[Help] System crashes without BSOD

[ffgiza]

Hello dear Hexus users!
I have been having this problem for as long as I had this PC. And now my patience has come to an end and I want to solve it. I have made a fresh installation of windows, installed a new processor, bought a new processor, and still the issue is there. The issue is as follows:

PC crashes while making a static noise for a few seconds then freezes completely.

I've checked the Event Viewer and found the following errors around the time crashed:

1) 15.08.2013 12:56:31 Error "Event filter with query "SELECT * FROM __InstanceModificationEvent WITHIN 60 WHERE TargetInstance ISA "Win32_Processor" AND TargetInstance.LoadPercentage > 99" could not be reactivated in namespace "//./root/CIMV2" because of error 0x80041003. Events cannot be delivered through this filter until the problem is corrected."

2) 15.08.2013 12:55:08 Error "Audit events have been dropped by the transport. 0"

3) 15.08.2013 12:55:01 Critical "The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly."

4) 15.08.2013 12:55:08 Error "The previous system shutdown at 12:53:05 on ‎15.‎08.‎2013 was unexpected."

Any help resolving this issue is appreciated!

[kalniel]

Those errors aren't relevant as far as I know.

What are your full system specifications? And what were you doing at the time of the crash?

[ConnorLowe]

I too have had a similar problem with my PC - I'm not hijacking this thread!

It hasn't happened for the last fortnight or so (probably jinxed myself now) but when I am playing LoL, I get a random FPS drop and then all of a sudden I'll get a horrible static noise and my screen freezes.

I noticed a problem with my monitor cable so I've taken it out of the slot and let it rest on the side of the case. Could be to do with my PC overheating as it could do with a good clean.

I have removed the side panels from my PC to try and improve airflow so a lot of dust might get inside. Gonna give it a clean later on to see if it fixes things. I did notice last time that that it seemed to be a little quicker, although it could be a placebo effect and I was just imagining things!

[ffgiza]

I was just browsing using Firefox, while listening music on Spotify and there were some games downloading in Steam. As a matter of fact, it just crashed again while I was typing this message. Horrray for Hexus auto save feature!
Full system specs:
AMD Phenom 945 x4 3.0ghz
4gb Kingston ddrII 800mhz
Asus M4A78-AM motherboard
Palit Geforce GTS450 512mb
Seagate Baracuda 2TB 7200rpm
Corsair CX600 PSU

[mikeo01]

That string and error code 0x80041003 seems to be pointing to a WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) event. Usually drivers here registered incorrectly or something.

It may not be relevant as mentioned above. However ensure all your drivers are up to date and not installed by Windows default.

Such as any onboard devices, like audio, LAN and any controllers (USB/SATA etc). Onboard graphics or dedicated graphics card if you have one. Make sure its seated correctly also.

If you use a dedicated sound card uninstall the onboard then disable it via BIOS. Then disable it from Windows once booted up.

May be worth a shot


Your system shut down before that event was logged, however drivers still may be causing the issue.

[ffgiza]

Those errors aren't relevant as far as I know.

What are your full system specifications? And what were you doing at the time of the crash?

I was just browsing the web(Firefox) , listening to music (Spotify) and downloading some games via Steam.
This crash happens at random sometimes when I browse or play a game. Most often it happened during LoL and The Witcher 2. But other games crashed too, I just play them less frequently.

Full specs:
AMD Phenom 945 x4
ASUS M4A78-AM
4GB Kingston Value 800 DDRII
Palit Geforce 512mb
Seagate Baracuda 2TB 7200rpm
Corsair CX600 PSU
Windows 7 Pro 64 bit

Also I ran Memtest86+ today for 3 hours/3 passes/0 errors, so faulty ram is out of the question?
I will try to update all my drivers and write back tomorrow.

If you use a dedicated sound card uninstall the onboard then disable it via BIOS. Then disable it from Windows once booted up.

I don't have a dedicated sound card, using the onboard one, which is something by VIA.

[kalniel]

This is going to be a tricky one!

Passing memtest does suggest RAM is OK, but you might have to try swapping it out for something else if nothing else helps!

Drivers, windows updates etc. a good idea, though if the problem remains after a windows reinstall then software is less likely to be an issue. Web browsing uses GPU acceleration these days, especially for videos, with crashes on games as well it might point to your graphics card as a possible weakness.

You can download 3mark and run that, which will test the GPU and CPU a bit. If it doesn't crash any more often with that, then try downloading furmark and running that. If that doesn't always cause a crash, then download prime95 and run that. If that's fine, run both prime95 and furmark together.

The above will gradually ramp up the demand on your hardware - the idea being if you can create a situation which *always* causes a crash it'll help you diagnose the problem.

[ffgiza]

You can download 3mark and run that, which will test the GPU and CPU a bit. If it doesn't crash any more often with that, then try downloading furmark and running that. If that doesn't always cause a crash, then download prime95 and run that. If that's fine, run both prime95 and furmark together.

So, I used the sound drivers from VIA instead of the ASUS site, they are 3 years newer.
I ran 3dmark Vantage without any crashes. I ran both furmark and prime95 both together and seprately without any crashes. (Burn-in and Torture tests respectively)
So far my system appears stable and I cannot repeat the crash on purpose.
Any more suggestions?

[mikeo01]

So your CPU seems OK with high loads. As said it does seem to be driver related.

How about the opposite? Turn on power savings (power saver Windows option), use hibernation and sleep and see if it crashes or does not wake up. Just to ensure any lower CPU states are not causing the issue.

If all is OK then you'll want to use your computer normally, including after restarts (no high loads) with those audio drivers to test them out fully. Sometimes you need to just use the computer for general things to see if the problem creeps up again.


If it does happen again when you are not stressing your computer then we will need to look deeper

[ffgiza]

How about the opposite? Turn on power savings (power saver Windows option), use hibernation and sleep and see if it crashes or does not wake up. Just to ensure any lower CPU states are not causing the issue.

Woah! It seems my PC was on power savings mode the time I had crashes! I've had them turned to high performance now,and before running the tests, and now my system seems running okay. So far 0 crashes. I will try playing around with sleep and hibernate and report back.

[ffgiza]

Anyways, I cannot make the system crash, tried everything in power saver mode.
So my conclusion it was either the old buggy sound driver or the ati chipset driver (never used it before).
A big thank you to everyone who replied to my thread!

[big_hairy_rob]

What graphics card are you using? If onboard, does it have the ATI sound card included. Is it a possible conflict between the HDMI Audio and the chipset sound driver. Most restarts in this way have been caused either by memory, or graphics problems. Since the ATI chipset I believe also contains sound, it's a certain possibility. It may also be possible that a USB device plugged in could cause your problem....

Good luck solving it!

[ffgiza]

Here we go again!
After a week without any crashes they started again! I don't overload the system, and just use it casually. I played Counter-Strike: Global Offensive all yesterday without any crash, and today they happened 3 times when I was just browsing the web. I even installed the Asus EPU engine and it still didn't make any difference. (It was the unknown device that kept showing in the error log.

What graphics card are you using? If onboard, does it have the ATI sound card included. Is it a possible conflict between the HDMI Audio and the chipset sound driver. Most restarts in this way have been caused either by memory, or graphics problems.

I use a Palit Geforce GTS 450 512MB graphics card. My motherboard does have an intergrated ATI Radeon hd3200, but it's disabled by default when an external graphics card is in use. My audio chip is a VIA VT1708S.

[mikeo01]

Completely uninstall all graphics and audio drivers and use Driver Sweeper or some sort to delete the registry values for it. Restart and then go to Device Manager, click View and select "resources by type". We can see if your onboard audio and graphics card is using the same IRQ (interrupt request assignment). Scroll down and you'll see your onboard audio and also your graphics card, if these values are the same (hash and value in the brackets) it could mean they are conflicting.

If they are you can change these in the BIOS.


If all is OK maybe check your hard drive fully, including the SATA cable (spare one around?).

[ffgiza]

We can see if your onboard audio and graphics card is using the same IRQ (interrupt request assignment). Scroll down and you'll see your onboard audio and also your graphics card, if these values are the same (hash and value in the brackets) it could mean they are conflicting.

I cannot find the IRQ for the graphics card. It doesn't appear in the IRQ drop down category.

Also there are two High Definition Audio Controllers listed there.

And it appears I have a new symptom: Every time I restart the system it doesn't boot, no image on screen and the fans start spinning at full speed and the power and restart buttons don't respond at all.

[mikeo01]

Have you checked your hard drive yet? Changed SATA cables?

You want to try and replicate the error without many devices in, that means just the CPU, motherboard and PSU. No USB devices, graphics card or hard drives. A failed POST (as you said) is a good sign something may be dying. You seem to be getting new and different issues each time, which unfortunately could point to something that is faulty and is going.

If you don't fail POST with just the CPU, motherboard and PSU in start adding devices, first hard drive then graphics then USB. Test each of them, and start noting down any errors. Check the event log and see what flags up. Use Verifier.exe (run it) and use custom settings and use your PC normally, it'll pick up any dodgy drivers. That'll at least help what could be causing the issue.

Do that each time you add a device, and test for a while to see if it causes the issue. That'll help break down the cause a lot quicker.

Do you have a spare power supply also?