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Windows 7 Bluescreen (Hardware?)

955 Views 13 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  Xaero252, 
Xaero252
Okay so strange issue with Windows 7 on my HTPC. I suspect failing hardware but the issue is bluescreen.
This machine is not overclocked.
Hardware:
GTS 450 stock clocks
i5 750 @ stock
G.Skill Pi ddr3-1600 @stock (1.6v)
Zotac H55 ITX-WIFI
2x2tb green drives (one clicks but passes SMART, both are being replaced with WD black's)
1x30gb OCZ Agility r1 drive.

Use of the machine:
I use XBMC for watching movies, tv, anime, whatever. I have [email protected] running 24/7 on the GTS 450.

What I'm doing when the issue occurs: Anything, from sitting at the desktop with everything disabled to watching a movie.

The issue itself:
I'll get a bluescreen, when the computer autoreboots from the bluescreen either
A) My Bios hangs at ACPI Port 3 (SSD is plugged in here) for aabout 20 seconds and I go to a black screen with blinking cursor in the upper left
or
B) My BIOS post happens instantly like normal and the 2tb drives spin-up as if trying to access something and then I go to a black screen with a blinking cursor

To (temporarily) solve the issue I must manually power down the PC and then power it back on, enter the bios and set the SSD as the primary boot device - without powering down the pc, the SSD is NOT visible within the bios.

I suspect the SSD is dead/dying, is this sound logic?

Things I have tried:
Rebuilding the entire system from the ground up (using different sata ports for all sata devices as well, I also tried smaller steps before this that would be included in this step, but seeing as I have done this I will omit them)
Resetting all Bios settings
Giving more voltage to IOH/ICH, QPI, vCore, DIMMs
Things I have not (and would like to avoid for the time being):
Reinstalling the operating system (I am in the process of, painfully, backing up the contents of the 4tb striped volume created with the windows partition manager to ensure I don't lose the data when I reinstall)
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Core2uu
Swap the SSD into your main rig and check it for consistency/health?

Another thing that would be most helpful in determining the error would be note down the any information the BSOD throws at you. If it's not a general hardware error, the BSOD should give you the name of some file that is causing the issue or related to it.
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Xaero252
Quote:


Originally Posted by Core2uu
View Post

Swap the SSD into your main rig and check it for consistency/health?

Another thing that would be most helpful in determining the error would be note down the any information the BSOD throws at you. If it's not a general hardware error, the BSOD should give you the name of some file that is causing the issue or related to it.

The SSD passes SMART (although most tests are N/A for it); I presume you mean checking the file system, I'll try that when I get Windows 7 installed on the main rig lol. I'll write down the BSOD info next time it occurs - which should be soon.
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Core2uu
Quote:
Originally Posted by Xaero252;12980965
The SSD passes SMART (although most tests are N/A for it); I presume you mean checking the file system, I'll try that when I get Windows 7 installed on the main rig lol. I'll write down the BSOD info next time it occurs - which should be soon.
Click to expand...
If the BSOD turns up some useful info, you can usually just google the name of the file and figure out pretty quickly what's causing the issue, be it bad network card drivers... or anything else really.
tongue.gif
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Socks keep you warm
Ok first off all disable auto restar by right click my computer and then on the left click Advanced system settings then click startup and recovery,then untick automatic restart and then tell us all the BSOD error.
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Xaero252
Auto restart is already disabled, the BSOD is intermittent, if you cared to read everything you probably would know that the BSOD happens intermittently, and therefore I am unable to just magically force it to happen to get the information, the machine has been running stable for about an hour now, but it will inevitably BSOD, Just a matter of time before it does.
I'm not a complete noob, I've done my fair share of troubleshooting on this, and have actually looked into the BSOD prior to this post to no avail, however it was sometime last week and I haven't had any time to look at it since, so I don't remember what the exact error code was, nor if there were any DLL's or executables referenced in the error.
Thanks for the suggestion though, and sorry if it seems like I'm angry, it just seems like you were being rude.
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Xaero252
Bluescreen Error:
STOP: 0x000000F4
No DLL's referenced.
http://www.overclock.net/ssd/886458-...bsod-stop.html
This person had identical symptoms, but a different stop error.
Seems to be a wide range of causes for this error, although much more specific than most BSODs:
- Low CMOS battery (will try that)
- Hard Disk Corruption
- Invalid Hard Disk Configuration (Slave mode drive on master chanel, N/A with newer motherboards to my understanding)
More of the causes seem to be hard-disk related for this issue, however the CMOS battery could be an easy fix ;-)
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Core2uu
Going by these two posts: http://www.techspot.com/vb/post372413-2.html, http://www.techsupportforum.com/forums/f10/stop-0x000000f4-181457.html#post1698798, what you're saying is probably correct. Did you try resetting the CMOS?
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Xaero252
Yes, I reset the CMOS, and it didn't solve the issue, replacing the CMOS battery also did not solve the issue, I am going to try another SATA channel now, since that seems the last likely cause, if that does not solve it, my finger is going to point at the SSD itself.
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M
the bios cant find somewhere to boot from.....ive had all this it was a loose sata cable connection...
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Xaero252
Well, all of my SATA cables are definitely firmly in place, and all of them have been replaced with brand new cables, that was one of my initial troubleshooting steps. I have now also tried the SSD in the primary master SATA channel, and still receive the bluescreen. That leaves three things - Corrupt Install (going to reinstall after I finish backing up the raid array), Faulty Drive, Faulty Motherboard.
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Gyro
See here http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libr...=VS.85%29.aspx.

And here are some possible fixes http://www.faultwire.com/solutions-f...0F4-*1241.html.

Good luck

Gyro
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Socks keep you warm
Maybe your power supply isn't supplying enough power? i see you have 1200W but maybe its faulty? Try another one just in case?
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Xaero252
The issue is not my sig rig, the rig has a Corsiar HX650 P/S and only a stock clocked i5 750 and GTS 450 with a SSD and two 5400rpm HDDs, should be far more than sufficient.
Using the SSD in the sata master channel also did not fix the issue, I have just tried updating the BIOS from Zotac and the latest release Nvidia drivers, I am almost done with the backup now so hopefully a reinstall of windows puts this to rest >< Its not critical that I save this install of windows, just as long as I can backup all of the data on the windows-created software array.
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