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Random BSOD Crashes

Last response: in Systems
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Hi all,

For quite some time now, I have been experiencing a lot of BSOD crashes on my PC. For most of last year, I would get maybe one BSOD every 1-2weeks, sometimes less. The most recent hardware upgrade I have done was to upgrade my Nvidia GTX660 graphics card to a GTX670. The GTX670 has been in about a month and a half. My PC ran fine normally with this new card (well, by normal i mean i was still getting the odd BSOD every 1-2weeks), but after about a month with the new card, i started seeing a marked increase in BSOD (at least once a day). I do not O.C my system. The crashes are occuring randomly. There is no particular situation that makes them occur. Sometimes i would log onto windows and get a crash within 5mins, sometimes i could go hours without one.

Reading through the BSOD dump files, i see that the predominant items are hidclass.sys, hal.dll, ntoskrnl.exe, and ntkrnlmp.exe. The errors seem pretty vague and dont really narrow down a culprit.

Here is my system config:
OS: Window 7 64bit
MB: Asus P8Z68-M PRO
CPU: Intel i7 2600K @ 3.40GHz
RAM: 4GB DDR3 (2x2GB Corsair CMX6GX3M3A1600C9)
Graphics: Asus-Nvidia GTX670 (not O.C) running v310.90 driver
PSU: 775W
HDD: Western Digital 1000GB, Patriot Pyro 240GB SSD (OS installed on this).

In order to fix the problem i have tried the following:

- Update all drivers to their most current version
- Update all firmware including motherboard to their most current version
- Complete re-install of windows 7
- Run memtest for over 8+ hours. No problems detected.
- Run checkdisk, scan disk etc. No problems detected.
- Checked MB, CPU and graphics card temps - all okay.
- Re-seated all RAM sticks and graphics card. Checked pins. All seem okay.
- Checked all power cables to see if they were loose. All okay.
- Disable the 1000GB hard drive. Error still occurs.

Recently i have taken out the graphics card completely and have my PC running off the onboard VGA driver. So far its been over a day without a crash, but the crashes are random so its not a guarantee that the graphics card is causing the issues. I am planning to put my old GTX660 (which works fine) to see how that goes.

I just wanted to know if there's any other tests i should run to detect problems? Maybe theres not a problem with my GTX670, and perhaps its the motherboard? Maybe the PSU is stuffing up or not supplying enough power when i have a graphics card installed? How do i tell what the issue is without going out and buying new parts? I would like to avoid buying a new PSU, or motherboard if they are not the problem.

Thanks guys!

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porters25 said:
Thanks for the response.

The power supply is Thermaltake ToughPower XT 775W.



Thermaltake products (especially your model) have been having alot of failures lately. I wouldn't be surprised if it is your cause.

Contimue to use the onboard video and if you have no BSODs that almost guarantees it.

Well just in the last hour, the PC has BSOD crashed with no video card installed. The video card drivers are still installed though. I'm really running out of ideas here.

Its either a faulty MB, faulty PSU, faulty RAM, or video card drivers causing the problem that i can tell.

Thoughts?

porters25 said:
Well just in the last hour, the PC has BSOD crashed with no video card installed. The video card drivers are still installed though. I'm really running out of ideas here.

Its either a faulty MB, faulty PSU, faulty RAM, or video card drivers causing the problem that i can tell.

Thoughts?


Could still be the psu, don't discount that.

Memtest is the gold standard so if it is passing that I would reduce them in the list. I have heard of memory causing it after passing the memtest but not often.

Try these 3 links and see if they tell you anything. I will admit I can't read that BSOD like these guys can.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/window...
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/window...
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/window...

Just an update on this issue for any interested.

I replaced my PSU with a Corsair TX850W. Since i have done that, i have not experienced any further BSOD. If I don't received a BSOD for another week, i would consider this issue fixed, but so far it would seem that it may have fixed the problem... fingers crossed!

For all those interested.

The cause of the BSOD crashes turned out to be BIOS settings. My motherboard (Asus P8Z68-M PRO) has three different 'power modes' that you can set in the BIOS. One is normal model, one is a power saving mode, and one is a performance mode. When i first installed the motherboard, i set it to performance mode, not really knowing what it did, but it sounded good! It turns out performance mode is a factory overclock of the motherboard. This was causing the crashes. I have not had a BSOD since i set the performance mode back to normal.
!