SOLVED BSOD 0x0000001E, HDD related difficulties and other shenanigans

[XDMickeYXD]

Hello again OCers,

I left my custom-built PC on the first night after installing windows 7 to CHKDSK /r for bad sectors because I had some HDD related BSODs earlier (see below) and stayed near until the results screen. (which took 4 hours to get there for my 3TB HDD)
The results were all good, no bad sectors.
But then it stayed in the 'Please wait while your computer restarts' state for 5+ minutes and I just went to bed.

The following morning I found that my computer had not restarted but rather had shut itself down, since all the power was off.
I hit the power button, got through mobo screen but then I got the BSOD "STOP: 0x0000001E"

The next time I started it (2 min later) it asked me whether I wanted to start windows normally after showing mobo screen, I chose yes to see whether the BSOD would repeat (it didn't)
Then it seemed like the DVI connection to my monitor (which is plugged into my mobo, not GPU) lost power for 2 seconds before regaining it and turning full black for 10 seconds.
It then showed the "starting windows" screen but after that for a while (10+ minutes) all I saw was the windows background with the flag, nothing else on screen, not even the cursor.
I decided it wasn't gonna start and held down the power button to shut it down.

Since I have an ASRock mobo I might as well mention that the Dr Debug display was off.

Haven't tried starting it since, because I thought it'd be better to ask you guys what's up first
EDIT: I did start it just now and I get exactly the same thing: mobo screen, monitor power loss, black screen, windows is starting screen, windows background.

I also got 0x0000007A and 0x000000F4 BSODs earlier which I both 'fixed' (as in none of those kinds of BSODs since then) by replugging the cables on my HDD twice, once for every BSOD.
And before I replugged the cables the first time for the 7A BSOD, my pc was hanging every couple of minutes for some seconds semi-randomly (this has not occurred since the replug)

Link to my full setup: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/IJe4
I should mention that the Card Reader, BluRay Writer and iiyama Monitor are not currently connected and I'm using some old DVI monitor (monitor and BluRay writer have yet to arrive)

EDIT: Forgot to mention, none of my parts are OC'd yet.
EDIT 2: Also, I had just installed all the 'important' and 3 'optional' windows updates before this happened (since I did a clean/custom windows 7 install)

I hope you can help me,

-XDMickeYXD

 

[XDMickeYXD]

I'm gonna try leaving it on for a while to see whether it gets out of the windows background.
UPDATE: About half an hour has passed, the windows background still shows.

 

[Automata]

With the changing BSOD numbers you are getting, this sounds more like a stability issue. From another computer (if you have one), download and burn Memtest to a disk, then boot it on your computer. You should get no errors. I would let this run for a few hours, at minimum.

 

[XDMickeYXD]

With the changing BSOD numbers you are getting, this sounds more like a stability issue. From another computer (if you have one), download and burn Memtest to a disk, then boot it on your computer. You should get no errors. I would let this run for a few hours, at minimum.

Memtest is currently running on the PC, gonna let it run for three full hours.
When it's 'done' so to speak, how would I post the results here, and which results to post?
Also, what should I expect in the case that there are errors? Would I have to buy new RAM?

 

[Automata]

It doesn't really finish, as it just repeats when a run completes. If you get an errors, they will be highlighted in a very obvious red. Any red is bad. As a note, it will also not restart or exit without you telling it to, so if the computer restarts, that is also bad.

The longer you can let it run, the more confident you can be about the memory being stable. It isn't a perfect test, but it gives you a rough estimate on the stability of the machine. For example, if you pop in the disk and it just starts dumping errors to the screen, you know you are a serious problem. It can also help isolate specific memory sticks as problematic. If only a certain range of memory has problems, then one stick (or on chip on a stick) might be having problems.

When it "finishes", just let me know here and I can advise what to check next. No need for pictures or anything.

 

[XDMickeYXD]

It doesn't really finish, as it just repeats when a run completes. If you get an errors, they will be highlighted in a very obvious red. Any red is bad. As a note, it will also not restart or exit without you telling it to, so if the computer restarts, that is also bad.

The longer you can let it run, the more confident you can be about the memory being stable. It isn't a perfect test, but it gives you a rough estimate on the stability of the machine. For example, if you pop in the disk and it just starts dumping errors to the screen, you know you are a serious problem. It can also help isolate specific memory sticks as problematic. If only a certain range of memory has problems, then one stick (or on chip on a stick) might be having problems.

When it "finishes", just let me know here and I can advise what to check next. No need for pictures or anything.

Thanks for the help
I edited my first reply to you before I saw that you replied to that reply, could you reply to that reply to your reply again to answer the new questions? :3

 

[Automata]

It depends on if there are errors and to what degree. There may not be a problem at all (or it isn't detected). Memtest is rough in the sense that it doesn't catch all memory problems. If it does catch a problem, it doesn't mean the memory is dead or faulty. It could be as simple as reseating the memory stick or correcting a setting in the BIOS (motherboards can detect and set "auto" settings wrong).

If you had one stick that always dumped out errors, no matter what slot it was in or what settings you had on the motherboard, I would say to RMA the set. However, this is just an example and it varies from case to case.

 

[XDMickeYXD]

It depends on if there are errors and to what degree. There may not be a problem at all (or it isn't detected). Memtest is rough in the sense that it doesn't catch all memory problems. If it does catch a problem, it doesn't mean the memory is dead or faulty. It could be as simple as reseating the memory stick or correcting a setting in the BIOS (motherboards can detect and set "auto" settings wrong).

If you had one stick that always dumped out errors, no matter what slot it was in or what settings you had on the motherboard, I would say to RMA the set. However, this is just an example and it varies from case to case.

I've actually only had this pc for 3 days, 2 of which I spent putting the parts together.
So yeah, 3 hours have passed with 0 errors... What now?

Also, quick question, how would I enable XMP for my RAM?
Do I manually change all the settings in BIOS or is it as simple as switching profiles?

 

[Automata]

You will want to focus on stability testing first to isolate where the problem is. If you start changing settings at random, you won't know what fixed the issue (or created a worse one).

Grab CoreTemp and let it run in the background to monitor temperatures. If you see temperatures exceeding 90c, stop the test immediately.

Boot up normally and grab LinX. I host it on my website because the author's web servers have been down for nearly a year. Extract the folder, run LinX.exe, click "All" next to Memory, set the number of runs to 20 or higher, and hit Start. Keep an eye on temperatures. It will take a bit to get started as it has to initialize the RAM. Do not use the computer while this is running and let this run for a few hours. Again, the longer you let it run, the better idea it gives you on how stable the system is.

If that seems to be working, grab HDTune and post a screenshot of the Health tab here.

 

[XDMickeYXD]

You will want to focus on stability testing first to isolate where the problem is. If you start changing settings at random, you won't know what fixed the issue (or created a worse one).

Grab CoreTemp and let it run in the background to monitor temperatures. If you see temperatures exceeding 90c, stop the test immediately.

Boot up normally and grab LinX. I host it on my website because the author's web servers have been down for nearly a year. Extract the folder, run LinX.exe, click "All" next to Memory, set the number of runs to 20 or higher, and hit Start. Keep an eye on temperatures. It will take a bit to get started as it has to initialize the RAM. Do not use the computer while this is running and let this run for a few hours. Again, the longer you let it run, the better idea it gives you on how stable the system is.

If that seems to be working, grab HDTune and post a screenshot of the Health tab here.

I just took out the memtest cd and my bios is showing my optical drive as the only boot option, meaning it doesn't recognize my hdd.
Gonna try to replug (again) to see if that fixes this whole thing.
If it works, I'll still try your instructions in order to avoid future BSODs.

 

[Automata]

If the drive isn't showing in the BIOS, do the HDTune portion first once you get it working.

 

[XDMickeYXD]

If the drive isn't showing in the BIOS, do the HDTune portion first once you get it working.

Just redid the wiring on my HDD and optical drive, and now the HDD boots again.
Still can't get into windows though.
Are the programs you linked me burnable to a bootable CD?

EDIT: Nevermind, I managed to boot into safe mode.
Gonna try CoreTemp now.

 

[XDMickeYXD]

HDTune Health: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9lxi67ild5kfh3m/hdtune health.png
EDIT: I can't run CoreTemp in safe mode: https://www.dropbox.com/s/e895qe14i7wtvlv/coretempfail.png

 

[XDMickeYXD]

Uhhh yeah, something weird just happened.
After running Linx for about 10 minutes my pc suddenly restarted, but instead of booting windows it loaded the bios screen... Does this usually happen?

 

[Automata]

It went into the BIOS setup screen? I haven't had a system do that. Restarting while running that test is not good and could indicate instability. You really should try to get it to boot normally so you can see temperatures.

Looking at HDTune, I'm unsure why it is flagging those two attributes as "warning". The data for both of them is nothing, which is good.

 

[XDMickeYXD]

It went into the BIOS setup screen? I haven't had a system do that. Restarting while running that test is not good and could indicate instability. You really should try to get it to boot normally so you can see temperatures.

Looking at HDTune, I'm unsure why it is flagging those two attributes as "warning". The data for both of them is nothing, which is good.

I think it did that because my HDD disappeared from my boot list again and I had that as my only boot option...
If I go into storage configuration in the bios it shows my optical drive as the only connected sata device, my HDD isn't there.
Normally it shows up under the 'SATA3_A2' port.
Could it be that my hard drive got disconnected during the test?
I'm gonna try replugging it with a different SATA data cable, as this one might be faulty and I have a spare.

 

[Automata]

It disappearing from the boot list isn't going to cause that. Those are SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) attributes, which are completely internal to the hard drive. They have values of zero, so that is probably just an issue with HDTune.

However, if the drive is randomly dropping (whether it be the drive itself, the cable, or the motherboard), that could be causing your errors. Do you have another cable to test with? Have you tried another port on the motherboard?

 

[XDMickeYXD]

It disappearing from the boot list isn't going to cause that. Those are SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) attributes, which are completely internal to the hard drive. They have values of zero, so that is probably just an issue with HDTune.

However, if the drive is randomly dropping (whether it be the drive itself, the cable, or the motherboard), that could be causing your errors. Do you have another cable to test with? Have you tried another port on the motherboard?

I was actually in the process of connecting the other cable in another port when you posted this, and I finished doing this before typing this reply.

Made sure every connection was seated properly and now the HDD shows up in BIOS again, going to try and see whether it boots normally or not.
If not it might be the updates that I had installed through windows update that causes this situation, since I did not experience the 'windows background but no windows' thing until after I had done the updates.

 

[XDMickeYXD]

Well, I clicked on start windows normally and it seems like it still won't start normally.
I'm going to try a system restore to before the windows updates and we'll see whether that was the cause.

 

[Automata]

If you just installed, it would probably be better to simply wipe the drive and start over. If you had a bad cable, who knows what else is wrong with the install?