[SOLVED] Blue screen crash and boot error after 2 hours of use- trouble shoot.

[Greentoast007]

Hi hoping to get some help trouble shooting this issue, so I have a pc I built 6 years agog has been running great until about 2 weeks ago I started getting blue screen crash followed by boot error messages after about 2-3 hours of use on the computer . If I try to just hit a key on the keyboard the boot error persists but if I power down the pc and restart then it boots normally and I can use the computer gain for a little while until the next blue screen crash.

Here are Components:
Msi pc mate z97, oc genie4 , LGA 1150
Intel i7-4970 Quad Core
Crucial ddr3 1600 2 x 8gb sticks for a 16gb total in slot 2 and 4
EVGA Nvidia Geforce 970 GPU
Intel 535 Series 480 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Corsair CSM 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply

Things I have tried so far but have not resolved the issue:

I unplugged everything but the hard drive, keyboard and mouse and the ram from the motherboard so no funky errors from peripherals.
I have swapped out the ram and removed the graphics card so I am pretty sure those are not the issue.
I have updated the Bios to the most current version and reinstalled windows with a fresh copy still no luck.
I ran memory tests and checked the hard drive for errors but everything came up clean and healthy.

I am thinking it is the Motherboard or the CPU but temp on the CPU looks good when I monitor it so I am less inclined to think that is the issue.

Has anyone heard of or had any issues like this I will gladly buy a new mother board but really would like to be sure first before dropping the money on something that might not be the issue.

I appreciate any help or insight.

 

[Colif]

turn this off for now, it might fix the need to power down PC - https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/4189-turn-off-fast-startup-windows-10-a.html - don't need it with ssd anyway, If it does, it shows cause could be a driver.

Can you follow option one on the following link - here - and then do this step below: Small memory dumps - Have Windows Create a Small Memory Dump (Minidump) on BSOD - that creates a file in c windows/minidump after the next BSOD

Open Windows File Explorer
Navigate to C:\Windows\Minidump
Copy the mini-dump files out onto your Desktop
Do not use Winzip, use the built in facility in Windows
Select those files on your Desktop, right click them and choose 'Send to' - Compressed (zipped) folder
Upload the zip file to the Cloud (OneDrive, DropBox . . . etc.)
Then post a link here to the zip file, so we can take a look for you . . .

given age of PC< old drivers is likely.

Can you download and run Driverview - http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/driverview.html

All it does is looks at drivers installed; it won't install any (this is intentional as 3rd party driver updaters often get it wrong)

When you run it, go into view tab and set it to hide all Microsoft drivers, will make list shorter.

Now its up to you, you can look through the drivers and try to find old drivers, or you can take a screenshot from (and including)Driver name to (and including)Creation date.

upload it to an image sharing website and show link here

All I would do is look at driver versions (or dates if you lucky to have any) to see what might have newer versions.

 

[Greentoast007]

I have tried a few ways but cannot get a minidump file or folder to appear in my Windows folder. I went to a few sites to look up how to get the mini dump but nothing worked to get this folder to appear. I am sorry but I am not sure how to get this folder to appear. Maybe there is another program or a method you can recommend to force this dump file to appear. This are the two images one of the list of drivers and the other the BSOD that I am receiving when my computer crashes. I was using the computer this time and this time it froze up and the screen froze for 2-3 minutes before the crash.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AnhA3w3vs53MiOVh-Df6-oqfd6TWNw?e=L7zbbW
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AnhA3w3vs53MiOVjitxBpzQ0ecgciA?e=5WYdI6

I will continue to try and find a way to get a Dump File folder to manifest.
Thank you I appreciate your time and help with my issue.

 

[Colif]

okay, critical process died can be caused by a number of essential Windows files, some of which are boot related, some are user files and some are just necessary for windows to continue to run

right click start button
choose powershell (admin)
type SFC /scannow and press enter
once its completed, copy/paste this command into same window:

Repair-WindowsImage -Online -RestoreHealth
and press enter

SFC fixes system files, second command cleans image files, re run SFC if it failed to fix all files the first time you ran it, and restart PC

what boot error messages are you getting?

try running chkdsk c: /f in command prompt (admin)
2 paragraphs will pop up, agree to running at restart and restart PC to let chkdsk run.

try running tests on ssd - https://www.intel.com.au/content/www/au/en/support/articles/000005800/memory-and-storage.html

 

[Greentoast007]

Hello so I ran everything you suggested and only found one error or notice of something wrong. here is the powershell screen and the PBS log as it is the only things I can show for reference. I also ran the intel ssd toolbox and everything showed as healthy and the scans were also good and healthy. I will leave the computer running and hope the corrupt file that was found was the issue. i will update either way in a day or so if anything changes.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AnhA3w3vs53MiOVkZFNopLdrx38kwQ?e=pkILyz

Microsoft OneDrive

1drv.ms

 

[Greentoast007]

Sorry still did not help, I got the BSOD again with the same message. Since I turned off auto restart after BSOD I am not getting the boot error message because I have to power down to restart and this is what cleared the boot error. It would happen right after the critical failure and the system was caught in a boot error loop.

 

[Colif]

We need to make sure ssd is not the cause of errors as that is one reason you won't get dump files.
Can you run HDTune and see if it can see the Health of the drive. Don't download Pro like I did, the free version is under the Pro details - https://www.hdtune.com/download.html

it can't see my nvme drive at all so you might find its the same for you.

You could try using HD Sentinel trial as well, it at least can see my NVME.

 

[Greentoast007]

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AnhA3w3vs53MiOVmXoq5ysvyhJPjDw?e=U5UELd

This is my Drive health. 61 percent seems suspect but not critical but I am not as familiar with what these scores mean. What are your thoughts?

 

[Colif]

if you clicked the blue ? next to field it shows how it calculates it. hd sentinel really more for hdd and not ssd, it lacks details for ssd - it doesn't like mine much
hd tune doesn't even show SMART for my ssd so I won't suggest it.
download crystaldiskinfo - https://crystalmark.info/en/software/crystaldiskinfo/
just like to see which values is reducing your health score.

 

[Greentoast007]

Crystal disk info https://1drv.ms/u/s!AnhA3w3vs53MiOVnVqu8o9rXNS7c0g?e=97PZ0p

 

[Colif]

looks good to me. - its hard to tell with nvme as they don't give any clues, they can just stop working.
You might want to think about replacing it at some stage and use it for storage instead of Boot drive. I think once mine gets to 50% health I might do same.

Because of the way power management works on NVME, my NVME is showing a life span of 70 days whereas HDD is showing 129 days, they were installed on the same day. NVME aren't on very much during the day

I assume you haven't changed Page file size as that is another reason to not get Dump files.

What BSOD message do you get anyway? Critical process died? can you show me a photo of next error?

 

[Greentoast007]

I am attempting to clone the drive to my smaller 250GB intel drive to see if the problem persists then I will hopefully be able to see if it might be the hard drive. If it still happens then it is either a software issue or the motherboard and or cpu. It may help me eliminate at least one source of the problem. I will keep you posted. Either way, thank you I have learned a lot from this exchange.

 

[Greentoast007]

I cloned my hard drive last night to the 250GB Intel drive which was showing 100 percent good health and since then I have had no crashes or BSOD. So I am going to have to go with the hard drive was failing in some strange non detectable way and this is what was causing the issues. I will report back in case I see any other surprise issues from doing this but so far this has worked. I am happy to have finally found something that is working. Thank you for all your help.