address trying to free
Arg2: ffffcf804326239b, address where one bit is corrupted
Arg3: 0000000000330050, (reserved)
Arg4: 0000000000000032, caller is freeing an address where nearby bytes within the same page have a single bit error

That it is a hardware error is clear and good to know that you've found the cause, but why did you enable driver verifier?

Code:

  STANDARD FLAGS:
    [X] (0x00000000) Automatic Checks
    [X] (0x00000001) Special pool
    [X] (0x00000002) Force IRQL checking
    [X] (0x00000008) Pool tracking
    [X] (0x00000010) I/O verification
    [X] (0x00000020) Deadlock detection
    [X] (0x00000080) DMA checking
    [X] (0x00000100) Security checks
    [X] (0x00000800) Miscellaneous checks
    [X] (0x00020000) DDI compliance checking

  ADDITIONAL FLAGS:
    [ ] (0x00000004) Randomized low resources simulation
    [ ] (0x00000200) Force pending I/O requests
    [ ] (0x00000400) IRP logging
    [ ] (0x00002000) Invariant MDL checking for stack
    [ ] (0x00004000) Invariant MDL checking for driver
    [ ] (0x00008000) Power framework delay fuzzing
    [ ] (0x00010000) Port/miniport interface checking
    [ ] (0x00040000) Systematic low resources simulation
    [ ] (0x00080000) DDI compliance checking (additional)
    [ ] (0x00200000) NDIS/WIFI verification
    [ ] (0x00800000) Kernel synchronization delay fuzzing
    [ ] (0x01000000) VM switch verification
    [ ] (0x02000000) Code integrity checks

    [X] Indicates flag is enabled

is it suggesting it's caused by RAM errors?

Nope, it is saying something caused memory corruption. Memory corruption isn't specific RAM:

Memory corruption is a thing that is the most coming back in the dumps, because the memory mechanism of Windows is extremely large and complicated. When memory corruption is shown the first step is to rule out the memory as best as possible. The next step is to rule out the drivers what can be done with driver verifier if none is flagged. If drivers are also not causing any problems then we (or at least myself) usually check for the hard drives. Hard drives can also cause memory corruption, as it is the non-volatile version of memory, but there are usually signs about hard drive problems when we suggest something for the hard drive. Another memory corruption is the VRAM, but when that happens there are also signs about it.

From BSOD to Windows Crash

All hardware go bad in a matter of time, it is why you can replace them