Unusual bluescreen related to Firefox

[MrNamegame]

Hello there! I'm having a bit of a problem...I can normally run Firefox just fine, but recently I found that if I have a program installer or video game launcher downloading something in the background, CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED bluescreen occurs. I've debunked my hardware as the cause entirely, and as a matter of fast Firefox is even less stable when I disable overclocks. If I use Edge, Internet Explorer or Chrome, however, all is well and the operating system couldn't be happier...any ideas as to what this might be? I'm fine with using Chrome for now as I've used it before, but it'll take me a while to detach from Firefox if necessary.

 

[Gingerbread]

Either driver or registry problems. If you do a clean reinstall of your windows the problem should go away.

 

[MrNamegame]

I can't do a clean reinstall because Windows 10 upgrade installs are a pain in the arse. However, I found out that my Firefox was simply corrupted and using too much disk transfer for one of the critical processes to handle. The only reason I'm not switching back to Firefox is because I find it is far less data intensive, which makes it easier to watch videos while waiting for a heavy download.

Thanks for your help regardless, though.

 

[Colif]

If the problem returns, you can do a reset of windows in the recovery menu of Update & Security and keep all your files. You would still need to reinstall applications though, but it saves time over a full install.

 

[MrNamegame]

If the problem returns, you can do a reset of windows in the recovery menu of Update & Security and keep all your files. You would still need to reinstall applications though, but it saves time over a full install.

I appreciate your help. I may be suffering the memory management issues that the others have been for a while, but I'm not sure...would have to tweak my settings some to make the card properly work.

I have a feeling that there are 2 potential causes so far:

Cause 1 - I recently tested dual monitor behaviour with my card, and the card exhibited odd results. The main display's contrast and brightness would not stay fully consistent, the computer started delaying typing input by 10 seconds between each key, and when I unplugged the second monitor the computer reverted to it's failsafe font set for everything until I restarted it. It still seemed completely responsive otherwise, surprisingly, but the graphics card cannot behave properly. This was with a slightly downscaled 1920x1080 HDMI output (as my monitor overscans and has no native resolution function for HDMI) and a 1280x1024 Dell monitor on a DVI to VGA adaptor.

Cause 2 - I am not sure why this happens, but this symptom occurs once every 2 or 3 weeks. The computer will be running everything fine, then it will ENTIRELY softlock for 30 seconds except for audio. Then, when 30 seconds is up, it will do one of two things: It will resume normal operation for 10 minutes, do it again, and then resume normal operation entirely like nothing happened, OR it will come up with a CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED bluescreen. Sometimes when this second result occurs, the cursor is responsive but nothing else.

So far, what are your thoughts on this? Previously I would be constantly tweaking things in Windows, but when I had to reset it a while back I didn't change anything again because I wanted to change as little as possible to keep the computer as stable as possible due to fear of losing all my stuff once more without being prepared.

 

[MrNamegame]

Hold on a moment...my Intel Gigabit something something device wasn't working two days ago and now it's fine.

Seems the Ethernet on my desktop could be faulty and causing softlocks. I'll update you with further information on the subject.

 

[Colif]

Is the intel gigabyte thing your motherboard? check the download site for your motherboard and see if there are new drivers available for lan. Have a look in device manager and see if you devices not working at the moment.

Firefox is more likely tied into cause 2, though I can't find anything to back that up.

try typing SFC /scannow into a command prompt with admin rights.

could also try the steps set out in this: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-performance/criticalprocessdied/d2ccf5df-5492-4ff5-bb60-eee0dcfb4801

One way to avoid some of the pain of an install is try this: http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/16397-repair-install-windows-10-place-upgrade.html. It copies windows 10 over itself, though that note is important.

what are the specs of your machine? it might help with cause 1,

 

[MrNamegame]

My current progress fixing the issue: Firefox was indeed broken, but not the entire cause...it simply had some registry issues after running a command prompt command I forget the name of which redownloads a copy of the most recent Windows image and replaces/repairs bad files. The only reason I didn't bother reinstalling Firefox is because I got too used to Chrome already. However, while the softlocks have gone down in frequency, they are still prevalent and appear so far to be caused by software, as indicated by when I tried to run a program and then when it came out of the softlock, it entirely restarted the Windows desktop and the program gave multiple missing directory errors (an NES emulator by the name of Nestopia).

EDIT: Was halfway through writing this and got a GPU update from 15.12 to 16.3.2. May or may not have fixed the issue, will still consider solutions but will first test computer as is for a little bit before resorting to other solutions.

Regardless, I will list my specifications.
Intel Core i7 2600K 2nd Gen OCed to 4.5 ghz (returning to default clockspeed has had no effect on this issue)
XFX Radeon 3GB DD Edition OCed to 1030 core 1455 VRAM (returning to defaults actually increased softlocking, may be possible culprit)
1x8GB DDR3 1600mhz Patriot Viper RAM (possibility that Windows is inefficient in single channel mode or that this RAM stick is working too hard solo and occasionally crashes. Have not done anything with it yet. The other RAM stick was destroyed by a static issue with the motherboard, however that static issue is gone now.)
ASUS P8Z68-V Pro/Gen3 (The motherboard quit doing the glitch with the Gigabit ethernet, was as simple as a driver reinstall.)
256GB Corsair M4 SSD (the only problems it has ever given me was when I was using what Thermaltake calls hot swap bays on their Level 10 GT case. Stupid weak point...otherwise has always been rock solid reliable.)
4 TB Seagate NAS HDD secondary (It may seem like a culprit at first, but I ran it on Windows 7 for 3 years before upgrading to 10 and only started experiencing these issues on 10. Also rock solid reliable so far.)

Both CPU and GPU run at no more than 60 C each as I have made the fan curves of both very aggressive and get lots of airflow with 2 200mm fans and a 220 mm fan. Rear 140mm was removed due to bearing failure, otherwise stock case fan setup. I dust out this computer once a month and do regular maintenance on the operating system, and have done the norm for performance tweaks excluding the Virtual Memory thing (this is due to out of memory issues with GTA V, plus Windows 10 has overcome the virtual memory hurdle in the case of gaming computers anyways.) I should note that this 7970 is one of some plagued with a video output chip that becomes unstable handling more than one monitor signal, however I never use more than one monitor anyways and the warranty was just expired when I bought it used.

 

[Colif]

My case was specifically bought to keep CPU cool (http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=242)
and it does a pretty good job. Highest I seen is 65c but that was me being an idiot, I thought XMP only overclocked the memory, not the CPU as well. I had no idea what was happening. Anyway, CPU doesn't get anywhere near 65 now (unless I run an AV scan on my c drive) and I normally have the gpu fan on all the time, as it helps cool the hdd cages

I hope you have resolved your issues.

 

[MrNamegame]

My case was specifically bought to keep CPU cool (http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=242)
and it does a pretty good job. Highest I seen is 65c but that was me being an idiot, I thought XMP only overclocked the memory, not the CPU as well. I had no idea what was happening. Anyway, CPU doesn't get anywhere near 65 now (unless I run an AV scan on my c drive) and I normally have the gpu fan on all the time, as it helps cool the hdd cages

I hope you have resolved your issues.

So far, I have noticed that for the first 20 seconds the boot drive operates just a little slower than normal from a dead cold startup, but within a minute it's already running smoother and better overall than it was before with less choppy Windows animations. Might have been a memory management issue from the driver all along, but I'm keeping a sharp eye on this anyways.

 

[MrNamegame]

My case was specifically bought to keep CPU cool (http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=242)
and it does a pretty good job. Highest I seen is 65c but that was me being an idiot, I thought XMP only overclocked the memory, not the CPU as well. I had no idea what was happening. Anyway, CPU doesn't get anywhere near 65 now (unless I run an AV scan on my c drive) and I normally have the gpu fan on all the time, as it helps cool the hdd cages

I hope you have resolved your issues.

Just a quick followup: I've done very extensive testing of my computer on things that normally would cause stress on the machine, and it seems that the newest driver has fixed the issue. My computer randomly crashed attempting to install the graphics driver the first time, but recovered and succeeded in the second attempt to do so. I thank you and everyone else in this thread for helping like they did.