Windows 8.1 BSOD

David Chandler

Posts: 15   +0
Hello there, I am hoping someone could help me.

Whenever I turn my PC on I get a BSOD. I usually cannot read the text as the image is kind of distorted and ripped across the screen. This usually only occurs after I have turned the PC on after it has been switched off at the wall.

If I use the PC and then shut it down but leave it plugged into the mains then the next time I boot it up I do not get the problem. To clarify: Problem only occurs when the PC has been switched on at the wall and booted up. If left plugged in but powered down then the next time I boot up problem isn't there and I can continue to use Windows as normal.

I thought I had gotten rid of this problem by removing a third party USB 3.0 PCI card from my motherboard. It was running fine for a while and now its happening again.

These are my specs:

Windows 8.1
Gigabyte 970A-D3 Motherboard
AMD FX-8350 (O.C to 4.4Ghz)
Corsair Vengeance 16Gb RAM
Gigabyte Radeon HD 7950
Corsair 120gb Force GT SSD (boot drive)
WD 320Gb HDD (storage)
HP DVDRW
Corsair HX 650 PSU

Thanks for looking.

Merry Christmas :)

- Dave
 
Hi Dave, Merry Christmas to you and yours! Go to C:\windows\minidump. Minidump files have a .dmp extension. Select all the .dmp files, and right-click sending them to a compressed(zipped)folder. Upload that folder as a file here
 
Merry Christmas to you too :)

It will not allow me to copy the files into a zipped folder. "File not found or no read permission"

And if I try to open them in notepad: "Access is denied"

:(
 
Hello again. I got a new motherboard for Xmas (Asus Crosshair V Formula Z) and I have still got issues with BSOD :(

I have checked C:\windows and there isn't a minidump folder which is weird. I have done a complete fresh install of Windows 8.1 and am not currently overclocking. All of my drivers are up to date (as far as I know) and I'm really starting to get annoyed now. I really don't want to have to do a fresh install or anything as I've just spend a whole day re downloading all my games from Steam/uPlay etc.

Thanks again.
 
No not at all. I went to shut down the computer last night and it was taking a real long time. Usually it shuts off in a couple of seconds. But this time it was beginning to shut down. And then it blue screened for a split second. I saw the sad face thing that windows 8 does and instead of turning off the computer restarted itself. Later the same day I cold booted and I got bsod on startup and again it restarted and when it was back on it was fine. Very confusing.
 
Hi Dave, Merry Christmas to you and yours! Go to C:\windows\minidump. Minidump files have a .dmp extension. Select all the .dmp files, and right-click sending them to a compressed(zipped)folder. Upload that folder as a file here
Try posting any new minidumps this way again. What antivirus program are you using if any?
 
I can't post any minidumps as I don't have a minidump folder. And I'm currently using windows defender as standard with windows 8.1. I couldn't install the bundled kaspersky antivirus software that came with my motherboard as it was saying it was incompatible.
 
Yes, that's right. Windows Defender is all Windows 8.1 needs, besides a good temp file cleaner. I have Windows 8.1 Enterprise installed along with Windows 7 Pro, but I also don't have a minidump folder...
 
I think I have corrected the problem by removing the old chipset drivers. I first installed windows 8 and then later upgraded to 8.1 via the windows store and I'm guessing the old drivers aren't needed/supported on 8.1 which is probably why they're not available to download on the asus support page. But nonetheless the problem seems to have subsided. :)
 
Hello again.

Sorry to be a pain in the butt but I'm still having problems with this bloody board!

First off; if I enable fast boot then the PC freezes on the welcome screen... So I turn off the fast boot option. But in my opinion I didn't just spend a load of money on this board and not be able to use one of its key features, or better still SELLING POINTS! There must be a solution to this surely?

Secondly, if ever I run a piece of software that scans the computer and tells me what's inside (for example Piriform Speccy) then I get the BSOD again.

Now this is going to sound odd but hear me out... I was used to seeing the BSOD on Win 8.1 with my old board and it looked kinda low res and not as high quality if you like as the rest of the OS, but now when I get BSOD its like the resolution doesn't change and I don't actually get an error code or anything, just the ":(" and "windows needs to shut down unexpectedly" etc and I STILL don't have a mini dump folder so I cannot scan or upload the dumps to see what the problem is.

Its not just me is it? There is definitely something wrong here?

Thanks for your time.
 
Its got to be a hardware issue. Your specs are not that far from mine except I am an Intel guy. Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H (rev. 1.2), Corsair 650 watt power supply, 16GB DDR3 memory. MSI GeForce 550ti video card, 60GB Kingston SSD for storage. 1.3TB split 50/50 RAID array Windows 7 pro, Windows 8.1 Enterprise...

Have you tried using the hard drive to boot the OS from, and not the SSD?
 
Funny you should mention that.

I installed a fresh copy of win 8.1 on to a spare old HDD I had laying around and it seemed to work fine. But I didn't leave it in long enough to do thorough testing.

If the issue keeps appearing I will put the old HDD back in and see how I get on. If it works fine then its safe to assume there is a problem with the SSD, correct?
 
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Yes, if the hard drive with Windows 8.1 works fine then the problem is with the Corsair 120gb Force GT SSD...Is the SSD on a SATA 3 port with the motherboard set as AHCI or RAID?
 
It's on the first available SATA 3 port in AHCI.

I re seated the processor yesterday. I literally took every last component out. Inspected it all fully and re built the pc. Including new thermal paste and even better cable management. And I THINK I may have finally got to the root of the problem. Because since doing all that it seems to be working much better and it seems to be a lot more responsive and even boots slightly faster. It even overclocks much easier!

I'm going to do some more testing when I get home from work. And I'll let you know how I get on.

Once again thanks so much for your help with this issue. :)
 
"It's on the first available SATA 3 port in AHCI"... That's the proper place and settings for the SSD. Thank you for coming by and good luck:)
 
I've been playing around with it this evening and it seems pretty stable. So hopefully this will be the end of my problems :)

Thanks again.
 
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