BSOD. This has me stumped

[dpastern (Dave Pastern)]

Originally Posted by Exfso

The Samsung 850EVO which is the dodgy one has a 5 yr warranty and I purchased it 3 years ago. So if it is in fact faulty I will get a replacement. I rang Samsung Australia today and they will obviously want it back to be tested, all at their cost.

Well, let's just test further first to make sure it is the SSD. If it is, that's awesome news. I have an older Samsung 840 SSD in my currently non-working PC (long story short, had removed PSU to lend to my best mate for him to test his VR PC with to isolate an issue, got it back, had it in its box on the floor of my room, got flooded and box got soaked, PSU prolly damaged I suspect). Lucky the PC wasn't on the floor. Said flooding did ruin a bunch of model kit boxes though, including a 1/18 Merit Dauntless SBD-3

[Exfso (Peter)]

Sounds like Murphy was definitely at your place Dave

[dpastern (Dave Pastern)]

Originally Posted by Exfso

Sounds like Murphy was definitely at your place Dave

Did you ever hear about O'Toole's law?

Murphy was an optimist. About sums up my life in general. Still, I keep smiling.

[Exfso (Peter)]

I have had the new SSD and OS going for nearly a week without any BSOD, so unless "Murphy strikes", it is was almost certainly the other SSD.

[dpastern (Dave Pastern)]

Originally Posted by Exfso

I have had the new SSD and OS going for nearly a week without any BSOD, so unless "Murphy strikes", it is was almost certainly the other SSD.

That is great news! May I suggest testing for another 2-3 weeks. The problem with random problems is, that, they are random!

[dpastern (Dave Pastern)]

It seems that others are/were experiencing BSOD issues with the Samsung 850 EVO SSD and Windows 10 especially...a quick google search:

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=samsung+85...105-1_g&ia=web

some pages of interest:

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/...d-problem.html

https://community.spiceworks.com/top...ssd-pro-or-evo

https://www.sevenforums.com/bsod-hel...b-install.html

some are suggesting to install the Samsung magician software with the view of updating the firmware for the SSD and/or disabling "rapid mode".

I'm curious to see if the firmware on the old SSD was ever updated, and to try disabling rapid mode to see if it helps with the BSODs. It's prolly nothing, but I always wonder if things like this will fix an issue without having to resort to spending more money!

PS I had all sorts of trouble updating the firmware on my 840 SSD and gave up on it (Samsung software continuously crashed during the update process). I did contact Samsung several times, but their support was absolutely atrocious.

[Exfso (Peter)]

Thanks Dave, it certainly looks like that was the culprit, but as you said, keep monitoring. I am expecting a satchel from Samsung to return the drive for analysis.

[dpastern (Dave Pastern)]

Originally Posted by Exfso

Thanks Dave, it certainly looks like that was the culprit, but as you said, keep monitoring. I am expecting a satchel from Samsung to return the drive for analysis.

You're welcome. i'll be interested to see what Samsung says.

[Exfso (Peter)]

Well bugger me after 10 days no BSOD, I got one today, so back to square one..

[dpastern (Dave Pastern)]

Originally Posted by Exfso

Well bugger me after 10 days no BSOD, I got one today, so back to square one..

Damn! I had hoped that you'd nailed the problem :/

[Exfso (Peter)]

Yeah, me too. I have 16gb of ram in 4 sticks, I removed the 2nd pair leaving 8gb, within 20 mins the BSOD went off. Ok removed those 2 sticks and replaced with the previous removed sticks, so far so good. Seriously this really does one's head in..

[dpastern (Dave Pastern)]

Originally Posted by Exfso

Yeah, me too. I have 16gb of ram in 4 sticks, I removed the 2nd pair leaving 8gb, within 20 mins the BSOD went off. Ok removed those 2 sticks and replaced with the previous removed sticks, so far so good. Seriously this really does one's head in..

Yeah, these sort of intermittent issues are the hardest to trace. It's exceptionally frustrating!

[Exfso (Peter)]

Changing the ram modules over made no difference, so it is not a ram issue. It is not a video issue as I installed a video card I had that I know is fine, and that made no difference either, only thing left is either a dodgy power supply or the mobo is at fault. If it was power supply, I reckon I would be getting these crashes a lot more regularly and probably other issues as well.

[dpastern (Dave Pastern)]

Originally Posted by Exfso

Changing the ram modules over made no difference, so it is not a ram issue. It is not a video issue as I installed a video card I had that I know is fine, and that made no difference either, only thing left is either a dodgy power supply or the mobo is at fault. If it was power supply, I reckon I would be getting these crashes a lot more regularly and probably other issues as well.

Agreed on PSU, but still, anything can happen! I presume the BIOs on the motherboard is up to date?

[Exfso (Peter)]

More information to muddy the waters. Looks like malwarebytes has been causing BSOD regularly getting all knotted up with Ethernet controllers. Seriously does anything work as it should...

[dpastern (Dave Pastern)]

Originally Posted by Exfso

More information to muddy the waters. Looks like malwarebytes has been causing BSOD regularly getting all knotted up with Ethernet controllers. Seriously does anything work as it should...

yeah, as i said, I'd do a fresh install and have nothing on it but the o/s - stock o/s, no updates, disconnected from network.

edit: nothing else at all installed, no 3rd party drivers, just whatever Windows finds OOTB.

[Exfso (Peter)]

Dave, I was getting BSOD with a fresh install, however I think I had installed ESET and Malwarebytes. When I googled the BSOD issue with Malwarebytes, there was a lot of people getting similar issues. As far as the bios goes, I have not re flashed it, unless my tech mate did when he did the fresh install, but I am a tad scared about flashing Bios as it can be a real pain if it stuffs up. As I said I have uninstalled MWB and touch wood no BSOD, time will tell. Thanks for all your positive input, very much appreciated.

[dpastern (Dave Pastern)]

Originally Posted by Exfso

Dave, I was getting BSOD with a fresh install, however I think I had installed ESET and Malwarebytes. When I googled the BSOD issue with Malwarebytes, there was a lot of people getting similar issues. As far as the bios goes, I have not re flashed it, unless my tech mate did when he did the fresh install, but I am a tad scared about flashing Bios as it can be a real pain if it stuffs up. As I said I have uninstalled MWB and touch wood no BSOD, time will tell. Thanks for all your positive input, very much appreciated.

happy to offer help.

PS I've seen antivirus do similar things to what you're seeing. My last PC had similar issues to you, and it had me stumped. it would work, and then reboot on its own and refuse to boot the windows o/s. Wouldn't repair it either (said it couldn't, no matter what I tried). No safe mode. nada. No rhyme or reason to it - sometimes after a day or 2, sometimes after 2 weeks. I was using grub as the main bootloader, which handed off to the windows bootloader. i'd get the windows loading screen and it'd just hang there. Bloody weird.

3 months of trouble shooting and I gave up and gave the PC to my best mate for him to play with. Know what it was? Bloody well AV...I had a clean install of Windows 7 (8 had only just been released at that time), no 3rd party apps, no 3rd party drivers, full windows updates (also tested it without any windows updates, same problem). The only thing I did install was my backup data (onto an actual separate drive, so not o/s drive) and AV. I re-tested it with no backup data (after doing a low level format of the drive and fdisk'ing the mbr to be safe and paranoid) and still issues. I didn't even suspect the AV. I'd been using KAV for a good number of years without a single issue and there weren't any google posts on it (I did google it, so when nothing came back, I though nothing further of it).

What did my mate do when he got it? Uninstalled KAV, rebooted it and then tested it for 3 months. Not a single issue. He didn't tell me what he died for 3 months, just that he was still "testing" it. Then he told me and I was like 'WTH!, seriously!!!". I let him use the PC for the next 18 months lol as it was faster than his pretty decent PC and I didn't urgently need to use it as I had my MBP and an older Q6600 based PC if I really needed a PC. At that time, i had basically moved all my gaming to the PS3/XBOX, so didn't need a PC for gaming, and my MBP could run PS elements 12 which did most of what I wanted, so the PC wasn't a high priority. Of course, i got the PC back eventually. Mate needed a PSU to test his VR PC, I lent him the PSU, got it back a week later. Hadn't even reinstalled it back into the PC in question, had the PSU in its box on the floor in my room and woke up one morning at 8am to an inch of water throughout my room (heavy storm, didn't wake me up, water came down the drive, into the garage and then into my room) and has probably ruined the PSU (box was water damaged). Too heartbroken to open it and test . Lucky, I had the PC in my late dad's old vintage car up and away from water. Unluckily, mice had taken to living in the car and probably have made a nice home inside the PC and screwed the mainboard with mice pee and poo and chewed cables with my luck. Again, with my luck, I'm not game to open it lol. I'll eventually do it one day, and probably cry. Brand new PC, 2k parts, never really used, probably stuffed. *sigh*.

[Exfso (Peter)]

Originally Posted by dpastern

happy to offer help.

PS I've seen antivirus do similar things to what you're seeing. My last PC had similar issues to you, and it had me stumped. it would work, and then reboot on its own and refuse to boot the windows o/s. Wouldn't repair it either (said it couldn't, no matter what I tried). No safe mode. nada. No rhyme or reason to it - sometimes after a day or 2, sometimes after 2 weeks. I was using grub as the main bootloader, which handed off to the windows bootloader. i'd get the windows loading screen and it'd just hang there. Bloody weird.

3 months of trouble shooting and I gave up and gave the PC to my best mate for him to play with. Know what it was? Bloody well AV...I had a clean install of Windows 7 (8 had only just been released at that time), no 3rd party apps, no 3rd party drivers, full windows updates (also tested it without any windows updates, same problem). The only thing I did install was my backup data (onto an actual separate drive, so not o/s drive) and AV. I re-tested it with no backup data (after doing a low level format of the drive and fdisk'ing the mbr to be safe and paranoid) and still issues. I didn't even suspect the AV. I'd been using KAV for a good number of years without a single issue and there weren't any google posts on it (I did google it, so when nothing came back, I though nothing further of it).

What did my mate do when he got it? Uninstalled KAV, rebooted it and then tested it for 3 months. Not a single issue. He didn't tell me what he died for 3 months, just that he was still "testing" it. Then he told me and I was like 'WTH!, seriously!!!". I let him use the PC for the next 18 months lol as it was faster than his pretty decent PC and I didn't urgently need to use it as I had my MBP and an older Q6600 based PC if I really needed a PC. At that time, i had basically moved all my gaming to the PS3/XBOX, so didn't need a PC for gaming, and my MBP could run PS elements 12 which did most of what I wanted, so the PC wasn't a high priority. Of course, i got the PC back eventually. Mate needed a PSU to test his VR PC, I lent him the PSU, got it back a week later. Hadn't even reinstalled it back into the PC in question, had the PSU in its box on the floor in my room and woke up one morning at 8am to an inch of water throughout my room (heavy storm, didn't wake me up, water came down the drive, into the garage and then into my room) and has probably ruined the PSU (box was water damaged). Too heartbroken to open it and test . Lucky, I had the PC in my late dad's old vintage car up and away from water. Unluckily, mice had taken to living in the car and probably have made a nice home inside the PC and screwed the mainboard with mice pee and poo and chewed cables with my luck. Again, with my luck, I'm not game to open it lol. I'll eventually do it one day, and probably cry. Brand new PC, 2k parts, never really used, probably stuffed. *sigh*.

That is a full on story, mate mine is very insignificant by comparison.

[dpastern (Dave Pastern)]

Originally Posted by Exfso

That is a full on story, mate mine is very insignificant by comparison.

Thought it'd give you a giggle and make you smile.

I'd like to say that there's a ray of sunshine at the end of every dark day, but imho, it's really a death ray from a Martian invader's spaceship ;-) (that is meant to be a jest people).