Is my SSD going out? Another BSOD thread...

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JoeUser

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OK...so I got a 7970 recently and have been having some issues but I'm not too sure if it's the problem. When I first got it and installed the drivers things ran well for a few days (even overclocked, tweaking it, etc). All of a sudden I started getting a few random BSOD due to, what I could tell, AMD's drivers. So I reinstall them and things were going well.

Recently however (past few days) I've been getting more BSOD seemingly due to something other than the AMD drivers. Not only this, but after one BSOD Windows wanted to check the integrity of my SSD (disk check). I find this kind of odd. Then after another BSOD Windows then needed to start up in Recovery/Repair because my boot sector was damaged or something (wasn't specific to the reason). However, I think this may be due to the fact that I tried deleting that annoying "System Reserve" partition (I just hate that I have another disk in Explorer with no use).

Thinking that the BSOD were being caused by my GPU I'm not too sure now as they've happened a couple times now without me doing anything GPU intensive (just browsing the web, watching YouTube, etc). So I ran Memtest overnight (8 hours) to see if it was the RAM and it came back with zero errors.

So at this point I can't quite pinpoint the issue. I also ran MSI Kombustor last night at my overclocked speeds (1160mhz core/1780mhz RAM @ 1.225v) for two hours without a single issue. Now, granted stress testing isn't the best way to tell if a GPU is faulty, but I didn't get any artifacting or crashes or BSOD or anything like that. I can also play games for hours at a time without issue. Played Tomb Raider last night for like 4 hours before the system crashed and restarted.

I've also stress tested my CPU for a few hours with no issues as well (OCCT Linpack).

So I can say, without complete certainty however, that the CPU, GPU, and RAM seem to be OK and not really the stem of my random BSOD. So that leaves only the SSD or possibly something with the motherboard to blame.

I unfortunately am not too sure of the cause of the BSOD as when they happen they either go away way too quickly for me to make out what caused it or my PC with just freeze/restart with the familiar "Windows encountered a problem..." when the system reboots.

So any ideas? Is a faulty SSD out of the question?
 
You can disable the automatic restart in event of a system failure, under System Properties/Advanced/Startup and Recovery

You can also set up a memory dump so that you can debug the BSOD.
 
OK so far I have run Memtest last night while I slept (went through like 9 full passes.). No errors.

Ran OCCT Linpack for a couple hours. No errors.

Ran Kombustor for a couple hours and played and beat Tomb Raider all day. No errors.

Ran Check Disk just now. No errors.

Still getting BSOD. Just happened when I was Alt+Tab'ing back into Metro 2033 after surfing the web for a bit. As soon as the screen went black I got a BSOD. Didn't have time to see the error DESPITE the fact that I have automatic restart turned OFF. Love how Windows does what you want it to...:rolleyes:

So I'm lost. I know Check Disk wanted to run a few days ago and I let it and it found some errors. Other than Check Disk that one time I haven't found any other errors with any other component.

I would LIKE to believe that if it IS the graphics card (as often is the case) that wouldn't I notice something wrong with it? It's running nice and cool (water cooled) and it doesn't have any artifacts or anything like that and has a nice amount of power (have it at 1.25v at 1150mhz...which is more than enough).

SOOO...I have no idea. Only thing I can think it is are the AMD beta drivers. Going to go with the non-beta WHQL drivers and see if that helps.

I really think it might be the SSD as for the only reason because the BSOD are seemingly random. Hell, just opening website in a new tab will cause my PC to BSOD...
 
JoeUser said:
OK...so I got a 7970 recently and have been having some issues but I'm not too sure if it's the problem. When I first got it and installed the drivers things ran well for a few days (even overclocked, tweaking it, etc). All of a sudden I started getting a few random BSOD due to, what I could tell, AMD's drivers. So I reinstall them and things were going well.

Recently however (past few days) I've been getting more BSOD seemingly due to something other than the AMD drivers. Not only this, but after one BSOD Windows wanted to check the integrity of my SSD (disk check). I find this kind of odd. Then after another BSOD Windows then needed to start up in Recovery/Repair because my boot sector was damaged or something (wasn't specific to the reason). However, I think this may be due to the fact that I tried deleting that annoying "System Reserve" partition (I just hate that I have another disk in Explorer with no use).
Click to expand...

Windows going into recovery mode after so many BSODs isn't uncommon. I friend got a 7950 for Christmas and he had BSODs. He updated his M4's firmware and 7950's BIOS. I'll ask him exactly what he did the next time I see him online.
 
Ehhh...SSD is up to date on its firmware and the GPU should be...but even with an older firmware would that be cause for BSOD?
 
Well some older Sandforced based SSDs (Like the OCZ one you're using) had a known random BSOD error/problem. Supposedly it was fixed.

If you can, remove that OCZ SSD from your system to see if that might be the cause. It's a long shot, but it's probably the easiest to test unless it's your main drive.
 
Too early to say for sure, but I installed the latest WHQL drivers (13.1) and I haven't had any issues so far. Hoping that drivers are the problem for real.

I will update if anything occurs. I can say that the Tomb Raider performance with the beta drivers is MUCH better than these though! Thank goodness I've already beat the game because I'm locked at like 25-30fps instead of the 45-60+ I was getting before. Are AMD's drivers tailored to specific games or something? I mean, I know optimizations for the game must be made but seriously, this is horrid performance for a card that should be able to handle it, optimized drivers or not.
 
Well don't want to say anything for sure yet but all day gaming and shit and I haven't had a single issue so far on the WHQL drivers. Maybe something is wrong with the betas?
 
Well speak of the devil! Just got a blue screen. I think it was the display driver. I think it said "dxgkrnl.sys" was the cause...can't be 100% sure on that because the BSOD goes away so quickly, even with auto restart on crash turned off.

So if that's true than it's most likely a issue with the video card. However, I have to ask again, if the video card is working fine, not over heating, etc...is it just a software issue or can there be hardware issues with the card that just affect graphics?
 
you need to get the dump file and see what the error is, the fact that it is happening in multiple files indicates other issues. Windows Vista and up have the ability to receover from a video driver fault..
 
Well...I downloaded a program called "Blue Screen View" to look at my BSOD dump files and even though a couple drivers are listed a program called "ntoskrnl.exe" appears as a error in ALL the dumps. When I Google this it appears that there might be something wrong with my boot.ini file or boot sector etc...so I'm going to reinstall Windows right now and hopefully have some good news when I return!
 
I had a computer in my shop a few days ago that was throwing BSODs from many different places. All hardware scans came back find - memtest86+, HDD Regenerator, et al. Turned out there was a bulged/leaking capacitor on the motherboard. You might want to check the video card/motherboard/etc. for bulged or leaking capacitors.
 
I'll check for capacitors tonight...just reinstalled Windows and going to see how this goes for a day or two. If all is well then all is well.
 
OK...so FRESH install and got another BSOD.

Blue Screen View, again, says it's this ntoskrnl.exe.

Looking the file up it seems to be the program that interacts with the RAM and hard disks. So my problem seems to be either the RAM (which passed Memtest - 7-8 hour run) OR the SSD.

Considering that I haven't tested the SSD (OCZ doesn't seem to have a diagnostic tool) this might be the cause of the problem.

I don't know if ntoskrnl.exe works with the video RAM, so the video card isn't exactly out of the question just yet...

Investigation now what I can do to fix it. - I'm going to do what Skillz said and install Windows on another drive and see how that goes. At least that way I can say for sure if it's the SSD or not.

Checked over the motherboard and don't see any signs of damage or bulging capacitors or anything like that.
 
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OK! For those that care my SSD is the problem. Found this out due to the fact that my HDD has been working fine.
 
OK...scratch that. Just got another BSOD with the same "ntoskrnl.exe" failure as before. Have to admit it took a lot longer this time though. I've had the system running since 1AM this morning without a single issue...been playing games and stuff all day.

So perhaps it ISN'T the SSD? I don't think it's the RAM as it passed at least 8 hours of memtest (unless it just didn't catch something)...so the only thing I can think it is would be the GPU RAM however I don't know if "ntoskrnl.exe" does anything with the GPU RAM though. I know it's for memory management but I don't know if this deals with video card RAM as well. BlueScreenView shows that ntoskrnl.exe was the only thing that's crashed. I know in the past couple days some AMD driver would appear next to ntoskrnl.exe in the BSOD log...however ntoskrnl.exe has been the only CONSTANT thing to crash.

Hmmm...perhaps something is wrong with the motherboard or maybe the RAM that Memtest didn't find? Perhaps my GPU is screwed?

Sigh...I don't know...I'm about to place this on the mother board honestly...I just don't know...
 
I just remembered that a week ago or so I had a bad BIOS update so I ordered a new BIOS chip that came with the latest BIOS.

So I just now inserted my bad BIOS chip, reflashed it back to the OG BIOS I was using before all this started happening. All I can do now is see if maybe the new BIOS was causing issues. As far as I can tell my system is completely back to pre-BSOD specs.

Can't believe I didn't realize this earlier, guess I just assumed that the BIOS wouldn't cause issues...but that's yet to be seen...
 
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