Windows 10 Random BSODs while gaming even after clean resetting Windows and updating all drivers

[aj7821]

Recently I've been having an issue with increasingly frequent and very random BSODs presenting themselves while my 2012 W7 desktop is under heavy stress, most often while playing games. They are hard to replicate, but seemingly ever-present (and at the worst times too). This has been plaguing my system since I foolishly updated to Windows 8 for "free". I performed a clean reset along with a myriad of other potential fixes and while I did back up my data to an external drive it is still extremely frustrating and it seems like I'm running short of options besides replacing the hardware.

A WhoCrashed analysis provided no information besides mentioning ntkrnlmp.exe and occasionally ntoskrnl.exe. The BSODs almost always contain the messages "Unexpected_Store_Exception" or "Critical_Proccess_Died"; sometimes they are frequent, sometimes not and upon showing the message Windows immediately restarts. Sometimes I will just receive a red or a purple screen with no message and no minidump upon restarting. The type of game played has little effect, even watching YouTube videos can cause a BSOD although less frequently. This originally led me to believe it could be my graphics drivers but they are now updated to the latest version, along with the operating system and every driver listed in Device Manager (I painstakingly took the time to update every device by clicking on them one-by-one. No yellow triangles were present, and I definitely don't have the cash to buy a new GPU). CPU temperatures cap at 62°C under heavy load and stay around 38°C while idle. Seatools and Checkdisk passed on my solid state C: OS drive however running chkdsk and "sfc /scannow" on my HDD D: drive revealed corrupt files that were repaired. Running a Malwarebytes scan did nothing though it did find a PUP.Crawler.Installer which is now toasted. Turning off Fast Startup did nothing. A clean boot did nothing. Reinstalling Windows from scratch also did nothing. Still, the BSODs persist. I haven't ran Memtest86 as I figured RAM wasn't the issue because I upgraded my sticks several months ago. Maybe updating the BIOS could help?

Some information on my system, if it helps. It's a CyberPowerPC. I know, I know. I'm just really hoping I can find a way to get this thing fixed without paying top dollar for not-faulty hardware:
-Power Supply: Corsair TX750
-Motherboard: ASUS P8Z77-LK
-Processor: Intel Core i5-3570K @ 3.4GHz (default clock)
-Video Card: HIS AMD Radeon HD 7870 2GB @ 1000Mhz core & 1200Mhz memory (default)
-RAM: x2 Pacific Sun 1333Mhz DDR3 4GB
-Operating System Drive [OS C:] : OCZ Vertex 4 128GB SATA III MLC SSD
-Drive 2 [D:] : Western Digital 500GB WD5000AAKX SATA HDD

A zip file with the W7F Diagnostic Tool analysis is attached - crossing my fingers it's not a hardware failure. Thanks in advance for any replies and/or assistance .

 

[kemical]

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*                        Bugcheck Analysis                                    *
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Use !analyze -v to get detailed debugging information.

BugCheck EF, {ffffe001b603e080, 0, 0, 0}

ETW minidump data unavailable
Probably caused by : ntkrnlmp.exe ( nt!PspCatchCriticalBreak+a4 )

Followup:     MachineOwner

Hi,
both dump files are the same and mean that for whatever reason a critical process died.

Looking through the dump file two things jump out:
Drivers
NMgamingms.sys Fri Jul 24 09:55:08 2009: Primax/ Dell USB Optical Mouse driver please update if possible.

File scans
Right click on the Start menu icon and from the revealed list choose 'admin command prompt'. Type:
sfc /scannow
press enter and await results

In the same command prompt and after the above scan has finished type:
dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
Press enter and await results (longer this time).

If the first scan found files it could not repair but the second scan is successful, run the first scan again using the same command prompt box and this time it should repair the files found.

Bios
BiosVersion = 0403
BiosReleaseDate = 05/07/2012
BaseBoardManufacturer = ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
BaseBoardProduct = P8Z77-V LK

Your Bios is extremely old. The most recent release stands at 1402 and carries many stability updates. If your unsure on how to flash the bios to a new version then get the local computer shop to help you or a knowledgeable friend.
ASUS Global

If the bsod continues please create a recovery disk/zip:
Link Removed

Once you have the recovery disk run the driver verifier. The verifier will stress each driver to see if it will bsod or not and this at times can lead to a boot loop. You use the recovery key to boot into recovery, safe mode and turn the verifier off.
Link Removed

Post any new dump files.

 

[aj7821]

Hi kemical,

Thanks for replying. Never would have considered that a mouse driver could have contributed to a BSOD. I was using a wireless USB mouse + keyboard combo that came with the computer (both the mouse and keyboard are labeled "Pixxo"). I found what appears to be the manufacturer's site, however it is almost entirely written in Chinese and the PRIMAX Electronics Ltd. website doesn't even have a product list or a support section at all. So I picked up a cheap Logitech MK235 mouse + keyboard combo before uninstalling my HID-compliant mouse & HID keyboard drivers... but Windows reinstalled the drivers when I plugged it in and the device manager is reporting they are up-to-date as before. There are two Windows 10 downloads listed under support for my new Logitech MK235, "SetPoint" and "Logitech Options". Would either of these contain updated drivers or be useful to me?

Driver verifier is running as we speak; I will post the dumps if my system blue screens and/or gets stuck in a boot loop. So far, so good... I made a recovery disk like you advised. I also cleaned out all dust inside my computer and flashed the BIOS according to my P8Z77-V LK manual. Another thing to note: after doing a little more investigation with google I ran CrystalDiskInfo and it displayed "Caution" for my D: drive. Specifically, a high reallocated sector count, among other things. Learning this is indicative of hard drive failure, I used Microsoft's repair install utility to clean reset Windows 10 - again - and updated to version 1607 Build 14393.187 (Anniversary Update). This time, I made sure to leave the D: drive completely empty. A random BSOD presented itself shortly before I updated, this time "KERNEL_SECURITY_CHECK_FAILURE" but I foolishly forgot to back up the dump files before the computer was wiped. Could that have been related to the failing hard drive? sfc /scannow found no corrupt files and dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth completed successfully in my current installation. Is it safe to run a demanding game alongside the driver verifier to test if my computer will blue screen?

 

[kemical]

A random BSOD presented itself shortly before I updated, this time "KERNEL_SECURITY_CHECK_FAILURE" but I foolishly forgot to back up the dump files before the computer was wiped. Could that have been related to the failing hard drive?

The KERNEL_SECURITY_CHECK_FAILURE bug check has a value of 0x00000139. This bug check indicates that the kernel has detected the corruption of a critical data structure. This usually driver related although let's test that drive of yours..

Please check your drive using Seatools:
http://www.seagate.com/gb/en/support/downloads/item/seatools-win-master/
This should give you a good idea on whether the drive is faulty.

Run a chkdsk (on D):
Link Removed

Is it safe to run a demanding game alongside the driver verifier to test if my computer will blue screen?

The verifier only stresses drivers on boot up, hence the possibility of a boot loop so you should be fine running a game.
I'd leave the verifier running for around 24hrs.

 

[aj7821]

Alright, SeaTools is running a long generic test now. Checkdisk and SeaTools' short generic test passed on my D: drive however it already failed a diagnostic self test (DST). I'm assuming the drive is at the end of it's life. Is uninstalling the drivers and disconnecting the drive necessary?

While attempting to remove and reinstall my AMD Radeon HD 7870 drivers earlier (doing a clean install reverted them back to version 15.11), a BSOD came up with the code "DRIVER_VERIFIER_DETECTED_VIOLATION". First time I've been happy to have a BSOD. I assume this is because I forgot to check "Delete drivers" while uninstalling the old graphics drivers through device manager because once Windows rebooted I repeated this process with the option checked and there was no error. The dump files are attached.

I also noticed many of my drivers in device manager are dated at 6/21/2006. Don't know what this means but I updated my Intel Z77 Express chipset drivers as well.

EDIT: Two seconds after my post the D: drive failed SeaTool's long generic. The SDD OS [C:] drive passed every test I threw at it. Definitely time to trash my HDD.

 

[kemical]

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*                        Bugcheck Analysis                                    *
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Use !analyze -v to get detailed debugging information.

BugCheck C4, {62, ffffb88d6426cef0, ffffb88d6426c980, 2}

*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for atikmdag.sys
*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for atikmdag.sys
Probably caused by : ntoskrnl.exe 
Followup:     MachineOwner

Hi,
yup C4 means the verifier caught a driver.
If you haven't already please turn the verifier off as continual use is not recommended.

Remove your GPU driver using the DDU. This is the Display Driver Uninstaller and will also remove anything left behind by previous installs. You'll have to boot into safe mode to use it properly but it is worth it.

As you say above, it looks like your in need of a new drive.

Lastly regarding the use of Device manager to install drivers. Whilst this is a way to cleanly install drivers I would only use this method if your having issues installing from the exe. Also only the driver gets installed and any associated software is bypassed. You can of course find the software (usually in the extracted driver folder) and install it that way but surely it's just easier to install from the exe? It's entirely up to you of course but i really don't see any huge benefits from continually installing drivers via Device manager..

 

[aj7821]

yup C4 means the verifier caught a driver.
If you haven't already please turn the verifier off as continual use is not recommended.

Remove your GPU driver using the DDU. This is the Display Driver Uninstaller and will also remove anything left behind by previous installs. You'll have to boot into safe mode to use it properly but it is worth it.

As you say above, it looks like your in need of a new drive.

The driver verifier is turned off now. I restored my system from the recovery disk and then ran DDU before reinstalling my AMD drivers. All my files are now on OS C: as well and I haven't had a single blue screen yet. Thanks for your help, I'll post back with the minidump logs if I encounter any more problems.

 

[kemical]

Thanks for the update AJ, Hope all goes well for the future