BSOD help

[a82allison]

I added 2 more MiniDumps on post #5! Thanks!

I got the BSOD and I don't know how to fix it. I'm running Vista 32bit.

The problems have been accumulating. My computer would not update windows (kept getting errors) for about a month. I am not a computer expert so it took me a month of here and there research to finally fix that problem. I ran some kind of Microsoft Fix It tool and it finally began updating again. Ever since that issue I've been having problem after problem. My Norton subscription ran out at about that time as well so I uninstalled Norton. I started getting BSOD everyday and when I looked up the error code it was determined that it could have something to do with Norton pieces still hiding in my computer. So then I ran a Norton Uninstaller from that company two days ago. I've also recently installed several pieces of software. I went one day without a BSOD and now today I got it again! But its a new error. And I can't find much about it, so would love some help.

I've also had many issues with the computer not responding after going to sleep..etc. I only have 1 mini-dump, the latest one. I will attach it, please any help would be appreciated!

Allison

 

[Route44]

Your error is 0xA and these are caused either by hardware or drivers. Unfortunantly it only listed a Windows OS driver as the problem but OS drivers are too general to be of much help.

Give us your system specs plus the security software you are running now. If you get any more BSODs and minidump files please attach.

 

[a82allison]

Windows Vista Home Premium
AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 6000+
3 GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE nForce 430

and I'm running AVG Free at the moment, along with Windows Firewall, Spybot S & D, and malwarebytes.

Thank you for the response, I will definitely attach more mini dumps when I get them. I ran CCleaner during one of my fix attempts earlier, and I guess that wipes out mini dumps?

Allison

 

[Route44]

Yes, CCleaner will clean out minidumps. By the way, you did the right thing by using the Norton Uninstaller Tool. We've lost count of people still having issues with Norton without using that utility.

May I also suggest dropping Spybot S&D and use the excellent SuperantiSpyware (SAS). They have a free version and have daily updates (but with the free version you must do the updating manually).

 

[a82allison]

2 More BSOD, attached MiniDumps

Here are 2 MiniDumps from today. Can someone take a look and tell me if they are more informative than the first? Thanks!

 

[a82allison]

Thanks for recommending SuperAntiSpyware.. I think I'm outdated with Spybot after reading reviews. I will be switching.

Any ideas on my recent minidumps?

Allison

 

[a82allison]

No ideas here? This will be my last bump up, just really hoping someone can help me out! Thanks!

 

[Route44]

I attempted to read your two latest minidumps but I received the "not correct symbols to analyze" the dumps which is hard to believe considering I have the proper symbol packages installed.

Anyway, one error is 0xA and these are caused either by hardware or drivers.

The second error is 0xFC: ATTEMPTED_EXECUTE_OF_NOEXECUTE_MEMORY

Unfortunantly both dumps only give the probable cause as Windows OS drivers and these are usually too general to be of much help.

The 0xFC is an interesting one and trying to find updated reference to either Visat or 7 is difficult. It can, however be due to drivers. You said you loaded additional software after removing Norton. What software did you load?

 

[a82allison]

Since Norton I've loaded, AVG Free, Firefox and a couple of its add ons, Gladinet, malwarebytes, and Picasa.

What I've done is turn off my computer sleep mode. I've noticed that it only crashes when trying to wake up from sleep. Since I've done that, I've not had any more crashes...so therefore no more minidumps.

But my computer doesn't "like" to boot up either. It takes 3 or 4 tries before it will boot up all the way. It usually just partially starts and then stops on a black screen with a cursor flashing, and won't go any farther. After 3 or 4 goes with that, it'll finally boot up all the way.

Once it is up and running it's fine though. So, booting up and waking from sleep seem to be the real issue.. any ideas on what might cause that?

Thank you so much!
Allison

 

[Route44]

What are the functions ofGladinet and Picasa? Besides AVG and Malwarebytes, what other security software are you running?

 

[Archean]

@a82allison
Also check whether your event logs are recording some meaningful info about whatever is happening. You can do this by going to Control Panel, System & Security, then to Administrative Tools, and open Event Viewer, then review all logs, especially the ones with Red/Yellow tags. If there is something of interest, please post it here. Regards

 

[a82allison]

Security software I run is AVG Free, Windows Firewall, malwarebytes (manual), and SuperAntiSpyware. My computer crashed this morning, so I do have another minidump to post when I get home this evening.
I checked the EVENT LOGS before I left for work this morning and was kinda overwhelmed! lol.. I will copy and paste some of them here when I get home as well. There were 2 or 3 errors that I noticed happened over and over and over again. Like over a hundred errors of the same type in one day. That seems crazy to me. I hope when I am able to post them that you guys are able to make something of it for me! Thanks

Oh, and Picasa is photo editing software, and Gladinet is cloud computing...it mounts my Microsoft Live SkyDrive as a drive on my computer so that I can drag and drop folders into it.

 

[Route44]

Question: After you uninstalled Norton and before you installed the latest software were you getting BSODs?

When you post next time we would really like to see what 2 or 3 things keep repeating. It could be certain drivers engaging at start-up and causing conflict, but at this time it is only a guess.

 

[a82allison]

I started getting BSOD's after I fixed my Windows Update problem that I talked about up in the first post. I hadn't got ANY before that. I fixed Windows Update AND installed new software within about 1 day, so I'm not sure which of those could be causing the problem.

However, my problems with waking up from sleep have been happening for several months (before the software and windows update issues). Also my booting problem was here and there for the last few months, but ever since getting the BSODs the boot up problem is constant and MUCH worse.

I'm at work right now, but as soon as I get home I will definitely post the latest minidump along with those event errors that keep repeating.

Allison

 

[a82allison]

Okay here are the errors that keep repeating constantly:

Faulting application wmiprvse.exe, version 6.0.6002.18005, time stamp 0x49e01c05, faulting module ntdll.dll, version 6.0.6002.18005, time stamp 0x49e03821, exception code 0xc0000374, fault offset 0x000afaf8, process id 0x1f0, application start time 0x01cac077ee4aa21a

Faulting application svchost.exe_ProfSvc, version 6.0.6001.18000, time stamp 0x47918b89, faulting module FastProx.dll, version 6.0.6002.18005, time stamp 0x49e03729, exception code 0xc0000005, fault offset 0x0001d71f, process id 0x598, application start time 0x01cabd0ceb2c7a4c.

Your computer was not able to renew its address from the network (from the DHCP Server) for the Network Card with network address 001BB9D89EF5. The following error occurred:
The operation was canceled by the user.. Your computer will continue to try and obtain an address on its own from the network address (DHCP) server. (I don't know what this means but I don't know how I would have canceled anything like that knowingly???)

Certificate for local system with Thumbprint 4e 7c 54 42 2a 43 1a db de 20 36 77 0e b2 fa 58 fb 58 cd 44 is about to expire or already expired.

There are also ones that repeat that just say things like "The previous system shutdown at 8:38:31 AM on 3/5/2010 was unexpected."

And here is the latest minidump also... Thank you so much for helping!!

Edited: I was just googling wmiprvse.exe to just see what that is because it is in one of those errors up above, and it looks like that could be a malware?? Is that right? If it is, then how do I find it and what am I supposed to do...and why is none of my spyware/malware/antivirus stuff finding it?

 

[Route44]

Most likely it is not a malware (though malware will mimic Window OS drivers in lettering). It is a Windows OS driver as is svhost.exe.

Your error was an 0x8E and these are almost always caused by hardware and is a good indicator of corrupt memory. Though sometimes they can be caused by drivers. Again, another OS driver was cited which isn't really any help at all.

We're going to do a tried and true diagnostic step at this time. We want you to run Memtest on your memory. It is free and completely safe and what makes it easy to run is that it engages right after your system boots up long before Windows even gets to the load screen. We are not saying memory is your issue but this is a good test to run.

See the link below and follow the instructions. There is a newer version than what is listed but either one should work. If you need to see what the Memtest screen looks like go to reply #21. The third screen is the Memtest screen.

Let it run for a LONG time. The rule is a minimum of 7 Passes; the more Passes after 7 so much the better. There are 8 individual tests per Pass and once these 8 tests are finished it will start over again but don't make the mistake it is just repeating itself; it is not.. Many people will start this test before going to bed and check it the next day.

If you have errors you have corrupted memory and it needs to be replaced.

Also, with errors you need to run this test per stick of RAM. Take out one and run the test. Then take that one out and put the other in and run the test. If you start getting errors before 7 Passes you know that stick is corrupted and you don’t need to run the test any further on that stick.


Link: https://www.techspot.com/vb/topic62524.html


* Get back to us with the results.

 

[a82allison]

I let it run yesterday afternoon and all night last night. It did 12 passes and no errors were found. I'm starting to feel that reinstalling Windows with my Recovery disc might be my only option. If you guys know of any next steps to take before doing that, I'd appreciate it.

Is there any software that I could download that would tell me if the drivers on my computer are up to date? Or do I just trust that Windows Update, actually updates everything it should?

 

[Archean]

The most basic technique you can use is open device manager (by right clicking on my computer, then clicking on device manager) and update all components drivers by right clicking on them and selecting update drivers.

To determine what driver may be causing the problem we need you to enable driver verifier.

Before proceeding on the following steps please ensure that you can boot your system in safe mode.

Steps:
a) Windows Key + R (or go to Start, and click on Run)
b) Type in 'verifier' and hit enter
c) Make sure 'Create Standard Setting' is selected and hit next
d) Click on 'Select all drivers installed on this computer' and hit Finish
e) Reboot

There is a possibility that your computer will crash on reboot. If this occurs hit F8 when rebooting just before the windows logo screen and select the safe mode boot option. Follow the same steps above but on step 4 choose 'Select driver names from a list'; hit next; check the box next to any driver where the provider is not Microsoft; hit Finish; reboot.

This will slow the performance of you computer a little while enabled but will hopefully catch the driver causing corruption. Next time you crash the blue screen will hopefully say something like "DRIVER_VERIFIER_DETECTED_VIOLATION". When this occurs please repost your minidump.

Also check for updates of your motherboard's bios (if there is a newer version available with the manufacturer; try installing that).

Edit:
Please note that Driver Verifier will continue to run on every boot up until you run (by going to Start, then to Run):

verifier /reset

 

[a82allison]

I was just thinking (been racking my brain for any changes that I noticed at some point in time before all these issues started happening), and awhile back my LightScribe stopped working. Could this possibly be a driver that needs to be updated? I can still burn CDS, DVDS, and run them...but I cannot use the LightScribe function anymore. It wasn't a big deal to me at the time because I hardly ever use it, but I wonder could that affect the computer itself? I'm just guessing at this point.

Also there are a few pieces of software that I can think of off the top of my head (I'm at work) that are probably out of date..like Kodak Easyshare and FlipShare.

When I get home I will update those and do as Archean has suggested as well.
How does that "verifier" thing work? Will it run until my system crashes again? You said it will slow my computer down while it is running.. how long does it run? And is it a safe process? Or could I lose data or anything like that??

And motherboard BIOS scares me! lol... I don't know hardly anything about computers, I just follow instructions and can do fairly "safe" things... BIOS sounds like a disaster waiting to happen to me... but I don't know. Unless I don't understand it right, it sounds almost like reinstalling vista might be better than messing with bios??

 

[Archean]

I dont think any of these software will causes crashes because being older versions. However, if they have some inherent bugs/incompatibilities then its another story.

Verifier will slowdown on for the instances when its checking all the device drivers being loaded at boot; thats about it. No you won't loose any data.

Yes, bios updates are bit tricky/scary; but nowadays, most vendors has made it easier to do, so one can usually download a single executable and simply run it.

I would advise you to separate your data from your operating system/programs, place it on another partition (e.g. D: etc.). This way you never have to bother about anything if your OS go bust or something like that. I have been doing this since the olden days, and I would attribute this habit of saving me from lots of pains

 

[a82allison]

I haven't done the verifier thing yet, will do that as soon as I know I still have an issue. Last night I updated drivers for Realtech (sorry can't recall how that is actually spelled), NVIDIA, and some TV tuner thing. Those drivers were all out of date when I went through the Device Manager.
I also disabled all my hp services from start-up as I was getting quite a few errors of "HP Cue discovery service hung on starting". (I looked at those errors in Problem/Solutions log and saw tons of them each day). When I googled that it seems it is a common error with HP and Vista, and the fix was simply to disable the service. So I did that.

So I figured I'd wait on the next crash to see if any of that fixed it yet. (hoping).

 

[Route44]

Good work on your part. And, yes, those HP drivers can be a real pain especially at start-up. Your HP product is still functioning, yes?

 

[a82allison]

My computer is an HP so I have all kinds of HP junk on my computer..lol. I think the discovery service was for the printer, and yes my printer still works without that.

 

[Archean]

It is indeed mostly junk

Anyway, please keep us posted, and in case you need any further assistance. Regards

 

[a82allison]

I'm still here..

Comp is still crashing fairly often although it has seemed to slow down a bit. Here are the 5 most recent mini-dumps.. could someone take a look and let me know if they tell you anything specific? Thanks!