Periodic BSOD

[Imnick]

Since we built it my brother's computer has been experiencing periodic crashes, ranging in frequency as we tried various solutions and currently occurring about once every couple of hours.

To start with we figured it might be a memory issue so we checked the RAM was properly seated and then ran the Windows memory diagonstic tool, which didn't discover any problems. We also ran chkdsk which didn't come up with any problems either.
After that we tried updating every driver we could find out of date, most of which I did and which my brother claims he's finished by himself, which seemed to help (it did used to crash about once every 20 minutes) but hasn't solved the problem completely.
All of the installed components are detected and seem to be running correctly, the computer's core temperature doesn't seem to be unusually high (it was for a while after reseating the RAM but that was because we forgot to reapply the thermal paste, that's sorted now!)

As a point of interest, none of the drivers from nvidia's website ever seemed to work correctly, it would give a "7zip unpacking error" every time it tried to run which the nvidia website claims is due to a corrupted install file, but no download on his computer or mine would produce any other result. Eventually we managed to update it through Windows Update but I'm not quite sure how reliable that is.

I'm going to just try doing a clean reinstall of Windows tomorrow as I have a feeling it might just have not worked correctly the first time but I was wondering before I do that if anyone has any other ideas.

The build he is running is as follows:

Windows 7
Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-V LK S1155 Intel Z77
CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz
RAM: G.Skill Sniper 8GB (2x4GB)
Graphics: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 Windforce 3X
PSU: Corsair TX550M 550W
Heatsink: Noctua NH-U12P-SE2

I have four BSOD crash reports you can look at too, as those are probably going to be more helpful than my rambling.
The first one is probably the most relevant as it came when we were running the Driver Verifier, but I personally couldn't make much sense of it.
The other three are slightly older.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/51926430/Cr...2-19250-01.dmp <= with Driver Verifier
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/51926430/Cr...2-15600-01.dmp
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/51926430/Cr...2-17394-01.dmp
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/51926430/Cr...2-19656-01.dmp

---------- Post added 2012-10-28 at 04:45 PM ----------

Running the System File Checker returned a whole load of missing or corrupted files, so I'm going to guess I've isolated the problem to a bad Windows installation.
Only problem now is that when I try and run a repair from his disk it gives me an error code 0x80070241 and a clean install returns 0x80070570.

I'm going to download a fresh ISO today but if anyone has any better ideas I would love to hear them, I'm really not all that tech savvy.

The result of the SFC run can be found here;
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/51926430/Cr...sfcdetails.txt

[Sathrah]

I would check to see if your power supply voltage switch is set correctly. The last time I built a new system, I never checked the voltage switch on my power supply and spent a day trying to figure out why it was randomly BSOD'ing every 5 to 20 minutes on each start-up. Apparently, I received it with it set to 220v and never changed it.

To the Nvidia drivers, try using something other than 7Zip to get them directly from Nvidia. I wouldn't trust the windows update service for that, either.

Other than that, I can't think of anything else you haven't tried (other than replace the hardware one by one). Good luck.

[Faithh]

The result of the SFC run can be found here;
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/51926430/Cr...sfcdetails.txt

Do Ctrl+f and type "File is missing"

64 results owye..

\C:\Windows\SysWOW64"\[l:20{10}]"wmploc.DLL"; source file in store is also corrupted

But if you download drivers from nvidia website it's in .exe not in .rar or .zip

Did you try to run repair from the a windows installation disk?

Well an installation idea I could give is, use an usb instead of burning your iso to a disk. Installing windows from an usb goes a lot faster. Use this guy's guide to make a bootable usb http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFJwiILbsdo

When you start the PC just run F8 and don't select the option "usbstickname uefi" just the other one.

[Drunkenvalley]

I can't read the .dmp files for whatever reason. What's most important is that you try and read if it says anything special. Usually there's a key line describing loosely what it was.

[Imnick]

Thanks for your input, I missed these replies somehow.

Do Ctrl+f and type "File is missing"

64 results owye..

\C:\Windows\SysWOW64"\[l:20{10}]"wmploc.DLL"; source file in store is also corrupted

This looks like the most likely way to fix the problem but the only advice I can find on Google is "run the windows repair disc", which as I've said before doesn't appear to work.
There are a lot of different files there and I'm not sure how I'd manage to download and install them all manually, especially as no filepath seems to be listed.

But if you download drivers from nvidia website it's in .exe not in .rar or .zip

Indeed, but running the .exe files leads to a progress bar that says something along the lines of "decompressing files" followed by "7Zip error". I even downloaded WinRAR and set that as the default decompressing program and it gave the same error.

Did you try to run repair from the a windows installation disk?
Well an installation idea I could give is, use an usb instead of burning your iso to a disk. Installing windows from an usb goes a lot faster. Use this guy's guide to make a bootable usb http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFJwiILbsdo

When you start the PC just run F8 and don't select the option "usbstickname uefi" just the other one.

I get identical errors booting from a USB as from a Disc, unfortunately
Something on the computer is clearly preventing the Windows installer from working correctly, I am just unsure as to what or how.

[Faithh]

Thanks for your input, I missed these replies somehow.


This looks like the most likely way to fix the problem but the only advice I can find on Google is "run the windows repair disc", which as I've said before doesn't appear to work.
There are a lot of different files there and I'm not sure how I'd manage to download and install them all manually, especially as no filepath seems to be listed.


Indeed, but running the .exe files leads to a progress bar that says something along the lines of "decompressing files" followed by "7Zip error". I even downloaded WinRAR and set that as the default decompressing program and it gave the same error.


I get identical errors booting from a USB as from a Disc, unfortunately
Something on the computer is clearly preventing the Windows installer from working correctly, I am just unsure as to what or how.

Can you describe the error you get from booting from a disc or usb?

[Deleted]

What is the bugcheck details in Event Viewer? Cant tell much from a raw memory dump lol.

Also that file checking can break your install as it will try to restore original files from the disc and not the newer files that came from Windows Update.

[Bamahut]

Have you also checked that your PC isn't overheating. This can get overlooked very easily and can result in BSOD.

[Imnick]

Have you also checked that your PC isn't overheating. This can get overlooked very easily and can result in BSOD.

Yes, it was for a while but we solved that problem.

Can you describe the error you get from booting from a disc or usb?

When I try and run "repair" from his disk it gives me an error code 0x80070241 and just running "install" returns 0x80070570.

[BicycleMafioso]

What kind of boot device do you use? SSD, mechanical and which?

[Mekks]

run memtest86

[Deleted]

Why not just look at bugcheck details in event viewer lol? it will tell you if you have memory or hard drive issues within the results.

Might as well use it for what its there for rather than blindly trying different things.

Unless you disabled it, a bsod will always leave a log in Event Viewer.

[Faithh]

There aren't hardware issues. This PC just needs a fresh Windows installation. Loads of important files are missing or are corrupt.

The BSOD errors are making it very clear already.

0x80070241 and a clean install returns 0x80070570

Hardware bsod errors are starting with 0x00000124 for example or 0x00000116