# [SOLVED] win32k.sys BSOD [Moved from XP]



## dexus

Hi
For the past 3 months, I've been getting a "Generic host process for win32 services has encountered a problem and needs to close" message (not BSOD) about 4 out of 5 times when I boot my PC. When It happens, it turns my theme to windows classic, and the sound doesn't work except for the windows sounds. In order to get the sound working, I have to launch the .exe of the installer for the sound drivers and click cancel (I don't have to install, for some reason the 'Preparing setup, please wait.' is good enough for my sound....)

When I play a game on my PC, I usually get to play for about 1 hour before I get a BSOD (0x0000008) with win32k.sys being the culprit. 

I have almost no experience with computer hardware so I'm definitely not an expert, but I have a small hunch it might be my graphics card. Reason being is before I get the BSOD I can put my nose close to the case and smell an a sort of faint electrical fire smell (Yeah I know, not good :S), my graphics card can reach 85-90 degrees Celsius when playing games (stock fan, probably too hot :S), when I ran memtest86+ for 9 passes I never got any errors or any BSOD (I think that rules out the RAM?), I've been having this problem for about 3 months and I reformatted my hard drive about 2 months ago (So it's a hardware issue right?).

If I have to replace my video card, I have no problem with it. It's time for a upgrade anyway. 


What I have:
Mother Board: M2N-SLI Deluxe
RAM: G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 6400+
Video:NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS


What I've done so far:
Scan using superantispyware
Scan using ESET antivirus
Scan using Kaspersky online scanner
Ran the System File Checker
Ran check disk
Ran memtest86+ (9 passes with both of my RAM in, no errors)
Downloaded the latest windows updates
Used Hijackthis and had the log scanned at http://www.hijackthis.de/, nothing bad found.
Installed the latest chipset drivers
Installed the latest audio drivers
Prayed :/


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## Deejay100six

*Re: win32k.sys BSOD*

Hi dexus, and welcome to TSF. :wave:

I will be posting some advice shortly. :grin:


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## Deejay100six

*Re: win32k.sys BSOD*

Hi,

It does sound like your graphics card is running a bit warm. 

First of all i'd like you to check the card fan, CPU fan and case fans to make sure they're all spinning and free of dust. You should have a minimum of 2 case fans, one at the front pulling cool air in and one at the top rear blowing warm air out.

Then, check your full system temperatures (not just graphics) and PSU voltages in BIOS and with *Everest* or *SpeedFan*.

Also, i'd like you to install the *AMD Dual Core Optimizer* and post the details from the PSU label.

Have you overclocked anything in BIOS or using software?


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## dexus

*Re: win32k.sys BSOD*

Wow.

So I checked my fans and 3 out of 5 case fans weren't working and the back fan was facing the wrong way, so it blew IN instead of OUT (oops  ). I had all three of those fans linked together, so when the first fan stopped working, I guess the other two stopped working too.

It seemed that faint electrical fire smell I mentioned before came from the PSU. Before I fixed the fans, the case around the PSU was very HOT. I thought it was normal for the PSU to be that hot, but after I fixed the fans, I could barley feel any heat coming from the PSU. And of course, that smell has disappeared. 

I've rebooted my PC three times and haven't received any win32 errors, and been playing games for a few hours and haven't had a BSOD. So I think my problems are fixed. If anything bad happens in a few days, I'll be back. But if everything works and I don't come back (until my next problem ), thank you. 

Just for the record:
-I have a A-Power 600W PSU
-Under load my video card is 85 degrees and CPU 75 degrees.
-I already had the Dual Core Optimizer installed
-Nothing overclocked


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## dexus

*Re: win32k.sys BSOD*

Nope. Got that "Generic host process for win32 services has encountered a problem and needs to close" message this morning. :/


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## Deejay100six

*Re: win32k.sys BSOD*

Cpu still seems very hot to me even under load. But i'll see if i can get hardware to advise.

If i were you i'd leave the side off and have a house fan blowing into it for now.


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## justpassingby

*Re: win32k.sys BSOD*

If I may quickly jump in. 85-90°C could be ok for an nvidia GPU under full load, it's not cool but I've seen hotter so wait before you replace your video card. 

On the other end a 600W PSU that sells for 18$ is a big no no. The brand and price are a good indicator of the quality of a power supply and anything good over 500W will cost at least 70$. Check this thread : http://www.techsupportforum.com/f210/power-supply-information-and-selection-192217.html.

What program do you use to monitor your temps. Please report the temps, fan speeds and voltages (+3.3, +5 and +12V) from the BIOS's hardware monitor screen (press del at startup). See if you have some friend with a good quality 550W+ PSU (like an Antec, Corsair, FSP or Seasonic) and test your rig with it.

If the 75°C reading is correct your Athlon 64 X2 6400+ is overheating, it should stay under 60°C under load and under 40°C when idle. If the CPU temp stays above those values when the case is opened and the CPU fan spinning then check that the heatsink is hooked properly. You may need to redo the thermal paste between the CPU and the heatsink.

Please zip and attach the .dmp files that you'll find in the c:\windows\minidump folder.


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## dexus

*Re: win32k.sys BSOD*

I use two programs to monitor temps. I use Speedfan for my GPU, and Probe II for my CPU and MoBo because Speedfan doesn't show my CPU temp for some reason.

From my BIOS:
CPU: 60°C
CPU fan: 2,342 RPM
M/B Temp: 45°C
+3.3V - 3.4
+5V - 5.13
+12V - 12.17

Should I get a new CPU fan? Or just redo the thermal paste?

I'll definatly get a new PSU then. I used This PSU calculator and assuming I upgrade my video card to an 8800, it said I would only need a 500w PSU (with 100% system load, 30% capacitor aging), so do you think this one from the PSU guide is good?

Ok, all my .dmp files are uploaded since I reformatted.


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## justpassingby

*Re: win32k.sys BSOD*

Many different crashes with different programs (firefox, eset antivirus, eve online, ...), most of them related to a memory read failure. The issue has to be hardware related. Start by replacing your power supply and see how it goes (read below for the why). If you intend to upgrade to a 8800GT 500W will not be enough (it'll last for 3-4 years then the efficiency will decrease with time and you'll be in trouble again). The hardware techs recommend 600-650W, check the recommended supplies in the power desktop computer class in the link I gave you.

You'll have to retest your ram with memtest to make sure it wasn't damaged by bad voltages, one complete test consists in 8 passes and you should run several to make sure your memory is stable so 9 passes isn't enough. Run it for 3-4 hours (or better leave it running the whole night) and test one stick at a time (remove the other one from its slot).

60°C in the BIOS is too hot, it should stay around 45-50°C, but your motherboard temp is also very hot (ideally it should be a little hotter than the room temperature, it should definitely not be higher than 40°C). This means the problem is not likely to be with the CPU fan and the thermal paste. A cheap power supply will have a low efficiency, meaning the current it can't transfer to the components gets dissipated into heat, and the hotter it is the less efficient it will be. This combined with a bad airflow will cause overheating issues. Leave the computer cover removed for now and see how it goes with a new power supply. You don't need 5 case fans, it'll require additional power and it'll come in the way of a regular airflow (especially if you have a fan on the side of the case). One at the front taking the cool air in and blowing on the hard drives and one at the back to extract the hot air should be enough.

I'll move you to the power supply support section so the hardware techs can give a look and correct me if I'm wrong. Your voltages in the BIOS are a little high but still in the ok range, but he video card will need more power in your games than in the BIOS and as I said 600W power supplies don't sell for 20$ (some cheap 500W supplies were proven unable to deliver a constant 350W load).


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## dexus

*Re: win32k.sys BSOD [Moved from XP]*

I bought and installed a new power supply today. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703009

CPU/MoBo temps are still the same as posted above:
CPU: 60°C
M/B Temp: 45°C

And I still get the "Generic host process for win32 services has encountered a problem and needs to close" and the same symptoms I also mentioned above (no sound, theme changes to windows classic)

Welp.


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## dexus

*Re: win32k.sys BSOD [Moved from XP]*

I also bought a new graphics card http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143119

It BSOD twice on me already while running 3dmark 06. The stop code was 0x000000D1 and the minidump said "Probably caused by : nv4_disp.dll". I'm a noob at reading dumps, so I don't know anything other than that.

I also got 0x0000007E too while playing a video game.


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## jcgriff2

*Re: win32k.sys BSOD [Moved from XP]*

Hi. . .

A bugcheck of 0x000000d1 = 0xd1 and indicates indicates that a kernel-mode driver attempted to access pageable memory when it should not have. You didn't specify the 1st par inside the parenthesis, but it usually is 0xc0000005, which would tell me that a memory access violation has occurred. The driver mentioned *nv4_disp.dll* - is Nvidia.

Theo other bugcheck mentioned, 0x0000007e = 0x7e = indicates that a system thread generated an exception - but what is the 1st parm? If 0xc...5 - then it is a memory access violation.

Do you have the latest Nvidia drivers? I know the video card is new, but I would check anyway - 

http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

What anti-virus are you running? What 3rd party firewall are you running in addition to/in lieu of the Windows Firewall?

Regards. . .

jcgriff2

.


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## justpassingby

*Re: win32k.sys BSOD [Moved from XP]*

As JC said you'll need to uninstall the old drivers (add/remove programs and uninstall nvidia, ntune and the like) and reinstall the proper ones for your video card model so the new hardware gets detected properly. Start by reinstalling the motherboard's chipset drivers : http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_winxp_15.23.html
Restart the computer then reinstall the video card drivers : http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_175.19_whql.html

Unplug the case fans you don't need and leave only one in the front blowing in and one at the back blowing out. Make sure you've cleaned all the dust on the CPU fan and heatsink and recheck the temps.


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## HawMan

*Re: win32k.sys BSOD [Moved from XP]*

60C for a CPU is too hot. If there is no dust in you're fan then i would move on to Re-doing the Thermal compound.

See : http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions.htm

The Stock fan should do you fine unless you are overclocking.



Ideally, for Airflow you should have 1 Fan at the front blowing cold air in, and a fan at the rear of the case blowing warm air out.


Or a fan on the side of the case blowing cold air in, and a fan on the top of the case and the rear blowing the warm air out ( Like i have ).


When reinstalling the Video card drivers, Follow the following rules of it may give you some 'Headaches' further on.


in the device manager uninstall the video card drivers
Reboot
when windows boots enter Safe mode
disable a/virus
install your drivers
reboot the computer


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## dexus

*Re: win32k.sys BSOD [Moved from XP]*

In order of how I got them:
#1 While running 3D Mark 06
Error code 100000d1, parameter1 006e6b68, parameter2 0000001c, parameter3 00000008, parameter4 006e6b68.

#2 While running 3D Mark 06
Error code 100000d1, parameter1 0000001f, parameter2 0000001c, parameter3 00000000, parameter4 004cfa61.

#3 While running Crysis
Error code 1000007e, parameter1 c0000005, parameter2 bfb3248b, parameter3 b5b7fbe4, parameter4 b5b7f8e0.

I reinstalled my Chipset and video card drivers as well as ntune. I didn't install the video card drivers in safemode because my BIOS makes it difficult to get into safe mode (You have to pres tab at one of the screens while it gives you only a split second or something) but I did install it while I shut down my anti-virus (ESET-Antivirus).

After I rebooted, I still got the win32k.sys error. I even ran 3D mark 06 again and got another BSOD except it was "sptd.sys" and something about drivers. I tried looking in the event viewer, but strangely the entry wasn't logged. A google search shows sptd.sys has to do with DAEMON Tools, which I had installed and removed in the past. Should I delete sptd.sys since I don't even have the program installed anymore?

My CPU didn't come with a fan, so I bought http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185125. I only have two case fans running right now and the side of the case open, but I have a corner desk so the the open side is pretty much against the wall. It's probably not helping much nor is it possible to get a house fan to blow into it.


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## justpassingby

*Re: win32k.sys BSOD [Moved from XP]*

sptd.sys is from an old version of Daemon tools. Locate the files that begin with sptd in c:\windows\system32\drivers and delete them. You may need to go to tools => folder options => view and untick "hide protected operating system files" to be able to see those files.


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## dexus

*Re: win32k.sys BSOD [Moved from XP]*

I deleted sptd.sys. Still get the BSODs and win32k.sys error.


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## justpassingby

*Re: win32k.sys BSOD [Moved from XP]*

What's the CPU temp in the BIOS and what are the voltages in speedfan ? Win32k.sys is the kernel driver for the graphical interface, win32k BSOD's are most often caused by some hardware issue (overheating, underpowered video card or RAM). You'll need to solve the overheating problem first. If all seems ok with the CPU fan and heatsink you'll need to redo the thermal paste like HawMan said. Refer to the motherboard manual to remove the heatsink, use Q-tips with acetone or isopropyl alcohol to remove the old compound (careful not to scratch the cpu nor the heatsink) and follow Arctic Silver's instructions to apply the new paste.

Test the computer with only one memory stick at a time.

Run chkdsk c: /R if you haven't done so yet, let's make sure there's no bad cluster on the drive. Ideally you should run chkdsk c: /F each time the computer crashes (/F will run much faster than /R) to repair the minor problems caused by Windows not being shutdown properly.

Attach the latest .dmp files from c:\windows\minidump\ to your next post.


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## dexus

*Re: win32k.sys BSOD [Moved from XP]*

CPU: 59°C
MB: 46°C

I attached a Screenshot of Speedfan showing the voltages and my minidumps in a .rar below.

I'll try to get some thermal paste today or tomorrow, and run memtest again with each RAM latter on today or tonight.

I ran chkdsk c: /R. Still the same problems.

BTW: This new video card runs at 59°C according to ntune (but 54°C according to speedfan) when not under load and 37% fan. I tried putting the fan at 100% and run 3d mark, but it still BSOD.


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## dexus

*Re: win32k.sys BSOD [Moved from XP]*

I bought arctic silver 5 today. Instead of 59°C idle, my CPU runs at 53-55°C with a spike to 60°C every few seconds under load. 

I ran 3D mark two times and played a video game for a few minutes and haven't received a BSOD...yet. I still get the win32k.sys error on startup though.

Should I put the thermal paste on my video card too? I'm guessing yes, but I never had a two slot video card, so it's better to ask here first. 

So, what else can I try to get rid of the win32k.sys error?


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## justpassingby

*Re: win32k.sys BSOD [Moved from XP]*

Don't touch the video card heatsink yet, it's not as easy as a CPU heatsink. Retry the old video card, make sure you uninstall the drivers, restart the computer and reinstall the proper drivers after you've installed the new card.

Your issue is probably hardware related, I'd like to have the input of the HW team so I'll see if I can draw their attention on your thread.


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## twajetmech

*Re: win32k.sys BSOD [Moved from XP]*

Hello dexus, check your bios settings.....according to your speedfan image your cpu voltage is @1.26V, spec voltage for your cpu should be, 1.35/1.4V, don't be afraid to go as high as 1.45V, since most asus mobo's will under volt a bit. Your other voltages also seem low ( I hope the extended period at high temps did not fry the vrm's on the mobo), give to cpu voltage bump a shot and report back what you find.


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## dexus

*Re: win32k.sys BSOD [Moved from XP]*

I think there's something wrong with speedfan. My BIOS and ASUS PC Probe both say my Vcore is at 1.46.
According to PC Probe my voltages are:
Vcore: 1.46
+3.3: 3.42
+5.0: 5.05
+12.0: 12.31


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## twajetmech

*Re: win32k.sys BSOD [Moved from XP]*

Ok, good, if it jives with the bios readings then its probably okay.
I'm thinking you either have a bad HD, or you need to overwrite the sys32 file(s) of windows from the ones on the cd (I believe a repair installation should do that)


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## dexus

*Re: win32k.sys BSOD [Moved from XP]*

Well I did a repair install a few days ago, and I haven't got a win32k.sys error nor have I got any BSOD, so I think all my problems are fixed. 

THANKS!


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## justpassingby

*Re: win32k.sys BSOD [Moved from XP]*

Good news :smile: I marked your thread as solved.


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## twajetmech

Congrats ! :grin:


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## jcgriff2

Have been following this one daily - excellent work.... thanks.

JC

.


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