Blue screen of death when idle (Windows 7 x64)

[pinaklonkar]

Here is a strange problem - I built this desktop six months ago and almost 9.9 out of 10 times it has given me no problems. For the first time, it threw a BSOD and I figured it was some kind of malware that google chrome is susceptible to. I don't exactly remember that name but I seemed to have taken care of it.

After a couple of months, today I was using the computer normally, and left it idle for about 20 minutes to do something else. When I came back, it had the same unknown hard error on it. Now, no matter what I do, it wouldn't boot to the desktop. The farthest it would go is the welcome screen and then blue screen errors.

The errors are also random. Once IRQL NOT LESS OR EQUAL, sometimes SYSTEM EXCEPTION ERROR etc. I believe google chrome has some serious system loopholes because I am pretty sure chrome was open when I left it idle.

I have the Windows 7 bootable disk. What can I do to fix this problem? Note that no option from F8 menu would successfully boot. I do not want to format my hard disk. I do not have any additional hard disks. I have disconnected all the external hardware and I firmly believe that such hardware faults don't occur especially with new hardware.

Thank you in advance.

 

[Hastibe]

Have you tried booting from the Windows 7 disk? Does it have any repair functions? If so, that might be worth trying (if I remember right, the Windows XP disk had repair options)--before you do that, though, do you have your important data backed-up? If not, back your stuff up, first.

 

[joelmartinez]

No safe mode, no regular call in the AVG rescue cd this is probably malware so you will need to boot from a rescue cd to do a scan out of your OS

http://www.avg.com/us-en/avg-rescue-cd#tba1 The link

 

[pinaklonkar]

I also think it was malware - Malwarebytes did not catch it, my bitdefender antivirus didn't catch it, avira didn't catch it, windows defender didn't catch it.

I really wonder if these anti-software are really worth our attention and money, if they are really not protecting.

I had to reinstall windows 7 - could not be repaired, restored, (same bsod with different dump codes). Everything is back and fresh. I lost some data, but I can live with that - it is a gaming machine afterall.

I personally believe that Google Chrome was the culprit (to allow something malicious in). I am staying away from it right now. It is painful because I love that browser. I am going with Safari for a while to see how it goes.

 

[evilavatar]

This is usually a memory fault error YOu should try memtest and see if one of your ram sticks is not working properly.

 

[pinaklonkar]

I should have mentioned - I let the memtest tool run for a while from the Windows 7 boot disk. It did not detect any errors. Memory chips don't / shouldn't just go bad sitting idle, ideally. But I was thinking just like you, and ran the tests anyway.

 

[evilavatar]

Just becuase it does not detect errors does nt mean there are not any. Try running with just one stick of ram in the main channel and run memtest, than swap them. If the ram is under warranty, rma it and get new stuff if it is bad. Another thought is this could be a bad driver. If you haven't already try updating your bios, system drivers, and any other drivers that you haven't changed... if you changed them roll em back and see what happens.

 

[pinaklonkar]

I couldn't agree more. In fact, at many times, I give the same suggestions.

But do you think if there is indeed a corruption at some address on one of the four RAM chips I have installed, would it not show up for weeks if not for months of heavy usage?

Also, would it lead to blue screen errors all of a sudden right at the Welcome screen of Windows?

And then would those errors not surface when new Windows 7 installation was in progress and then it ran fine for a few hours?

Highly likely that one of above events will show some proof, what do you say?

I had never installed or removed any bad driver before this happened. It was really out of the blue and that's what got me by surprise. I tried to go back few days in restoration but it would still throw BSOD at me.

If it happens again randomly, I might go ahead and file for RAM's RMA

 

[evilavatar]

To me computers are just cranky and often random in when things decide to die. my old computer psu finally died after like 7 years and the drive on it whined like crazy but outlasted 3 reaplacements and a seagate external backup drive. It seems like the newer the parts the less tollerance they have for stuff not working the way they want. I have an old dot matrix printer and a tandy 1000 computer my parents gave my grandpa in like 1986 that still runs like a champ (a dinosaur but a champ) and I am lucky that I got 6 years out of my old computer.

 

[joelmartinez]

Safari is slow try Opera instead it's fast and secure

 

[graemevermeulen]

To be honest, I think all your hardware is fine!

I've had scenarios where my PC would start BSODing after certain Windows automatic updates were installed.... So check into that. Got all kinds of error codes including the ones you got. Certain hardware configurations just don't seem to work sometimes.

 

[pinaklonkar]

Here is something interesting. After what happened a few posts before, I formatted my hard disk and installed Windows 7 x64. I have Adaware, Avira antivirus free, and malwarebytes and office installed. That's it.

I left the computer on for 1 hour and went out. I came back to find out a window that said windows recovered from an unknown error (not BSOD).

Something is definitely going wrong. When I am actually USING the computer, it has thrown BSOD's before but only once in the past. On straight two occasions, only sitting idle is causing something to happen. Last time when this happened i couldn't even boot up as already described above. Right now it booted up on its own happily sitting with that error window.

 

[evilavatar]

I'd check your power settings, maybe it isn't an issue with the computer so much as your windows has a corrupt file for the system settings on hybernation...

 

[pinaklonkar]

A fresh install on Windows 7? I don't think a corrupt file would exist then.

I started troubleshooting from my OCZ gold memory sticks. I have four of them 2GB each. I noticed that the recommended voltage for them is 1.65v. I set it to that and also adjusted the timings as 8 8 8 24 instead of default 7 7 7 20. The DRAM frequency is set to AUTO and so are other options.

BSOD on idle windows is something that I can't explain to myself, especially the windows 7 is one day old.

 

[evilavatar]

yeah I didn't think so either, but you never know, worth a shot anyway...

Edited for new thought: have you tried runnig a check of the drive with a hard disk maintenance tool? I wonder if there are bad sectors, if not try removing the cmos battery and running it again right upon boot and see what happens.

 

[pinaklonkar]

Never found time again to keep it idle for a long time after setting the RAM timing. If it crashes again, I'll reopen. This can be closed.

 

[pinaklonkar]

It was probably malware.

 

[pinaklonkar]

Best answer selected by pinaklonkar.