Daily BSODs on Win7

[jpowelson]

Hey folks,

I've been having frequent BSODs on my machine for the past couple of weeks. Computer is only about 6 mo. old and I've run through all the self-troubleshooting steps listed in the sticky post (Memtest86+ and all that other stuff). I've also run virus scans with MSE and AVG, and I did remove a trojan, but I am still having BSODs even after removing that.

Unfortunately, for some reason, my computer is not generating minidump files. I enabled minidumps in the startup/recovery section of the advanced system properties so that they would be written to %SystemRoot%\Minidump, but that folder doesn't exist and the only *.dmp files on my machine are application-specific (there are only 5, for Chrome and such). Not sure if this matters, but I have already reset my pagefile, first to 0 and then to about 1.5x of my RAM.

Unfortunately I didn't think to record details from all the different BSODs I've been getting (I assumed the data would be in the minidumps), but I do have an image of the last one I received (edit: please see image in my next post). This most recent BSOD occurred when I was simply trying to restart my computer after doing a virus scan. This was not the typical BSOD I was getting though - prior to that, the BSODs would most frequently occur when my computer had been idle for a little while - 15 minutes or so. Not sure if that helps at all.

I know I probably haven't given a whole lot of info to go on, but like I said I can't figure out why I'm not getting any minidumps. If anyone has any ideas I would love to hear them, as I am near my wit's end. I'd be happy to try to gather some more info that would help you guys figure out my problem, so please let me know what else I can provide.

My specs:
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 970 3.5 GHz
RAM: 8 GB
PSU: 750W


Thanks in advance,
Jeff

 

[Tmagic650]

Can't read the pic. You may need to post this in the "Virus and Malware Removal" forum:
https://www.techspot.com/vb/menu28.html

You may still be infected (or the infections damaged Windows files)

 

[jpowelson]

Thanks for the suggestion, Tmagic. I just read the sticky at the top of that forum, so when I get home I'll try going through those steps before posting. I also just posted a better pic attached to this message.

 

[Tmagic650]

Partmgr.sys is a Partition Manager driver dealing with the hard drive...

 

[jpowelson]

OK, thanks for that. Any idea what the problem is or how to fix it? I looked online but couldn't seem to find a clear solution for someone that had my same problem. Do I need to reinstall a particular driver, and if so, where's the best place to d/l it?

I should also add that my C: drive is a Crucial M4 SSD (CT064M4SSD2 2.5" 64GB).

 

[Tmagic650]

Is the SSD set as AHCI in the bios?

 

[jpowelson]

Not sure, but I will check when I get home. I was not familiar with that so I googled it... I've been using an external HD and various flash drives since I built the computer 6 mo. ago with no problems previously.

If I don't have AHCI enabled, will I have issues if I try to enable it now?

 

[Tmagic650]

If AHCI is not enabled you will have to format and re-install Windows fresh after you enable it. Also, is the SSD connected to a SATA 3 port?

 

[jpowelson]

If AHCI is not enabled you will have to format and re-install Windows fresh after you enable it. Also, is the SSD connected to a SATA 3 port?

Yes, the SSD is connected a SATA 3 port.

It was hard to figure out how to check if AHCI was enabled in my bios - even when I googled it I had trouble finding it (I've never had to look for it before). I THINK I found it in this "integrated peripherals" menu; there was an option called RAID mode, and the 3 choices were IDE, AHCI, and RAID. It looked like I had IDE selected.

Just to be sure, I did a little more research and found this AS SSD Benchmark utility. I ran that, and looking at that, it seems to verify that IDE setting. I've attached a screenshot of those results, along with a screenshot of a more recent BSOD.

So what are the implications of me being in IDE mode? Could this be causing my crashes? Does IDE/AHCI just affect performance, or stability too? It's weird, because the computer ran just fine for 6 months.

Anyway, I'm trying to figure out what my next step should be. I guess I could reinstall Windows and figure out how to enable AHCI instead of IDE, and see if that fixes anything. OR, I could go through the virus removal steps from that forum and see if it's a virus problem rather than a SSD problem. What do you recommend?

Thanks for your ongoing help,
Jeff

P.S. [edit] The benchmark is in German lol... "Zugriffszeit" = acc. time, "schreiben" = write, and "lesen" = read.

 

[Tmagic650]

Hi Jeff, yes there should have been instructions on how to properly set up the SSD included with it. We know that AHCI or RAID and a SATA 3 connection are the settings that work best with SSD's. Since you are getting the BSOD's and running IDE, the only thing to do now is to set the bios to AHCI, format and install Windows fresh on the SSD... Good luck

 

[jpowelson]

Thanks for the tips, Tmagic. I will go ahead and format my SSD and reinstall windows, this time with AHCI. One more question - would you recommend I format my other drive, the 1TB HDD, as well? I have some music and a few lesser-used applications installed on that drive, but if I happen to still be infected with something, I wouldn't really know if anything bad is on that drive (instead of or in addition to the more likely scenario that it's on my C: drive).

I don't know much at all about virus removal, unfortunately. Like I'm not even sure if backing up my music on an external HD before a reformat could "preserve" a virus....

 

[Tmagic650]

Virus and other malware usually reside where Windows is installed. I use free MSE (Microsoft Security Essentials):
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/products/security-essentials
You can set which drives to scan. The default is C. I would install MSE and scan your other drives after Windows is installed on the SSD in AHCI mode... Also, I think you will have to format all the other drives anyway, after AHCI is set. I have a 1.3TB RAID setup using 3 -500GB mechanical drives, and 1 -420GB drive not in the RAID array for backup

 

[jpowelson]

OK, thanks. Yeah I have been using MSE as well.

So you think I will have to format the other drive too, but after I've formatted my SSD and reinstalled windows? Could you expound on that please?

 

[jpowelson]

Also - and I'm sure this is a dumb question - but does it matter which SATA slot the SSD is installed in? In my BIOS there's a screen that shows this:
SATA1: xxx
SATA2: xxx
SATA3: xxx
SATA4: xxx
SATA5: xxx
SATA6: xxx

For each of those slots that has something installed to it, "xxx" lists the name of the drive. At least two of those are SATA III ports IIRC. Is there any significance to SATA2 vs. SATA3 in the context above, as long as the slot the SSD is installed in has the SATA III technology? I just want to make sure I'm not confusing the labels of these ports with "SATA III" as in the storage interface specs.

 

[Tmagic650]

When you change the bios from IDE to AHCI all the drives will not be accessible until you format them, so yes, save the important stuff and the SSD drive should be attached to a SATA 3 port

 

[jpowelson]

When you change the bios from IDE to AHCI all the drives will not be accessible until you format them, so yes, save the important stuff

Thanks, I will do so.

and the SSD drive should be attached to a SATA 3 port

Right, but what I'm trying to ask is, if "SATA1" through "SATA6" are all SATA 3.0 (6GB/s) ports (as it turns out, they all are), does it matter which drive goes into which slot? I'm thinking that it doesn't, that they're interchangeable, but I just want to be sure. Right now I have the SSD in "SATA2", which is a SATA 3.0 6GB/s port, and I just want to make sure that's ok.

 

[Tmagic650]

Yes, if all the SATA ports are SATAIII, then you can attach the SSD to any port. SATAIII ports will run SATAII devices, but only at SATAII speeds, understand now?

 

[jpowelson]

OK, got it. Thanks.