Random BSODs

[intzor]

I've started having random BSODs on my system. They come about for no apparent reason after one, two or three days of the system running. I've checked the integrity of the system files, all is fine; done a checksdisk with repair; checked memory and hard drive with WD hard drive utility.

Nothing reports problems. Anyone have any suggestions about how I might narrow down the cause of the issue?

My intuition is it may be related to my hard drive. I run Hard Disk Sentinel which used to show the drive health as %100. It then went down to 99%. And now it is reporting 985 health with "1 weak sector found on the disk surface." Technically this still qualifies as "excellent health" according to Sentinel, but I Remember reading that once these utilities even begin to pick up any problems at all there are already problems with a drive. Is this the case? I know that the only drive I have had totally crash on me was a drive which showed degraded health on Sentinel but still registered as "excellent" then overnight and without warning failed.

Would appreciate any feedback.

 

[Ichy]

Out of curiosity are you actually reading the BSOD errors, or just waiting for the machine to reboot? I understand that you have used 3rd party softwares to check the intergrity of your files and some of your hardware, however, did you add any new software or new hardware to your settup? A conflict could be occuring, I am not 100% sure, but its probabbly safe to say that the 3rd party software doesn't check compatability issues which can cause BSODs; and yes compatability issues are still around.

 

[intzor]

I frequently try out new software, but have been unable to associate the crashes with one particular program. The error is listed as KMODE EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED--probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe

New event: my computer crashed while running memtest86.

I got the following two reports in "WhoCrashed" for this event, both at the same time:

crash dump file: C:\windows\memory.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntkrnlmp.exe (nt!KeBugCheckEx+0x0)
Bugcheck code: 0x1E (0xFFFFFFFFC0000005, 0xFFFFF80003083FC4, 0x0, 0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF)
Error: KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED

crash dump file: C:\windows\Minidump\120211-32375-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x7CC40)
Bugcheck code: 0x1E (0xFFFFFFFFC0000005, 0xFFFFF80003083FC4, 0x0, 0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF)
Error: KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
file path: C:\windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe


Any thoughts?

 

[Ichy]

crash dump file: C:\windows\memory.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntkrnlmp.exe (nt!KeBugCheckEx+0x0)
Bugcheck code: 0x1E (0xFFFFFFFFC0000005, 0xFFFFF80003083FC4, 0x0, 0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF)
Error: KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED

crash dump file: C:\windows\Minidump\120211-32375-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x7CC40)
Bugcheck code: 0x1E (0xFFFFFFFFC0000005, 0xFFFFF80003083FC4, 0x0, 0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF)
Error: KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
file path: C:\windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe

Googled the 0x1E (0xFFFFFFFFC0000005, 0xFFFFF80003083FC4, 0x0, 0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF)
and came up with the link:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-performance/bugcheck-code-0x1e-0xffffffffc0000005/8432efbe-e165-4156-a468-737ca08c03a3

A quick read through suggest a memory problem. Its been awhile since I delt with kernel problems, but from the sounds of things the kernel; which controls how the software and hardware interact, is recieving a exception from a driver or pieces of software (more than likely a driver problem because it bsod's) that it doesn't know how to handle and ends up eating up your ram to the point of bsoding.

EDIT:

http://forums.amd.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=318&threadid=155840

Its a link to amd processors forums, but has good info for you as well, including how to possible indentify the driver causing the problem; if that is the case.

 

[intzor]

Thanks for your reply and the links.

I think I've found the source of the problem and it looks like it is indeed my Hard Drive--though I still can't account for how this could have caused the crash during memtest. At any rate, I ran WD's Data Lifeguard Utility and my boot drive and it has failed the "quick test" three times in a row now. I've applied for a warranty replacement; with any luck it will arrive before this drive bites the dust, and once I have my system on the new drive, these BSOD's will be history!

 

[intzor]

Received my replacement hard drive and moved my system to it and have been running it a few days now with no BSODs. So it looks like the previous drive was indeed the problem.

 

[gamerk316]

Bug Check 0x1E: KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED

This indicates that a kernel-mode program generated an exception which the error handler did not catch.

Basically, something inside the system got REALLY screwed up somewhere. Everything from a bad driver to a faulty piece of hardware can throw this error, making it hard to nail down to a particular item. Best piece of advice is check the event viewer and see if any errors pop up around the time of the crash.

 

[herboren]

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