BSOD on "New" gaming PC, just can't figure out the problem! Help!

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JMS230

JMS230

Honorable
Jul 24, 2013
67
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10,630
Alright so here it goes. I built this computer about 3 months ago and there have been problems ever since. When I first started it up, I was excited to play BF3 because I had saved up for almost a year. So I started the game up and 5 minutes later I hear "RRRRRRRRR" and then a blue screen pops up. The error code is 0x0000007E (FFFFFFFFC0000005, FFFFF80002A941E0,
FFFFF880009A9788, FFFFF880009A8FE0) The last two or three perameters have changed from the MANY times this error has occured. So I have been on other forums trying to figure this out and I just can't. The error also has happened while downloading a game, starting up a game, watching a youtube video (Well I was also downloading a game at the same time as the video so I don't know what caused it there), and while loading a custom zombie map on Call of Duty World at War. The games it has happened on are: Battlefield 3, Battlefield 4, Crysis 3, Borderlands, Planetside 2, and Battlefield Bad Company 2. BlueScreenView says it is cause by ntoskrnl.exe. What I have done in the past three months is, reinstall windows and have done reformats, replaced the RAM, replaced the Motherboard, replaced the Power Supply, ran driver verifier (Didn't blue screen while it was running for 24 hours), took out the graphics card and used integrated graphics and when I did that the game didn't "blue" screen but it went black screen and made the same "RRRRRRRRR" sound as the bluescreen and when windows booted up again the same message popped up and the DMP files were the same. I have no overclocks on the system. People on the other forums told me it was memory corruption. I just found out though that the intel usb 3.0 drivers caused all kinds of problems and a guy had a picture of his blue screen and it was the same as mine. So I uninstalled them and it seemed to have fixed the problem so I told the person on the other forum to mark it as solved but about 10 minutes ago the same blue screen happened when playing Battlefield 4. I am honestly desperate at this point because I have spent so much time and money trying to get this thing going. I'll link the DMP files I have here.

Sytems Specs:

i7 3770k
EVGA GTX 670 FTW
ASUS P8Z77-V LE PLUS
Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM HDD
8GB Kingston HyperX 1600 MHz RAM (On QVL for mobo) had 8GB of G.Skill 1600 MHz RAM before I replaced them with the kingston set.
Corsair TX750 V2 PSU
24x DVD Burner
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit (OEM)

DMP files: http://sdrv.ms/1b81yu4
 
Solution
H


Well, it looks like a hyper-threading problem doesn't it?

I would say run the four to see what happens and then maybe we should try to find an update that fixes a Windows compatibility issue.

But we may have to face up to the fact that a controller on the CPU is malfunctioning.
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I'll try but it says it's a USB 3.0 driver and I'm not using 3.0.
 
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Alright I installed them, I'll test it out.
 
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Doh! Must be something else then.

Seriously though, I think that we can rule out hardware incompatibility although your memory will run more slowly than it is rated at.

And the individual pieces of hardware seem to be functioning normally but it is as if that game just demands that little bit too much.

You're not overclocking so it's not a timing problem.

It is easy to suspect the graphics card ...

You did try altering the settings for the Graphics card didn't you?

I mean things like, 'Allow software acceleration' and any settings that allow the card to be 'under application control'. The thinking here is that putting some of the workload under software control might give the GPU and the CPU a little space.

I also thought a little about 'codecs' and their possible role in the problem but I would download and install the 'k-lite codec pack' as a matter of course anyway, which would rule that out.

I'd be thinking of the DirectX drivers too. Is there a communication problem between the drivers?

I would also have tried an earlier version of the graphics drivers to see if that worked.

I would have uninstalled the sound drivers and tested to see if the problem persisted without them.

I'd disable any unused devices in both BIOS and in Device Manager.

I know that I seem to be throwing lots of words at you, or as someone once amusingly commented, 'a bowl of word-soup' but I am trying to visualize the problem from the machine's point of view and I'm trying to provide you with all the artillery I can.

And some of my suggestions seem less relevant than others but I have seen and can envisage how these suggestions may sometimes have some merit.

I mean, you'll be amazed. One guy had BIOS telling him he needed a new video card. Resetting CMOS apparently and miraculously repaired the video card.

Another guy updated BIOS and his computer wouldn't start. Some people might have bought a new mother board at that stage. It turned out that removing the drive, restarting, shutting down and reconnecting the drive fixed it.

I've had Microsoft software fail to install because virtual memory was switched off. Apparently Microsoft Windows didn't realise this and the software I was trying to install declined to let me in on the secret even though it must have checked in order to not work.

Weird.

At least I didn't get you to update Java and maybe even install the 32-bit version as well, which believe it or not fixed a problem with 64-bit Windows.

And Flash Player.

But I won't.

I've probably bored you enough now so you may want to skip the rest of this post and look at the next one.
 
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I've already ruled out the GPU because I took it out and used integrated graphics. Same problem. I have tried like 5-7 different graphics drivers. For audio drivers, I don't think it's that because the bluescreen has happened when downloading games and just after clicking the games. And I've already reinstalled windows about 5 times, reformatted and only have the bare minimum drivers needed. That is why I still think it is a hardware problem. I can link you to the other forum I was on that got marked as solved because I though it was solved to see allthe things I've done to try and resolve this problem.
 
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I meant to mention at the end of the last post:

Windows Updates have caused more issues than I care to remember.

Some problems have been solved by uninstalling updates.

I think Service Pack 1 is 'flaw ridden' and it decided that Pinnacle can no longer communicate with my webcam.

One time, Windows updated my video driver but didn't uninstall the other, newer one. That took a while to track down but it stopped me from being able to watch RTE Player.

What I wanted to say in this post was more to do with what the error message might be saying.

Now, I don't put much stock in BSoD error codes but something that struck me was the four hexadecimal numbers that came after it.

Those numbers are 64-bit memory locations, as you would expect, but what I find interesting is the fact that their are four cores on your processor, aren't there?

Now, I remember a case where an error code was reported and it was something to do with an 'expected_interrupt' failing to happen. And it was suggested that one of the cores had hung and this is what caused the blue screen meaning that a new CPU was required. It turned out that up-dating the BIOS was the fix and it is now quite well known by those in the field that there are some motherboard/graphics card combinations have compatibility issues that are indeed fixed by up-dating BIOS.

And according to Microsoft, just about anything can cause this error.

This is why I don't have much faith in blue screen error codes. Perfectly good hardware can be discarded unnecessarily like the drive and the motherboard in the previous post.

The thing is, your code is an 'exception_not_handled' error and for the life of me, I can't see a difference, qualitatively, between that and the other error I just referred to.

And again, according to Microsoft, this issue could be caused by absolutely anything.

Anyway, I was thinking. Those numbers.

Windows controls memory access by running code in a virtual machine.

Basically, Windows keeps the CPU running round in loops in an area of memory into which Windows writes the code it want the CPU to follow.

Then Windows opens the loop, lets the CPU chew through the prepared data at the end of which the CPU is returned to the loop.

When programs are written, they address actual memory locations but Windows 're-codes' those addresses to fit into the space that the CPU is operating in. When the process is complete, Windows 'adjusts' the data and the result is returned to the process as if it was actually done in memory.

And when the GPU want to access memory, it has to be re-directed by Windows to a virtual address.

You see, the GPU sees its memory in the range of 0 - 2 GB and the CPU sees the system memory in the range of 0 - 8 GB. Windows maps graphics memory to the range of 8 - 10 GB.

So, the memory that the GPU calls 00 is what Windows call 8 GB.

If the CPU wants to know what is at the address location 8 GB in memory, Windows subtracts 8 GB from the address and points at that location.

And with all that going on, the sound card, drives and all the other devices are accessing the address and data buses.

In this respect, Windows is responsible for ensuring that the right data is presented on the right bus to the right device.

And I think that your sound card is receiving data that was intended for the graphics card by the application.

Both the CPU and the GPU are blindly following a program in real memory. The data at those memory locations is entirely the responsibility of Windows.

The more I think about it, the more I think it is a Windows issue. And drivers.

That's why I keep the page swap system turned off. Windows is always poking about in memory. (Which is what we used to call writing to memory; 'poking'.)

I would start uninstalling all the Windows updates.

Actually, I would reinstall Windows from scratch and test without any updates at all.

Service Pack 1 might be the root of the problem, though.

But that's just me.

And some of my thoughts.
 
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Ok I'll do that tonight after school. So if I don't have any updates does that mean that service pack 1 isn't there? Or would I have to uninstall it a different way? Also' do you think I should try updating my BIOS to the latest version again? Because when I built the computer, I got the blue screen. That I updated to the latest (At the time) BIOS and got the same problem. So do you think it's worth a shot to update to the new one? Because 2 newer one than mine have been released in about 3-4 months.
 
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If you go to your 'Installed Programs' list you will find an option on the left of the window to 'View installed updates'. This is where you will find Service Pack 1, if you have it installed.

You should uninstall Internet Explorer 10 first and revert to 9 as I.E. 10 needs the service pack to work.

Then I would uninstall the Service Pack 1 update.

I would probably uninstall/reinstall the graphics drivers too.

Then I would try again.

Recently a man had a problem with his USB headset. It had been working for weeks and then it packed in. It turned out that Windows had 'updated' his USB driver and that is what broke it. He had to uninstall thirty or so updates to find that out.

It could take a while but I would remove as many updates as possible, for now, and I would make sure that Windows Update is switched off.

If you can get your game to start successfully under these circumstances then you can update manually, maybe half a dozen updates at a time, but don't let Windows update your drivers.

If not, then upgrade BIOS.

I would upgrade BIOS anyway but A) I do not think this is a compatibility issue and B) Although a BIOS update may serve as a fix, it may mask an underlying issue with Windows that is going undetected because of 'work-arounds'.

For this reason, updating BIOS is something I would want to do after I got the thing running properly.

I know it's a pain dude but on the upside, you are gaining some useful experience that may come in handy if you ever get trapped into an IT career. :)
 
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Alright, but when you said "If you can get your game to start successfuly..." I can get the gameto start pretty much all the time (Except some times when starting it theres a blue screen) it's just when playing it it happens. Like one time I played 8 hours, no problems but all the rest of the time it happens within minutes.
 
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I can't even find service pack 1 in installed updates. I looked up how to uninstall it and it said it was called KB976932 but I can't find it anywhere I looked multiple times.
 
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If you can play your game for a couple of days without getting a blue screen, then I would call that starting successfully.

We do want to get rid of the blue screen but it would be useful to know why it is happening and if removing all of Windows' Updates fixes the issue then we will know what to blame.

It could be useful information for someone later.

In your position, I would also force the CPU into using two cores for a while in BIOS if I could. Then I would test the game again.

Just in case there is a problem with communication between the cores.
 
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Ok, well I haven't uninstalled any updates because I can't find service pack 1. I searched for it in the top right, it's not there. And as for going for 8 hours, that was a while ago. Other than that one time I can only go for like 5 minutes.
 
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Right-click on Computer and select Properties.

In the top of the window that appears, your Windows version should be displayed.

Is there any mention of Service Pack 1 there?

Does your Windows disk automatically install it?
 
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Yes, it says service pack 1 and I'm not sure if my disk automatically installs it. It's not in the list of updates.
 
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Oh, then we are a little stuck.

"I built this computer about 3 months ago and there have been problems ever since."

Is this the same Windows disk you used from the start?

If the problem is with SP1 then the problem is with your Windows disk, isn't it?

I don't suppose you could 'borrow' a Windows disk that hasn't included SP1?

I personally think that SP1 is responsible for a lot of blue screens.

Well, if you can't eliminate SP1, maybe Microsoft have released a fix for it. I guess the only option is to let Windows update itself now.
 
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Yes, it's the same disk. No, I can't borrow another copy. I installed a few more updates that were published today and disabled 2 cores on my CPU and disabled hyperthreading. So far I have played BF3 for almost an hour, no bluescreen.
 
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Yes, it's the same disk. No, I can't borrow another copy. I installed a few more updates that were published today and disabled 2 cores on my CPU and disabled hyperthreading. So far I have played BF3 for almost an hour, no bluescreen.
 
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Well, the next step is to re-enable the cores and check again.

If it is okay, re-enable hyper-threading.

If the problem comes back then, we might find that that is exactly the issue that the new BIOS updates address.

Still okay?
 
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Ok, enabled everything again. Bluescreen within 10 minutes on Battlefield 3.
 
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Try again with two cores and hyper-threading enabled.

Before you do that though, open Task Manager and select the 'Performance' tab.

You can see all four cores here.

Just monitor them for a couple of minute and see if all four cores show signs of activity.
 
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I think I might have to do that tomorrow, because I've got a lot of school work to do and I have a test tomorrow. So as soon as I get home tomorrow I'll try it.
 
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