Windows 7 Daily 0x000000F4 BSOD's on Windows 7 (64 bit) gaming PC.

[DecosterDavid]

To anyone able to help,

A month ago I bought a reasonably high-end gaming PC with the following setup:

• Gigabyte G1.Sniper 2 motherboard with integrated network card and Creative Labs X-Fi sound card
• SilverStone ST1500 (1500W) PSU
• 2 x EVGA (NVIDIA) GeForce GTX 580 set up in SLI
• 16 Gb DDR3 RAM (Kingston)
• Intel® Core™ i7-2600K CPU @ 3.40 GHz
• Cooler Master V8 CPU Cooler
• 2 x Corsair Force 3 SSD (225 Mb) set up in RAID 0 (Stripe)
• LiteOn Blu-Ray / DVD Burner/Reader/Drive
• Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit OS, DVD already included Service Pack 1
• Windows Office Home and Business 2010
• An old Dell PS/2 keyboard from my previous PC
• An old Dell USB mouse from my previous PC

The problem I face is as follows:

• At random times and intervals, my PC will lock up, sometimes play sound in an infinite loop, and crash shortly thereafter through a BSOD (roughly 4-5 times a day).
• I tried disabling programs and pinpointing whether it was a specific program that caused the crashes, but ultimately, the crashes occur under different program combinations and don’t seem to be related to any of the programs listed above (not sure though).
• Even though I have set up Windows to make a minidump file, it has only created an actual file ONCE (which leads me to believe it may not be related to the regular BSOD’s).
• I did manage to take snapshots of the BSOD on several (4) occasions though.
• Rebooting the PC 2-3 times will get me back in through ‘Start Windows normally’ without any problems.
• I’ve run chkdsk (no issues) and I created a new pagefile as per Julio’s instructions.
• Even the techs at the store I bought the PC from aren’t sure where the problem is coming from. They say they’ve tested all the hardware components though, which is why I didn’t run the memtest program (don’t want to start fiddling with components either if I can avoid it (see below).
• Finally, I’m a newbie concerning hardware and software, so some further explanation might be requested.

BSOD Stop Code: 0x000000F4
BCP’s (1-4) have been (on the 4 BSOD’s I managed to snapshot):
(0x0000000000000003, 0xFFFFFA8013DF87F0, 0xFFFFFA8013DF8AD0, 0xFFFFF80003B8C8B0)
or (0x0000000000000003, 0xFFFFFA8013EF2060, 0xFFFFFA8013EF2340, 0xFFFFF80003B928B0)
or (0x0000000000000003, 0xFFFFFA8013E84640, 0xFFFFFA8013E84920, 0xFFFFF80003BD88B0)
or (0x0000000000000003, 0xFFFFFA8013DFC060, 0xFFFFFA8013DFC340, 0xFFFFF80003BE88B0)

Background Programs running while crashes occur:

• AVG Internet Security
• Creative Labs Volume Control Screen
• Intel ® Rapid Storage Technology (RAID monitor)
• NVIDIA Settings

Other Programs sometimes running when crashes occur:

• Internet Explorer
• MediaPLayer Home Cinema
• Teamspeak 3
• World of Tanks (Game)
• Battlefield 3 (Game)

I provided the one single .dmp file I managed to get so far in a zip file below. Also, I can provide anyone willing to help with screenies of the BSOD's I managed to capture.
Any help would be much appreciated.

Thank you kindly,
David

 

[Elmer]

Do you have any more of the dmp files in your minidump folder?

This one is:
STOP 0x00000050: PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA
Usual causes: Defective hardware (particularly memory - but not just RAM), Faulty system service, Antivirus, Device driver, NTFS corruption, BIOS.

Its blaming the AppleCharger.sys driver Gigabyte on/off charge driver. See Link Removed for details.
Removal may be necessary. Updates can be found Link Removed - Invalid URL

AVG is known to be a cause of BSOD's on Windows 7 systems. Suggest that you uninstall it. Download the correct Link Removed for your system (32 or 64 bit).
If you have AVG ID protection installed, download the AVGID Protection Remover from the above link as well (it wouldn't hurt to download and run it anyway). Download BSOD friendly Link Removed due to 404 Error as AVG's replacement.
Uninstall AVG through the Control Panel. Re-boot to Safe Mode and run the AVG Removal tool(s). Re-boot to normal mode and install MSE. Make sure your Windows firewall is enabled! After your blue screens have been resolved, feel free to re-try AVG.

 

[DecosterDavid]

Allright Elmer, I'll try this out and let you know how it works out. Thanks for the help so far!

 

[DecosterDavid]

Elmer,

1) I found no updates to the applecharger driver on Gigabyte's website. Is it safe for me to remove the driver, and if so, how do I go about it?
2) AVG succesfully removed (I think) and MSE installed.
3) Like I said, the crashes so far have only yielded a .dmp ONCE. Of all the other ones, the only info I can give you are the codes listed in the OP (which why I'm not sure both types of crashes are related).

Let's see if the changes so far make an improvement. I'll keep you posted.

 

[Elmer]

Lets see if AVG was really the problem first.

To remove a driver it's best to first change the file extension from .sys to, say, .bak. This will break the driver and prevent it from loading. It also breaks any software related to it.

Once you've established that the broken driver has not given you any adverse "side effects" it will be safe to delete it.

 

[DecosterDavid]

Elmer,

1) Where can I find said driver then?
2) PC crashed again... :-( Seems no defintive solution yet. Stop code stil 0x000000F4 (error codes: 0x0000000000000003, 0xFFFFFA80136EC910, 0xFFFFFA80136ECBF0, 0xFFFFF80003BE78B0).
3) To get a better glimpse at the error codes as the BSOD's happened, I unchecked the 'automatically restart' box in the Recovery Options tab in the system settings. As it happened, the blue screen seemed to freeze at "Initializing disk for crash dump..." wheras with automatic restart ON, it would just restart past the BSOD...

Any ideas?

 

[DecosterDavid]

Elmer,

Managed to locate the driver under Windows\system32\drivers and renamed it to .bak. Hopefully that's the one... I'll reboot and let you know if any further crashes occur.

Thank you for the help so far!

 

[DecosterDavid]

Elmer,

After being gone for a week and coming home just now, I started up my PC. Immediately after it started up, I opened up Outlook and Windows Media Player simultaneously. Clicking on a button in Windows Media player, the system suddenly locked up (maybe not necesarilly due to WMP). After 20-30 seconds, the PC went into a BSOD. Unfortunately, I wasn't fast enough to snapshot the error codes... I'll let you know if it happens again. In any case, AVG doesn't seem to be the only problem, I guess... Do you have any other suggestions that may help?

Gratefully,
David

 

[Trouble]

Hello and welcome to the forums.
First make sure your machine is configured properly to facilitate the collection of .dmp files.

Go to Start and type in sysdm.cpl and press Enter
Click on the Advanced tab
Click on the Startup and Recovery Settings button
Ensure that Automatically restart is unchecked
Under the Write Debugging Information header select Small memory dump (256 kB) in the dropdown box
Ensure that the Small Dump Directory is listed as %systemroot%\Minidump << where your .dmp files can be found later
Click OK twice to exit the dialogs, then reboot for the changes to take effect.

Then:
Please read the first post in this sticky thread here Link Removed
Do your best to accumulate the data required.
Run the SF Diagnostic tool (download and right click the executable and choose run as administrator)
Download and run CPUz. Use the Windows snipping tool to gather images from all tabs including all slots populated with memory under the SPD tab.
Likewise RAMMon. Export the html report , put everything into a desktop folder that you've created for this purpose, zip it up and attach it to your next post (right click it and choose send to, compressed (zipped) folder.
Good luck
Randy

 

[DecosterDavid]

Hello and welcome to the forums.
First make sure your machine is configured properly to facilitate the collection of .dmp files.

Well, that's one of the weird things Randy. Although I've followed yours (and the links') instructions as to the setup for dmp files to the letter, the BSOD's have NEVER resulted in a BSOD being created, for a reason unknown to me...

 

[DecosterDavid]

Link Removed
Elmer, Randy,

Just had another BSOD. I just started up the computer, and went to take a shower once it had fully booted. I didn't start or touch anything, and when I came back 20 mins later, I was looking at another BSOD. I added the picture above to confirm my .dmp settings, because once again, there was NO minidump to be found. I don't know if it has anything to do with the fact that once the BSOD hits, it doesn't give me a 'press any key' option to reboot.
The BSOD Details:
Cause: "A process critical to system operation has unexpectedly..."
Stop Code: 0x000000F4
Error Codes:
0x0000000000000003
0xFFFFFA80136D2B30
0xFFFFFA80136D2E10
0xFFFFF80003BCE8B0

Respectfully,
David

 

[Trouble]

OK, no dump files to work with. That is a problem that may prove insurmountable, but for the time being can you please perform the other tasks that have already been referenced in this thread.

Run the SF Diagnostic tool (download and right click the executable and choose run as administrator)
Download and run CPUz. Use the Windows snipping tool to gather images from all tabs including all slots populated with memory under the SPD tab.
Likewise RAMMon. Export the html report, put everything into a desktop folder that you've created for this purpose, zip it up and attach it to your next post (right click it and choose send to, compressed (zipped) folder.
Additionally please take some time and fill out your system specs in your forum profile area Link Removed .
Good luck

 

[Elmer]

Just wondering if the "Windows 7 Ultimate (recovered)" has anything to do with the lack of dmp files. Though for the life of me I can't figure a connection!!