BSOD - Windows 7 SP1

[Rapscallion]

Hello everybody,

I have been having serious problems with my pc, which is around 8-9 years old. I have had BSODs upon cold boot and in time it has become a usual thing to have while the pc was idle.
I need my windows and everything installed as they are, so a clean install of Windows or a step towards Win 10-11 is not an option.

Two days ago I took out two ram pieces out, leaving the other two (2x4GB) installed. After doing this, whether the pc was under load or idle, I had no problems for over 30 hours. However, I got another BSOD upon cold boot and a screen popped up saying "windows failed to start ...". I changed the ram sticks installed with the ones taken out. After a couple of hours I got another BSOD while the PC was idle.

I have used check disk, memory test and so on without seeing any problem. I have checked BIOS settings and nothing seems problematic. Driver update caused massive problems with the AS Media Sata controller. I had to fix booting related options with the repair mode of the Windows DVD. Thus, I am not willing to update them again.

OS is Windows 7 x64 SP1.

My PC has the following components:
Windows installed on Samsung 840 Pro 512 SSD
I7 3930K at stock speeds
Asrock X79 Extreme 6
2x4GB Corsair Low Profile CL9 1600 MHz DDR3
EVGA GTX 1080
Super flower 1200 Watt gold or platinum psu (I bought it new for 100$ about 8-9 years ago)
3 2-3TB HDD and 1TB Samsung 840 EVO SSD

I have 3 Dump files. All of them are 0x00000124. One of them was caused by ntoskrnl.exe (ntoskrnl.exe+748c0). The other two were caused by hal.dll (hal.dll+12a3b).

It looks like I have a hardware problem, but it would be great if somebody can help me by digging out the clues that might exist in the dump files. I do not know how I can upload the dump files here if it is possible at all.

 

[EarthDog]

0124 is typically a CPU thing...

That's a high quality PSU, but it wouldn't hurt to try another.

I'd also consider a fresh reinstall of Windows too... with all the reboots and repair, something may be borked (more).

 

[Rapscallion]

0124 is typically a CPU thing...

That's a high quality PSU, but it wouldn't hurt to try another.

I'd also consider a fresh reinstall of Windows too... with all the reboots and repair, something may be borked (more).

Thank you for your quick reply. Unfortunately, I do not have any spare part. I really would like to have a fresh Windows, but as I have mentioned, it is not an option for me now.

Overheating cannot be a problem as my eyes are always on the temperatures. Under load, normally I see max. 60-65C. When idle, average temperature of the cores is around 35C. I can test it with prime95 for a couple of hours, but now I am having BSODs while doing nothing.
Are there people here who can check dump files?

 

[EarthDog]

As I said, 0124 is typically a CPU error. The files you listed in the first post have to do with the OS and the HAL (hardware abstraction layer). Both things are...........as you guessed, OS-related (it's possible if a CPU/memory goes bad it corrupts your OS). I don't think you're going to get a one-shot kill by someone reading your files though, bud.

I know drivers borked your OS install a bit, but your old arse install could be the problem as well. It needs to be an option. So until you're able to swap parts (CPU/PSU/RAM/possibly your HDD) your only recourse is to try and reinstall windows. If you can't, you need to establish some form of personal backup and restoration policy so when (not if) something happens moving forward, you can reinstall your system in no time. Instead, you're hog tied and can't fix things...

See if you can run a HDD test to see if it isn't failing and borking your OS/causing instability.

 

[Rapscallion]

I am running Prime95 now and will leave it so for a couple of hours. If the cpu has any problems, I think the torture test should at least give me a hint, but of course I am no way sure about this.

CrystalDiskInfo shows one of my HDDs with 4 "Current pending sector count". The OS is not installed on this HDD. Can it still cause BSOD? I did use the built-in "check disc" on this HDD. It has found some errors and corrected them (at least said so).

I am now trying to find a used I7 4930K to check if it is the cpu causing the problems. I fear that the mainboard is faulty. I will post the results.

 

[EarthDog]

It could be the mainboard... but the only way to test is by swapping it out or other parts as you're doing.

If the CPU handles P95 (what tests are you running? Small FFT is CPU only, blend is both CPU and RAM) that likely isn't the problem.

 

[Rapscallion]

It could be the mainboard... but the only way to test is by swapping it out or other parts as you're doing.

If the CPU handles P95 (what tests are you running? Small FFT is CPU only, blend is both CPU and RAM) that likely isn't the problem.

For the last 2 hours, I have been running Small FFT. After letting it run for about 5-6 hours, I will also run blend to see if both CPU and RAM are ok.