BSOD randomly and very frequently occurring.

[Carshalljd]

Im using the ASUS M4A88T-M motherboard and it ran fine for a year, along with all my other components. But, I recently added in the CORSAIR CX600M power supply and the EVGA Geforce GTX 760 graphics card. They both ran great for about a week or two, and now I am receiving a very frequent yet random BSOD, which prevents me from using the computer for about 45 minutes after the crash occurs. At first I thought that maybe I installed a driver for the graphics card that messed things up so I went in and got rid of it, but the problem remains. Some symptoms that always happen:
1) Once the BSOD comes up, a red LED light comes up on the board(It is labeled DRAM_LED). Reading the manual this has something to do with the memory or DIMM.
2) The screen lasts about 6 seconds, and then the computer seems to attempt to restart, but fails and just remains useless.
3)If I force shut down the computer after the crash happens, and then try to run it again, the red light turns on and remains on. Also, the monitor says its not connected to the computer, and nothing goes to it. In addition the keyboard doesn't turn on, but the mouse and speaker do. This is also exactly what happens when the computer attempts to reset after the crash.

What I've tried:
1) I reset all the BIOS and windows settings by using the built in jumper cable. This fixed the problem for about 5 hours, and I was able to flawlessly use the computer. But, just as it had before, the computer went back into the cycle of BSOD's occurring 5-20 minutes after I start the computer.
2) There is a built in button on the motherboard called the MemOk! I clicked the button but didn't receive much result.
3) I took out my DIMM's (theres 4) and blew on them a bit and reinstalled them. Didn't help.
4) I have done many and very extensive tests and I do not believe the problem is overheating to the CPU. I had a problem in the past with ASUS Autotuner , which over clocked the pc and made it crash from overheating. I fixed that, but it was only a couple weeks before this.
5) I ran the built in windows7 memory test, it said nothing was wrong.

I'm happy to provide any more information needed to fix this problem.

Additional info:
******************************************************************************************************
*****Seems to only occur when I run the application Starcraft II at least once.******
******************************************************************************************************
-I have 2 different pairs of DIMMs. All four are from COSAIR. Each card has 3 different sets of number on it, and the first two are much smaller than the last one. The last number is the same thing on each one and its as follows: CMV8GX3M2A1333C9. On the first pair, the first 2 numbers are: 147990 and 124605630. On the second pair, the first 2 numbers are: 3005251 and 10440545.

*Recent correction: I ran a different game for about 3 hours, worked fine. But then I closed out of it, and reopened it. When the program started the bsod game up again, but this time the LED light didn't turn on and the computer restarted with no problems.

 

[The_IT_Guy]

I would lean towards a video driver since that was recently changed. Download this program which helps shows the cause of blue screens. Anything is red is what caused the crash.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html

 

[Deleted member 217926]

Sounds to me like your RAM is not playing nice together. Taking out the sticks and blowing on them does nothing. They aren't Nintendo games! Try this, remove one set of RAM. Leave a matching set in and see what happens. If the problems continue try the sane thing with the other set of RAM.

The Windows memory test tool will not find all errors. You need memtest for that. 10 to 12 hours to fully test 8GB or more.

 

[Carshalljd]

Sounds to me like your RAM is not playing nice together. Taking out the sticks and blowing on them does nothing. They aren't Nintendo games! Try this, remove one set of RAM. Leave a matching set in and see what happens. If the problems continue try the sane thing with the other set of RAM.

The Windows memory test tool will not find all errors. You need memtest for that. 10 to 12 hours to fully test 8GB or more.

I tried taking out the first pair, and the computer crashed while logging in. When I only used the first pair, the computer started and the moninter hooked up to the computer, but no image was displayed. Also the keyboard and mouse didn't turn on. Im going to try running memtest86 over night, but I'm not sure the computer will run that long without crashing. Should I run it in safe mode?
(I'd also like to add that these RAMs have been working fine together for about a year)

 

[Carshalljd]

A little more information:
I went into the BIOS setup and found that DRAM timing mode is set to manual.
The only things within it that aren't in auto mode are:
TCL: 9 CLK
TRCD: 9 CLK
TRP: 9 CLK
TRAS 24 CLK

Also, which this may be irrelevant, the Memory over voltage is set to 1.71000. The only reason I say this is because its the only thing in the setup where the value is bright yellow.

And for good measure heres some other things:
-All ECC configuration options are disabled
-Bank Interleaving: Auto
-Channel Interleaving: Auto
-Enable Clock to ALL DIMMs: Disabled
-MemClk Tristate C3/ATLVID: Disabled
-Memory Hole Remapping: Enabled
-DCT Unganged Mode: Always
-Power Down Enable: Disabled

 

[The_IT_Guy]

Your timings are correct (9-9-9-24) but the recommended voltage is only 1.5. You could try switching the DRAM timing to auto if the voltage is the issue. Usually a little under volt causes more problems then over for overclocking if you're trying that, but the timing is still at the recommended which is odd.

For the memtest, burn a UBCD and run it from there so you're taking the OS out of the picture and just testing hardware: http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

 

[Carshalljd]

I would lean towards a video driver since that was recently changed. Download this program which helps shows the cause of blue screens. Anything is red is what caused the crash.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html

I ran the bluescreenview program and it worked. It gave five different crashes and the last one was from 11/27/13. These are what were red:

1/1/14(today)
Ntfs.sys
ntoskrnl.exe

12/31/13
fltmgr.sys
ntoskrnl.exe

12/31/13
ACPI.sys
ntoskrnl.exe
nvlddmkm.sys

12/30/13
fltmgr.sys
Ntfs.sys
ntoskrnl.exe

12/27/13
ntoskrnl.exe

I want it to be noted that in each crash, ntoskrnl.exe came up. And further more that it was the only thing that came in on the 27th.

 

[The_IT_Guy]

Wow, i haven't see the Ntfs error in a long time. Here's what those mean:

Ntfs - Part of the OS. Trouble talking with the HDD
ftwmgr - Part of the OS. Windows file system filter. i'll give a command to run below
ACPI - More of the core OS software.

At an elevated command prompt (right click and run as admin), and type: chkdsk C: /F. You will get a message that the volume is in use, type Y to have the volume checked on the next restart, close the command prompt & restart your computer. Once it does it's thing, open a command prompt again, run as admin, and type this: sfc /scannow This will scan system files and repair them if needed.

Post back if it finds and fixes anything.

On a side note, some malware can cause those same errors. Download (https://www.malwarebytes.org/free/) and run it. It will probably be clean, but it's safe to double check.

 

[Deleted member 217926]

Those errors look like memory to me. If you have been running value sticks of 1.5v RAM at over 1.7v it would not surprise me if the memory was damaged. It's also possible the CPU could have been damaged because the memory controller is on the CPU.

Let me guess, these problems all started after you used the overclock tool. Unless you know what you are doing those things are not safe and if you knew what you were doing you would have overclocked in BIOS.

Try booting with one stick at a time.

Memtest runs outside Windows. You have to make a bootable CD to run it. That allows all the memory to be tested.

 

[Deleted member 217926]

The common thread being ntoskrnl.exe means memory about 90% of the time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ntoskrnl

 

[The_IT_Guy]

As anort3 said, you really need to burn a liveCD like the UBCD to test the hardware. What i told you will only help fix the OS if that is indeed the problem. Use one stick of RAM and run the test. If it passes/fails then put in another RAM stick and test again.

Create a boot CD using this: http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

 

[Carshalljd]

Wow, i haven't see the Ntfs error in a long time. Here's what those mean:

Ntfs - Part of the OS. Trouble talking with the HDD
ftwmgr - Part of the OS. Windows file system filter. i'll give a command to run below
ACPI - More of the core OS software.

At an elevated command prompt (right click and run as admin), and type: chkdsk C: /F. You will get a message that the volume is in use, type Y to have the volume checked on the next restart, close the command prompt & restart your computer. Once it does it's thing, open a command prompt again, run as admin, and type this: sfc /scannow This will scan system files and repair them if needed.

Post back if it finds and fixes anything.

On a side note, some malware can cause those same errors. Download (https://www.malwarebytes.org/free/) and run it. It will probably be clean, but it's safe to double check.

I typed in the first code and this is what the computer showed after I restarted it:
Stage 1)
444928 file records processed.
File verification completed.
2755 large file records processed.
0 bad file records processed.
0 EA records processed.
76 reparse records processed

Stage 2)
596484 index entries processed.
Index verification completed.
0 unindexed - (Once I got here the program finished and flushed all the information and began starting the computer.)

I'll post more once the computer has started up and I finish your instructions

 

[Carshalljd]

As anort3 said, you really need to burn a liveCD like the UBCD to test the hardware. What i told you will only help fix the OS if that is indeed the problem. Use one stick of RAM and run the test. If it passes/fails then put in another RAM stick and test again.

Create a boot CD using this: http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

Alright I've got the program on a disk and I have it ready for when I'm done with command prompt thing

 

[Carshalljd]

The scan now did not come up with any problems. Im going to run memtest and I'll post if anything comes up.

 

[Carshalljd]

I decided to try the ram switching in and out stuff again because one pair was much older than the other. Before I said that the second pair alone did nothing(These are the newer ones, I believe I installed them Nov. 22) I was wrong. This was because I put them in the second two slots which is where I had them before, but I had to put them in the first two or it wouldn't work. I put them in the first two and the computer ran and started up like normal. When it finished logging in it said that it resolved a driver error with the Nvidia driver which is related to my graphics card. I'm wondering if maybe one of my older ones is damaged, as its very possible. Im currently running starcraft and some other programs that weren't working and the computer isn't crashing yet. I'll post if it does but things are looking good.

 

[The_IT_Guy]

Glad you are making progress with the issue. Just look at all the new stuff you've learned!

 

[Deleted member 217926]

You should still run memtest. 8-10 hours for 8GB.

 

[Carshalljd]

The computer just crashed >_< so I restarted it and the second I turned it on the bsod came up again. Ill run Memtest over night and report any results in the morning. Also if it means anything, I have had many malware/virus issues in the recent past which may have led to this.

 

[Carshalljd]

aha! This time its a different problem, or so it seems. I just restarted the computer again and American Megatrends came up and at the bottom it says: Over voltage failed! Please enter Setup to re-configure your system.
Im going to set it to 1.5 like you suggested earlier and hopefully this will do the trick.

 

[Carshalljd]

I started the computer up and it SEEMS to be working fine, although in my time this means nothing :/. That being said I've got a good feeling and i'll be posting if it crashes again. Even if it doesn't I'll still run memtest over night just incase.
(Also when the voltage was set to 1.71000 it was highlighted bright yellow. Now its white like everything else)

 

[Carshalljd]

Well. It crashed. This time it was different however, the blue screen never came up after the crashing. When it crashed, the monitor disconnected from the computer but the mouse and keyboard remained on/connected. Also the red LED light came on and sustained. I tried restarting the computer and got absolutely no result but the mouse and keyboard turning off. No matter what I press or click, if the computer is on then nothing works but the red light. Obviously this will make it hard to run the memtest program… any ideas? It seems as though clicking the MemOk! button is supposed to help this.

 

[Carshalljd]

Opened the computer in the morning and memtest found nothing. Im currently running of the two 4gig rams in slots 3 & 4 because the manual suggested it. I've tried all combinations of DIMMs and all of them eventually crash.. But now when the computer crashes the red light doesn't come on. The computer literally freezes so I force restart and then immediately get the bsod. Also random components like the keyboard don't work on certain startups

 

[Deleted member 217926]

It may have very well damaged something with the RAM voltage set so high as I said above. It also sounds like a bad power supply. Do you have another you can test with?

 

[Carshalljd]

It may have very well damaged something with the RAM voltage set so high as I said above. It also sounds like a bad power supply. Do you have another you can test with?

I do have my old one, as I said before though I just installed a new one along with the graphics a couple of weeks ago.

 

[Deleted member 217926]

I thought the blue screens started when you upgraded? Even high end parts can fail or be defective.