Random Blue Screens in Vista x64

Hey guys not often I post asking for help but in this case I'm a bit stuck as 64bit is out of my knowledge.

my girlsfriends PC keeps randomly bluescreening and from the error that appears, I believe it is to do with the graphics card, but I don't want to try attempt any fixes without being 100% sure as it is not my PC.

The code that leads me to believe this is under the sTOP code that appears it says:

"dxgkrnl.sys - Address FFFFFA6000FD7009"

Now I know the address is pointless but all dxgkrnl errors point to graphics issues of some nature.

The GPU in this system is a Nvidia GeForce 8500GT running at stock speeds.

As I have not come across this error before, Is it just a matter of getting rid of all DirectX stuff from the system and replacing it all?

Or even just updating the device driver maybe?

Let me know if you need anything else.


The full error code is;

"STOP: 0X0000003B (0X00000000C0000005, 0xFFFFFA6000FD7009, 0xFFFFFA6008A58960, 00000000000000000)"

Try make heads or tails of that

 

I've seen this one. It is either driver conflict, a bad combo is a creative sound card and nvidea gpu, or heat related. I have seen it go both ways. Try running with the sides off the case for a while and see if the bluscreens disappear.

 

I would say heat then as there is no additional sound card, just standard onboard realtek. I'll get a copy of temp software and take a look along with the bios readings
Thanks

 

Okay, I've checked speedfan and SIW and both are bringing up similar temperatures as follows;

[attachment=58:2/7/7/4/66.attach]

From this I am guessing that it is the GPU overheating and causing the BSOD.

Anyone else want to confirm this?

Not sure why it is pulling up the dxgkrnl error as that is loosely related to the GPU but not it's heat? I don't know!

But yes, as the CPU temps seem a bit high but still in operating conditions but the GPU, is about 15-20 degrees lower than my average temp on full load :S

Just need some confirmation of this from others

Thanks.

 

Hi mate,

The heat is not that high for a GPU -

You are half right on your analysis BUT
dxg is the diag but krnl is the kernal error and can be indicated to the HDD failing to write - does she have admin rights on the PC as a kernal error is normally for people trying to write to something they are not allowed.

If you need any more help let me know

 

Heya Dave, well she is not Admin, but her dad is the main admin account holder (Owner) and it blue screens when he is logged in too, plus it is done randomly, sometimes if the PC is left on it's own doing nothing, they can come back, turn on the monitor to find a BSOD greeting them.

 

Hmm this system seems to have more problems than I know, it blue screened again but this time I only got a glimps of the error before the system was turned off in anger LOL

It was winsock or similar .sys I think.

Now I know this cant be related to heat as a issue, but is it related to writing and HDD problems? :S

Time to install debugging tools and get a look at the crash dump file, see what it says.

I'll post the results.

 

It all points to the HDD mate :cryz:

 

Alright, so new HDD = fix? or anything that could be cureable? I'll try get a HDD scan but as her account isn't admin and her dad isnt around to give me access to the admin rights, does the native admin account still work as it did with XP? the whole ctrl+alt+del at login screen?

 

Okay, I'm on the secret Admin account,

After opening the minidump file from today it states:

Probably caused by : win32k.sys ( win32k+a4e89 )

The one from the 28th states:

Probably caused by : ntkrnlmp.exe ( nt!ObpWaitForMultipleObjects+cb )

Any ideas?