ntoskrnl.exe related BSOD

[FleshlyDelight]

I keep having a BSOD at seemingly random intervals, normally between 1-2 weeks.The most recent was a irql_not_less_or_equal code. I believe it was a Memory Management another time.The dump file is here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9ggkmrtjcte4yfq/110418-28375-01.dmp?dl=0

As far as I can tell, it seems to be entirely driver related, but none of my drivers say they need an update.I'm sure they do, but I have no idea what drivers I would need, let alone which one is the one causing the issue.I already tested the memory in memtest and it did passes with 0 errors.
There was no viruses that have plagued my system.
This is a fairly new hard drive as well with a new install of Windows 10 (well, as new as 2 months.)

I don't believe it could be RAM related because I've had the same issue with 7 different sticks of RAM, plus, wouldn't it crash far more often if that was the case?

GPU driver is up to date. Windows it up to date.

I did notice the crash in the minidump leads to svchost.exe, but what could cause that?



This is incredibly frustrating, any help here? I can give more information, if needed.



Specs:

GPU - nvidia gtx 980ti

PSU - 750w

RAM - 16 gigs (2 8gig sticks)

MOBO - msi z97s sli krait edition (MS 7922)

CPU - i7 - 4790k 4.00ghz

OS - Windows 10 64 bit

 

[Wolfie]

Hi FleshlyDelight,

have you done a driver update in the last few days?, there is a recent driver bundle available.

https://www.geforce.com/drivers/results/138697

 

[FleshlyDelight]

Hi FleshlyDelight,

have you done a driver update in the last few days?, there is a recent driver bundle available.

https://www.geforce.com/drivers/results/138697

First of all, thank you for the response.

No, I don't believe I've updated in the past few days, but I did update about a week or so ago, just after I had the Memory Management BSOD.
The one you linked looks like the one I already had downloaded, with it being October 11th, but I'll download it anyway to be sure.
I always try to keep up with updates on my GPU because I am an avid gamer and it's quite easy to update the driver for a 980ti.
Should I be using custom install for a complete clean install instead of simply updating?

Another thing of note I didn't mention in the OP is that It's somewhat noticeable when a BSOD is about to happen.
Sometimes It just straight crashes without warning, other times there's a couple of minutes beforehand where it becomes obvious it's going to happen.
Applications will simply crash outright during use.
Hearthstone, an online card game, will crash mid game, Chrome will simply close itself without warning, etc.

edit: One thing I didn't notice was when I updated to the 'new' GPU driver, it made my taskbar go completely transparent, but that was fixed on a restart.

 

[Wolfie]

And what about a BIOS update?, it might be worth it to do that too!:

https://msi.com/Motherboard/support/Z97S-SLI-Krait-Edition.html

MAKE SURE IT IS INDEED YOUR MOBO BEFORE TRYING IT OUT!.

 

[davehc]

The fault shown on your download is a memory error, I believe. This:
ntoskrnl.exe+1a9490

 

[Trouble]

All I'm seeing in the dump file stack are references to the pagefile, pagefile pointer and pagefile number.

[0x2] nt!KiPageFault + 0x425
[0x3] nt!MiIdentifyPfn + 0x3a1
[0x4] nt!MiIdentifyPfnWrapper + 0x3e
[0x5] nt!PfpPfnPrioRequest + 0xda
[0x6] nt!PfQuerySuperfetchInformation + 0x2d4

I would definitely consider @Wolfie remarks about the BIOS.....
IF they have an update that improves system stability
AND as he states..... Make sure to confirm that any BIOS (firmware) upgrade you attempt to perform is intended for your specific hardware component. Failure to do so, will not turn out well.

NOTE: It may be time to use the native Check Disk utility (chkdsk) to see if your hard drive is up to snuff.
chkdsk C: /R
Assuming C: is your OS drive and that you haven't intentionally relocated the page file to another drive / partition.

I don't see any drivers mentioned in single dump file that you posted in OP.

Other than that, I would also consider testing your physical RAM (memory modules).

Download Memtest86+ from this location here. Burn the ISO to a CD and boot the computer from the CD from a cold boot after leaving it off for an hour.
Ideally let it run for at least 7 passes / 6-8 hours (overnight even better). First test system as presently configured with all RAM modules in place, If errors appear before that you can stop that particular test. Any time Memtest86+ reports errors, it can be either bad RAM or a bad Mobo slot. Perform the test on RAM sticks individually as well as all possible combinations. When you find a good one then test it in all slots.

See this Guide to using Memtest 86+

 

[davehc]

This is all I could see if I opened the dump

 

[FleshlyDelight]

Well, that was weird, I thought I posted but It isn't showing up in the thread anymore, so I'll post again just in case.

And what about a BIOS update?, it might be worth it to do that too!:

https://msi.com/Motherboard/support/Z97S-SLI-Krait-Edition.html

MAKE SURE IT IS INDEED YOUR MOBO BEFORE TRYING IT OUT!.

Yeah, this is my MOBO, but it's up to date.
It's been quite some time since MSI has updated it.

All I'm seeing in the dump file stack are references to the pagefile, pagefile pointer and pagefile number.

I would definitely consider @Wolfie remarks about the BIOS.....
IF they have an update that improves system stability
AND as he states..... Make sure to confirm that any BIOS (firmware) upgrade you attempt to perform is intended for your specific hardware component. Failure to do so, will not turn out well.

NOTE: It may be time to use the native Check Disk utility (chkdsk) to see if your hard drive is up to snuff.
chkdsk C: /R
Assuming C: is your OS drive and that you haven't intentionally relocated the page file to another drive / partition.

I don't see any drivers mentioned in single dump file that you posted in OP.

Other than that, I would also consider testing your physical RAM (memory modules).

Download Memtest86+ from this location here. Burn the ISO to a CD and boot the computer from the CD from a cold boot after leaving it off for an hour.
Ideally let it run for at least 7 passes / 6-8 hours (overnight even better). First test system as presently configured with all RAM modules in place, If errors appear before that you can stop that particular test. Any time Memtest86+ reports errors, it can be either bad RAM or a bad Mobo slot. Perform the test on RAM sticks individually as well as all possible combinations. When you find a good one then test it in all slots.

See this Guide to using Memtest 86+

I had just finished memtest 86 an hour ago with 7 passes, 0 errors with my normal set up.
Should I try it again in the same setup in case it just missed it?
My BIOS is up to date.
If RAM was the issue, wouldn't it be BSOD more than once every 8-9 days?

Edit: I should specify that I use my computer almost everyday for around 12 hours.

 

[Trouble]

Should I try it again in the same setup in case it just missed it?

Nope.... IF you did 7 passes with the computer as it is normally configured then I'd say your memory is not the likely issue.

Time to test the hard disk drive.
AS I said above the PFN and PFP (page file number and page file pointer) would suggest that something was written to the drive's page file out of memory and when it was needed again it wasn't where the system thought it should be. Either it was over written or the pointer / number was corrupt.
I only suspected the memory because one line of the stack mentioned "SuperFetch"

 

[FleshlyDelight]

Nope.... IF you did 7 passes with the computer as it is normally configured then I'd say your memory is not the likely issue.

Time to test the hard disk drive.
AS I said above the PFN and PFP (page file number and page file pointer) would suggest that something was written to the drive's page file out of memory and when it was needed again it wasn't where the system thought it should be. Either it was over written or the pointer / number was corrupt.
I only suspected the memory because one line of the stack mentioned "SuperFetch"

Would disabling SuperFetch lead to any solutions?
I know some people had some issues with SuperFetch with disk usage, but would disabling it hurt to try?
Also, I'm fairly certain I tried chkdsk before I had to reinstall Windows 10 before someone recommended I try Driver Verifier. Driver verifier put me in a BSOD loop where repair and safe mode were impossible to get into though.
The hard drive is only about 3 months old and I had the same issues on my old hdd with random bsods.

I can certainly try chkdsk again though.
A simple chkdsk scan, without /f or /r parameter, says nothing is wrong, if that matters.

 

[Trouble]

Would disabling SuperFetch lead to any solutions?

Probably not, if you can figure out how to do it. It used to run as a services and you could simply go to services.msc and disable it

A simple chkdsk scan, without /f or /r parameter, says nothing is wrong, if that matters.

Yep it certainly does matter, and.....
just the "/R" switch is required, R for repair automatically implies F for fix, so typing /F is redundant

 

[FleshlyDelight]

Probably not, if you can figure out how to do it. It used to run as a services and you could simply go to services.msc and disable it

Yep it certainly does matter, and.....
just the "/R" switch is required, R for repair automatically implies F for fix, so typing /F is redundant

Alright, I'll try another Memtest tonight as well, just to be 100% sure It didn't somehow miss anything after I do a chkdsk /R.

Out of curiosity, with the blue screens being multiple days in between, as well as dozens of hours of gaming, web surfing, and drawing in photoshop per day, is there even a chance I could find out what is wrong, or is this something only a professional would be capable of?
I'm beginning to lose hope only because it seems like it's somewhat impossible to narrow it down.

I thought it could be driver related because I'm sure some of my drivers are out of date, but I have no idea which ones would be the ones needing updates.
GPU is updated, BIOS is updated, Audio is updated, even the drivers for my wireless adapter are updated.

If I get another BSOD, I'll post it here, but It might be awhile until then.

 

[Trouble]

The error you are getting IRQ Not Less or Equal, is very commonly associated with drivers or memory problems.
IF memtest86+ did 7 passes and came back clean, you can feel pretty good about the memory. Trust me after seven passes you would have amassed considerable errors if you had an issue.

Likewise ntoskrnl.exe is commonly blamed but that is not a driver, it's a critical windows component.

is there even a chance I could find out what is wrong, or is this something only a professional would be capable of?

You could chase this around for a long time and maybe get lucky and maybe not.
It could come down to something as obscure as a bad cache chip on your hard drive.

More dump files might provide more information, but if they all turn out to be identical then you're back to square one.

Have you noticed anything in common as to what you might be doing during these crashes that might help, especially anything particularly resource intensive.

 

[FleshlyDelight]

The error you are getting IRQ Not Less or Equal, is very commonly associated with drivers or memory problems.
IF memtest86+ did 7 passes and came back clean, you can feel pretty good about the memory. Trust me after seven passes you would have amassed considerable errors if you had an issue.

Likewise ntoskrnl.exe is commonly blamed but that is not a driver, it's a critical windows component.

You could chase this around for a long time and maybe get lucky and maybe not.
It could come down to something as obscure as a bad cache chip on your hard drive.

More dump files might provide more information, but if they all turn out to be identical then you're back to square one.

Have you noticed anything in common as to what you might be doing during these crashes that might help, especially anything particularly resource intensive.

That's a real bad thing to hear, since I'd really like this fixed, but I suppose a single BSOD every 8-9 days isn't honestly the end of the world.
I'll continue to try find out what is wrong and I'll send any minidumps I get here, so expect another one at some point.

There's never any kind of thing that tells me anything is wrong with my PC, hell, it runs the best it ever has, except for the BSODs. I do, however, notice that it will crash whatever I'm playing/doing. Chrome will straight up close itself, Games will crash/close themselves, you know, that sort of thing. Shortly after that, about 1-5 minutes, it will blue screen. It's never the same blue screen error either, since the one I just got a couple days ago was IRQL and the one before that one was Memory Management or something like that.

I'm still in belief it's related to one of my drivers, but I have no idea how to find out which one it would be.
I'll still try another memtest, since I only BSOD once every 8-9 days, I might catch something, but maybe not.
Here's hoping I do so I can atleast put my worries to rest.

Edit: Another look at the minidump lists a "Default_bucket_ID: Win8_driver_fault" and the process svchost, does that mean anything to you guys?
https://i.imgur.com/mlPdztM.png

 

[Trouble]

See if you can change the settings to prevent the automatic overwriting of previous dump files so you can accumulate several over time.

Right click the start button and choose "run" and type in sysdm.cpl and press Enter
Click on the Advanced tab
Click on the Startup and Recovery Settings button
If you have Automatic memory dump selected try unchecking the box that says "Overwrite any existing file"

See if that adds additional dump files with new names.

 

[FleshlyDelight]

See if you can change the settings to prevent the automatic overwriting of previous dump files so you can accumulate several over time.

See if that adds additional dump files with new names.

Alright, I have done so.
Whenever my PC decides it wants to BSOD again, I'll have both minidump files ready.
It may be some time until another BSOD happens though, but I'm sure it will happen again, probably around this same time next week.

 

[Trouble]

It's probably also important to know that you are not …..
Overclocking anything
CPU, Memory or GPU

 

[FleshlyDelight]

It's probably also important to know that you are not …..
Overclocking anything
CPU, Memory or GPU

I never overclocked, so I don't believe it would be.
I did mess with the RAM a bit since I was having the BSODs a couple months ago and thought it was RAM related, but I set it back to its default a long time ago.
So, as far as I know, there shouldn't be any overclocking going on and everything should be default.

edit: Originally, when I first installed these two 8gig ram sticks, I was having similar BSODs, but they were Kernel Security Failures. Thinking the RAM was bad, I sent it back to Amazon without even bothering to test it in memtest86 (the regular memory test on Windows 8.1 said it was fine though, if that matters,) and got another set of 8 gig ram sticks. Same issue occurred, but vanished after I bought an entirely new hard drive and installed Windows 10 on it.
Everything was fine for awhile, but I started getting really bad Kernel Security Check Failures pretty much every other day, until I tried Driver Verifier, which, as I mentioned earlier, put me in BSOD loop.

It's been about 2 months since the second install of windows 10.

 

[Wolfie]

Hi FleshlyDelight,

did you install any 3rd party apps after you did your Windows install?, by that I mean something exotic related to PC performance, a cleaning app, driver installer or apps of that nature, they can cause problems down the road!.

Also, what power plugs (if any) are you using for your GPU?, it may be caused by not enough power getting through to the GPU?.

 

[FleshlyDelight]

Hi FleshlyDelight,

did you install any 3rd party apps after you did your Windows install?, by that I mean something exotic related to PC performance, a cleaning app, driver installer or apps of that nature, they can cause problems down the road!.

Also, what power plugs (if any) are you using for your GPU?, it may be caused by not enough power getting through to the GPU?.

Not that I know of.
I don't download things off the internet unless I know who it is being provided by and it's something I know won't harm my PC.
The only drivers I download are the ones Device manager says I should when I check for updates, drivers from my motherboards support page, and the Nvidia website for my 980ti.
I did, however, just yesterday install updates for realtek audio and my wireless adapter if by some magic means those drivers are the issue, both of these were downloaded from their respective websites and after the issue came up.

As for power plugs, the same one I've used for about 3 years.
Don't exactly know what it is without looking at it, but it doesn't look anything special.
It's just the one connected from my 750w to my 980ti.

edit: I also scan for viruses weekly using Malwarebytes and I've never had a virus in the three years I've owned this PC. (knock on wood)