System instability (which component to blame?)

[Cyb]

I have system stability problems for a long time. I always thought it was my TV tuner card, but now that I have it removed, the problems still persist.

Problem:
The system can run fine for some days (in which I boot up every morning), and suddenly be heaviliy instable on some days: black screen during bios boot, Windows crashes or reboots during boot, or the blue bios setup freezes, or a reboot in the blue bios setup. During these problems, I have to remove power from the PC a number of times, wait, try again etc. Or simply leave it off for some hours and then try it again. The problems seem to be called "cold boot problems" in by some users in similar cases.

Specs:
-CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 @ 3.20 GHz (normal speed) (temperature around 42 degrees celsius)
-RAM: 4 GB total, Kingston KVR1333D3N9K2/4G (kit of 2 modules)
-MoBo: Asus M4A79XTD EVO (Chipset: AMD 790X / SB750)
-GPU: Club3D HD 5750 1GB GDDR5 PCI-E (passive cooled by default) (ATI Radeon HD 5750 chipset)
-PSU: Seasonic M12 II Bronze 620W (previous PSU: Seasonic S12-430, 430W had similar problems, if I'm correct)
-OS: Windows 7 64bit
-BIOS: set to default, except: serial port disabled, firewire disabled, and AHCI mode instead of IDE mode.

Memtest runs without problems for at least 8 hours during a test. Maybe it won't run normal when the system is instable, although a quick test using Win7 memtest, didn't show any problems on a single run.
I replaced hard disks, so that should also not be the problem. Also tried different sata and power cables. Also reinstalled Windows numerous times. It shouldn't be Windows related, because the BIOS setup itself is even instable during instability.

The memory modules that I have are not explicitly mentioned in the Asus memory QVL, although a similar module is: KVR1333D3N9/1G, which is probably a single 1GB module. So I would expect that the KVR1333D3N9K2/4G (2x2gb) should also work, but I could be wrong. But the KVR1333D3N9K2 was also listed at tweakers.net's best buy guide in combination with this motherboard.

I think the problem is related to: ram, motherboard or gpu or a combination of these or a related bios setting.

Any advice about what I can try?

 

[denis280]

What do the BSOD say. download whocrashed and on the next bsod go see.

 

[Cyb]

The BSODs look random to me, multiple types of bsods.

Below a list. (The ones with 2001 are because I did a cmos clear.)
The list doesn't go further, because I recently did a new fresh Windows install on another hard disk (instead of my SSD, to rule it out).

I'm currently testing some RAM BIOS settings as advised by others.

On Thu 7-6-2012 10:06:34 GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:/Windows\Minidump\060712-24694-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: Unknown (0xFFFFF880079C90C7)
Bugcheck code: 0x1000007E (0xFFFFFFFFC000001D, 0xFFFFF880079C90C7, 0xFFFFF88002BF79E8, 0xFFFFF88002BF7240)
Error: SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED_M
Bug check description: This indicates that a system thread generated an exception which the error handler did not catch.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
A third party driver was identified as the probable root cause of this system error. It is suggested you look for an update for the following driver: Unknown .
Google query: Unknown SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED_M




On Thu 7-6-2012 10:06:34 GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:/Windows\memory.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntkrnlmp.exe (nt!KeBugCheckEx+0x0)
Bugcheck code: 0x7E (0xFFFFFFFFC000001D, 0xFFFFF880079C90C7, 0xFFFFF88002BF79E8, 0xFFFFF88002BF7240)
Error: SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
Bug check description: This bug check indicates that a system thread generated an exception that the error handler did not catch.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.


On Wed 6-6-2012 17:35:01 GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:/Windows\Minidump\060612-26239-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x7F190)
Bugcheck code: 0x1E (0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0)
Error: KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This indicates that a kernel-mode program generated an exception which the error handler did not catch.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.


On Wed 6-6-2012 17:31:00 GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:/Windows\Minidump\060612-25849-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x7F1C0)
Bugcheck code: 0x3B (0xC0000005, 0xFFFFF80001AC80C5, 0xFFFFF8800E500020, 0x0)
Error: SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This indicates that an exception happened while executing a routine that transitions from non-privileged code to privileged code.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.


On Wed 6-6-2012 17:06:59 GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:/Windows\Minidump\060612-27565-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x7F1C0)
Bugcheck code: 0x7F (0x8, 0x80050031, 0x6F8, 0xFFFFF80001A83552)
Error: UNEXPECTED_KERNEL_MODE_TRAP
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This bug check indicates that the Intel CPU generated a trap and the kernel failed to catch this trap.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.


On Tue 5-6-2012 16:38:48 GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:/Windows\Minidump\123101-24070-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x7F190)
Bugcheck code: 0x1E (0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0)
Error: KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
file path: C:/Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This indicates that a kernel-mode program generated an exception which the error handler did not catch.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.


On Tue 5-6-2012 7:58:14 GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:/Windows\Minidump\060512-28501-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: unknown_module_00000000`00000000.sys (Unloaded_Unknown_Module_00000000`00000000+0x7F)
Bugcheck code: 0x7F (0x8, 0x80050031, 0x6F8, 0xFFFFF80001A93552)
Error: UNEXPECTED_KERNEL_MODE_TRAP
Bug check description: This bug check indicates that the Intel CPU generated a trap and the kernel failed to catch this trap.
A third party driver was identified as the probable root cause of this system error. It is suggested you look for an update for the following driver: unknown_module_00000000`00000000.sys .
Google query: unknown_module_00000000`00000000.sys UNEXPECTED_KERNEL_MODE_TRAP




On Mon 31-12-2001 22:14:31 GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:/Windows\Minidump\123101-31356-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x1AADD3)
Bugcheck code: 0x1000007E (0xFFFFFFFFC0000005, 0xFFFFF80001C09DD3, 0xFFFFF880021D8938, 0xFFFFF880021D8190)
Error: SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED_M
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This indicates that a system thread generated an exception which the error handler did not catch.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.


On Mon 31-12-2001 22:10:18 GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:/Windows\Minidump\123101-29718-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: atikmdag.sys (atikmdag+0x4F60C7)
Bugcheck code: 0x1000007E (0xFFFFFFFFC000001D, 0xFFFFF880079370C7, 0xFFFFF880083E69E8, 0xFFFFF880083E6240)
Error: SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED_M
file path: C:\Windows\system32\drivers\atikmdag.sys
product: ATI Radeon Family
company: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
description: ATI Radeon Kernel Mode Driver
Bug check description: This indicates that a system thread generated an exception which the error handler did not catch.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
A third party driver was identified as the probable root cause of this system error. It is suggested you look for an update for the following driver: atikmdag.sys (ATI Radeon Kernel Mode Driver, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.).
Google query: atikmdag.sys Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED_M

 

[sm625]

Reseat RAM. Reseat GPU.

 

[denis280]

Make sure all Drivers are up to date. specially ati

 

[Ketchup]

sounds like ram. the fact that it is so ramdom makes me come to that conclusion. several other posters in threads i have read have found that memtest is not foolproof.

 

[nitrous9200]

HCI memtest is recommended over in the CPU forum (runs in Windows), and it's worked well for me.

I see you switched your PSU as well. That was the next thing I was going to suggest, since I just had a PC that would power on but not display anything, or be working in Windows then freeze or go to a black screen, and the power supply was at fault.