Windows 7 Not Making Crash Dump?/BSOD

I just had a blue screen for the first time in a week or so, and before that, I finally fixed (or so I thought) a problem where Windows would not write a crash dump.

But now, the BSOD told me it COULDN'T write a crash dump (see attached pics).

Could I get some help? I'm just about to just return this SSD, as I'm 99% sure it's the cause of the issue.


Images are in two parts, might need to swap between them to get the whole thing.

Also, the main error said KERNAL_INPUT_DATA_ERROR, or something very close to that.

Have you ran diagnostics on the ram or hard drive yet?

Any other errors in event viewer that aren't causing crashes but are recorded in the system event log?

I.M.O.G. said:

Have you ran diagnostics on the ram or hard drive yet?

Any other errors in event viewer that aren't causing crashes but are recorded in the system event log?

Click to expand...

I haven't run either. I'll run Memtest86+ tonight, and then HD Check (whatever that one's called, I'll find it) after that. Only Critical errors in the Event Viewer are the crashes I had, I'll post it below.

Most of the time when it crashes, it'll give me a "Overclocking failed" error, or just tell me that no Bootmgr is present. Usually restarting fixes that, but sometimes I need to use the Windows disc to repair.

Log Name: System
Source: Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power
Date: 10/4/2011 12:44:21 PM
Event ID: 41
Task Category: (63)
Level: Critical
Keywords: (2)
User: SYSTEM
Computer: Sam-PC
Description:
The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power" Guid="{331C3B3A-2005-44C2-AC5E-77220C37D6B4}" />
<EventID>41</EventID>
<Version>2</Version>
<Level>1</Level>
<Task>63</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x8000000000000002</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2011-10-04T19:44:21.757209200Z" />
<EventRecordID>7737</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="4" ThreadID="8" />
<Channel>System</Channel>
<Computer>Sam-PC</Computer>
<Security UserID="S-1-5-18" />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data Name="BugcheckCode">0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter1">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter2">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter3">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter4">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="SleepInProgress">false</Data>
<Data Name="PowerButtonTimestamp">0</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>

So, you do have a page file of at least 200 mb on the OS drive?

So far my only BSOD with Win 7 have been bad memory..

shadowdr said:

So, you do have a page file of at least 200 mb on the OS drive?

Click to expand...

I believe it's 100MB, or just under.

I could be wrong but I think that at least 200mb is required in order to save the dump file because Win7 told me that when I disabled the page file. I added the 200 and mine does write a dump file after a bsod.

shadowdr said:

I could be wrong but I think that at least 200mb is required in order to save the dump file because Win7 told me that when I disabled the page file. I added the 200 and mine does write a dump file after a bsod.

Click to expand...

Could be, for what I know.

Don't suppose you could tell me how to view the size of the pagefile and/or allocate more space to it?

Plazzed said:

Could be, for what I know.

Don't suppose you could tell me how to view the size of the pagefile and/or allocate more space to it?

Click to expand...

Certainly, go to Control panel, System and click on Advanced system settings, on the advanced tab click Settings under Performance, on the advanced tab click Change under Virtual memory. Highlight the OS drive and click custom size. Enter the same amount for min and max and then click set. I may have been wrong about the minimum size as mine shows 800mb and I probably didn't change it to a higher amount.

shadowdr said:

Certainly, go to Control panel, System and click on Advanced system settings, on the advanced tab click Settings under Performance, on the advanced tab click Change under Virtual memory. Highlight the OS drive and click custom size. Enter the same amount for min and max and then click set. I may have been wrong about the minimum size as mine shows 800mb and I probably didn't change it to a higher amount.

Click to expand...

As of now, it says there is 8168MB for page file (shared throughout all drives). I'd imagine that's enough as it is, though.

Plazzed said:

As of now, it says there is 8168MB for page file (shared throughout all drives). I'd imagine that's enough as it is, though.

Click to expand...

Combined page files are not the same, a crash dump will only save to the windows directory that is on the OS drive. Did the OS drive have at least 800mb on it?

shadowdr said:

Combined page files are not the same, a crash dump will only save to the windows directory that is on the OS drive. Did the OS drive have at least 800mb on it?

Click to expand...

According to the dialog box, it says "System managed". When I was in Windows recovery from the disc, I'm pretty sure I saw a partition on the C: drive that was maybe...100MB or just under. Should I manually change the C: drive to have 800MB (see picture)?

Plazzed said:

According to the dialog box, it says "System managed". When I was in Windows recovery from the disc, I'm pretty sure I saw a partition on the C: drive that was maybe...100MB or just under. Should I manually change the C: drive to have 800MB (see picture)?

https://imgur.com/ImSIn

Click to expand...

System managed means that the system will grow and shink the paging file as needed.

I would go ahead and change it like you have in your screenshot.

I think that the 100mb that you are talking about is the hidden recovery partition so that is not an issue. It has been the general consensus that a page file on an SSD should only be the minimum amount necessary to keep from writing so much data and wearing out the drive. There is no consensus to what size page file to use anymore because of the amount of ram that we have now or where to put it. I would use a static page file on another drive (same size of min and max) of about 2048 and set the SSD to the minimum of 800mb. It will warn you about not being able to save a crash dump if it is set to less. By the amount of page that it is allocating that you do have at least 6 gigs of memory so that the page file may be written but almost never read.

I assume that you are aware of the issues that some of the SSD's are having with BSOD's and it does make sense if the SSD was dropped from the system that a crash file could not be written to a drive it couldn't find. If it is a sandforce based SSD you are probably right about it being the cause of the BSOD, they can just drop from the system causing a BSOD and are usually not detected on reboot so that you have to re enter bios to re detect it or it will say that boot files are missing.

someinterwebguy said:

System managed means that the system will grow and shink the paging file as needed.

I would go ahead and change it like you have in your screenshot.

Click to expand...

Alright, I'll do that.

shadowdr said:

I think that the 100mb that you are talking about is the hidden recovery partition so that is not an issue. It has been the general consensus that a page file on an SSD should only be the minimum amount necessary to keep from writing so much data and wearing out the drive. There is no consensus to what size page file to use anymore because of the amount of ram that we have now or where to put it. I would use a static page file on another drive (same size of min and max) of about 2048 and set the SSD to the minimum of 800mb. It will warn you about not being able to save a crash dump if it is set to less. By the amount of page that it is allocating that you do have at least 6 gigs of memory so that the page file may be written but almost never read.

I assume that you are aware of the issues that some of the SSD's are having with BSOD's and it does make sense if the SSD was dropped from the system that a crash file could not be written to a drive it couldn't find. If it is a sandforce based SSD you are probably right about it being the cause of the BSOD, they can just drop from the system causing a BSOD and are usually not detected on reboot so that you have to re enter bios to re detect it or it will say that boot files are missing.

Click to expand...

Does it matter which drive I set the 2048MB page file on? I have three different drives available, not counting my SSD.

The SSD is a Corsair Force Series GT 120GB (should have mentioned this earlier), which is a Sandforce 2200 controller. Your explanation sounds perfectly reasonable and likely for my problem. This has been becoming a semi-common occurrence with the drive, and I'm almost positive it's directly related to the SSD itself. I've been trying to get an in-depth crash dump from the BSOD, but the fact it won't write a crash dump (if it became undetected in the middle of a session, not being able to write a dump would make perfect sense) just solidifies the notion it's the drive. The drive is still well within warranty, would you suggest I RMA it for a replacement? That's been my projected course of action ever since I suspected it being faulty.

Plazzed said:

Alright, I'll do that.



Does it matter which drive I set the 2048MB page file on? I have three different drives available, not counting my SSD.

The SSD is a Corsair Force Series GT 120GB (should have mentioned this earlier), which is a Sandforce 2200 controller. Your explanation sounds perfectly reasonable and likely for my problem. This has been becoming a semi-common occurrence with the drive, and I'm almost positive it's directly related to the SSD itself. I've been trying to get an in-depth crash dump from he BSOD, but the fact it won't write a crash dump (if it became undetected in the middle of a session, not being able to write a dump would make perfect sense) just solidifies the notion it's the drive. The drive is still well within warranty, would you suggest I RMA it for a replacement? That's been my projected course of action ever since I suspected it being faulty.

Click to expand...

Doesn't really matter which drive you use if they are all the same speed.

If you continue to have problems then yes I would RMA the drive.
I had an agility III before getting the M4 that I have now because I was having the same problems you are having. A future firmware update may fix the issue but they have been working on it for a long time and the issue seems no better than it ever was. Mine would disconnect and BSOD and then would not be found on the next boot. It was always found after turning off and disconnecting power and then cold booting but I had read that sometimes they would stop being detected at all after a while and all data would be lost. Newegg was nice enough to allow me to return it for refund and then order another non sandforce drive to replace it with. It seems some people have no problems at all but others seem to have nothing but problem with them. Good luck.

shadowdr said:

Doesn't really matter which drive you use if they are all the same speed.

If you continue to have problems then yes I would RMA the drive.
I had an agility III before getting the M4 that I have now because I was having the same problems you are having. A future firmware update may fix the issue but they have been working on it for a long time and the issue seems no better than it ever was. Mine would disconnect and BSOD and then would not be found on the next boot. It was always found after turning off and disconnecting power and then cold booting but I had read that sometimes they would stop being detected at all after a while and all data would be lost. Newegg was nice enough to allow me to return it for refund and then order another non sandforce drive to replace it with. It seems some people have no problems at all but others seem to have nothing but problem with them. Good luck.

Click to expand...

The drives are different speeds, I believe. 500GB WDC Black, 1TB Seagate, 2TB F4 EcoGreen. The WDC + Seagate are 7200 I believe, and the EcoGreen is 5400. Would it be best to place the pagefile on the fastest drive, for the time being?

Plazzed said:

The drives are different speeds, I believe. 500GB WDC Black, 1TB Seagate, 2TB F4 EcoGreen. The WDC + Seagate are 7200 I believe, and the EcoGreen is 5400. Would it be best to place the pagefile on the fastest drive, for the time being?

Click to expand...

Yes fastest is best but it will probably not be accessed very often.

shadowdr said:

Yes fastest is best but it will probably not be accessed very often.

Click to expand...

Alright. I'll follow your and someinterwebguy's advice for setting up the page files for right now, and RMA the drive when I get a chance in the very near future.

Thanks a lot for your help, you've really helped me out here.