Win8 random BSODs: SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED dxgmms1.sys
This appears to be a fairly common issue based on my google searches, but I'd love to have someone take a look at my minidump logs and see if they can identify anything specific. Short description: Win8 box, newly built, experiences random
BSODs with the title line message. These BSODs appear to happen completly randomly, usually when the computer is idle and unattended. I'm trying to exclude a hardware fault.
An exception happened while executing a routine that transitions from non-privileged code to privileged code.
This bugcheck is generally related to a video driver issue, however hardware memory related is possibly as well.
SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED_M (1000007e)
A system thread generated an exception that the error handler did not catch.
Usual causes are a bug in a device driver.
We have an access violation in this dump - c0000005. If we run an .exr on the 3rd parameter of the bugcheck (exception record address) we get the following:
We can see dxgmms1.sys is mentioned, which is the DirectX MMS system driver.
Ensure you have the latest video card drivers. If you are already on the latest video card drivers, uninstall and install a version or a few versions behind the latest to ensure it's not a latest driver only issue. If you have already experimented with the
latest video card driver and many previous versions, please give the beta driver for your card a try.
MEMORY_MANAGEMENT (1a)
This indicates that a severe memory management error occurred.
The 1st parameter of the bugcheck is 41201 which falls under the 'other' subtype in regards to this bugcheck. This means that an unknown memory management error occurred.
If you've already messed with video card driver versions, run a Memtest for NO LESS than ~8 passes (several hours):
You can either download the pre-compiled ISO that you would burn to a CD and then boot from the CD, or you can download the auto-installer for the USB key. What this will do is format your USB drive, make it a bootable device, and then install the necessary
files. Both do the same job, it's just up to you which you choose, or which you have available (whether it's CD or USB).
How Memtest works:
Memtest86 writes a series of test patterns to most memory addresses, reads back the data written, and compares it for errors.
The default pass does 9 different tests, varying in access patterns and test data. A tenth test, bit fade, is selectable from the menu. It writes all memory with zeroes, then sleeps for 90 minutes before checking to see if bits have changed (perhaps because
of refresh problems). This is repeated with all ones for a total time of 3 hours per pass.
Many chipsets can report RAM speeds and timings via SPD (Serial Presence Detect) or EPP (Enhanced Performance Profiles), and some even support changing the expected memory speed. If the expected memory speed is overclocked, Memtest86 can test that memory performance
is error-free with these faster settings.
Some hardware is able to report the "PAT status" (PAT: enabled or PAT: disabled). This is a reference to Intel Performance acceleration technology; there may be BIOS settings which affect this aspect of memory timing.
This information, if available to the program, can be displayed via a menu option.
Any other questions, they can most likely be answered by reading this great guide here:
