Windows 8 BSOD Windows 8.1 + Crashing

[Cephalogan]

I got this computer recently and I've been trying to play a couple of games on it and they have all crashed after some point of time. They run smoothly for the most part. Normally when this happens I get odd color bits on the screen and everything just freezes up. I have to force restart to get it fixed. I have only once gotten a BSOD error. The error code is 0xa000001 and I googled a bit around to see if I could find something about it and found something about the drivers. I have tried to completely remove the drivers installed and to re install it thinking it'd be just a corrupted file but this hasn't worked. I was wondering if it could be something else? I only got the BSOD once and otherwise it was just a complete freeze up of the screen and I couldn't do anything

 

[kemical]

*******************************************************************************
*                                                                             *
*                        Bugcheck Analysis                                    *
*                                                                             *
*******************************************************************************

Use !analyze -v to get detailed debugging information.

BugCheck A0000001, {5, 0, 0, 0}

Probably caused by : atikmdag.sys ( atikmdag+25580 )

Followup: MachineOwner

Hi,
the above dump file has a Bugcheck which is particular to AMD drivers and can mean there may be an issue with the card itself or not enough juice (power) is getting through.
The symptoms you describe above however sound suspiciously like overheating although that's by no means certain.
Usually with Notebooks the manufacturer supplies the updates although GPU drivers for mobile solutions are also made by both Nvidia and AMD.

BiosVersion = X550EA.206
BiosReleaseDate = 09/24/2013
SystemManufacturer = ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
SystemProductName = X550EA

Your Bios also has several updates pending:
Link Removed

AiCharger.sys Fri Sep 23 03:04:40 2011: Asus Charger Driver known on occasion to cause issues/BSOD-Uninstall to test.

atikmdag.sys Tue Aug 13 05:03:58 2013: AMD gpu driver. The latest driver can be found here:
Link Removed

Use this application to monitor your temps although i'm pretty sure you can see the temp in your Catalyst drivers too:
http://www.hwinfo.com/

Stress test your graphics using this app:
http://www.ozone3d.net/benchmarks/fur/

Using the above two tools you should be able to determine if your overheating or not. Make sure any vents are free from obstruction like dust and carefully monitor the temps of the gpu whilst your stess testing.

Post any new dump files

 

[Cephalogan]

*******************************************************************************
*                                                                             *
*                        Bugcheck Analysis                                    *
*                                                                             *
*******************************************************************************

Use !analyze -v to get detailed debugging information.

BugCheck A0000001, {5, 0, 0, 0}

Probably caused by : atikmdag.sys ( atikmdag+25580 )

Followup: MachineOwner

Hi,
the above dump file has a Bugcheck which is particular to AMD drivers and can mean there may be an issue with the card itself or not enough juice (power) is getting through.
The symptoms you describe above however sound suspiciously like overheating although that's by no means certain.
Usually with Notebooks the manufacturer supplies the updates although GPU drivers for mobile solutions are also made by both Nvidia and AMD.

BiosVersion = X550EA.206
BiosReleaseDate = 09/24/2013
SystemManufacturer = ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
SystemProductName = X550EA

Your Bios also has several updates pending:
Link Removed

AiCharger.sys Fri Sep 23 03:04:40 2011: Asus Charger Driver known on occasion to cause issues/BSOD-Uninstall to test.

atikmdag.sys Tue Aug 13 05:03:58 2013: AMD gpu driver. The latest driver can be found here:
Link Removed

Use this application to monitor your temps although i'm pretty sure you can see the temp in your Catalyst drivers too:
http://www.hwinfo.com/

Stress test your graphics using this app:
http://www.ozone3d.net/benchmarks/fur/

Using the above two tools you should be able to determine if your overheating or not. Make sure any vents are free from obstruction like dust and carefully monitor the temps of the gpu whilst your stess testing.

Post any new dump files

I did the test and looked at my temperatures and I think that could be it. I tested it a couple of times and every time it crashed it was at 58C or 59C. Should it be getting this hot after just 5 minutes?

 

[kemical]

Hmm..To be honest 60c isn't that hot for a gpu especially if it's working hard. Most gpu's are quite happy working at that temperature and can even go up to 80c or 90c in some cases (although probably not in a notebook)
Now although the temp doesn't sound too bad your machine shouldn't really be crashing when running furmark. I should mention this program is designed to make your gpu work hard which is why it warms up so quickly. As i said it should be able to complete a cycle of furmark without crashing and this could be indicative of a faulty gpu.
I know you said you haven't had the machine long.. Has it done this since you first purchased it? If so then it might be worth taking the machine back under warranty.

Try this further test which tests the vram on the card:
Link Removed

 

[Cephalogan]

Hmm..To be honest 60c isn't that hot for a gpu especially if it's working hard. Most gpu's are quite happy working at that temperature and can even go up to 80c or 90c in some cases (although probably not in a notebook)
Now although the temp doesn't sound too bad your machine shouldn't really be crashing when running furmark. I should mention this program is designed to make your gpu work hard which is why it warms up so quickly. As i said it should be able to complete a cycle of furmark without crashing and this could be indicative of a faulty gpu.
I know you said you haven't had the machine long.. Has it done this since you first purchased it? If so then it might be worth taking the machine back under warranty.

Try this further test which tests the vram on the card:
Link Removed

It has done this since I got it. Also I ran that test and I hope this is the right thing that I'm supposed to show.

WARNING: Your card can be not compatible with this test! If multiple errors will found, try test with onscreen buffer usage or wthout of ignoring colors bit mask.
Changing video mode to 640x480x16...OK
[8/16/2014 10:02:54 PM] Test started for "Primary Display Driver (AMD Radeon HD 8330)"...
Trying 16bpp RGB:565 mode...OK
Trying 16bpp RGB:555 mode...OK
Trying 16bpp BGR:565 mode...NOT SUPPORTED (Code: 80004001)
Trying 32bpp RGB:888 mode...OK
Trying 32bpp BGR:888 mode...NOT SUPPORTED (Code: 80004001)
[8/17/2014 12:01:47 AM] Pass completed (0 errors found).

 

[kemical]

Hi,
yup your gpu passed the test fine. In post #2 is the latest gpu driver did you uninstall the old one and install the new one? I'd also apply any updates found on the machines support page (link above).
Post any new dump files.

 

[Cephalogan]

Hi,
yup your gpu passed the test fine. In post #2 is the latest gpu driver did you uninstall the old one and install the new one? I'd also apply any updates found on the machines support page (link above).
Post any new dump files.

I'm not really sure how the BIOS updates work I'm sorry. But I have uninstalled the old one and installed the new one before, just not so sure that I managed to get everything uninstalled since the uninstaller I used said that some things couldn't be removed because they were in use and I'm not sure if that's supposed to happen.

 

[kemical]

That usually means something like an icon or folder gets left behind and isn't a huge deal. If you remember I thought your crash sounded like a overheating issue and one of the Bios updates is specifically for updating the Thermal policy (probably upping the fan speed).
If you look in the downloads section of the support page you'll see a section called bios utilites that contains an app that helps to update the bios. Asus also has a help page here:
Link Removed

 

[Cephalogan]

That usually means something like an icon or folder gets left behind and isn't a huge deal. If you remember I thought your crash sounded like a overheating issue and one of the Bios updates is specifically for updating the Thermal policy (probably upping the fan speed).
If you look in the downloads section of the support page you'll see a section called bios utilites that contains an app that helps to update the bios. Asus also has a help page here:
Link Removed

I have attempted to do this but it ends up just going into a black screen after reboot and leaving it for an hour or so, it stayed in the black screen and I'm not sure if it's supposed to do that or not.

 

[kemical]

So you downloaded the asus bios utility yes? Did you follow the procedure laid out in the support section I linked to above? If your machine still boots to black screen try booting into the bios. You might be able to reflash the bios from within the bios but have a look see. Worst things worse try removing the battery for 30mins.

 

[Cephalogan]

So you downloaded the asus bios utility yes? Did you follow the procedure laid out in the support section I linked to above? If your machine still boots to black screen try booting into the bios. You might be able to reflash the bios from within the bios but have a look see. Worst things worse try removing the battery for 30mins.

I'm sorry I think I explained that a lot worse than it really is. Its basically saying it's going to restart and then it doesn't really turn off and just stays into that black screen unless I turn it off. Then when it starts back up and I log in and check if it updated, it still says I'm in update 206. I followed the instructions on there.

 

[kemical]

Hmm... Have you tried running the app in admin mode. Right click the apps start up exe and choose properties and then run as admin. Sometimes you need to do this in order for the app to get round windows security.

 

[Cephalogan]

Hmm... Have you tried running the app in admin mode. Right click the apps start up exe and choose properties and then run as admin. Sometimes you need to do this in order for the app to get round windows security.

Hmm it's still doing that even if I run it at admin. I've tried looking it up but I haven't really found a fix for that. It's just kind of ignoring the whole process.

 

[kemical]

Slightly different help page:
Link Removed

Try running Winflash in compatiblity mode for windows 7.

 

[Cephalogan]

Slightly different help page:
Link Removed

Try running Winflash in compatiblity mode for windows 7.

Hmm that didn't seem to do it either. It's still booting into the black screen and forcing me to have to restart my computer.

 

[kemical]

Is there anything plugged into the ports like external drives or similar?