crash - Windows Vista BSOD on my desktop

06
2014-04
  • cesar

    My desktop is on the fritz; it keeps going to blue screen with the stop message of 0x0000007E immediately after the Vista loading bar, right before transitioning to the login screen.

    My desktop runs on a dual-core 32-bit processor with Windows Vista Home(?) installed, 3GB RAM as two separate modules (1GB Acer module, 2GB Geil module), a low-end Sapphire ATI video card, and 320GB hard drive (partitioned into two). The C:\ partition is red lined, while the D:\ partition is still pretty empty.

    On the advice of my friend, I tried:

    • Restarting the system with the graphics card removed.
    • Upon failure, I repeated the process removing one RAM module one at a time, but the system still failed to load. Vista would attempt to repair the system and it would initially report that the system was fixed, but Vista never really fixed the problem.
    • After removing the memory modules, Vista started to report its inability to fix the problem.
    • I tried running in Safe Mode and the driver listing would always stop at crcdisk.sys.
    • I ran memory diagnostics using the Windows memory diagnostic tool found in the screen after Vista's failed attempt to fix the problem, as well as the memory testing tool found in Ubuntu's Live CD. Both tests succeeded.
    • Finally, I managed to install Ubuntu 9.10 on my external hard disk and run it on the broken computer possibly implying that it's not a hardware failure, though I haven't had a chance to check the internal sound card.

    The problem details are as such:

    Problem Event Name : StartupRepairV2
Problem Signature:
01: AutoFailover
02: (vista's version number?)
03: 6
04: 720907
05: 0x7e
06: 0x7e
07: 0
08: 2
09: WrpRepair
10: 0
OS Version: 6.0.6000.2.0.0.256.1
Locale ID 1033

    Root cause found in startup repair was:

    unknown bugcheck: bugcheck 7e.
parameters =  0xc0000005, 0x8284f872, 0x8d1b3a68, 0x8d1b3764

    I do not have access to safe mode, but I do have access to a Command Prompt. Also, the problem began with my brother. He was using Facebook, then the PC just died with a BSOD. Any corrective advice would be appreciated!

    • Answers
  • abutbul

    0xc0000005 Is usually a fault with writing to RAM, or when a program tries to access data on a memory stick in a faulty way, or access data that is already not there.

    If you've overclocked the computer, try going down with the clock and seeing if it helps.

    Also, try running each memory stick with Prime95, and then all of them together. if you don't feel like crashing your vista everytime with prime, you can use the one on Ultimate boot cd 5 (google)

  • Frank V

    Like abutbul, I suspect your RAM is faulty. If it's an option, swap out both memory sticks with fresh, matched pair.

    RAM is cheap and matched RAM (I've heard) is better. You might also seek this out as an opportunity to max out your PC's RAM.

    Faulty ram often causes a computer to exhibit undesired, but random behavior. The problems are generally not consistent because each time your computer loads, different components are put in to different area's of RAM. Not all of the RAM is used when the computer is running, so when a small section is bad, an error or problem will only occasionally cause a problem. On the other hand, if the bad RAM happens to be towards the beginning of the addressable space, more problems might be exhibited.


    • Related Question

    File corrupted BSOD on Windows Vista x64
  • Jakub Arnold

    I'm having some problems with my Windows Vista x64 computer.

    In last two days, I had about 5 crashes, that always go the same way

    1. Everything freeze for about 1 second
    2. I see black screen with about two sentences, containing "corrupted file" for about 0.5 seconds, so I was unable to read it all.
    3. BSOD appears for less than 0.5 seconds
    4. Screen goes black, computer makes sound like if it was rebooting, but actually nothing happens

    Then I have to press power button for 5 seconds to shut it down and boot again (hard restart doesn't work).

    I also tried running chkdsk, which found and fixed some errors. After rebooting the explorer and all windows processes started fine, but I wasn't able to start anything else (double-clicking Firefox didn't do anything), so I rebooted after 20 minutes of trying to run something. Then it worked fine, but after another 10-15 minutes (when I was typing this question for the first time ... :( ) it crashed again.

    I don't remember intsalling anything just before it started happening. I also have about 10GB free space on my C: drive, so that isn't the problem.

    What could possible cause this? Does it look like hardware failure? Should I run any diagnostics?

    edit: The error message on the black screen (showerd right after booting) is "The file is possibly corrupt. The file header checksum does not match the computed checksum"

    edit2: I did system recovery, then PC booted up just fine, I ran the sfc /scannow and then, after about 5 minutes crashed again ... so I guess I'm about to try reinstalling, and if that doesn't help, then probably hard drive is f***** :(

    last edit: Finally, after running memtest, there was more than 150 errors in first minute of run, so I went to service and they replaced all RAM kits, I also did full hard drive diagnostics and it was fine, so at least I didn't loose my data partition :)


    • Related Answers
  • nik

    If you can boot the system back, you could try a System File Check,

    sfc /scannow

    It will probably ask you for your installation disk to recover corrupted system files (if any).

    If you cannot boot, you should try a system recovery with your install disk.

    Update:
    If you doubt the hard-drive or would like to confirm any other hardware dependencies
    (though, from your description, i do not doubt the RAM),
    you could boot with a Ubuntu LiveCD and do some diagnostics.

    1. memtestx86 will check your RAM (Ubuntu LiveCD boot option)
    2. SMART tools can be used to analyze your hard-disk state
      • You could also use HDTune from your Windows Vista (if it remains up for some time)
      • On Ubuntu you will need the smartmontools (not sure if that comes with the LiveCD
        The command will be: sudo smartctl -a /dev/hda (replace hda with your Vista disk)

    Notes to setup a LiveCD and get SMARTMonTools.

    Update2:

    • good to hear that it was just your memory and not the disk that was failing
      • I erred in thinking the memory did not sound bad (its always good to check the memory)
    • avelldiroll makes a good point about getting SMART tools with,
      sudo apt-get install smartmontools
      also, as pointed out, it would not remain with a LiveCD (need to get for each boot).
      I keep a USB installed Ubuntu handy for such life.
  • Jared Harley

    A lot of people with similar situations ended up having bad hard drives. It might be time to replace it.

    The failed checksum could also be due to a memory problem. You may want to test your RAM with Windows Memory Diagnostics Tool, as the How-To Geek shows you here.

  • Richie086

    Have you tried using a tool called BSOD screen view from Nirsoft?

    http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html

    BlueScreenView scans all your minidump files created during 'blue screen of death' crashes, and displays the information about all crashes in one table. For each crash, BlueScreenView displays the minidump filename, the date/time of the crash, the basic crash information displayed in the blue screen (Bug Check Code and 4 parameters), and the details of the driver or module that possibly caused the crash (filename, product name, file description, and file version). For each crash displayed in the upper pane, you can view the details of the device drivers loaded during the crash in the lower pane. BlueScreenView also mark the drivers that their addresses found in the crash stack, so you can easily locate the suspected drivers that possibly caused the crash.