Continual BSODs. Could someone help analyze dump file please?

[MadMikentist]

Hello, I'm having an odd problem that is centered around continual BSODs in Windows 10. Here are my specs:

Windows 10 x64
Asus M5A97 motherboard
AMD Radeon HD 6800 video card
AMD Phenom II X4 975 processor
Samsung SSD 840 EVO 250GB primary hard drive
500GB standard secondary hard drive
8GB of RAM (5.96GB usable?)
DDR3 Corsair RAM


My PC BSODs at random within a few minutes of use. Sometimes during a game (hearthstone or rocket league), but also during copying files to USB or browsing online or running "sfc /scannow".

Here is the dump file:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6KtdudpNDEYVFphSnd2NHkyYjA/view?usp=sharing

I've updated GPU drivers with no change. I also ran "sfc /scannow". The first time it said that some files were corrupted and it fixed them. Now when I try it, it just says 'Windows Resource Protection could not perform the requested operation.' or it BSODs.

When it BSODs, it usually BSODs multiple times trying to reboot. Sometimes this results in the computer failing to boot or even POST and I have to unplug it or wait a while to get it to boot.
I've suspected that RAM is the issue. I ran memtest86 with all 4 sticks of RAM in and I received 180,000+ errors and the test froze. I tried booting with each stick of RAM individually and there are no problems. I tried to run memtest on each stick individually and they all pass with 0 errors. I tried memtest with a single stick in each slot individually and they all pass with 0 errors.

A friend pointed me to this forum post:
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2214624/ram-testing-sticks-prompts-error-testing-stick-error-arise-memtest86.html

It's the same problem I was having. I increased the NB voltage to 1.25 and then all 4 sticks passed memtest together and my computer was working for most of today. Then it all crashed again with a stream of BSODs. I'm at a loss here and I could really use some help or at least someone to point me in the right direction. I really appreciate any tips that can be offered and please let me know if you need any more information. I'll post if I can figure out what finally fixes this. Thanks.

EDIT:
minidump files link:
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B6KtdudpNDEYM2t3NFFvMmY0X1E&usp=sharing

 

[MadMikentist]

Ok, I formatted and reinstalled Windows and everything was fine the first day. I played quite a bit of hearthstone with no problems and thought that was it. Then I was playing a few games of rocket league today to test it some more and it just locks up on me. Not the typical BSOD either, it was a blue screen with static across it and then forced a reboot without any info. Then it wouldn't restart for quite a while. I finally got it to restart and grabbed the 2 minidumps.

It seems to be working fine again, so I don't know what to make of it. I imagine it must be hardware and I'm guessing GPU? This thing has some age and I'm ready to start upgrading parts, so I just need to figure out where the problem is. I'll attach the minidumps to see if they might provide any info and hopefully someone can identify the bad part and I'll replace it. I appreciate the help if you guys have the time to take a look. Thanks.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6KtdudpNDEYMm1Ha2U4OUNMMWs/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6KtdudpNDEYUjJ5dU8tN2ZsRzg/view?usp=sharing

I would just disconnect the old drive and just format during the install.
I think the system looks at your hardware signature and checks on the web if you have a valid license for that signature.
So you would not have to know the key. I am not sure because I am running a pre-release build and don't keep up with the changes.

Yes, I ran into that problem when I was trying to upgrade. My HDD had the old hidden windows partition and it was too small, which took me a little while to figure out. I'm going to install to the SSD, so maybe I'll just disconnect the HDD like I did before and reconnect once Windows 10 is running? I just store some videos and media on the HDD, so it shouldn't be a big deal.

Should I format before I run the Windows 10 disc, or format as part of the reinstall? I just want to make sure it will remember my windows 10 key since I didn't actually buy one, it was part of the free upgrade and stored in Windows I think.

 

[johnbl]

the first memory dump was corrupted,
the second showed a memory corruption error and that your
USB audio device was conflicting with your storage device.

old drivers:
\SystemRoot\SysWow64\drivers\AsIO.sys Wed Aug 22 02:54:47 2012
\SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\avc3.sys Thu Apr 11 01:31:58 2013
\SystemRoot\System32\drivers\tap0901.sys Wed Nov 05 05:16:32 2014

(looks like a asus driver, a bit defender driver and a VPN driver)

your memory got corrupted so you got a bugcheck, I would be removing your USB audio device and its driver.
(or look for a update) USB problems require a kernel memory dump to look at with a debugger. Mini dumps have the info striped out..

I would guess the conflict between the USB audio and the storage device is why the first memory dump was corrupted.



you can look up the drivers up here:
http://www.carrona.org/drivers/driver.php?id=tap0901.sys

Machine:
BIOS Release Date 10/25/2012
BIOS Version 1605
Manufacturer ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
Product M5A97
Processor Version AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 975 Processor
Processor Voltage 8eh - 1.4V
External Clock 200MHz
Max Speed 3600MHz
Current Speed 3600MHz

Ok, I formatted and reinstalled Windows and everything was fine the first day. I played quite a bit of hearthstone with no problems and thought that was it. Then I was playing a few games of rocket league today to test it some more and it just locks up on me. Not the typical BSOD either, it was a blue screen with static across it and then forced a reboot without any info. Then it wouldn't restart for quite a while. I finally got it to restart and grabbed the 2 minidumps.

It seems to be working fine again, so I don't know what to make of it. I imagine it must be hardware and I'm guessing GPU? This thing has some age and I'm ready to start upgrading parts, so I just need to figure out where the problem is. I'll attach the minidumps to see if they might provide any info and hopefully someone can identify the bad part and I'll replace it. I appreciate the help if you guys have the time to take a look. Thanks.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6KtdudpNDEYMm1Ha2U4OUNMMWs/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6KtdudpNDEYUjJ5dU8tN2ZsRzg/view?usp=sharing

I would just disconnect the old drive and just format during the install.
I think the system looks at your hardware signature and checks on the web if you have a valid license for that signature.
So you would not have to know the key. I am not sure because I am running a pre-release build and don't keep up with the changes.

Yes, I ran into that problem when I was trying to upgrade. My HDD had the old hidden windows partition and it was too small, which took me a little while to figure out. I'm going to install to the SSD, so maybe I'll just disconnect the HDD like I did before and reconnect once Windows 10 is running? I just store some videos and media on the HDD, so it shouldn't be a big deal.

Should I format before I run the Windows 10 disc, or format as part of the reinstall? I just want to make sure it will remember my windows 10 key since I didn't actually buy one, it was part of the free upgrade and stored in Windows I think.

 

[MadMikentist]

Thank you for the info. I updated the OpenVPN driver and I removed bitdefender and replaced it with Avast, which I've previously used for a long time with no problems until I couldn't stand their ads anymore. I'll tough it out. I'm surprised bitdefender had an old driver considering I installed it from the newest version yesterday.

As far as I can tell, the USB audio device you're referencing is my table top mic that I use for gaming and vent. Hasn't caused a problem before, but I removed it anyways. The only info I can find about AsIO.sys is that it's related to Asus PC probe, which is oddly enough the program that has been suspected of causing the previously mentioned issue of my USB ports not working when I upgraded to windows 10. So I had to remove the program and do a clean install of windows 10 which fixed. I have no idea how that program could have gotten back on my computer and I can't find any trace of it. Would it be best for me to delete that driver and what would be the best way to do that? Is it likely that these problems are related to a hardware failure somewhere? My rig has some age on it and I'm happy to start upgrading, but I'd really like to know the best place to start. Thanks for your help!

EDIT: After the changes I mentioned in this post, I tried playing a game of hearthstone and crashed again. I had the USB mic unplugged. The only USB devices I had plugged in were my xbox 360 controller and my mouse. Here's the minidump. Let me know if I need to change it to record the kernel dump info

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6KtdudpNDEYSURTYkQtN1pRSGM/view?usp=sharing

 

[Colif]

when you installed win 10, did you install motherboard drivers? I bet if you look in settings/updates & security/windows update/advanced options view update history you will find a file marked Asustek computer co. Win 10 loads a pack of drivers for your motherboard and its likely that file is part of the pack. I would visit the Asus web site for your board and see if anything newer than what you have.

there isn't much: https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/M5A97_R20/HelpDesk_Download/

 

[MadMikentist]

Yeah, it's pretty thin due to the age of my motherboard. Mine is not even R2.0, so the only drivers I have for Win 10 are bios, audio, and lan. All are newest. I'm wondering if I can just get rid of AsIO.sys, but I'm not sure. Good point about that being included in those. That must be where it came from.

when you installed win 10, did you install motherboard drivers? I bet if you look in settings/updates & security/windows update/advanced options view update history you will find a file marked Asustek computer co. Win 10 loads a pack of drivers for your motherboard and its likely that file is part of the pack. I would visit the Asus web site for your board and see if anything newer than what you have.

there isn't much: https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/M5A97_R20/HelpDesk_Download/

 

[Colif]

Computers aren't meant to last forever, my last motherboard was made in 2006 and its last updates were for win 8.1. I didn't even contemplate putting win 10 on it as I knew it was too old for it. It was all getting slow and I didn't know how good ssd were until I got this pc. Old pc had a 300gb Velociraptor in it, that was fast for its day, it was on its last legs though as it had been losing space. My new ssd is just instant. I expect your pc is holding the ssd back.

its likely some of the drivers in pack are win 8.1 versions.

All these errors might be a hint to upgrade soon.

 

[MadMikentist]

I think you're right. And I'm ready to do it. I'm hoping it won't have to be an entirely new build though, so I hope I can figure out which hardware piece is acting up, if this is a hardware issue at all. I'm thinking my first priority will be to upgrade the motherboard and processor. Maybe the PSU next, and eventually the GPU. My SSD should last me a little while. I'm also going to grab a new case because this one has been great, but I see some things about it that I would love to change. Do you have any tips on upgrading components? Thanks for your input.

Computers aren't meant to last forever, my last motherboard was made in 2006 and its last updates were for win 8.1. I didn't even contemplate putting win 10 on it as I knew it was too old for it. It was all getting slow and I didn't know how good ssd were until I got this pc. Old pc had a 300gb Velociraptor in it, that was fast for its day, it was on its last legs though as it had been losing space. My new ssd is just instant. I expect your pc is holding the ssd back.

its likely some of the drivers in pack are win 8.1 versions.

All these errors might be a hint to upgrade soon.

 

[Colif]

Just general tips, I am no expert as I only look at hardware normally when I am upgrading.

buy a good brand psu with high efficiency rating as that counts more than high wattage. Good psu means none of the other parts die a premature death (its no guarantee but its more likely than if you use no name brands). I would look at this for names/models: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html
read reviews of any part you might want to buy, see if its good enough. Watch videos, look for negatives.
I always go nuts on a case and get a really good one as my 1st two pc had crap cases with built in power supplies and I refuse to do that again. 3rd case was a Lian Li and last two been Silverstone... the current one just keeps everything so cool.
don't buy high end or low end GPU, aim for middle - its what I have always done and only have a GTX 980 as I was given a 4k monitor and my GTX 960 wouldn't even run the desktop at a fast enough speed for my monitor to run. I don't intend to spend as much next time.

 

[MadMikentist]

Thanks for the tips. I'm going to start researching parts now and hopefully be able to order some stuff in the next few weeks. Any specific suggestions on cases? This is the one I got with this build:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811156098
I like it because it's easy to open it to work on the inside, but I got tired of the bright lights pretty fast and having to open a door on the front to access USB ports is annoying.

Just general tips, I am no expert as I only look at hardware normally when I am upgrading.

buy a good brand psu with high efficiency rating as that counts more than high wattage. Good psu means none of the other parts die a premature death (its no guarantee but its more likely than if you use no name brands). I would look at this for names/models: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html
read reviews of any part you might want to buy, see if its good enough. Watch videos, look for negatives.
I always go nuts on a case and get a really good one as my 1st two pc had crap cases with built in power supplies and I refuse to do that again. 3rd case was a Lian Li and last two been Silverstone... the current one just keeps everything so cool.
don't buy high end or low end GPU, aim for middle - its what I have always done and only have a GTX 980 as I was given a 4k monitor and my GTX 960 wouldn't even run the desktop at a fast enough speed for my monitor to run. I don't intend to spend as much next time.

 

[Colif]

depends how much you want to spend, i would aim for a case that has got filters on inlet fans as they reduce the dust in the system. most of the brands here should have a case for your needs: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&IsNodeId=1&N=100007583%204017 (careful of size,they not sorted by size so can reduce numbers by doing that too)
anything cheaper is a waste of money and that also stands for more than 200 too. you can get cases for 50 but they pretty bare bones. If you buying a good pc it might as well look good too.

I had decided on my case I wanted years before i got pc, its a 5 year old design so is missing some features these cases would have, but I don't care as it was what i wanted. I did look at alternatives but none really stood out. Most cases these days are covered in led and I am too old for lights. Mine doesn't even have a side window. its just a black monolith that seems to suck in all light around it.

 

[Colif]

Your gpu is using the beta crimson drivers, as its now classified as a legacy device by AMD. That is likely to be a problem in the future. I know this as I tried to help people with HD 7700 series cards recently and they are on the line between the normal crimson drivers and the beta ones you would have. Mums pc has a HD 4500 and somehow it still works fine.

Depending on if you get amd or Intel CPU next, the built in GPU in the CPU is probably more powerful than your GPU is now and you could use the integrated until you are ready to get a new GPU