Ntkrnlpa.exe along with constant crashes?

[Habza]

Hi there!

I got a Windows Vista (TM) Home Premium PC, Specifications are attached with this post.

The BSOD first happened about 3 months ago, with it constantly annoying users (especially me) of the computer every time the power button gets switched on. With the first attempt of the day, it would take a estimate of 4 minutes to occur (whilst being on). In some occasions, it will crash when turning it back on the second time however it works fine afterwards (third attempt of turning it). At that time, I did want to act to the issue but time wasn't on my hands.

and then a month after, it was gone for a good few weeks thinking it been solved ( AVG PC tune up, security and Ccleaner occurred before its absence).

however, the annoying thing came back again (Mid December), same procedure and ever since then I could not find a way to solve the issue....

At first, blue screen was reporting about a "usbhub.sys" error but then it changed to another message (just stated "BAD_POOL_HEADER" on the top left). After running the "Bluescreenview" program (with it having two minidump files saved) the file "ntkrnlpa.exe" was the common one out of the two

Today, I turn on the PC and this time come across another BSOD, but this time it was blank (first time seeing this, picture attached)!!! The crashes also have occurred more often (4 times back to back). some scary stuff.........

so any advice or can someone help me??

*Mini dump file are attached*

 

[Mark56]

I would start by running a test on your memory, follow the instructions below.

Preliminary checks
You should first check the model of RAM stick that you have on the manufacturers site for the recommended voltage setting and then make sure it is set correctly in the PC's Bios. An incorrect voltage setting may be the reason for your problems so test the PC's performance again if the voltage was incorrect.

Errors can also be caused by dirty contacts, mismatched sticks or using them in the wrong slots. Check all sticks are the same make and specification, check the motherboard manual for the correct slots to use. Remove all the sticks and clean the contacts with a soft pencil eraser and blow out the slots with a can of compressed air.

Download Memtest86+ from here

When the download is complete right click the file and select Extract Here and burn the image to a CD.

In windows 7 right click the extracted file, select Open With, then select Windows Disc Image Burning Tool then follow the prompts. For all other versions of windows (if you do not have an ISO burner) download this free software. ImgBurn
Install the program and start the application. Select the top left hand option to burn image file to disk and then on the next window click on the small yellow folder icon and browse to the ISO file you have downloaded. Then click on the two grey discs with the arrow in between (bottom left) and leave it to complete the operation.

Testing
Boot the PC into the Bios setup and set the CD/DVD drive to 1st in the boot sequence. Insert the disk in the drive then reboot and the disc will load into dos. Leave the test to run through at least 8 cycles or until it is showing some errors. If errors show in the test, remove all but one of your RAM sticks and repeat the test on each stick until you find the one that is faulty. This is a long slow test and should ideally be run overnight.

The memtest will not be 100% accurate but should easily detect any major faults.

IMPORTANT
Always disconnect your PC from the mains supply when removing Ram sticks and earth your hands to discharge any static electricity to avoid damage to sensitive components. If performing this test on a laptop PC you should also remove the battery before removing or replacing the RAM sticks.

One quick test you can do is to remove all but one of your RAM sticks, run the PC and see if the BSOD still happens, if it doesn't you have found the problem, if it does then swap the sticks. Continue this test with all the sticks, running the PC on one at a time. You may find that only one of the sticks causes the BSOD.

 

[Habza]

hey there

I ran the memory test before and found no errors, done 9 cycles on it.

(should have included that as well =/)

apologies......

 

[Mark56]

Ok, I have now examined the .dmp files. These suggest a driver problem with Rapport (unlikely) and a Windows driver ecache.sys causing Pool Corruption.

I would suggest you run the System File Checker and keep running it until it comes up with a clean report.

Click on Start > type cmd into the search box, at the top of the pop up box right click on cmd and select "Run as Administrator". At the Command Prompt type sfc /scannow (make sure you leave a space before the /) then hit Enter. Make sure to turn off all running programs and your browser is closed and don't use the PC until the scan has finished. If it reports it found errors but could not repair run again.

 

[Habza]

Just out of curiosity, what is the point of this?
been running the cmd for 4 hours now
kept on getting the same message (Attached)


should I keep going????

 

[Mark56]

You may have corrupted files in the system, the sfc /scannow routine repairs missing or corrupt files. I see it is reporting that there are damaged files it cannot repair. Repeated runs usually fix the problem, but in this case that does not appear to be happening. Try doing a reboot and run it again. If it still shows it cannot complete a repair then please post the log as follows:

Click on Start, type cmd in the search box, then right click on cmd in the popup menu and select "Run as Administrator".
Copy and paste the following command to the command prompt and press ENTER:

findstr /c:"[SR]" %windir%\Logs\CBS\CBS.log >%userprofile%\Desktop\sfcdetails.txt

This will create a text document and save it to your desktop, please post the file, that will tell me what files need to be replaced.

Please tell me if you have a Vista disk and what service pack is included, or is this an OEM machine with A Recovery partition or a set of Recovery discs.

 

[Habza]

its been quite a while now that my PC has succesfully turned on after a restart without BSOD (hopefully it stays like that!).

I deleted some programmes before restarting the PC, thinking it may help (mainly looked at programmes installed at October/November time, all it was is FL studio 10, Shockwave player and have updated rapport)

the same thing popped up in cmd (ran as admin) after the restart when typing "sfc /scannow".
when entering the code it gave me a very long list and it stated something about "failure to produce file". It didn't allow me to type any more in the command prop so I opened a new one as admin hoping something will be made in another attempt

But it didn't..... and every time I put in the code now it puts it in a new row without doing anything, even if I put the "sfc /scannow" before it.

I copy and paste it and type it manually but it doesn't seem to be working any more =/

I should have copied what it said the first time =/

this is a OEM machine with recovery Disks.

 

[Mark56]

Just check there is not a file on your desktop with sfcdetails.txt under it.

 

[Habza]

Hey there!

managed to get the file now with the SFC Details but I can't attach it as it exceeds the file limit!!!!. So I uploaded it on megaupload:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=K68IOWFU

and ever since my last post, I have removed programmes that were installed from october/november 2011 (when it first occurred) and updated one (security programme "rapport") and it seemed fine for two days running

until this morning I turn it on and the BSOD pops up again, followed by a crash.
but with my third attempt, safe mode is currently going well

so here is my new minidump file as well (attached)

points out to ntkrnlpa.exe again :dead:

 

[Mark56]

The minidump states that NPFS.SYS is the faulting driver, I'd guess you are using Blue Screen View which often gets it wrong. This is a Windows System driver and is actually unlikely to be the cause. The error code states that this could be a bad driver or a hardware fault.

The SFC scan has failed to repair some files and reports for one of them that the source file in the store is also corrupted.

If everything appears to be going ok in Safe mode then this would indicate a driver problem as safe mode only runs with the minimal amount of drivers installed.

Problem is that as the crashes are intermittent trying to track down which driver (if in fact that is what is causing the problem) is to blame could take some time.

Two things we can do: first run another system file check but this time just type in sfc /verifyonly and again post the log. This will simply show exactly which files it detects as being corrupt.

Secondly, I would suggest running the manufacturer's diagnostics on the hard drive. Corrupt files can often be the early signs of a hard drive failing.

Please be sure to back up all your important data before proceeding.

Identify the make of your hard drive and then use one of the links below to get the manufacturer's diagnostics for ISO (CD) not the one for Windows.

When the download is complete right click the file and select Extract Here and burn the image to a CD.

In Windows 7 right click the extracted file, select Open With, then select Windows Disc Image Burning Tool then follow the prompts. For all other versions of windows (if you do not have an ISO burner) download this free software. ImgBurn
Install the program and start the application. Select the top left hand option to burn image file to disk and then on the next window click on the small yellow folder icon and browse to the file you have downloaded from the links below. Then click on the two grey discs with the arrow in between (bottom left) and leave it to complete the operation.

Boot the PC into the Bios setup and set the CD/DVD drive to 1st in the boot sequence. Insert the disk in the drive then reboot and the disc will load into dos.

Excelstore Use EStest CD image
Hitachi/IBM Use the Drive Fitness Test - CD Image.
Seagate, Samsung, Maxtor & Quantum Follow links for SeaTools
Western Digital

Toshiba/Fujitsu
If you have a Toshiba/Fujitsu hard drive I would suggest the use of the diagnostics from the Seagate link as this will work on all makes of drive and on any OS.

 

[Habza]

I don't have permission to attach it as I need to be the administrator to do this =/

I did manage to do it before so why can't I do it now? =/

 

[Mark56]

I don't know what could be causing that, you are running the script from post 6?

 

[Habza]

errm no the one in post ten, the sfc/verify only

 

[Mark56]

sfc /verifyonly is a command, the script I was referring to in post 6 is this: findstr /c:"[SR]" %windir%\Logs\CBS\CBS.log >%userprofile%\Desktop\sfcdetails.txt to get the log.

Have you run the diagnostics for the hard drive yet?