Windows 7 BSoD and Random Shutdowns

[physast]

Hello everyone,
I just purchased a HP HPE 180t computer (specs below). I have reformatted and reinstalled the operating system three times now, twice using HP's stuff and once using a clean install from a Windows 7 professional CD. After about a week of using the computer sometimes 3 or 4 days I start getting BSoD and random shutdowns. Also sometimes when I shut the computer down myself it will hang on the shutdown screen. Sometimes the computer will shutdown or BSoD 14 times in one day. In fact I had to rewrite this post because of a BSoD. I have the computer attached to a gateway monitor using the DVI port on the graphics card and to a samsung HDTV using the HDMI port of the graphics card.

I figure the best place to start is with the minidumps. I thank you for your help.
This is all the info I could find. Let me know if you need something else
HPE 180t
windows 7 premium (hp install)
windows 7 pro (clean install - right now)
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-930 quad-core [2.8GHz, 1MB L2 + 8MB shared L3 cache]
8 gig of ram
2 internal hard drives
2 external hard drives connected to the esata ports.
1GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 220
Pegatron IPMTB-TK HP/Compaq name: Truckee

 

[Radenight]

Hello everyone,
I just purchased a HP HPE 180t computer (specs below). I have reformatted and reinstalled the operating system three times now, twice using HP's stuff and once using a clean install from a Windows 7 professional CD. After about a week of using the computer sometimes 3 or 4 days I start getting BSoD and random shutdowns. Also sometimes when I shut the computer down myself it will hang on the shutdown screen. Sometimes the computer will shutdown or BSoD 14 times in one day. In fact I had to rewrite this post because of a BSoD. I have the computer attached to a gateway monitor using the DVI port on the graphics card and to a samsung HDTV using the HDMI port of the graphics card.

I figure the best place to start is with the minidumps. I thank you for your help.
This is all the info I could find. Let me know if you need something else
HPE 180t
windows 7 premium (hp install)
windows 7 pro (clean install - right now)
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-930 quad-core [2.8GHz, 1MB L2 + 8MB shared L3 cache]
8 gig of ram
2 internal hard drives
2 external hard drives connected to the esata ports.
1GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 220
Pegatron IPMTB-TK HP/Compaq name: Truckee

Ok, you said that you have installed Windows 7 three times now.. Twice using HP's "stuff" and once from a Windows 7 Pro DVD..?

How are your HDD's partitioned? When you installed from the Windows 7 DVD did you make sure to format all partitions that didn't contain any personal DATA?

It sounds to me like either a partitioning problem or something wasn't formatted prior to the reinstallation and that's what is causing Windows 7 to be "confused" and resulting in the BSOD..

Could you please provide a screenshot of your HDD's partitioned? (IE: A screenshot of "Disk Management" would be ideal)..

Is Windows 7 the only OS you have installed?

If you could provide the screenshot and answers to the questions I have asked, we should be able to pinpoint the cause of the problem as well as a solution..

It could just be a simple driver error too (Windows 7 did have an issue with multiple monitors when it was first released).. but it's best to start at the beginning just in case..

 

[physast]

Radenight,
Each time I reinstall windows because of the BSoD and shutdowns I reformat the hard drive that the windows will be installed to. In the case of the HP installs, HP will usually partition the drive into two parts, one for the "back/restore" and the other for the operating system. When I installed off the windows 7 DVD I merged the two partitions then deleted the remaining one partition and formatted the drive before installing windows from the DVD.

Windows 7 is the only operating system I have installed. It came pre installed with windows 7 premium.

I am not sure what disk management is, but right now there is only one large partition on the C: drive. Well I think windows makes a 100 mb partition for something but I am not sure.

Where can I find disk management? I will try to get a screen shot if I find it.

 

[Radenight]

To open Disk Management: Open the Start Menu --> Type diskmgmt.msc in the Search Box and hit Enter. The utility will automatically open once you have typed it in..

 

[physast]

Thank you, here is the screen shot.

 

[Saltgrass]

OK, I am not the resident dump file reader and if ickymay comes by he may chastise me, but it looks like you may be having a problem with your jraid.sys driver.

Are you running a raid setup? Maybe this is the driver for the eSATA controller. Can you check to see if this driver is the latest update?

 

[physast]

saltgrass,
I have been having issues with the external drives connected to the esata ports. The WD drives connected to the esata are set for raid 2 I think. They are mybook studio drives that have two drives which are mirrored. These drives sometimes are not recognized by the system after they go into low power mode. I have been thinking about switching them to USB to see if this helps, but wanted to get help here first.

I am not sure how to check if the jraid.sys driver is the latest driver, can you help me with this.

 

[Saltgrass]

I would go to HP and see if they have a jraid .sys drive available for download for Win 7. Check the dates to see which one is the newest.

Normally controller drivers for SATA and such things are included with the Chipset drivers, but if you are running RAID, or a second controller, they will be different and may need to be added.

For instance, my motherboard has two SATA controllers. Win 7 seems to install a basic driver and does not account for my eSATA jMicron controller.

Since you gave the model of your computer, I will check to see if I can find anything, but it is always best if the actual owner checks.

Edit: jraid.sys may be related to a JMicron controller.

 

[physast]

I went to the HP website and looked, but did not find anything specific to the jMicron controller. I did see an intel storage controller.

When I checked the driver for the Jmicron controller in device manager I see this:
Provider: JMicron Technology Corp.
Date: 7/17/2009
version: 1.17.49.4

EDIT: I am not running raid on the two internal hard drives. The external drives hooked up to the esata ports are running raid, but I think that Western Digital has raid on board for these drives. WD Mybook studio drives.

 

[Saltgrass]

It seems the one I have on my system is older that yours... v 1.17.47.14, which I got from Asus. My system does not show an entry for the JMicron in Device Manager, but I do not run a RAID system.

Can you disconnect the drives to test?

Edit: It turns out I do have a JMicron controller shown when I have my external drive connected. It shows up under "Storage Controllers". If you are running RAID on that controller, you must have it set for RAID.....

 

[physast]

I just unplugged the two external drives from the Esata and plugged them into the USB ports. The Jmicron controller still shows up under the storage device in device manager.

I am not sure how to set up the controller for raid.

Maybe the WD drives are just not good for esata ports because of the frequent power save mode that they go into. I will let this setup run for awhile and see what happens.

Has anyone else looked at the dump files? Any other possible causes.

 

[Saltgrass]

In the bios, probably on different pages, there should be a way to set your primary SATA controller and the JMicro to IDE/AHCI/RAID. You can set the JMicron differently which I would assume, would be RAID if that is what you are running.

Do you get a RAID setup utility when you boot and have to hit some F key to set it up?

Once again, I have never run a RAID setup and connot really give you any good advice about it or the equipment to be used..

 

[physast]

I think the WD mybook studio has on board raid, but I will check to see.