# BSOD - STOP 0x000000F4 about 10 mins after startup



## FrankieSmileSho (Dec 29, 2011)

Hello! I have a recurring BSOD with my computer. Its been happening for several months.
*Whenever I turn on my computer after its been turned off for a while, 10 minutes or so after startup it starts to slow down, and eventually crashes with a STOP screen.*

View attachment Windows7_Vista_jcgriff2.zip

(a zip with both PERFMON results and the jcgriff thing inside)

After the stop screen, I reboot, and then usually the computer will run fine all day. Then the next day, same story: it runs for 10 minutes, slows down and crashes. Rinse, repeat. That cant be good for my machine in the long run, eh?

I dont need to log in to the computer for the crash to happen. It can happen at the start screen if I leave it on for too long without logging in.

The stop error code I get is 0x000000F4(0x0000000000000003,... and then three more parameters which change every time (one set of those three was 0xFFFFFA800C9AA060,0xFFFFFA800C9AA340,0xFFFFF800035D48B0) I am adding this here because I am not sure you will get the info in the attached file. I dont think my BSOD crashes generated crash dumps: I tried the program "whocrashed" before and the more recent crashes never seemed to show up on it. I have followed the directions in the sticky thread to fix this problem though, so hopefully next time I crash I will have a proper crash dump to show. Its odd though, the final lines of the blue screen text just says:
"Collecting data for crash dump...
Initializing disk for crash dump..."
And then it just ends. like it froze just before doing the rest. Is that what it usually does when crash dumps are just not configured properly? It looks like that could be another error, no? Or maybe it means the crash is hard-drive related so it just doesn't have anything to dump it in. Well hopefully the advice in that sticky will fix this and ill have more info tomorrow.

Heres more info about my system, if it helps:
Its a machine I bought from IBUYPOWER. They have an awful name but their computer configurator was pretty cool and had lots of options.
Here is the configurator page with all of my hardware

Some differences between my system and the one on that page:
-I very recently (two days ago) swapped my video card for another, older one. The video card was starting to burn up and Im getting it RMA-ed, and using an older card temporarily as a replacement. The crash problems started months before, and are still going on after the swap, so I guess that means the video card problem was just a coincidence, sadly...
-I had a Sentry LX temperature and fan monitor installed on the front of the machine. It did annoying beeps about once a day for no reason and was never installed properly, so I just completely disconnected it from everything, cleanly wrapped its connectors in tie-wraps and left it there dead and unpowered. Plugged the fans that were connected through it straight in the power supply instead.

I bought the computer in May of 2010.
Things I tried doing:
I ran memtest and it didnt give me errors, though I did only run it for 1 hour. I could let it run for longer if you guys think its a likely suspect.
I did a little cleanup of dust inside the case.
I ran chkdisk on both hard drives. Maybe I should try a third party error checker instead though.
I updated video drivers, rolled them back, changed video cards. I made sure to uninstall the previous driver and reboot before installing a new one, too. Mostly because I was certain this was all a video driver/hardware problem because of the video card thing I mentioned earlier, but now I know it was almost certainly a separate, secondary problem (I tried the faulty card in my other system and it had the same video problems, but not the BSOD, while this system lost the video problems and kept the BSOD).

Woa! thanks for reading this far. I really need help on this, the IBUYPOWER support I think is starting to give up: they stopped giving me things to try and are starting to talk about just sending them my whole machine.... something that is a really not an option for me! (it would cost me over 600$ in shipping and customs and I cannot spend several weeks without my machine: my day job depends on it at 100%)

OH. I almost forgot. Something else here that may be another symptom of the same problem: I think one (or both) of my hard drives go in some sort of sleep mode all the time. It seems to happen very often, and whenever it happens, the computer hangs for a good 4-5 seconds while I hear the soft WHIRRR of a small motor winding up, then activity resumes as normal. It happens a lot, whenever I try to save something or start browsing folders. Its quite jarring and I think it caused many errors so far. Like, the hanging happens while an application tries to do something and it crashes when it resumes. I dont know, maybe thats not related at all?


----------



## usasma (Apr 11, 2009)

*NOTE:* I have severe eye problems. If I do not respond to your postings, please PM another staff member for assistance.

If I missed something in your first post, please excuse my poor eyesight.

The upload has memory dump files from late November 2011. Try this to ensure that the system is making dumps now:


> *Upload Dump Files:*
> *NOTE:* If using a disk cleaning utility, please stop using it while we are troubleshooting your issues.
> Please go to C:\Windows\Minidump and zip up the contents of the folder. Then upload/attach the .zip file with your next post.
> Left click on the first minidump file.
> ...


Please re-upload the msinfo32 file ($msinfo32.nfo) as the one that's here is corrupt/unreadable. If it doesn't work for you, then try this:


> *MSINFO32:*
> Please go to Start and type in "msinfo32.exe" (without the quotes) and press Enter
> Save the report as an .nfo file, then zip up the .nfo file and upload/attach the .zip file with your next post.
> Also, save a copy as a .txt file and include it also (it's much more difficult to read, but we have greater success in getting the info from it).
> ...


Looks like you're having problems with SpyBot Search and Destroy. Please uninstall it.

The older memory dumps all point to video issues in nVidia drivers.

Lotta problems with Steam. Please uninstall it (reinstall a fresh copy of you must have it back while we're troubleshooting).

Are your Adobe programs legitimate? If not, please uninstall them while we're testing.

I have to wonder if your Hard Drive issues are related to the collecting of memory dump files. Please run these free diagnostics on *ALL* hard drives:
HD Diagnostic (read the details at the link) - Test *ALL* of the hard drives.


----------



## FrankieSmileSho (Dec 29, 2011)

Thanks! Im doing these things. I uninstalled spybot, steam and the all the adobe stuff too. Im burning the hard drive testing utility right now and ill run the test shortly.

I found a MEMORY.dmp file under windows, and more dumps under the minidump directory, but...theyre all dated november 2011. Do you still want me to upload them? It really looks like Ive had no memory dumps since november, even though I have blue screens almost daily.
I still didn't get a blue screen since I did the changes suggested in the topic about making sure the dumps are done correctly. If these changes corrected the memory dump problem I should get a proper one by tomorrow or so.

*The older memory dumps about the nVidia drivers may be from a separate problem*. I am replacing a video card right now that is damaged, and am currently using a card from an older computer. The card used to crash my computer until sometime last month, when I made a video driver update, and it stopped outright crashing the computer and started to "crash and then recover" instead, which didn't end in a blue screen anymore, but instead a little message at the bottom of my screen appeared that said something like "the display driver kernel has recovered from an error". These past few weeks it suddenly got worse, happening more and more often, so I'm just about to send it for an RMA. I tested the video card in another computer, and it gets the same problems there, without getting all of my other problems. Those last crash dumps I think coincide with the last blue screen crashes my video card had before it started to recover from the errors.

Heres a zip with MSInfo32 both as an NFO and a TXT: 
http://www.frankiesmileshow.com/stuff/msINF32.zip
Hopefully ill get that specific BSOD soon so I can know if it properly makes dumps of it now.


----------



## usasma (Apr 11, 2009)

Don't worry about the November memory dumps. Just upload any new one's tha show up.

Display driver problems are most often due to the driver itself. BUT, they can also be due to hardware issues. Most commonly this is the video card, but it can also be from other hardware. That's our challenge here - figuring out what's the problem.

I notice that you're from Canada. By any chance is your copy of Windows originally in French? We have numerous problems with MSINFO32 when going from French to English. The text file worked out tho', so I'll post more from that....

The WER reporting section of MSINFO32 reports STOP 0x117 BSOD's on 23 Dec 2011 - so there's an issue with the system retaining the memory dumps. Don't forget to try the suggestions about resetting your memory dump options from here: Set MiniDump

Regardless, these are the same issues that you were experiencing in November - and now you have a different video card. Have you uninstalled the old drivers and installed a set freshly downloaded, WHQL certified set of drivers from the nVidia website?

Here's some items that have had problems in the past - but I don't know if it's a problem on your system:
Samsung software - older versions of the Kies software will cause BSODs - make sure it's updated
NEC USB 3.0 software - older versions (2009 and earlier) may cause BSODs - make sure it's updated
Gigabyte tuning programs (such as EasyTune/AMD OverDrive) may cause BSODs - uninstall them
Gigabyte AppleCharger may cause problems - but not solid info on this one I'd suggest making sure that it's updated.


----------



## FrankieSmileSho (Dec 29, 2011)

I am from Quebec, yes, but the manufacturer of the computer is american and my Windows is in english language. But yeah, I think I have problems with NFO files, any time I try to open one it gives me an error message about it being corrupted (ANY nfo file does that, regardless of its source) and opens my main windows information instead. The only way I can usually view files like this is by opening them with notepad. No idea whats up with that, it seems like I just always had that problem and never questioned it.

Also, a bit frustrating--- I still didnt get a STOP screen since I made the changes to the memory dump settings. Haha, of course I wont get one now that I'm looking for em! Thats how it always works, isnt it? Grrrr Ill bet I wont get one for weeks now!

For my display drivers, the replacement card I am using uses more or less the same drivers I think. I still uninstalled the existing driver and got the proper one from the nvidia site though when I swapped them.

Oh also, I just realized; the IBUYPOWER tech support suggested that I install a program called WhoCrashed to tell them the cause of my blue screens, back in november. I think the time when the dumps stopped being saved might coincide with when I installed that. I took that program out yesterday, just in case. Think that program might have caused a problem maybe? It seemed to me like it would just look at the current dumps, not that it would fiddle with my settings or anything.


----------



## FrankieSmileSho (Dec 29, 2011)

I finally got another STOP screen this morning. But nope, there was no crash dump. I followed the instructions outlined in the topic about BSOD crashes that don't leave dumps behind, but it didn't seem to fix my problem. Any idea what else could be stopping the dumps? Or maybe the fix in this topic changes where the dumps are made. I am only checking the minidump directory and the MEMORY.DMP file in the windows folder. Both still have a "date modified" of last november.

Heres the STOP code I got:
0x000000F4(0x0000000000000003,0xFFFFFA800C943B30,0xFFFFFA800C943E10,0xFFFFF800037888B0)

Then, it says:

collecting data for crash dump...
initializing disk for crash dump...

and it ends there. no text after that line. no "dump complete" or whatever should go there. It cant initialize my disk or something?

There's got to be some sort of disk problem? And the weird problem I get with my hard drives could be part of this. The weird occasional 5-6 second hangs accompanied with a humming, "wind-up" sound my computer gets when it tries to access a hard drive, as if the hard drives kept going to sleep randomly and needed to be woken up. ive had this from the very start with my machine, and at first presumed it was something normal when you had a 2-hard drive system or something, or that those hard drives just happened to be a bit slower than my previous ones. You don't tend to presume something is anormal when the problem has been there from the start, eh?


----------



## usasma (Apr 11, 2009)

Let's start out with these free diagnostics:

I suggest starting all troubleshooting with the following diagnostic tests (located at this link: Hardware Diagnostics ). They'll save you a lot of time and heartache if there is a hardware failure, and you'll have the disks on hand in case you need them in the future:


> *H/W Diagnostics:*
> Please start by running these bootable hardware diagnostics:
> Memory Diagnostics (read the details at the link)
> Hard Drive Diagnostics (read the details at the link) - Test *ALL* of the hard drives.
> ...


----------



## FrankieSmileSho (Dec 29, 2011)

I have ran the diagnostics, no errors were found.

But... the crashes seem to have stopped for some reason. I didnt get one in a very long time now. Its why I stopped responding! Is it possible an issue was fixed in a windows update or something? I've had some slow-downs on startup but theyve all fixed themselves and didnt end in a BSOD. So yeah, I dont know, I guess its too early to tell but it seems to have resolved itself??


----------



## usasma (Apr 11, 2009)

Yes, it's possible that it's fixed itself.
Let it go for another week or so and then mark it solved.
Good luck!


----------

