[SOLVED] Constant random BSOD's and Black Screen Reboots - Windows 8.1 x64

T

Thortok2000

Member
Joined
Oct 9, 2014
Posts
11
The BSOD issue is getting really bad, it used to be a once a week thing. Today I can barely keep the computer on for five minutes. It took me 5 tries to run the file collection app...it kept BSODing before the app could even finish. Finally stable enough for me to post.

I tried to run perfmon but I get this:
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[TD]Error:

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[TD]An error occured while attempting to generate the report.
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The operator or administrator has refused the request.


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OS - Windows 8.1
· x64
· What was original installed OS on system?
Windows 7 I think? Maybe XP?
· Is the OS an OEM version (came pre-installed on system) or full retail version (YOU purchased it from retailer)?
Full retail I believe, I got it for free from a Microsoft thing at my college.
· Age of system (hardware)
Unsure, maybe 3-4 years, maybe 5.
· Age of OS installation - have you re-installed the OS?
I reinstalled the OS awhile back, maybe 1 year ago?

· CPU - AMD FX-6100
· Video Card - NVIDA GeForce GTX 760 (New, previous was a 660ti, thought maybe replacing the graphics card would stop the BSOD, now it's even worse)
· MotherBoard - Gigabyte GA-970A-D3
· Power Supply - brand & wattage (if laptop, skip this one)
No idea

· System Manufacturer - Custom built at local computer store
· Exact model number (if laptop, check label on bottom) - N/A

· Laptop or Desktop? - Desktop
 
I have a SanDisk SSD as my main OS drive and I tried updating the firmware yesterday... seemed stable for hours, thought maybe it was fixed, but today it's going crazy. I can't really afford to buy a whole new computer, so if I need to throw money at it I need to know which part to replace. I'm also just about ready to reinstall Windows 8 and hope that fixes it.

The main irritant is that the error is not CONSTANT. It's completely random. It'll go hours without a BSOD, days even, and then sometimes Windows won't even finish booting before it blue screens. SO FREAKIN' RANDOM. ARGH! If it was the same error over and over I could diagnose it or google it (maybe, or at least try), but I'm just about at my wit's end trying to figure this out. Through some googling I found a program called 'bluescreenview' which when I googled using that I saw this forum. Finally decided to stop reading other threads and just make one of my own, as I can't seem to find a 'similar' issue.

When I first installed Windows 8 on this computer, on an SSD, it was wicked fast. Something happened, forget what, but Windows 8 had to be reinstalled after a year or two of perfectly stable use. (Actually I think it was that I had to RMA the SSD drive I was using at the time, an 80 gig kingston.) Then I got the 120 gig Sandisk that I'm using now, and reinstalled Windows 8 one last time. After that point though, it wasn't quite as fast (30 second boot time to desktop was now more like 2 minute boot time to desktop). It was maybe a year or two before I realized that AHCI was disabled. I googled how to enable AHCI without reinstalling, and did it. It didn't seem to have any effect at first and then bam, about a week later, my 30 second boot time was back, and it's been like that ever since. But maybe a month after that, the BSOD's started, about once a week or so, getting progressively more common.

I have a horrible concept of time so those 'years' could be anything. I have no idea how long Windows 8 has even been out, but I was a very early adopter thanks to it being free via my school's program. I picked it up about a month after release, and got 8.1 the week it came out, too. I'm like one of the 1% of the population that actually enjoys Windows 8, it seems. =P (I particularly love the 30 second boot time! Power button to responsive desktop, in under 30 seconds (thanks to auto-login as well). Awesome!)
 
I wish I could afford a good computer with an SSD.
Anyway, lets see what we can find.

Code: 
BugCheck [B][COLOR="#FF0000"]124[/COLOR][/B], {0, [COLOR="#008000"]ffffe00034ad68f8[/COLOR], 0, 0}

This bugcheck indicates a fatal hardware error occurred, the second parameter will display the WHEA error record which should help us identify the cause.

Code: 
0: kd> [COLOR="#008000"]!errrec ffffe00034ad68f8[/COLOR]
===============================================================================
Common Platform Error Record @ ffffe00034ad68f8
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Record Id     : 01cfe3f6044d14ad
Severity      : Fatal (1)
Length        : 928
Creator       : Microsoft
Notify Type   : Machine Check Exception
Timestamp     : 10/9/2014 19:20:01 (UTC)
Flags         : 0x00000002 PreviousError

===============================================================================
Section 0     : Processor Generic
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Descriptor    @ ffffe00034ad6978
Section       @ ffffe00034ad6a50
Offset        : 344
Length        : 192
Flags         : 0x00000001 Primary
Severity      : Fatal

Proc. Type    : x86/x64
Instr. Set    : x64
Error Type    : [COLOR="#FF0000"]Cache error[/COLOR]
Operation     : [COLOR="#FF0000"]Instruction Execute[/COLOR]
Flags         : 0x00
Level         : 3
CPU Version   : 0x0000000000600f12
Processor ID  : 0x0000000000000002

===============================================================================
Section 1     : x86/x64 Processor Specific
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Descriptor    @ ffffe00034ad69c0
Section       @ ffffe00034ad6b10
Offset        : 536
Length        : 128
Flags         : 0x00000000
Severity      : Fatal

Local APIC Id : 0x0000000000000002
CPU Id        : 12 0f 60 00 00 08 06 02 - 0b 22 98 1e ff fb 8b 17
                00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
                00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

Proc. Info 0  @ ffffe00034ad6b10

===============================================================================
Section 2     : x86/x64 MCA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Descriptor    @ ffffe00034ad6a08
Section       @ ffffe00034ad6b90
Offset        : 664
Length        : 264
Flags         : 0x00000000
Severity      : Fatal

Error         : [COLOR="#FF0000"]ICACHELG_IRD_ERR[/COLOR] ([COLOR="#00FFFF"]Proc 2[/COLOR] [COLOR="#800080"]Bank 1[/COLOR])
  Status      : 0xb600000000100153
  Address     : 0x000000000000000a
  Misc.       : 0x0000000000000000

It would appear there was a cache error on the 1st memory bank of the second processor, it was specifically an instruction execution error, it would probably be a corruption within the processor cache.

The other thing to consider is consistency, this error is consistent quite a bit with the same processor and memory bank, looking more like a failing CPU than anything.

I'm not going to post all the dump files as there are a lot and I'm getting tired so it'll take me a while, basically there are lots of instruction pointer misalignements and various other memory related illegal operations.
This would point more to failing RAM, however, there is very much the possibility of a failing motherboard which is causing problems in the memory and the CPU.

Unfortunately, with hardware errors like this, it's very difficult to pinpoint the exact culprit so it may well be the CPU, RAM, motherboard or multiples.
Lets try our best but my money is on your motherboard failing.

  1. Monitor your temperatures when idle and when performing a certain task that crashes the system (if there is one), reapply the thermal paste to the CPU if it's overheating.
  2. Clear the CMOS to remove any improper settings and overclocks How To Clear CMOS (Reset BIOS) [Easy, 10 to 15 Min]
  3. Remove any bloatware such as AI suite which can cause these errors.
  4. If all the above fails then I recommend you replace the motherboard as it's most likely the cause, you could try testing it with another one to see if it continues.
 
Jared said:
Unfortunately, with hardware errors like this, it's very difficult to pinpoint the exact culprit so it may well be the CPU, RAM, motherboard or multiples.
Lets try our best but my money is on your motherboard failing.

  1. Monitor your temperatures when idle and when performing a certain task that crashes the system (if there is one), reapply the thermal paste to the CPU if it's overheating.
  2. Clear the CMOS to remove any improper settings and overclocks How To Clear CMOS (Reset BIOS) [Easy, 10 to 15 Min]
  3. Remove any bloatware such as AI suite which can cause these errors.
  4. If all the above fails then I recommend you replace the motherboard as it's most likely the cause, you could try testing it with another one to see if it continues.
Click to expand...

Gigabyte tends to have good warranties, so the motherboard may actually still be under warranty.

What's a good program to monitor temperatures with?

I'll clear the CMOS to factory in a couple minutes, but I do need to adjust some settings off the default. (Like AHCI, boot order, etc.) Those are okay, right? I don't overclock.

It's been awhile since I ran anti-malware, so I'll run that, but I don't know of any bloatware that I have. Does something indicate I have AI suite or is that just an example? I can't seem to find it.

I could easily get a new motherboard if you think it'll help...my concern is buying something and it doesn't fix the problem. That's what happened with the graphics card. =(
 
I use hwmonitor to view my temperatures.
Ai suite is an example as it's bloatware from ASUS.

Unfortunately with these hardware errors, we can probably never be certain which component is failing.
Try and RMA the motherboard if it is still under warranty.
 
Loaded up HWMonitor, took two tries cause the computer crashed the first time. -.-

As soon as I had it running, I noticed the -12V channel had a 'max' of -4 and a 'min' of -13. Then it BSOD'd again. Now that it's back on again, it has a min of -16 and a max of -5. None of the other voltages have nearly the range of that one.

The highest temperature on the chart is 'tmpin2' which is 72 but usually overs around the 59-65 range.

This is not 'under load' but ironically the computer seems to run better under load (playing AC4 or BF4 on nearly maximum graphical settings). I can just be sitting here looking at a webpage and it BSOD's sometimes.

It will also sometimes 'black screen reboot' where the computer just flicks off like someone pushed the power button, and then reboots itself (like I say in the subject.)

It will also sometimes 'freeze' where the monitor is locked to whatever was displaying at the time of the freeze and it'll stay that way for hours if I leave it alone or come back to the computer to find it froze an hour ago. (I can actually tell from the clock in the systray when the freeze happened.)

I know you were focused on mobo, ram, and cpu, but could it actually be the power supply?

And/or does any of the above stir any additional thoughts?
 
It could be the power supply, yes.
Post a picture of the HWmonitor screen. Can you also take a picture of the BIOS screen which shows your voltages.
 
Took it to the computer store. We tested both hard drives which were fine, and the power supply (not really a test, just plugged it up and set it to watch a youtube video for awhile. Didn't crash.) I took the motherboard/ram/cpu combo and we stress tested that for about 20 minutes.

We were talking about giving up when suddenly the mobo turned off by itself. Upon inspection the CPU was REALLY HOT. We removed the heatsink, gave it a thorough cleaning (it had a layer of dust on it), cleaned off all the old paste, got some arctic silver and reapplied the heat sink.

It's odd, cause the hwmonitor didn't SEEM like the temperatures were high. But I compare it to now: imgur: the simple image sharer

It seems an order of magnitude cooler, now. We'll see if it stays that way.

I've now brought it home to see if it can go the night without another crash. Will let you know!
 
and the power supply (not really a test, just plugged it up and set it to watch a youtube video for awhile. Didn't crash.)
Click to expand...

You said it...

How does a computer repair shop that 'tests' PSU's not have a multimeter? :r1:

It's odd, cause the hwmonitor didn't SEEM like the temperatures were high.
Click to expand...

Are the results of your previous HWM values from simply viewing it whilst idle? If so, that's why. If your motherboard turned off/reset itself during stress, it's because your CPU overheated.

Regards,

Patrick
 
What temperature range is 'too high' and results in overheating?
Click to expand...

The maximum temp for most AMD CPUs (especially FX series CPUs) is 70c. If you're pushing that, or over it, you have a temperature problem.

Regards,

Patrick
 
That's good news, the problem with these erorrs as stated is that it's difficult to determine the exact cause when the errors aren't consistent.
At least we found the CPU was the culprit, that would've been up there with the motherboard and PSU.

Any other issues let us know.
 
The other bugchecks that weren't 0x124s were swaying me towards a bad motherboard.
The main reason I suspected your cpu was because of the consistent 0x124s that show an instruction error. Almost always a bad CPU if it's consistent.
 
Well, cpu is going to be my next upgrade probably, moving from a six-core to an eight-core. I'll make sure to use some more arctic silver when I do, though. ^_^ I think a cheaper variety of thermal paste was used this last time and it wasn't doing a good job, apparently. (The layer of dust didn't help either.)
 

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