Looks like I have all the BSOD messages... :(

Hi everyone,

First post here, so hello to everyone. I'm Irene, and the issue is with my husband's computer.

A few days ago, it started behaving erratically. It will shut down itself and restart completely at random. Half of the times, it doesn't manage to restart properly, and you have to power button it down and start over (and sometimes it takes a few attempts)

Details of the behavior:
- The computer shuts itself down anytime: It can be idle doing nothing for hours, you may be working with it, running programs or not, after it just restarted or after about 12 hours. Last night I just left it sitting at the "enter password" screen and this morning it had restarted itself again.
- The pattern may or may not always include a BSOD. I know for a fact that there's been a few times when there wasn't one. The BSOD messages so far have been: "BAD_POOL_HEADER" (which was the only one i saw the first few times), last night i had "SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION", and this morning, just a few seconds after restarting, it was "IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL".
- When it hangs it will display any of the following: A blank screen, the "starting windows" screen frozen, the PB (it's a Packard Bell) logo with the "Del = Setup; F12 = Boot" legend at the bottom left, and only once yesterday, a blank screen with the prompt blinking and an ominous sounding message saying "The file header checksum does not match the computed checksum error"
-I tried a program called "Speccy" to monitor the temperatures. Yesterday I left it open all day and checked last time 30 minutes before the computer crashed. The temp was OK. I also disabled sleep mode and screensavers (read somewhere it could be something wrong with sleep mode). When it crashed yesterday, the only program i had started was Speccy, and it had ran without issues for the past 12 hours.
- There has been no major new software installed (I think my husband had installed quicktime a couple of days before), windows has been updated, and there have been NO hardware changes at all. Currently there is not one single piece of hardware connected to the computer. Mouse and keyboard are wireless and we also tried with the USB ones, in case there was something to do with the wireless.
- Technical deteils: Computer is a Packard Bell Onetwo L A6524 UK.
AMD Athion II X2 220 dual-core processor
23" multimedia Touch monitor Full HD 1080
4GB DDR3 Memory
1 TB HD
DVD Super Multidrive
NVDIA GeForce 9200 graphics
Software: Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit

Sorry for the overlong post, tried to provide with as much info as possible. I'm not completely illiterate when it comes to computers, but i haven't run a Windows computer since the XP days, so please if you have any suggestions, explain them to me as if i was a 5 year old. I can find my way around it, but it takes me way too long to find things in W7

I'll be around and check back often, so if there's any more info you need just ask me.

Thanks a lot!

 

Just one more thing: A few days before the problems started, we had a power cut here. I unplugged the computer and we didn't plug them back until after a good while after the power returned. The computer started fine, it did prompt for the "safe mode" options cause it hadn't shut down properly, but it worked fine for at least 48 hours until the problems began.
Also, it hasn't happened to me, but my husband says that it even crashed on him when using it in "safe mode with networking".

 

Hi , go Start - Control Panel - System and Security - System - Advanced system settings - Settings - Startup and Recovery - uncheck the check box next to Automatically restart - push OK in the Startup and Recovery window - push OK in the System Properties window - close the System window , Post here the bsod message ( like error x0x ....... ) , take a look here !! :major



http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch001142.htm

http://windows7forums.com/blue-screen-death-bsod/44402-bsod-system_service_exception.html

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff560129(v=vs.85).aspx

 

Blue screen errors of a random nature like this would often be put down to RAM problems; however, given the fact that these problems didn't start until after a power disruption, I'm inclined to think that there was some data loss and possibly hardware damage (to the PSU/motherboard?).

To check and hopefully repair (some of) the data damage, run ChkDsk on the drive, reboot and then run SFC /scannow. Minidumps can be copied to the Desktop, zipped and attached to a reply, I'll try to analyse them. More details on using DskChk, SFC and minidumps over on Caliban's site.

 

Thanks a lot to both of you!

I just finish running SFC and chkdsk. I ran chkdsk on the main partition as "scheduled" i.e. upon restart. All was clean. Same with SFC.
I tried to run chkdsk on the other partition (which is not a system partition) and less than halfway through it, the computer BSOD'd again.

This just happened. It was another "SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION" error, 0x3B, and there was a file mentioned: "win32k.sys".

I have to step away for a few minutes (was just glued to the computer pretty much during the whole scan for fear it'd crash and i wouldn't know what happened, lol), but i'll be back a while later.

I zipped the whole contents of the minidump folder. There's about 8 different reports from a lot of crashes from the past few days. Thought it'd be more informative.

Thanks again for the help!!

 

I'll list the types of BSOD and their usual causes, as listed at Carrona.org:

The closest I see to a common factor is 'device driver', so perhaps we should begin there.

Avast! is the most recently updated driver set I see listed in the dumps, remove it and install MSE or Avira.

The nVidia nForce driver is named as a candidate in one of the dumps, install the latest from here.

Test again until you get new dumps to upload.

 

Thanks satrow!

I've downloaded both MSE and the driver from the link you posted. The driver setup has 4 checked boxes: SMU, storage, graphics and ethernet.
Should i leave the four of them clicked? I originally was, but then I got a bit confused when the installer gave me some warnings about installing the storage driver.

Uninstalled Avast and right after restarting, i got another BSOD: "DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL". The minidump i'll post later, when I figure out what to do about that driver.

Thanks!!

 

The storage driver is the one that was implicated in one of the dumps, so that had better be top of the update list I really don't know about the others, it depends on which motherboard you have.

If you still get BSOD's after you've done the updates, we'll try to test your hardware. What are you like inside a PC?

 

Used to be fairly good and quite fearless :-D. Usually would do stuff like replacing cooler/heatsink, installing new HDs, CD/DVD player, memory, that kind of stuff. But this one is an all-in-one thing and, tbh, i don't think I dare opening it. That and the fact that it's not my computer per se, but my husband's and we've been married for little more than 2 years, so I wouldn't want a divorce....

Just installed the drivers and it restarted uneventfully. I'll instal MSE now and keep my fingers crossed. Will update later if something happens. Otherwise, I'll wait till tomorrow to see if it's still on.

Thanks a lot!!!

 

Update: Well, it' been over 12 hours and the computer is still on, and no new crashes, BSOD or any other oddities

I'm going to start the programs that normally run and see if anything happens. But it all looks OK (it's been nearly a week since the computer stayed on for 12 hours without crashing!).

Thanks again for all the help, you guys rock!!

 

Hey, it's looking good then

If, as you say, it's an all in one thing, make sure it stays cool and don't overload the USB ports, it's likely to have a mediocre PSU installed. Get familiar with the internals if you can so you can keep it clean to ensure there's a good airflow through it.

 

Talked too soon....

Just crashed again. Been working perfectly all day, running programs, all fine. Until I re-enabled the screen saver and the power management settings. The screen saver worked fine. But around the time it was set to shut down the monitor, it BSOD again :cry

The BSOD didn't say much, except for "error 0x00001E". When i was restarting it, it crashed again, this time with the "IRQL" error. I'm attaching the dump, but there was only one after the two crashes, so i don't know which one you'll find. (btw, how do you get to read them? Not that I'll understand anyway... :-D).

This is starting to annoy me.... :mad

 

And again.....

This time, i had disabled both sleep and turn off monitor. It sat there for 2 hours, with the screensaver on, and suddenly another BSOD. Another IRQL one, this time the culprit is supposed to be usbport.sys . The only USB port in use is the wireless adaptor.

Thanks for any suggestions!

 

So now it's reading more like a Sleep/Wake issue, possibly related to USB. Try this, go to Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Power Options and click the 'Change plan settings' on the active plan. On the next page, select 'Change advanced power settings'. Find the USB section and disable "USB selective suspend setting". Then click apply and close.

Now visit Device Manage and find your wireless adapter, right-click it and select Properties > click the Power management tab then uncheck 'Allow the computer to turn off this device ... ' and click Ok to close.

 

Thanks satrow, I'll try it as soon as i can manage to turn the damn thing on...:mad

It just won't start at all!!! Most of the times, it looks as if it would turn on for a couple of seconds, and then the light on the power button flickers and nothing else happens.
It managed to go as far as the initial "beep" once, and after that it just started beeping continuously (not repeated beeps, but one single endless beeeeeep).

I hadn't felt like throwing a computer out of the window in quite a while.... :cry

 

Umm, do you still have any warranty left on this PC?

 

Uh Oh

Continuous beep : Power supply, system board, or keyboard problem:confused

 

Ok, after panicking, cursing and crying, I thought of something and gave it a go: I plugged the wireless adaptor in a different USB port and the computer booted straight away! (I know, it's not a high tech thought, but I'm so glad i did!!)

I changed the power options to disable USB selective suspend setting. After that, went to device manager but the option to allow computer to turn off device was unchecked and greyed out.

So, it would seem like the usb port where the wireless was plugged in is toast, wouldn't it? And, also, it would seem that PSU and system board are OK? Or should I still worry about some serious hardware issue?

In hindsight, the keyboard and mouse were acting weird lately, i.e. mouse would "stick" at times, and on at least one occasion the keyboard refused to respond for a few seconds at a time. That might be related to the wireless USB in the process of "dying". (?)

I'll keep you posted

 

Sorry, I missed it,:

Keep in mind that modern motherboards share IRQ's across PCI slots, so try not to put a sound card and a modem right next to each other

 

I wouldn't probably know how to. Certainly not in this computer, which i don't even dare pry open

Another BSOD a few minutes ago. Another "BAD_POOL_HEADER" one, no file mentioned in the BS, no dump created :confused
Happened to my husband, he'd been using IE (and no other programs), left the webpage open, went out for a few minutes, and 10-15 minutes, all was blue.

I restarted the computer, all seemed fine for a little while, and then the whole thing froze (computer not responding to keyboard, mouse, or touching the screen) and, what really worried me, the bottom of the screen started flickering (it's all along the bottom half of the bar). If you look at it at some distance, it's like an old VCR having tracking issues.

Hammer? Anyone?

 

BAD_POOL_HEADER could be alot of things, I think there needs to be more info. But it could be the wireless or drivers. You could take out the wireless card and see what happens. Also, you might try to update all the drivers on this computer if possible. rolleyes