BSOD on Windows 7

[QueBert]

hardware, C2D 3.2, P35 MB, 1tb WD Black, 2gb DDR2, XFX Radeon 4850 1gb. Running Windows 7 64 bit retail. Nothing's overclocked, recently I started to have problems with it crashing. Looking there were no files in the minidump directory, which is odd because I know at least once I saw a BSOD before it crashed. Woke up yesterday to see it saying Windows had a problem and it was suggesting I let it do a repair. I did, it said it couldn't fix the problem. I rebooted and tried loading Win normally, I got my music when Windows starts, but the screen stayed black, after awhile I got a stop 00000f4 BSOD. I tried safe mode, same thing. The option to repair directly from the boot menu is gone. I'll be trying a repair install from the DVD in a bit.

I decided to run memtest, memory seems good. I ran Spinrite, and when it started it said my HD had a boot sector virus. So I exited out and loaded the Kypersy boot AV CD. It gave me a warning about the volume not being unmounted, but since I can't get into Windows there's nothing I can do there (right??) I used it to just scan the boot sector and it fond nothing. A stop f4 is usually a memory or HD thing in my experience but Spinrite didn't find anything wrong, and my SMART isn't reporting any errors. The HD is about 2 months old. It's not making any clicking noises or showing any signs I see with a HD that's going bad. My feelings is it's my MB, I had some usual problems with it last month. But what else should I do/test before I run out and get a new MB.

 

[QueBert]

New problems, I dug up my Win 7 DVD and tried to do a repair, it scanned a few things and said it could detect no problems?

Really?? So I guess not being able to load the fucking OS is a problem. Fine, whatever I next tried to do the repair install. They always worked beautifully for me in XP. I hit install now, and when the upgrade/advance menu comes up I select upgrade. It thinks for a second and pops up a box telling me to remove the DVD, reboot, wait for Win 7 to load then put the disc back in and I can upgrade.

Really? My OS won't load, and it won't let me do a repair, and the repair (upgrade) install won't run unless I do it directly from windows? This is madness. A clean install isn't an option, I'll spend 2 months figuring out how to fix this one if that's what it takes me.

 

[NesuD]

Had a vista computer behave very much the same way and it turned out to be a bad hard drive causing it. I think you can download an iso from western digital that you can burn a bootable version of lifeguard tools to test the drive with. I would do that if you can just to eliminate the drive as the problem.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Could be the board, but I agree with NesuD that it sounds more like a bad hd. Try using the manufacturers diagnostic tools and if possible another hard drive. Also, SMART doesnt always show bad drives. My experience is if SMART says its dying its almost gone, but sometimes it doesnt pick up on small defects as it only check things like temp, power cycle count, spin up/spin down time etc

 

[QueBert]

Had a vista computer behave very much the same way and it turned out to be a bad hard drive causing it. I think you can download an iso from western digital that you can burn a bootable version of lifeguard tools to test the drive with. I would do that if you can just to eliminate the drive as the problem.

I can't get the WD diag proggy to run, I burned the ISO to a CD and when it starts to load I see the DR. DOS message but then just a black screen, figures I'll have to look for a alternate program, I usually trust Spinrite, but I guess nothing's 100% right?

 

[RadiclDreamer]

I can't get the WD diag proggy to run, I burned the ISO to a CD and when it starts to load I see the DR. DOS message but then just a black screen, figures I'll have to look for a alternate program, I usually trust Spinrite, but I guess nothing's 100% right?

Spinrite is just looking at the physical integrity of the drive, it isnt looking at mechanics etc

 

[QueBert]

Well, since I couldn't get the WD Diag program to run, I picked up a new MB so I can test the HD. I know my MB has a few issues, like sometimes when I turn the PC on it restarts 1-2 times after being on a second or 2. And 2 of my memory slots don't work. Any ways I picked up a MB and a second HD, if the HD's bad I can clone it and send it in to be replaces. If it was the MB, than I have a HD I can now use as a backup.

It's kind of shameful with how damn cheap they are that I don't back up my HD. Hopefully since the new MB has a different chipset Win 7 will crash right as it's loading and let me reinstall.

 

[tontod]

Well, since I couldn't get the WD Diag program to run, I picked up a new MB so I can test the HD. I know my MB has a few issues, like sometimes when I turn the PC on it restarts 1-2 times after being on a second or 2. And 2 of my memory slots don't work. Any ways I picked up a MB and a second HD, if the HD's bad I can clone it and send it in to be replaces. If it was the MB, than I have a HD I can now use as a backup.

It's kind of shameful with how damn cheap they are that I don't back up my HD. Hopefully since the new MB has a different chipset Win 7 will crash right as it's loading and let me reinstall.

What OS does the WD Diag program use to boot? See if there's an option for Legacy Mode in the bios. I could not get some machines to boot into PC-DOS unless Legacy Mode was enabled in the bios.

 

[QueBert]

What OS does the WD Diag program use to boot? See if there's an option for Legacy Mode in the bios. I could not get some machines to boot into PC-DOS unless Legacy Mode was enabled in the bios.

WD has a WIN and a DOS version, since I couldn't access Windows I burned a boot disc in Ubuntu. My MB is weird, about 1/2 of the boot discs that load Dr Dos don't work at all and half do. I did not think about checking legacy mode, but since a lot of boot discs do work I'm at a loss for an explanation there. New MB is in from Newegg, that + the new HD I got has to fix my problem lol.