[averysadman]

Hi, I'm having a BSOD recently, seems to be caused while playing a certain game (Alien Rage).
I ran Driver Verifier, which resulted in a BSOD loop, so I know the problem is being caused by a driver, but Driver Verifier is not leaving minidumps so I don't know how to identify which driver is causing the problem.
Is there another method to identify which driver is causing the BSOD?

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Zip up the last 5 or so dumps found in C:\Windows\minidump and attach the dump in a reply here. I'll take a look and see if any idicate a driver as the cause. May not but it's worth a try.

[Ztruker]

Zip up the last 5 or so dumps found in C:\Windows\minidump and attach the dump in a reply here. I'll take a look and see if any idicate a driver as the cause. May not but it's worth a try.

[Aura]

Hi, I'm having a BSOD recently, seems to be caused while playing a certain game (Alien Rage).
I ran Driver Verifier, which resulted in a BSOD loop, so I know the problem is being caused by a driver, but Driver Verifier is not leaving minidumps so I don't know how to identify which driver is causing the problem.
Is there another method to identify which driver is causing the BSOD?

I personally wouldn't use a third-party software to handle drivers in any ways. These programs usually causes way more issues than they solve.
To get information about your BSODs, you could download BlueScreenView, that will give you in a report and ordered form the details of your BSODs. Error code, drivers address, drivers name, etc. You can post your minidumps here in a .RAR archive like suggested or download and install BlueScreenView and copy/paste the content of your 3-5 last BSODs here and post it.

[averysadman]

Unfortunately my minidumps were wiped when I had to system restore after my PC got stuck in a boot loop because of Driver Verifier.
I had Bluescreenview installed however and I had written down it's results before I attempted Driver Verifier.

ntoskrnl.exe+71469
win32.sys+22c9ed
win32k.sys+c4283

I've had problems with ntoskrnl.exe before, but that turned out to be a page file problem that was resolved, I believe it's only being mentioned in the report because whatever driver is malfunctioning is using memory incorrectly.

I'm trying to reproduce the BSOD by playing Alien Rage obsessively for several hours (all in the name of science) and I will post the minidump if I'm successful.

[Aura]

Unfortunately my minidumps were wiped when I had to system restore after my PC got stuck in a boot loop because of Driver Verifier.
I had Bluescreenview installed however and I had written down it's results before I attempted Driver Verifier.

ntoskrnl.exe+71469
win32.sys+22c9ed
win32k.sys+c4283

I've had problems with ntoskrnl.exe before, but that turned out to be a page file problem that was resolved, I believe it's only being mentioned in the report because whatever driver is malfunctioning is using memory incorrectly.

I'm trying to reproduce the BSOD by playing Alien Rage obsessively for several hours (all in the name of science) and I will post the minidump if I'm successful.

These files are system-related files. You can attempt to repair them by opening an elevated command prompt (with Admin Rights) and enter the following command :

SFC /scan now

Then press Enter. Let us know what results it returns.

[averysadman]

It's ok I was able to reproduce the BSOD.

Included are BSV logs and the zipped minidump.


020914-40185-01.dmp 09-Feb-14 12:06:19 AM SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION 0x0000003b 00000000`c0000005 fffff960`000f4283 fffff880`0a812060 00000000`00000000 win32k.sys win32k.sys+c4283 x64 ntoskrnl.exe+71f00 C:\windows\Minidump\020914-40185-01.dmp 4 15 7600 275,936

Attached Files

•  020914-40185-01.7z   22.55KB   187 downloads

[Ztruker]

Dump points to dwm.exe. The dwm.exe is a Desktop Window Manager and is responsible for the graphical effects.

I would suspect a problem with your video driver. See if there is a newer one available from the computer manufacturers web site or from the video manufacturers web site.

What is the make and model number (full please) of your computer?

[averysadman]

Make and model number of my computer? Do you mean the model of the card? The card is an ATI Radeon HD 5850. Drivers are up to date, that was the first thing I checked. My PC is custom built so I don't have any model numbers.
Specs are:
AMD Phenom II x4 975 @ 3.6Ghz
8Gb Corsair Vengeance @ 1333MHz
GA-880GM-D2H rev 1.0 with the latest (v6) BIOS.
ATI Radeon HD 5850 @ 800MHz core

If it was a video driver problem wouldn't it happen a lot more frequently than just from one game though?

[Ztruker]

I think it depends on what the game is doing specifically a the video level. As I mentioned, the dump indicates dwm.exe as the cause and a Google search for: dwm.exe 3b mostly point to a video driver as the probable cause.

Have you recently updated the video driver? If so, perhaps try doing a driver rollback via Device Manager.

Are you using a 64 bit Windows 7?

These are the drivers I find here: AMD Catalyst™ Display Driver

[averysadman]

No it's been a while since I updated my Catalyst drivers, the card is quite old so it doesn't get frequent driver updates, my drivers are currently at version 13.1.
None of my software (Steam, CCC) shows updates available when I check, should I download the 13.12 drivers manually or leave it as-is? I know I don't need the Beta drivers as those add Mantle support for GCN cards and mine is older than that standard.
Yes I'm using Windows 7 64 bit.

[Ztruker]

Seems like it would be worth trying 13.12 to see if it fixes the problem. If not you can always roll it back or leave it if no other problems.

[averysadman]

I tried updating the driver but I was still able to provoke the same BSOD.

[Ztruker]

Can you lower the resolution or frame rate of the game, see if that makes a difference? Other than that, I'm out of ideas.

[averysadman]

Well what I'm really trying to find is a method to identify which driver was causing the BSOD. Since updating the Catalyst driver didn't stop the BSOD I think we can rule that out as the culprit.
Driver Verifier isn't leaving minidumps, however it causes a BSOD loop if I turn it on, so there's a driver causing a problem there somewhere, it's likely managing memory incorrectly as Blue Screen View cites ntoskrnl.exe as having issues.

So do you know of any other method besides Driver Verifier for troubleshooting drivers?

[averysadman]

Three more minidumps here.

Attached Files

•  Minidump.7z   44.4KB   210 downloads