Scary BSOD After POSTing

[Sturmgewehr_44]

I recently upgraded my system to a Maximus VII Formula and a 4790k. Everything seems to be running normal, accept I just BSOD'd. Right after POSTing, in-between booting Windows, I received this: http://i.imgur.com/aG6KoIw.jpg

 

What caused this? How do I access the memory dump that was created? Could this occur again, or is it a possibly one-time thing? I am very concerned as of yet. I have reset and booted again and it did not occur, but I am wary of doing again because I am afraid I might encounter it again.

 

Edit: I did boot up again. It did not occur, however, I am still very wary and quite scared to say the least. The last thing I did directly prior to the BSOD (before shutting down system) was run 3Dmark Firestrike. Everything seemed normal there. I turned system on again, boom, BSOD. I am not overclocked on my 4790k, and really, I see no indication of anything being wrong. I even ran a full scan of Malwarebytes to verify. Nothing. I am dazed...

 

Please note that I am running the same copy of Windows 7 as I did with my old 3770k and Z77 board (Sabertooth Z77). The upgrade to Z97 and Devil's Canyon was over two weeks at this point, and the new hardware was detected completely fine. Everything was recognised right off the bat. I just needed to install the Mobo drivers and re-verify Windows. I still have no reason to believe this BSOD is related to my hardware changes. Could it be this BSOD is possibly just a false-positive or unrelated to anything? A false alarm?

[Agazed]

If you are really scared, re-install windows. Not sure what the error is.

[Sturmgewehr_44]

If you are really scared, re-install windows. Not sure what the error is.

Some research pointed out that it could be related somehow to ROG GameFirst III software. That type of BSOD is not hardware related, which is very good. It is driver related, but I still don't know if it will occur again. Do most BSODs have a habit of appearing again if nothing is done about it when it first appears?

 

I have GameFirst III installed. How can I find the memory dump and read it, to be sure?

[Agazed]

Some research pointed out that it could be related somehow to ROG GameFirst III software. That type of BSOD is not hardware related, which is very good. It is driver related, but I still don't know if it will occur again. Do most BSODs have a habit of appearing again if nothing is done about it when it first appears?

 

I have GameFirst III installed. How can I find the memory dump and read it, to be sure?

 

Well there are millions of different errors that could occur. I have no idea if the BSOD could come back or not. The memory dump wont be helpful to you.

[Sturmgewehr_44]

Well there are millions of different errors that could occur. I have no idea if the BSOD could come back or not. The memory dump wont be helpful to you.

How would it not? Could it not have anything useful to share?

[Agazed]

How would it not? Could it not have anything useful to share?

 

Are you an expert with windows? The memory dump just contains a bunch of random code. 

[Sturmgewehr_44]

Are you an expert with windows? The memory dump just contains a bunch of random code. 

No. I am admittedly fairly amateur with regards to that.

 

However, they can be read with certain programmes, correct?? 

[Agazed]

No. I am admittedly fairly amateur with regards to that.

 

However, they can be read with certain programmes, correct?? 

 

If you want to try a program go ahead. The dump is located in C://Windows/Minidump

 

If you want to read it search on google memory dump reader and find one that fits your needs.

[Robin88]

Are you an expert with windows? The memory dump just contains a bunch of random code. 

 

Based on your responses I would have to say that you're not an expert in Windows either, so please don't be rude to someone who's trying to deal with a bug check and is trying their best to solve their issue on their own, especially when you haven't got a clue either.

 

The memory dump does not just contain a bunch of random code, it contains a list of everything that was in memory at the time of the crash and with the right tools can be used to narrow down what caused the bug check.

Whatever it was that caused the bug check was in memory at the time of the crash, and because the computer might have been able to save the bug check to disk we might find the culprit that caused it, because it'll be the last file loaded into memory at the time of the crash.

 

No. I am admittedly fairly amateur with regards to that.

 

However, they can be read with certain programmes, correct?? 

Could you do me a favour and download this application please?

It's called Blue Screen View and you can get it here

Run the program and tell me what the last file to be loaded into memory was, and any others that are highlighted in red, that way we can narrow down what caused the issue.

Cheers.

[Sturmgewehr_44]

Based on your responses I would have to say that you're not an expert in Windows either, so please don't be rude to someone who's trying to deal with a bug check and is trying their best to solve their issue on their own, especially when you haven't got a clue either.

 

The memory dump does not just contain a bunch of random code, it contains a list of everything that was in memory at the time of the crash and with the right tools can be used to narrow down what caused the bug check.

Whatever it was that caused the bug check was in memory at the time of the crash, and because the computer might have been able to save the bug check to disk we might find the culprit that caused it, because it'll be the last file loaded into memory at the time of the crash.

 

Could you do me a favour and download this application please?

It's called Blue Screen View and you can get it here

Run the program and tell me what the last file to be loaded into memory was, and any others that are highlighted in red, that way we can narrow down what caused the issue.

Cheers.

Thank you (:

 

I ran the software. The two files underlined in red were "NETIO.SYS" and "ntoskrnl.exe". It seems NETIO.SYS was what caused it though. It was mentioned in the BSOD as well.

[Sturmgewehr_44]

I am no expert. I am very new to BSODs. I only have one other from over 8 months ago logged in, due to undervolting an old CPU.

 

It seems to me that the BSOD (since it was allegedly caused by NETIO.SYS) could be related to GameFirst III (http://rog.asus.com/tag/gamefirst-iii/), which is a network prioritisation service from ROG. I have since uninstalled it, hopefully it was the culprit.

 

Nevertheless, I appreciate your insight. Are BSODs like this generally harmless?

 

If it is network/GameFirst related, how come it BSOD'd on me when booting?

 

Dump File Crash Time Bug Check String Bug Check Code Parameter 1 Parameter 2 Parameter 3 Parameter 4 Caused By Driver Caused By Address File Description Product Name Company File Version Processor Crash Address Stack Address 1 Stack Address 2 Stack Address 3 Computer Name Full Path Processors Count Major Version Minor Version Dump File Size Dump File Time 050615-13135-01.dmp 5/6/2015 5:50:51 PM SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION 0x0000003b 00000000`c0000005 fffff880`01825a1d fffff880`0a758370 00000000`00000000 NETIO.SYS NETIO.SYS+25a1d         x64 ntoskrn

[Robin88]

 

I am no expert. I am very new to BSODs. I only have one other from over 8 months ago logged in, due to undervolting an old CPU.

 

It seems to me that the BSOD (since it was allegedly caused by NETIO.SYS) could be related to GameFirst III (http://rog.asus.com/tag/gamefirst-iii/), which is a network prioritisation service from ROG. I have since uninstalled it, hopefully it was the culprit.

 

Nevertheless, I appreciate your insight. Are BSODs like this generally harmless?

 

If it is network/GameFirst related, how come it BSOD'd on me when booting?

 

Dump File Crash Time Bug Check String Bug Check Code Parameter 1 Parameter 2 Parameter 3 Parameter 4 Caused By Driver Caused By Address File Description Product Name Company File Version Processor Crash Address Stack Address 1 Stack Address 2 Stack Address 3 Computer Name Full Path Processors Count Major Version Minor Version Dump File Size Dump File Time 050615-13135-01.dmp 5/6/2015 5:50:51 PM SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION 0x0000003b 00000000`c0000005 fffff880`01825a1d fffff880`0a758370 00000000`00000000 NETIO.SYS NETIO.SYS+25a1d         x64 ntoskrn

 

Most BSOD's are completely harmless, they're there to stop damage being done in the first place, that isn't to say that they can't do damage though, they most certainly can, usually it's if a file is being written to when a bug check occurs then the file will possibly be corrupted, so it's always best to resolve the issue causing the BSOD as soon as possible.

But a BSOD like the one you had should be mostly harmless, it's simply a buggy driver that caused it and most likely wasn't hardware related, all I can suggest is to just keep an eye on it and see how it goes, if it doesn't happen again then great, however if it should happen again then it may be a sign of further issues that you'll need to sort that wasn't caused by the Asus software.

The main reason it happened is because NETIO.sys is loaded during the boot process, and the reason for that is to allow network connections to be establised as soon as the user logs on and to make sure that any services that depend on it being loaded can work without issue (things like networked drives, remote assistance, remote desktop and so on) even if you disable everything to do with networking, NETIO.sys is still loaded just in case it happens to be needed at some point, and I'm not 100% sure, but I think it is used for more than just networking, but I might be wrong on that one, and for those reasons it's loaded as early as possible in the boot process.

Even things like print spooler, which is used to load files to be printed is loaded during the boot process, and that isn't a necessary process for starting up Windows so it isn't surprising that NETIO.sys is loaded up that early in the process.

Hopefully you won't have any more issues, but if you do, don't be afraid to ask for help and make sure to keep that software, you never know when you might need it again, in fact it's going into my own arsenal of diagnostic software as well cause my mum is having a BSOD that I think is due to her external hard drive failing

Also, if you feel that your issue is sorted, could you mark the thread as solved please? Cheers

[Sturmgewehr_44]

According to WhoCrashed, it does appear that GameFirst III was the cause:

 

On Wed 5/6/2015 9:50:51 PM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\memory.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: nfc_driver.sys (NFC_Driver+0x46E4)
Bugcheck code: 0x3B (0xC0000005, 0xFFFFF88001825A1D, 0xFFFFF8800A758370, 0x0)
Error: SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION
Bug check description: This indicates that an exception happened while executing a routine that transitions from non-privileged code to privileged code.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
A third party driver was identified as the probable root cause of this system error. It is suggested you look for an update for the following driver: nfc_driver.sys .
Google query: nfc_driver.sys SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION

 

nfc_driver.sys. I believe that is one of the core components to GameFirst III. I uninstalled it a few hours after the BSOD occurred yesterday. It seems like it was definitely the cause.