Windows 7 BSOD at least once a day - Win 7 RTM

[tryon]

It all started a week ago, my computer began to restart like crazy. (I installed it approximatly 2-4weeks ago, before university started and it was fine in the first week or so)

Here's an example of the classic log critical error:

Log Name: System
Source: Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power
Date: 2009-09-19 12:53:19
Event ID: 41
Task Category: (63)
Level: Critical
Keywords: (2)
User: SYSTEM
Computer: po-i7
Description:
The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns=\"http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event\">
<System>
<Provider Name=\"Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power\" Guid=\"{331C3B3A-2005-44C2-AC5E-77220C37D6B4}\" />
<EventID>41</EventID>
<Version>2</Version>
<Level>1</Level>
<Task>63</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x8000000000000002</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime=\"2009-09-19T16:53:19.284413700Z\" />
<EventRecordID>13168</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID=\"4\" ThreadID=\"8\" />
<Channel>System</Channel>
<Computer>po-i7</Computer>
<Security UserID=\"S-1-5-18\" />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data Name=\"BugcheckCode\">0</Data>
<Data Name=\"BugcheckParameter1\">0x0</Data>
<Data Name=\"BugcheckParameter2\">0x0</Data>
<Data Name=\"BugcheckParameter3\">0x0</Data>
<Data Name=\"BugcheckParameter4\">0x0</Data>
<Data Name=\"SleepInProgress\">false</Data>
<Data Name=\"PowerButtonTimestamp\">0</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>

As for minidumps I have been unable to read the them successfully, they always throw at me the "wrong symbols" error even if I downloaded the original RTM 64bits symbols... Over the course of my last 33 last BSODs (last 7 days) which were all "kernel-problem" like the one quoted before (+859 Error + 816 Warnings, all during the last 7 days) I noticed a few types of errors:
IRQL not less or equal
page fault in non paged area (related to drivers, 64bits I think)
win32k.sys
afk.sys (edit: this is the one I got tonight ^^)
nothing written

I've uninstalled almost anything on my computer that I installed "recently" (except office 2010 technical preview whch state it isn't installed when it isn't, this problem is for another day), ran memory diagnostic, ran chkdsks, unplugged all usb devices, but it doesn't seem to help.

When I play videogames it crashs more often (latest version of all my drivers btw), but it also crash every night (for the last 7 nights at least) or everyday when I'm at work when all that is running is Jdownloader and Vuze (both on java, so I reinstalled that as well)

I also tried System Repair but noticed windows 7 only allowed 1% of my disk space to be used for this purpose ... instead of 15% like vista, so I had no usefull restore points available, great ! (since I noticed I increased it to the full 15% it should have been from the start, what a load of ...)

I wanted to do a "repair" like there was in XP, sticking the installation disk and pressing "R" instead or "I", that would have reinstalled critical windows files, it looks like microsoft didn't deem that an interresting feature so I would have to reinstall windows entirely. I would have done that if my university would not have decided to charge me for MSDN-AA in the meantime ... and I can't find my W7 CDkeys that is already on my machine. (edit: thx to Link Removed I retrieved the key)

I had an issue with a driver pack and conflicts with those already included in windows 7 (with kazaa mega codec pack to be exact, since then I uninstalled it entirely and replaced it by CCCP, during the time of the "conflict" some of my mp3 were oddly unplayable)

If you have any more ideas on what might be causing my issue please let me know and thank you for your time, I seem to have tried everything. I am currently updating my soundcard drivers and will check for any possible BIOS update...

 

[kemical]

Hi Tryon,
the 'Repair' console you were after is in a slightly different place now..
Boot from the 7 disk and when you get to the install screen, you'll also see 'repair'.

 

[tryon]

Hi Tryon,
the 'Repair' console you were after is in a slightly different place now..
Boot from the 7 disk and when you get to the install screen, you'll also see 'repair'.

Yes I know it's the same place than on windows vista, but there's nothing on reinstalling system files, only memory check / full backup / system restore or to repair a problem with the booting of the system (at least from the GUI perspective, maybe there's a command ?) ... a very unhelpfull repair panel indeed. It's sad but the only way to restore the file system appear to be a clean install, no option to "repair system files" like we had on XP (never used this on vista beyond the "repair startup which worked")

 

[pbcopter]

Do an upgrade on itself. That is basically the same as Xp's repair install.

 

[stueycaster]

Did you try "System File Checker"? I won't try to explain how. There's a better explanation here.

SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker - Windows 7 Forums

 

[tryon]

Do an upgrade on itself. That is basically the same as Xp's repair install.

I thought it would create a windows.old and delete my programs ... I wanted to try it during the beta phase, but it needed 10gb or so to "upgrade" and I never let that much storage space left on my C drive ... so now I have to "resize" my main partition, guess I'll do this while at work this week. Thx for the hint I'll try this this week... but it doesn'T solve my problem of CDkey which I can retrieve from my installation and I can't access my msdn-aa account (anyone know of a program to retreive my key on my current installation? It is still valid they just blocked the access to msdnaa and made us pay for it last friday ...)

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7600]
...
Beginning verification phase of system scan.
Verification 100% complete.
Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them.

but in the log file it doesn't say exactly which files were or not successfully recovered (attached to the post)

thx for the hints

 

[pbcopter]

Magical Jelly Bean Software - Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder v2.0.1

 

[tryon]

Magical Jelly Bean Software - Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder v2.0.1

thanks! I've searched a bit last night without success

 

[stueycaster]

but in the log file it doesn't say exactly which files were or not successfully recovered (attached to the post)

thx for the hints

The first time I ran SFC I got the "Unable to fix some" error message too. I thought "Oh well" and let it go at that. However it did fix a problem that I was having. Then yesterday I ran it again and it found no errors at all. I thought there should have been something wrong because of the first time. So this time I called up the sfcdetails.txt file and this is what I found.

2009-08-09 13:16:26, Info CSI 000002d0 [SR] Verify complete
2009-08-09 13:16:26, Info CSI 000002d1 [SR] Repairing 1 components
2009-08-09 13:16:26, Info CSI 000002d2 [SR] Beginning Verify and Repair transaction
2009-08-09 13:16:26, Info CSI 000002d4 [SR] Repairing corrupted file [ml:520{260},l:46{23}]"\??\C:\Windows\System32"\[l:20{10}]"user32.dll" from store
2009-08-09 13:16:26, Info CSI 000002d6 [SR] Repair complete
2009-08-09 13:16:26, Info CSI 000002d7 [SR] Committing transaction
2009-08-09 13:16:27, Info CSI 000002db [SR] Unable to complete Verify and Repair transaction because some of the files that need to be repaired are in use. A reboot is required to complete this operation.
2009-08-09 13:16:27, Info CSI 000002dc [SR] Repairing 1 components

Obviously the next time I rebooted it finished fixing the problem.

The bad news is that I didn't see anything like that in your sfcdetails.txt file. Sorry but I don't know what to say at this point. I did find this with a little searching.

Link Removed - Invalid URL

The thing is it's about Vista. Maybe someone at a Microsoft forum could help. Or maybe you really do need to do a Windows Repair.

 

[tryon]

Just so you know, I have not had more issues with BSOD, without even "upgrading" my installation.

I downloaded the latest audio driver from my motherboard manufacturer's website and unchecked everything on autorun (sysinternal's product). Note that upgrading my NIC through windows update crash my card and I can't rollback driver, I had to use another computer to download the drives, I thought this would have been fixed in the RTM :/. Also note my audio drivers (the one that didn't crash my computer) weren't available on WUS, I had to get them manually.