Windows 7 Random Blue Screen

[bobparker]

Hey, randomly I'm getting BSoD and I'm not sure what is causing it, the problem first started when I got it from my graphics card while playing Modern Warfare 3, now I updated the drivers for that but it is still happening even when not gaming.

I've attached the minidump file, if anyone could have a look at it that would be great.

 

[nmsuk]

Hi

Can you run chkdsk /R from a cmd prompt opened as admin please Looks like hard drive corruption the chkdsk should hopefully fix it for you.

 

[bobparker]

I have done this, however I left it on while I was away so I'm not 100% sure if it has fixed anything, however the check did complete.

Thank you for your reply.

 

[Trouble]

To determine what may have been accomplished by the chkdsk utility examine the log file.
Click the start orb and type
event viewer
and hit enter
Expand Windows logs and select Application
Look for an information alert with the approximate date and time of your having run chkdsk
The SOURCE should be Wininit and the Event ID should likely be 1001
You should find something that looks more or less like this

Log Name:      Application
Source:        Microsoft-Windows-Wininit
Date:          12/25/2011 1:44:37 PM
Event ID:      1001
Task Category: None
Level:         Information
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      johnsmith-AMD
Description:

Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is Windows7.

A disk check has been scheduled.
Windows will now check the disk.                         

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 5)...
  388352 file records processed.                                         

File verification completed.
  445 large file records processed.                                   

  0 bad file records processed.                                     

  4 EA records processed.                                           

  139 reparse records processed.                                      

CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 5)...
  458520 index entries processed.                                        

Index verification completed.
  0 unindexed files scanned.                                        

  0 unindexed files recovered.                                      

CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 5)...
  388352 file SDs/SIDs processed.                                        

Cleaning up 2296 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 2296 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 2296 unused security descriptors.
CHKDSK is compacting the security descriptor stream
  35085 data files processed.                                           

CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
  34195736 USN bytes processed.                                            

Usn Journal verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
  388336 files processed.                                                

File data verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...
  79608221 free clusters processed.                                        

Free space verification is complete.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the
master file table (MFT) bitmap.
Correcting errors in the Volume Bitmap.
Windows has made corrections to the file system.

 488283132 KB total disk space.
 169242472 KB in 201243 files.
    104664 KB in 35088 indexes.
         0 KB in bad sectors.
    503108 KB in use by the system.
     65536 KB occupied by the log file.
 318432888 KB available on disk.

      4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
 122070783 total allocation units on disk.
  79608222 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:
00 ed 05 00 33 9b 03 00 92 64 06 00 00 00 00 00  ....3....d......
d1 0f 00 00 8b 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  ................

Windows has finished checking your disk.
Please wait while your computer restarts.

Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
  <System>
    <Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Wininit" Guid="{206f6dea-d3c5-4d10-bc72-989f03c8b84b}" EventSourceName="Wininit" />
    <EventID Qualifiers="16384">1001</EventID>
    <Version>0</Version>
    <Level>4</Level>
    <Task>0</Task>
    <Opcode>0</Opcode>
    <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2011-12-25T19:44:37.000000000Z" />
    <EventRecordID>38925</EventRecordID>
    <Correlation />
    <Execution ProcessID="0" ThreadID="0" />
    <Channel>Application</Channel>
    <Computer>johnsmith-AMD</Computer>
    <Security />
  </System>
  <EventData>
    <Data>

Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is Windows7.

A disk check has been scheduled.
Windows will now check the disk.                         

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 5)...
  388352 file records processed.                                         

File verification completed.
  445 large file records processed.                                   

  0 bad file records processed.                                     

  4 EA records processed.                                           

  139 reparse records processed.                                      

CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 5)...
  458520 index entries processed.                                        

Index verification completed.
  0 unindexed files scanned.                                        

  0 unindexed files recovered.                                      

CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 5)...
  388352 file SDs/SIDs processed.                                        

Cleaning up 2296 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 2296 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 2296 unused security descriptors.
CHKDSK is compacting the security descriptor stream
  35085 data files processed.                                           

CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
  34195736 USN bytes processed.                                            

Usn Journal verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
  388336 files processed.                                                

File data verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...
  79608221 free clusters processed.                                        

Free space verification is complete.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the
master file table (MFT) bitmap.
Correcting errors in the Volume Bitmap.
Windows has made corrections to the file system.

 488283132 KB total disk space.
 169242472 KB in 201243 files.
    104664 KB in 35088 indexes.
         0 KB in bad sectors.
    503108 KB in use by the system.
     65536 KB occupied by the log file.
 318432888 KB available on disk.

      4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
 122070783 total allocation units on disk.
  79608222 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:
00 ed 05 00 33 9b 03 00 92 64 06 00 00 00 00 00  ....3....d......
d1 0f 00 00 8b 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  ................

Windows has finished checking your disk.
Please wait while your computer restarts.
</Data>
  </EventData>
</Event>

 

[bobparker]

Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is OS.

A disk check has been scheduled.
Windows will now check the disk.                         

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 5)...
  196864 file records processed.                                          File verification completed.
  148 large file records processed.                                      0 bad file records processed.                                        0 EA records processed.                                              60 reparse records processed.                                       CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 5)...
  244766 index entries processed.                                         Index verification completed.
  0 unindexed files scanned.                                           0 unindexed files recovered.                                       CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 5)...
  196864 file SDs/SIDs processed.                                         Cleaning up 1685 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 1685 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 1685 unused security descriptors.
Security descriptor verification completed.
  23952 data files processed.                                            CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
  36695568 USN bytes processed.                                             Usn Journal verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
  196848 files processed.                                                 File data verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...
  60174133 free clusters processed.                                         Free space verification is complete.
Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.

 303370239 KB total disk space.
  62314708 KB in 79382 files.
     49712 KB in 23953 indexes.
         0 KB in bad sectors.
    309287 KB in use by the system.
     65536 KB occupied by the log file.
 240696532 KB available on disk.

That is the file. Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.

 

[Trouble]

OK, well that's at least a good sign.
Now;
Please read the first post in this sticky thread here How to ask for help with a BSOD problem
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.
Check and make sure that your computer is configured properly for collecting .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.

 

[bobparker]

Hi, thank you for replying.

I have attached all the files.

 

[bobparker]

Another BSOD occurred last night, however no logs were saved from it.

 

[Trouble]

Have you made sure and double checked to confirm that your computer is configured properly to collect .dmp files and nothing has been changed regarding those settings.

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.

If we still only have the single dump file to go on that nmsuk addressed earlier (122411-16489-01.dmp) there is not much there that suggests a pattern.
You do have a couple old drivers which you can try updating
GEARAspiWDM.sys 5/18/2009 from here Driver updates - GEAR Software
and
EMSC.SYS 6/19/2009 Can't seem to find much on that particular driver. It would seem that it is a "COMPAL embedded system controller" driver and maybe somehow native to Microsoft Windows, but I don't recall having seen it previously so it may be unique to your particular system and or individual hardware device(s). Looks like a relatively new machine (Alienware M17xR3) so it's a bit curious why it would have such an old driver in place. Maybe check with the computer vendor or motherboard vendor and see if they have anything more current with respect to that particular device driver.

 

[bobparker]

Sorry for the late reply, I've updated that driver, and I will contact Dell/Alienware if it occurs again.

Thank you for your help.

 

[Trouble]

Thanks for the followup and please keep us posted as to how you're progressing with regards to any future Blue Screens as well as anything Dell may have to say about the issue.
Where were you able to find an update for that driver? Just curious in case the issue turns up again, a link would be appreciated.
Thanks again
Randy