BSOD, random restarting, pc wont boot.

[apocalypseon]

Pc Specs - Amd Athlon II X2 240 (Regor). Asrock M3A785GXH/128M. Kingston KVR1333D3N9/2G 2GB DDR3 Ram. Cooler Master eXtreme Power Plus 390W. Windows 7 Professional.

The PC was assembled around 2 1/2 years back. Except for the PSU that was bought around 4 years back. Unfortunately I can't remember when exactly. I'll find out.

The issue at present, is random but frequent BSOD crashes. Sometimes while using the computer, mostly surfing and videos. Other times, when idle, like downloading.

I have replaced two hard drives since the BSOD crashes first started around a year back. It first surfaced around a year back. Now it's happening again. There was random restarting too. The pc would also not boot several times.

Memtest86 gave a 'unexpected interrupt' error, in garbled words, when I ran it overnight.

Couple of days back, a technician was called in. According to his diagnosis, the CMOS settings had become corrupt due to some changes I had made in the BIOS. I had overclocked the mGPU settings briefly. But reverted to default settings after the problems. I didn't touch the memory timings. He also added that the CPU was overloaded by this and was overheating. This morning it BSODed again.
 
I have attached the latest minidump.

 I haven't run any cpu stress tests yet. I can't think of any other details as I am short on time(the pc might crash).

[year+ old attachment deleted by admin]

[apocalypseon]

Here is the text from BlueScreenView. I selected the previous minidumps as well.

==================================================
Dump File         : 091912-14234-01.dmp
Crash Time        : 9/19/2012 10:00:32 PM
Bug Check String  : DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
Bug Check Code    : 0x000000d1
Parameter 1       : 0x00002d1e
Parameter 2       : 0x00000002
Parameter 3       : 0x00000000
Parameter 4       : 0x8d282891
Caused By Driver  : Rt86win7.sys
Caused By Address : Rt86win7.sys+1891
File Description  : Realtek 8101E/8168/8169 NDIS 6.20 32-bit Driver
Product Name      : Realtek 8136/8168/8169 PCI/PCIe Adapters
Company           : Realtek
File Version      : 7.005.0730.2009 built by: WinDDK
Processor         : 32-bit
Crash Address     : ntkrnlpa.exe+467eb
Stack Address 1   : Rt86win7.sys+1891
Stack Address 2   : Rt86win7.sys+242f
Stack Address 3   : Rt86win7.sys+3684
Computer Name     :
Full Path         : C:\Windows\Minidump\091912-14234-01.dmp
Processors Count  : 2
Major Version     : 15
Minor Version     : 7600
Dump File Size    : 143,544
==================================================

==================================================
Dump File         : 092512-28359-01.dmp
Crash Time        : 9/25/2012 11:06:52 AM
Bug Check String  : IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
Bug Check Code    : 0x1000000a
Parameter 1       : 0xc5af3b12
Parameter 2       : 0x00000002
Parameter 3       : 0x00000001
Parameter 4       : 0x82a7a154
Caused By Driver  : ntoskrnl.exe
Caused By Address : ntoskrnl.exe+70154
File Description  : NT Kernel & System
Product Name      : Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
Company           : Microsoft Corporation
File Version      : 6.1.7600.16988 (win7_gdr.120401-1505)
Processor         : 32-bit
Crash Address     : ntoskrnl.exe+70154
Stack Address 1   :
Stack Address 2   :
Stack Address 3   :
Computer Name     :
Full Path         : C:\Windows\Minidump\092512-28359-01.dmp
Processors Count  : 2
Major Version     : 15
Minor Version     : 7600
Dump File Size    : 146,927
==================================================

==================================================
Dump File         : 092512-34359-01.dmp
Crash Time        : 9/25/2012 10:48:53 AM
Bug Check String  : IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
Bug Check Code    : 0x1000000a
Parameter 1       : 0x00200000
Parameter 2       : 0x00000002
Parameter 3       : 0x00000001
Parameter 4       : 0x82a73740
Caused By Driver  : ntoskrnl.exe
Caused By Address : ntoskrnl.exe+68740
File Description  : NT Kernel & System
Product Name      : Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
Company           : Microsoft Corporation
File Version      : 6.1.7600.16988 (win7_gdr.120401-1505)
Processor         : 32-bit
Crash Address     : ntoskrnl.exe+68740
Stack Address 1   : ntoskrnl.exe+9bd17
Stack Address 2   : ntoskrnl.exe+90a9f
Stack Address 3   : ntoskrnl.exe+87f15
Computer Name     :
Full Path         : C:\Windows\Minidump\092512-34359-01.dmp
Processors Count  : 2
Major Version     : 15
Minor Version     : 7600
Dump File Size    : 146,927
==================================================

==================================================
Dump File         : 092012-31000-01.dmp
Crash Time        : 9/20/2012 11:15:16 PM
Bug Check String  : UNEXPECTED_KERNEL_MODE_TRAP
Bug Check Code    : 0x1000007f
Parameter 1       : 0x00000008
Parameter 2       : 0x801da000
Parameter 3       : 0x00000000
Parameter 4       : 0x00000000
Caused By Driver  : ntoskrnl.exe
Caused By Address : ntoskrnl.exe+408ea
File Description  : NT Kernel & System
Product Name      : Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
Company           : Microsoft Corporation
File Version      : 6.1.7600.16988 (win7_gdr.120401-1505)
Processor         : 32-bit
Crash Address     : ntoskrnl.exe+408ea
Stack Address 1   : ntoskrnl.exe+b9088
Stack Address 2   : ntoskrnl.exe+40911
Stack Address 3   : ntoskrnl.exe+b9088
Computer Name     :
Full Path         : C:\Windows\Minidump\092012-31000-01.dmp
Processors Count  : 2
Major Version     : 15
Minor Version     : 7600
Dump File Size    : 146,767
==================================================

[DaveLembke]

Memtest86 having an issue with garbled text etc is an interesting one. If you have a spare DDR3 Ram stick around, I'd swap out the stick and see if you get different results. Other than that I looked over your motherboard on neweggs website to look at its construction. The capacitor type they used in many locations could be a concern as for I have seen this type of electrolytic pop their tops and leak on other boards and cause instability. Look over all capacitors ( silver cans ) on the motherboard for swelling, popped tops, and possibly electrolyte leaking out ( usually a yellowish crud ) is indication that the electrolyte is leaking. I have seen both video cards as well as motherboards act up when these go bad.

In some cases I was able to save the board by locating the troubled cap or caps and carefully remove them with the legs remaining in the board, then pick up matching MicroFarad and Voltage Capacitors and solder them onto the old legs of the old capacitors after the outter shell, foil, and electrolyte was removed with proper polarity. Most people would toss the board and get a replacement than to replace caps, but I am the type that will fix them at component level if I can diagnose the failed component and cost effective to fix. Caps are cheap!

[apocalypseon]

Wow. Kinda makes me think of the audiophile community with it's cap modding! That line of thinking is certainly very compelling. For now I am going to run memtest once more. After that I'm gonna give it over to the local technician to swap out the ram and test. But as for conclusive testing, I might have to borrow a friend's ram. Thanks a lot for taking the time to compile a very detailed reply.

[Computer_Commando]

One of the BSOD's is the LAN (Realtek).  Get the latest driver & reinstall it.  It's a place to start, get driver from Asrock or Realtek.
http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=14&PFid=7&Level=5&Conn=4&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false

[Salmon Trout]

Kinda makes me think of the audiophile community with it's cap modding!

That's a bit different - audiophiles replacing perfectly good components with other just as good, but overpriced ones is voodoo/hocus pocus, like paying mucho $$$ for magic wires, whereas replacing poor quality capacitors in a digital circuit is definitely a proven good thing.

[apocalypseon]

Computer_Commando, installed the latest realtek driver. Salmon Trout, aww heck ofcourse you're right. It was a throwaway remark On the computer front, I ran memtest again, this time it passed. Could it be the corrupt CMOS settings that was making memtest give that weird erorr? Aww heck, now I can't remember if I first ran memtest, before or after the technician's diagnosis of the CMOS being corrupt. Matter of fact, I didn't even ask him how he fixed it! Isn't a CMOS corruption when you get a 'Checksum error' at bootup? Gotta lay off the mary jane.

Also, I had a another BSOD problem with a WRkrn.sys file after I uninstalled AVG. Turned out it was a Webroot AV driver. I had to do a 'last known good configuration'. All in all, I haven't had a BSOD since yesterday.

Right now, I'm thinking, I could sit on it and wait for it to happen again. Or I could run some stress tests? OCCT? Should I risk it though, considering my PSU is old and only 390W? Thanks  for your suggestions and time guys.

[apocalypseon]

I forgot ask, does memtest restart the computer after the tests are done?

[patio]

MemTest rubs in cycles...and doesn't stop til you stop it ...so no.

[apocalypseon]

Oh. I checked this morning and it was about 98% of the way, on the 12th pass with no errors. I had to switch off the monitor for the cleaning lady had to do her work around there. When I switched on the monitor later, the pc had booted into windows. So, either she accidentally hit the power button, or something went wrong. I'll run it again tonight.

[JJ 3000]

With the information given, I suspect the power supply is the culprit. Swap the power supply out with another of equal or greater wattage (try to borrow one to test if you can). See if the problem persists.

[apocalypseon]

Hey jj, thanks for the suggestion. But for now the problem seems to have been taken care of. I had to uninstall avg and update my lan drivers. There was also a slightly careless BSOD incident involving driver verifier enabled by accident.