Constant BUGCODE_USB_DRIVER bsod's

[chrisjake]

Hello...

I've been getting constant BUGCODE_USB_DRIVER bsod crashes lately. It started sporadically, but the pc has become almost unusable anymore. Quite often, when the pc crashes and attempts to reboot, I lose all signals to the monitor, keyboard and mouse and have to wait awhile before being able to boot up again.

The first sign of trouble was about a month ago when my screen went black for a couple of seconds, then came back. A message appeared that said my video driver had failed and recovered. This happened a couple of times before the BSODs started. The BSODs have now become more and more frequent, as if the problem is getting worse. I run Win7 Home Premium with 6gb of RAM. Amongst the dozens of bsod's I've had, I did see 2 other bsod errors. IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL and BAD_POOL_CALLER.. these appeared only once each, and were after making some of the below changes.

Below is a list of all the things I've tried, in no particular order:

changed video driver
removed video card and went with on-board video
ran registry mechanic
checked for viruses
ran memtest86, 11 passes all ok
booted to last good configuration (still bsod)
pulled out 2nd HD
cleaned and re-seated memory
swapped DVI cables
tried vga cable
made sure fans were working
made sure heat sink was not loose
new keyboard and mouse
safe mode (still bsod)
updated bios
updated all drivers
removed McAfee

I have some dmp files if anyone knows how to read them. I also have BlueScreenView, but don't have that info with me at the moment.

I'm at wits end with this. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!
Chris

 

[Gman450]

From all of that, you only have one choice. Format your PC and install your OS once again.

 

[chrisjake]

As an absolute last resort maybe. I'm not about to give up that easily.

I have a feeling my issue is hardware related, but I'd rather not drop $ on hardware thats not needed so I'd like to try to pinpoint it.

Mobo?
Power?

anyone have experience with this type of problem?

 

[AntiZig]

what are the running temperatures for your hardware at the time right before BSODs?

if you don't have anything try speedfan or HW monitor, I believe both can write to log file, which you can open after crash

 

[chrisjake]

Not sure about the temps... I can try to install one of those and hopefully get a log file. I say "try to" because I couldn't even get past my login screen yesterday before a BSOD.

I didn't figure it to be a temp. issue as all fans are working AND during warmer temps I normally run my pc with the box open and an additional floor fan pointed at the unit, just in case.

 

[Gman450]

Constant BSODs does mean that it's a hardware issue. Re-installing winodws in this case won't work as you can't even go into the boot screen. So, technically, it's not a problem with your RAM, not a problem of the GPU, not the problem of any drivers( as this is a hardware issue ).
Can you get to those dump files ?It's seems like the only way of solving the problem.

 

[chrisjake]

Its hit and miss as to how far I can login and stay on. Last night I removed anti-virus and updated 1 driver, ran for about an hour then crashed on same bugcode_usb_driver bsod.

I have days when I cant get past the login screen and can only stay in safe-mode for 5 mins, then there are days like last night where I can be on for an hour before the error occurs. I just never know....

I have the dump files, but I dont see any place to attach them in this thread.

 

[Gman450]

Can you upload it to any of the sites such as 4shared ?

Did you try googling for any solutions ?
http://www.sevenforums.com/crash-lockup-debug-how/175994-solution-fo-bugcode_usb_driver-bsod.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/crashes-debugging/163765-bugcode_usb_driver-bsod.html
http://forums.techguy.org/hardware/1010348-constant-bsod-bugcode_usb_driver-crashes.html

 

[chrisjake]

I've done quite a bit of research via google. I've come across that SP1 issue, but have yet to try the fix. I cannot remember if I have SP1 installed or not. I'll check that out tonight.

here's a link to the dump files at mediafire: http://www.mediafire.com/?hd546cp9co6g3

the zipped file contains 10 or so dumps from over the weekend. The other dump file is from last night.

 

[Gman450]

I'll take a look and report back.

 

[Gman450]

UPDATE: When you ran memtest, did you check each RAM separately ? That is, one stick on the primary RAM slot at a time ?
Do you use any sorts of USB devices or something ? Like maybe, a printer, scanner or web cam ?

 

[chrisjake]

Negative on memtest. I ran it with all 3 2gb sticks in.

As for USB....when the problem originally started happening I had a mouse, keyboard, printer, flightsim yoke and pedals all plugged in to usb ports. Once I saw the bsod error, I unplugged everything but the mouse and keyboard. I've also since replaced both mouse and keyboard with new ones. All the dump files that I uploaded only had the new mouse, keyboard plugged in.

 

[Nisdec]

Hey chris,

have you ever tried to disable all USB-Ports in your device-manager or via your Bios-Settings and see what happen?

As long as you have disabled your USB-Ports, you could use a ps2 mouse and ps2 keyboard (usb-to-ps2 adapters)

 

[chrisjake]

I tried to remove all USB devices in device manager to have the system reinstall them, but could only get so far before I lost the mouse and keyboard. I know I have a PS2 keyboard at home, will have to see if I have a PS2 mouse or adapter and try that again. I went into the bios to check for any LEGACY usb enablers but after seeing none I left the default settings alone.

Thanks for all the suggestions!

 

[Gman450]

Negative on memtest. I ran it with all 3 2gb sticks in.

You should do it the other way around. You should only put in one 2GB stick at a time. Sometimes faulty RAM can get past memtest. If still you get the BSODs , then use only one 2GB stick, the one in your primary slot.

 

[chrisjake]

I ran memtest on 1 stick at a time last night. Ran 3 passes on each stick and found no errors on any of them.

Interesting thing was... I put all 3 sticks back in and fired up the pc and got no signals to the peripherals. If I put 1 stick in the primary slot, and then a 2nd stick in the 3rd slot it fires up ok. If I put that 3rd stick in I get no signals. It doesnt seem to matter which stick I use, it just matters that I use 2 not 3 right now.

 

[AntiZig]

hmm I'm wondering if this something to do with dual channel memory and it having to be in 1-3 or 2-4 configuration otherwise not working properly.

Say, if you only use 4Gb of your RAM, do you still get BSODs?

 

[chrisjake]

I havent run with 4gb yet. It was pretty late when I discovered this and I was spent. I'm going to try running that way tonight and see what happens.

Just fyi... the pc came from Dell with the 3 sticks - 6gb already installed.

 

[Gman450]

Yeah, do that and post back the results.

 

[chrisjake]

Well, I ran with 4gb RAM in slots 1 and 3 last night. Ran for 6+ hours with NO crashes.

Today I took the mem stick out of primary slot 1 and replaced it with the stick that wasn't being used yesterday and I've been running ok for over an hour now. I've re-installed anti-virus and put my secondary HD back in. No problems. As long as I run ok like this, I'll put my GTS450 vid card back in later today and see what happens.

As of right now, it looks like memory slot 2 is bad. If that's the case I have a month left on my 1-year warranty so I'll be on the phone with Dell.

Thanks for all the help/suggestions!

 

[Gman450]

You better call them now.
And your welcome.

 

[chrisjake]

As it ends up, I actually have 2 memory slots that have gone bad on the mobo. Neither slots 2 or 4 will work. Dell is replacing the mobo this week!

Thanks again!

 

[Gman450]

Glad to see that it's sorted out now.