Driver causing BSOD? 0xc4

Leo638

Posts: 7   +0
Hi Guys,

This is the first time I have posted as a user, ive found your forums useful in the past but this time I really need your help!

My harddrive gave up the ghost a month or two back, so I bought a new SSD. I had some trouble with BSOD over the next few weeks, programs wouldnt install properly, all sorts of trouble. Finally yesterday I got around to sorting out the problem. I hadnt installed my SSD correctly which was one of the main reasons things were going wrong, happily I have sorted that problem. I was also running 4 sticks of RAM, but as my motherboard has a 16GB limit I had 3 sticks of 4GB identical ram, and 1 2GB, different manufacturer stick. I have removed this stick in the hope it would solve some of the BSOD's.

So after a clean install that went well, I woke up this morning to find that while installing some software overnight I had BSOD'd. I have absolutely no idea what this can be after a clean install of windows 7 so here I am.

BSOD's and troubleshooting:

The first BSOD was a PFN_FILELIST_CORRUPT message.
I ran driver verifier on all my systems drivers to try and find out what this was.
The verifier caused a BSOD when it found the driver, and gave me the error: special_pool_detected_memory_corrupt. I understand this is a verifier specific error.
However, I didnt get a complete dump message as I had reduced the virtual memory. I increased it, ran the test again, got the BSOD and a complete memory dump which was messaged: A DEVICE DRIVER TRYING TO CORRUPT THE SYSTEM HAS BEEN CAUGHT. Unfortunately it didnt not give me the file name, which I assume is in the dump files (which I have attached) but I have reached the edge of my intelligence and dont know where to go from here to go about rectifying the problem.

My system:

Windows 7 home premium
ASRock AM3 motherboard
AMD Phenom II x4 955 processor
12GB RAM (3 x 4GB)
120GB SSD

any help would be greatly apreciated I really dont know where to go from here. If you need any other information from me please just let me know!

Thanks a lot

Liam
 

Attachments

  • Dump files.zip
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PFN_LIST_CORRUPT is the strongest error code message we have signifying corrupt memory. Did you run Memtest on your RAM? Corrupted memory will cause a system to throw out all kinds of error codes but the underlysing issue is bad RAM as the cause.
 
Im going to start memchecking the RAM tonight, i have 3 sticks of 4gb so ill run 1 stick overnight for the next few nights.

The ram is fairly new though, any other suggestions as to what it might be?

Thanks for your help

Liam
 
Quick update, I ran a virus scan which found 2 corrupt windows files, I removed them and ran an SFC /SCANNOW command. Unfortunately it is still finding corrupt files that it is unable to heal, im not sure if these corrupt files have anything to do with my BSOD but I thought id point it out.

Secondly, I had another BSOD around 30 minutes ago, this one IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL. Since I am running 3 RAM sticks I decided to move the single stick to the empty ram slot I have on my board. I then had 2 blue screens it quick succession. I have removed the RAM stick, im going to use memtest tonight on it by itself. Ill run memtest on the other 2 sticks over the weekend. I have attached my latest minidump files. Any advice would be greatly received :)

Liam
 

Attachments

  • minidump.zip
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Three errors:

0x1A: Memory Management which are caused by hardware issues

0x4E: PFN_LIST_CORRUPT which are caused by either faulty RAM or bad drivers. This dump specifically cited corrupted memory as your issue.

0xA - caused by either bad drivers or faulty or mismatched memory. This dump also specifically cited corrupted memory as the issue.
 
Thanks for your help so far :)

I ran memtest on 1 of my sticks over night, it made 12 passes with no errors. I have left the system with just this stick in at the moment until i run the other 2 sticks over the next two nights. If the RAM is good it could simply be the fact that im running 3 sticks, i may have to just drop down to 2.

If the machine hangs today with just the 1 stick in ill attach the dump file. Just one final thought, if it turns out that one of the sticks is bad, could this have had an affect on the windows 7 install? Because i believe there are still some corrupt drivers somewhere, the sfc scan tells me that much. Would you recommend a clean install if it turns out the ram was the issue?

Thanks

Liam
 
RAM all memtested and all clean. I can only put it down to the configuration, my system is a dual channel system and i was running 3 sticks so it must have been that. I did intend to use 4 sticks but i have 4gb RAM and i hit my 16GB motherboard limit. Thanks for your help with this issue

Liam
 
Sorry for my late reply Liam but TechSpot was going through major changes and we weren't able to respond for some time.

Yes, memory configuration can certainly cause issues. How is your system running now?
 
Hey mate, thats alright, the site looks great btw :)

Yeah system seems to be running ok, ive dropped down to the 2 sticks so im just running 8gb. If it seems to be stable over the next week ill try putting the 3rd stick in and see about changing the configurations and stuff, but i want to make sure its stable with 2 first to verify that it is the problem. Like i say the RAM has all memtested ok, its just that with it being a dual channel system it must not like that 3rd stick in there running on its own. And i cant put two in (which was the origional idea) because silly me, 4 sticks of 4GB RAM doesnt add up to 16GB in good old ram world :p a little bit extra each stick and it means i hit the 16GB buffer on the motherboard and it wont even boot. Ive tried running 4 sticks but the 4th only being 2gb but thats just as unstable as the 3 sticks so i might just have to leave it as 8GB till i upgrade the motherboard sometime in the distant future.

Just to throw a question back into the mix, i did a clean install with the 3 sticks when the system wasnt stable, and the SFC scannow is still showing some corrupt drivers it cant remove. Could this have anything to do with the unstable RAM at install and would you recommend a clean install? or is it just something to live with since its not actually affecting anything at the moment?

Cheers guys

Liam
 
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