Windows 7 x64 Multiple BSOD from Multiple Drivers

Dog Rescuer · Dec 9, 2013

I would be very grateful for any insights. I've now lost 4 days to this issue. I'm a very unhappy camper. Thanks for taking a look.

4 year old home made Windows 7 Asus Sabertooth x58 Intel Chip started crashing last week.

The BSOD is always an alleged rogue driver but is a different one each time. Drivers are ntkrnl.sys, a few different ASUS drivers, an NVidia driver.

Turning off the antivirus slows down the frequency rate of BSOD.

I've run chkdsk and a RAM test (no errors).

I've removed everything remotely related to the drivers mentioned in the error dumps (where I could).

I found an ASUS driver that had caused issues for others and moved it aside. That didn't help.

I tried to install ASUS Probe (from download) and Windows Utility (from x58 CD) and they both immediately crashed with ASUS driver errors as alleged cause.

I removed Microsoft Essentials and installed AVG. An AVG root kit scan immediately crashed with random drivers as the alleged cause.

The machine has a nice power supply but I can't be positive that's not the problem.

I removed all traces of NVidia; that didn't help, and it made no difference to my ability to see the display.

The pre-boot ASUS utility told me the temperature was around 105 deg F.

If I can figure out exactly which is the right one, I'm thinking of downloading ASUS ROM to a USB. Hopefully I can flash it correctly. I uninstalled some USB devices so who knows. I could burn it to CD if required. I just don't understand the ASUS website enough to trust that I'm getting the right code.

I supposed I could repair off of the original Windows 7 disk to give the hardware some software that was known to work OK at one time.

(System restore had not been working so that's not an option now.)

I have managed to get a complete AVG scan with no malicious files found.

I uninstalled the two most recent Windows Update hot fixes. Nothing.

To me it feels like the ASUS code suddenly being out of date despite no new hardware; a hard drive failure; or a well-hidden virus. I don't know. Any ideas?

Tradesman1 · Dec 12, 2013

Do you have the latest BIOS and all mobo drivers?

Dog Rescuer · Dec 12, 2013

Re: drivers. It was a huge uphill battle to get the drivers installed without crashing, but I got it done by DISCONNECTING THE SATA data drive. Primary drive is SSD, data drive is WD Caviar. After physically disconnecting the WD drive I was able to install 26 drivers and upgrade the BIOS.

I'm a little confused about the motherboard, is the BIOS the only thing I upgrade or is there something else, e.g. CPU flash or anything?

It has BSOD'd once since then, during an antivirus scan. But I did both SSD and SATA health checks with various tools and they came up almost perfect.

HD Tune Pro says of SSD:
05 retired block count current: 100; worst: 100, threshold: 0 attention
C4 reallocated event count current: 100; worst: 100; threadhold 0 warning

These are the only errors I found on the drives. No errors doing memtest.

I will try the anti virus again and see how that goes.

Tradesman1 · Dec 12, 2013

Yes go ahead and update the BIOS if problems persist, what DRAM (model #) are you using?

junkeymonkey · Dec 12, 2013

ya but 4 years old no issues then pow! issues? may be just somthing went bad. i had one act up after a few years and finily tore it down and found a bad [sowellen] cap. on the board and then for fun i cracked the case on the power supply and there wre a few bad caps. there to. so it was i'm guessing bad parts or somthing overtime, weather or a power surge. that caused this to happen. you hate to have a good rig go down but sometimes thats how it goes.

Dog Rescuer · Dec 12, 2013

DRAM: can I tell via software or do I need to get a magnifying glass and look at the hardware?

4 Years: My mistake, 2 years! thought it was 4

I cleared out some gigantic dust bunnies too.

junkeymonkey · Dec 12, 2013

just pull out a stick and read the tag/sticker dram=memory

Tradesman1 · Dec 12, 2013

Rather than pull things apart can run the free program CPU-Z - it will give you the DRAM model # in the SPD tab next to part number

junkeymonkey · Dec 12, 2013

did not think of cpu-z just figured that he was down on that rig working on it sorry bout that... also also if you got a WD harddrive you mite get there data life guard utility and run the tests with it. its a little better then chkdsk in windows i have had sone issues that were kinda like yours and that test showed a issue with my hard drive as it could not compleat the test, but it still works .. i'm so cheap i'm waiting for a compleat failer so i am forced to get another one + a new build to go with it. its worth a try just to see and then that part is out of the way

junkeymonkey · Dec 12, 2013

one outher thing i do is i took an old drive thats kinda small and older but it was still good and i keep a copy of linux on it that i can hook it up to any rig i got here when i have issues with one on windows. that way if it buggs out with linux i could kinda look harder at hardware if it fires up and runs well then i could look at the drive and windows. and its free. and linux got some test stuff on it like a system bench tool but thats just me. i just wish i had a good brain to rember to suggest that to folks more. it dose help me with troubleshooting. you may have to update it as you use it.

Dog Rescuer · Dec 12, 2013

The linux idea is interesting. I'd have to think about how to make it crash using Linux, to see if it would pass or fail using that OS.

Re: DRAM, found it!:

Motherboard
Manufacturer
ASUSTeK Computer INC.
Product Name
SABERTOOTH X58
Version
Rev 1.xx

BIOS
Vendor
American Megatrends Inc.
BIOS Version
1402
BIOS Release Date
08/09/2012
BIOS ROM Size
2048 KBytes

CPU
Socket Designation
LGA1366
Manufacturer
Intel
Version
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 950 @ 3.07GHz
Supported Voltage
1.2 v
External Clock
133 MHz
Max Speed
3066 MHz
Current Speed
3066 MHz

Memory
Socket Designation
DIMM0
Current Speed
1066 MHz
Memory Type
Other
Installed Size
4096 MBytes

Socket Designation
DIMM1
Current Speed
1066 MHz
Memory Type
Other
Installed Size
4096 MBytes

Socket Designation
DIMM2
Current Speed
1066 MHz
Memory Type
Other
Installed Size
4096 MBytes

Socket Designation
DIMM3
Current Speed
1066 MHz
Memory Type
Other
Installed Size
4096 MBytes

Socket Designation
DIMM4
Current Speed
1066 MHz
Memory Type
Other
Installed Size
4096 MBytes

Socket Designation
DIMM5
Current Speed
1066 MHz
Memory Type
Other
Installed Size
4096 MBytes

Dog Rescuer · Dec 12, 2013

It did pass the WD lifeguard tests. Only errors I got were on the SSD drive and they appeared to be nothing, though I'm not positive of that.

HD Tune Pro says of SSD:
05 retired block count current: 100; worst: 100, threshold: 0 attention
C4 reallocated event count current: 100; worst: 100; threadhold 0 warning

junkeymonkey · Dec 13, 2013

dont understand ''make it crash under linux''?? if you load linux and it run fine then you can kinda look at the windows drive as the windows software and the drivers you got on it nay be the blame or the drive itself is going bad a faulty hard drive will cause what your going through. thats why i say to have a back up drive that you can load linux on then run the rig to see if its a hardware or software causeing the issue. [ i like linux mint its easy to use good support ] burn a disk or use a pen drive and get some.

Dog Rescuer · Dec 14, 2013

You're right, my answer lost some context. The machine is now crashing much less regularly. Since I don't have any work to do under Linux, I don't know if I'd put the machine through the paces sufficiently to trigger what might be there but is just hidden. That's what I was trying to say.

After the driver updates I now have this error, and I have looked and looked but can't figure out why:

Faulting application name: SearchIndexer.exe, version: 7.0.7601.17610, time stamp: 0x4dc0d019
Faulting module name: ESENT.dll, version: 6.1.7601.17577, time stamp: 0x4d79bfba
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x00000000001aa6e4
Faulting process id: 0x1094
Faulting application start time: 0x01cef87fb62908d9
Faulting application path: C:\Windows\system32\SearchIndexer.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\system32\ESENT.dll
Report Id: f3e051bf-6472-11e3-b9c0-bcaec50a6506

I ran AVG and sfc/scannow with nothing popping up.

junkeymonkey · Dec 14, 2013

google ESENT.dll, and theres a fix link from microsoft read on it to see if it applys to you [personly i think microsoft is screwing with folks with older os to get them to go to windows 8] cant find any microsoft info on that SearchIndexer.exe ,hmm. i wonder if it was removed or disabled to check. Exception code: 0xc0000005 read this also its for vista but it may help

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_vista-windows_programs/exception-0xc0000005/71fdf41e-d10b-4e98-980e-efbbb6a770a7

this is the crap i went through with this sabertooth build and it still anit right. also google benchmark linux [ .sourceforge.net www.phoronix-test-suite.com and outhers] see what you get out of what i gave you here for now .

junkeymonkey · Dec 14, 2013

heres a story for you.... my old rig got hit by lighting. so wile at my buddies i was looking on his rig at new egg for a new board and came across the sabertooth 990fx. we looked it over and liked it so i ordered it and parts. got it in and he came by and checked it out 2 days later he said he also ordered one so as his was on the way i had mine buils and trying to get it going most everything you are going through is in line with what i was going through., nightmare. i fooled with he fooled with it swaped stuff out reloaded windows like 1000 times and so forth by this time his came in and he said that his son had ordered one to. i told him he should of waited till after i got this one up. [as a joke] so he gets his put together now his ran fine but everytime it was shut down the bios was gone when he restarted it and hd to remove the vid card pull the battery in order to fire it up and the bios would be back at all out of the box settings needless to say it in the trash. his sons was bad also and he just replaced it to. with mine after months of screwing with it it is now nice and stable once i found that if i leave the bios all at defult settings and one stisk of the ram i got for it its all good if i do any thing more then that i'mk bact to were you are with the bsod issues [and it dont matter witch stick of ram i use as long as its just one stick] so now seeing all the asus with these simuler issues i wonder if asus has a bios problem or the sabertooth line is faulty?? you can google sabertooth bsod and just look at them all seems a heck of a lot. but like i say as long as i keep mine like i said above it runs, games, benchmarks good enugh for my everyday use. but one thing is that i am soured from asus.

Dog Rescuer · Dec 14, 2013

That's a good hit on the searchindexer. Thanks so much for that.

Hardware - machine was awesome for 2 years, so all I could figure was a Windows hotfix created a conflict. I backed out the latest hot fixes and nothing helped. Updating the bios did help.

Windows is writing to the event log but I can't get the memory.dmp or minidumps to print to save my life.

I will look at the update in place. Thanks for that.

Dog Rescuer · Dec 16, 2013

I wonder if the Windows 7 install they're asking for is different than the instructions. I did a "repair." It didn't help the DLL crashing issue. Maybe I'm supposed to start a Windows 7 installation and then there will be a repair option deeper down into the menu. The "repair" that is offered on the Windows 7 disc boot didn't do anything except wipe out a bunch of my settings.

junkeymonkey · Dec 16, 2013

was the board running a ssd when it was working good or is now that your running a ssd that its having issues

Dog Rescuer · Dec 16, 2013

The SSD is the boot drive and is not new. The Western Digital Cavier is the data drive, also not new. There's no new hardware. I do think I might be having trouble getting the right Nvidia drivers. I installed the NVidia driver installer and the result was windows with borders but no interior contents.

junkeymonkey · Dec 16, 2013

I installed the NVidia driver installer---- i never had to use that i allways just installed thre drivers manualy. i'm not to hip on that auto stuff. there is a review on your board at newegg theres a guy had issues with doing a ssd thats why i asked. what is it that you added new ? just a new vid card? or some outher hardware?

Dog Rescuer · Dec 16, 2013

It installed 4 different drivers but they're gone now.

junkeymonkey · Dec 16, 2013

keep us posted

Dog Rescuer · Dec 18, 2013

Thanks for the encouragement.

It crashes much less since updating the drivers. Firefox, Chrome and IE all crash constantly. I suspect if I used any other program as frequently it would crash too.

I only just got rid of the Audio after the last crash a few minutes ago. The Nvidia PhysX System Software 9.13.0725 says it can't find the uninstaller.

The crash dump DATES I see now are from 25 hours ago, so this is not the crash that just occurred, but one from last night. The DMP file writes are inconsistent.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * WHOCRASHED REPORT * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
System Information (local)

computer name: LIVING-ROOM
windows version: Windows 7 Service Pack 1, 6.1, build: 7601
windows dir: C:\Windows
Hardware: ASUSTeK Computer INC., SABERTOOTH X58
CPU: GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 950 @ 3.07GHz Intel586, level: 6
8 logical processors, active mask: 255
RAM: 25760489472 total
VM: 2147352576, free: 1943371776

Crash Dump Analysis

Crash dump directory: C:\Windows\Minidump

Crash dumps are enabled on your computer.

On Mon 12/16/2013 12:28:09 AM your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\121613-42182-01.dmp
uptime: 01:38:17
This was probably caused by the following module: nvlddmkm.sys.sys (0xFFFFF880080562E8)
Bugcheck code: 0x24 (0x1904FB, 0xFFFFF880080562E8, 0xFFFFF88008055B40, 0xFFFFF88001447394)
Error: NTFS_FILE_SYSTEM
Bug check description: This indicates a problem occurred in the NTFS file system.
A third party driver was identified as the probable root cause of this system error. It is suggested you look for an update for the following driver: nvlddmkm.sys.sys .
Google query: nvlddmkm.sys.sys NTFS_FILE_SYSTEM

On Mon 12/16/2013 12:28:09 AM your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\memory.dmp
uptime: 01:38:17
This was probably caused by the following module: nvlddmkm.sys.sys (0xFFFFF880080562E8)
Bugcheck code: 0x24 (0x1904FB, 0xFFFFF880080562E8, 0xFFFFF88008055B40, 0xFFFFF88001447394)
Error: NTFS_FILE_SYSTEM
Bug check description: This indicates a problem occurred in the NTFS file system.
A third party driver was identified as the probable root cause of this system error. It is suggested you look for an update for the following driver: nvlddmkm.sys.sys .
Google query: nvlddmkm.sys.sys NTFS_FILE_SYSTEM

Conclusion

2 crash dumps have been found and analyzed. A third party driver has been identified to be causing system crashes on your computer. It is strongly suggested that you check for updates for these drivers on their company websites. Click on the links below to search with Google for updates for these drivers:

nvlddmkm.sys.sys

If no updates for these drivers are available, try searching with Google on the names of these drivers in combination the errors that have been reported for these drivers and include the brand and model name of your computer as well in the query. This often yields interesting results from discussions from users who have been experiencing similar problems.

Read the topic general suggestions for troubleshooting system crashes for more information.

Note that it's not always possible to state with certainty whether a reported driver is actually responsible for crashing your system or that the root cause is in another module. Nonetheless it's suggested you look for updates for the products that these drivers belong to and regularly visit Windows update or enable automatic updates for Windows. In case a piece of malfunctioning hardware is causing trouble, a search with Google on the bug check errors together with the model name and brand of your computer may help you investigate this further.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * EOF * * * *
* * * * WHOCRASHED REPORT * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

There is no file nvlddmkm.sys.sys on this computer, but there is nvlddmkm.sys. It lives here:
C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nv_dispi.inf_amd64_neutral_519beea614b43401

***** PLEASE NOTE THIS IS NOT AN AMD COMPUTER AND THAT SAYS IT'S IN AN AMD FOLDER *****

nvlddmkm.sys is NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver 9.8.13.697

---------
Does this tell you anything?

Dog Rescuer · Dec 18, 2013

Adding to above--

I've run WDC Lifeguard and Intel SSD Toolbox on the hard drives. Supposedly they're ok. But a few minutes ago the event log printed this:

Windows (5532) Windows: The database page read from the file "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search\Data\Applications\Windows\Windows.edb" at offset 98304 (0x0000000000018000) (database page 2 (0x2)) for 32768 (0x00008000) bytes failed verification. Bit 84017 was corrupted and has been corrected. This problem is likely due to faulty hardware and may continue. Transient failures such as these can be a precursor to a catastrophic failure in the storage subsystem containing this file. Please contact your hardware vendor for further assistance diagnosing the problem.

Windows 7 x64 Multiple BSOD from Multiple Drivers

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