Trying to diagnose Windows7 crashes

[sApuska]

I have system crashes of two varieties, that have happened under both Windows 7 and Windows Vista:

Scenario 1: Sometimes (not all the time) the system will reboot when I choose shutdown/restart/hibernate/sleep and leave an Event 41 (Kernel Power) Task 63 in the EventViewer. This crash will happen many times in a row and then not at all for a week or two and then happen many times in a row.

EventData

BugcheckCode 0
BugcheckParameter1 0x0
BugcheckParameter2 0x0
BugcheckParameter3 0x0
BugcheckParameter4 0x0
SleepInProgress true
PowerButtonTimestamp 129690922494983590

Scenario 2: When playing two different games (IL2:1946 steam version or X-Plane 10 demo), the system will crash and reboot, again leaving the Event 41:

EventData

BugcheckCode 0
BugcheckParameter1 0x0
BugcheckParameter2 0x0
BugcheckParameter3 0x0
BugcheckParameter4 0x0
SleepInProgress false
PowerButtonTimestamp 0

The system I'm running is as follows:

Antec New Solution NSK3480 MicroATX Mid Tower Computer Case w/ 380W Power Supply
GIGABYTE GA-MA78GM-S2H AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI Micro ATX Motherboard
SAPPHIRE 100245L Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Video Card
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5400+ Brisbane 2.8GHz Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
LaCie d2 Quadra 500GB External Hard Drive
ViewSonic X Series VX1940w 19" LCD Monitor
Pioneer 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA Model DVR-216DBK
AZiO AWD102N PCI Wireless Adapter
GIGABYTE GM-M6800 Wired Optical Mouse
Microsoft Windows Seven Ultimate 64-bit (used to have Vista64 Home)

 

[Max1s]

Is your PSU dying? That might cause random reboots....

Other than that just try searching the stop code on the blue screen on google.

 

[sApuska]

That's an option. Do PSU power failures happen mostly when you're trying to reboot/restart/shutdown/sleep/hibernate though?

With regard to the blue screen, I've never, ever, ever had a blue screen in relation to this problem (and I have the "automatically restart after system failure" turned off, too. I've also tested the memory (zero errors).

 

[soundguruman]

take out one stick of RAM
Install one stick in the slot closest to the processor
Go ahead and run test, run the system for a while...click start and type in the box: windows memory diagnostic-run the diagnostic for each stick of RAM installed.
Now repeat for the other RAM stick.
These types of crashes were reported when there was a bad stick of RAM, or a faulty video driver. The current version of the driver should be 11.12

I am writing this from a computer that had the very same problem, with a Gigabyte board. So far it has turned out that one of the RAM sticks was bad. After I removed that one stick, the system has been running with no further problems.
I was able to detect the bad RAM stick with windows memory diagnostic tool.

 

[sApuska]

Thanks a lot for the information. I had tried the memory diagnostic with both sticks in, but I'll try it out with one stick at a time.

As far as the catalyst driver, is there anything I need to do besides the AMD/ATI automatic driver scanner/installer? I ran that today and it said my driver was up to date.

Thanks again for the detailed instructions. Really appreciate it.

 

[sApuska]

Well, I've completed the Windows Memory Diagnostic, first with one stick next to the CPU, then the other stick next to the CPU. Both tests come up with "No problems were detected." What next? Memory's not the problem, but I still think it's hardware, due to the problem being the same with both Vista and Win7. Sigh...any more suggestions?

 

[sApuska]

Still trying to fix this problem. Does it sound like a motherboard issue, a PSU issue, or what? I will take all guesses as valid options.

 

[chippies]

The problem could also be related to some piece of software, especially anything that installs drivers.

As for hardware, you could try running other stress test software like Furmark, Intel Burn Test and Prime95 to see if your GPU and CPU stable, although this is a random guess.

There's also memtest86 for testing RAM, which may do a better job than Windows.

What about your HDD? Try running scan disk and checking the SMART status using Speedfan or Sandra Lite. Any errors could indicate a dying HDD.

 

[soundguruman]

Well, I've completed the Windows Memory Diagnostic, first with one stick next to the CPU, then the other stick next to the CPU. Both tests come up with "No problems were detected." What next? Memory's not the problem, but I still think it's hardware, due to the problem being the same with both Vista and Win7. Sigh...any more suggestions?

Are you sure you have the 11.12 video driver installed?
It is not unusual to have a bug when the sleep hibernate is turned on, go into the power profile and turn off sleep and hibernate, and leave the monitor standby ON. Set the power profile "allow this device to turn off to save power" to OFF, so that no device is allowed to turn off to save power.
If you have done all that and it still malfunctions, you may actually have a bad motherboard.

 

[sApuska]

I have disabled all sleep functions in the power options now. I checked my ATI thing and it has 11.12 in the "software version" section. I'll try to include a screenshot.

Disabling hibernate is not really a workable option. I'll try turning it off to see if makes a difference, but I'd eventually like to get it to work, as hibernate is very useful to me.

 

[sApuska]

Would network driver/sound driver/improper SATA settings cause the inconsistent crashes? E.g., I click on "quit" in Jamestown (great game...) and it crashes the system to POST twice in a row, and then the next two times it works. I click "settings" in FSX once and it crashes to POST and the next time it's just fine. I click "Shut down" and it shuts down once every ten times, and crashes to POST every other time. What kind of thing causes that?

 

[sApuska]

Update: I pulled out my Sapphire HD 4850 to see if that would effect the behaviour of the crashes. I haven't had a single crash yet since pulling the card...hibernate works, using problem programs works, in short, so far, so good. So I'm thinking the power supply might be not enough to run the graphics card, even at idle power -OR- the graphics card is wonky. What do you all think?