Alienware Aurora R4 BSODs

[EoinM]

Hey hoping someone can help me with this, (I'm new to the forum btw so any kind of post etiquette I've missed please feel free to correct me). My Alienware Aurora R4 started bluescreening randomly a few months ago. Often the system would power on but fail to POST for several hours after bluescreening as well. The crashes were caused by various different drivers and often with different error codes though the most common was DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL caused by the drivers storport.sys and iaStorA.sys, (all the minidump files can be found here). However they all crashed at the same address (ntoskrnl.exe+75bc0). I looked around online and found here that this can be caused by faulty memory and/or a faulty mobo memory slot. I ran memtest86+ and my system crashed and decided this must be the cause of the problem. After replacing my memory (I replaced my GPU at the same time as I was so certain new RAM would fix the problem I thought an upgrade was justified) the system now POSTs 100% of the time but continues to blue-screen occasionally, and since then crashes have occurred at a different address in memory. I switched the dimms into two different slots and this didn't solve the problem.

 

I have run virus scans and TDSSKiller. I have disk checked both my hard drives and run SeaTools on them. I have updated my BIOS, chipset, intel RSTe, GPU, integrated audio and usb controller drivers. I have run Prime95 for several hours and have run Intel Processor Diagnostics Tool. I have run system file check and no errors were found. Using windows restore points did not solve the problem and when I tried to reinstall windows my system crashed (this was before I replaced my memory and I haven't tried since but if necessary I will try again).  My system is not overclocked. Any help or suggestions for things to try would be greatly appreciated. 

 

Current system specs:

Alienware Aurora R4 (late 2011)

CPU: Intel 3930K @3.2Ghz

GPU: Nvidia GTX 760

RAM: 16GB Corsair Vengeance 1600Mhz

SSD: LiteOnIt LAT-256M2S

Hard drive: Seagate ST31000524AS

Mobo: Alienware 07jnh0, X79/C600 chipset

PSU: Dell 525 watt M821J

OS: Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64bit 

[Liam-McShane]

Well your first problem is you bought alienware. The Satan of the PC world.

Not helpful. 

 

OP, it could be the memory slots themselves or the CPU even. It's difficult to diagnose something like this without swapping hardware around to determine what is at fault.

 

Edit: A Google search has pointed to an RSTe issue. They suggest to remove an Intel RSTe drivers and just let Windows 7 install generic ones.

[Guest Kloaked]

I did a few Google searches and someone says it may be a video card driver issue? Have you tried reinstalling your GeForce drivers?

 

I'd like to know your system temps (idle and load) as well just to not rule anything out.

 

 

 

 

inb4 someone says "lol alienwurrrr"

 

 

EDIT: Too late

 

 

Well your first problem is you bought alienware. The Satan of the PC world.

 

If you're not gonna help the guy out, keep it to yourself. No one cares about brand opinions like that.

[EoinM]

OP, it could be the memory slots themselves or the CPU even. It's difficult to diagnose something like this without swapping hardware around to determine what is at fault.

 

Hmm I recognise that, the only thing is I don't exactly have a spare LGA-2011 cpu knocking around that I can swap in for debuging and wouldn't really like to spend any more money new parts until I'm certain they'll solve my problem. 

 

 

I did a few Google searches and someone says it may be a video card driver issue? Have you tried reinstalling your GeForce drivers?

 

I'd like to know your system temps (idle and load) as well just to not rule anything out.

 

Yes I have, currently at GeForce 340.52 and I would've installed new drivers when I installed my new GPU. I'll throw up some screenshots of temps shortly.

[Liam-McShane]

Hmm I recognise that, the only thing is I don't exactly have a spare LGA-2011 cpu knocking around that I can swap in for debuging and wouldn't really like to spend any more money new parts until I'm certain they'll solve my problem. 

 

 

 

Yes I have, currently at GeForce 340.52 and I would've installed new drivers when I installed my new GPU. I'll throw up some screenshots of temps shortly.

Have you tried what i said in my edited part of my post? Quite a few forums seem to think that is the issue.

[legopc]

have you tried stress testing??? as in gpu and cpu stress testing and this might sound stupid try at least 8 passes in memtest becaus if there is a broken slot or just even a broken dimm it will see it 

[PaulKolby]

Well your first problem is you bought alienware. The Satan of the PC world.

sorry thats funny but yeah u should try stress testing i could be a bad hardirve/power supply but i dunno kinda hard to tell when not seeing ti in person

[EoinM]

 

 

I'd like to know your system temps (idle and load) as well just to not rule anything out.

 

 

Idle Temps:http://i.imgur.com/NXfs61O.jpg

Temps after 45minutes of Prime95:http://i.imgur.com/t2fCZTH.jpg

 

 

Have you tried what i said in my edited part of my post? Quite a few forums seem to think that is the issue.

No only seeing that edit now, could you please send a link to where you found that? I'll give it a go now 

[Liam-McShane]

Idle Temps:http://i.imgur.com/NXfs61O.jpg

Temps after 45minutes of Prime95:http://i.imgur.com/t2fCZTH.jpg

 

 

No only seeing that edit now, could you please send a link to where you found that? I'll give it a go now 

Here: http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/p/19524165/20444889 and here: https://communities.intel.com/thread/36087

[EoinM]

have you tried stress testing??? as in gpu and cpu stress testing and this might sound stupid try at least 8 passes in memtest becaus if there is a broken slot or just even a broken dimm it will see it 

Definitely not a broken dimm because I replaced them like 2/3 weeks ago. I also recently replaced my GPU (this was after the BSODs started so the hardware change wasn't the cause of the crashes). After replacing my memory (I switched from 4 sticks of quad channel to two sticks of dual channel) I ran memtest86+ overnight for about 16 hours for 6 passes. A day or two later it crashed again so I assumed this meant that the two slots the dimms were in were faulty so I swapped them into the other two slots. The system bluescreened again a couple of days later. 

 

Also yes in hindsight I see now Alienware was a terrible terrible choice. 

[legopc]

Definitely not a broken dimm because I replaced them like 2/3 weeks ago. I also recently replaced my GPU (this was after the BSODs started so the hardware change wasn't the cause of the crashes). After replacing my memory (I switched from 4 sticks of quad channel to two sticks of dual channel) I ran memtest86+ overnight for about 16 hours for 6 passes. A day or two later it crashed again so I assumed this meant that the two slots the dimms were in were faulty so I swapped them into the other two slots. The system bluescreened again a couple of days later. 

 

Also yes in hindsight I see now Alienware was a terrible terrible choice. 

please do some combined stress testing because what you need to do is try and trigger the bsod so you can single out the component or software that is causing it  

[EoinM]

Here: http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/p/19524165/20444889 and here: https://communities.intel.com/thread/36087

Okay so to update, following the advice here I've switched from RAID to AHCI mode in the BIOS and uninstalled Intel RSTe. I am now using the standard microsoft AHCI driver. I'll stress test/play games for the day and see has this resolved the issue. Thanks for all the help so far everyone 

[EoinM]

please do some combined stress testing because what you need to do is try and trigger the bsod so you can single out the component or software that is causing it  

Will do, I have Prime95 and memtest86+ already, anything else you'd suggest running?

[legopc]

Will do, I have Prime95 and memtest86+ already, anything else you'd suggest running?

again do memtest for atleast 8 passes and yes i know you have new dimms but you never know and also do some gpu stress testing and cpu and gpu at the same time and i dont know if you have ever heard of it but try running driver verifier 

[EoinM]

again do memtest for atleast 8 passes and yes i know you have new dimms but you never know and also do some gpu stress testing and cpu and gpu at the same time and i dont know if you have ever heard of it but try running driver verifier 

Cool, will do, thanks 

[EoinM]

Okay using those generic Microsoft drivers seems to have completely solved the problem, haven't had a crash since even when using driver verifier with every driver that ever caused a crash running. Thanks everyone for all your help, very much appreciated!