Very Strange Recurring BSOD on Windows 8.1

[axe0]

This info is useless!

Run the dm log collector, upload the zip and give some description of what happened.

 

[Apples555]

Fair enough, it's all the same error.

We may have been chasing the wrong mouse. I came across this article about the 2009 MB (which has the same motherboard as my 2010 MBP), and realized that the crashes always occurred when downloading something. In fact, it usually happened on Youtube. That explains why the Nvidia driver didn't fail under stress tests.

I installed old 2010 Broadcom drivers for the 802.11n, and turned off power management for good measure. I'll let you know how it works out.

As mentioned before, the machine completely halts with stuttering audio until the BSOD displays and the PC restarts. This error goes all the way back to January around when I first installed Windows.

Logs attached.

View attachment 66395

 

[axe0]

Try uninstalling Nvidia drivers again, but this time ONLY install the drivers again

Please uninstall everything of Nvidia using Display Driver Uninstaller and install new drivers from Nvidia. Be sure the clean install box is checked and only install the Graphics driver and the PhysX driver.

 

[Apples555]

What do you mean? I only install the graphics driver, I don't need PhysX and all that other stuff.

 

[axe0]

Nvidia software is installed, could have to do something with this.

Start Menu\Programs\NVIDIA Corporation-nv16049	Public:Start Menu\Programs\NVIDIA Corporation-nv16049	Public
Start Menu\Programs\NVIDIA Corporation-nv16049\3D Vision	Public:Start Menu\Programs\NVIDIA Corporation-nv16049\3D Vision	Public
Start Menu\Programs\NVIDIA Corporation-nv16049\NVIDIA Control Panel	Public:Start Menu\Programs\NVIDIA Corporation-nv16049\NVIDIA Control Panel	Public

 

[Apples555]

Those directories are empty, they're probably left over from a past driver installation. DDU did not delete them for some reason. The control panel is a required install for the driver however.

 

[axe0]

Run DDU again, but this time don't install drivers as a test.

 

[Apples555]

Nope, the wireless driver doesn't solve anything. Lol.

That's the next step I guess.

 

[Apples555]

UPDATE: I swapped in an old Seagate mechanical drive for the SSD and got a bunch of strange hardware BSODs during Windows setup and 'disk missing' errors in OS X. Windows even refused to install and would sporadically even detect the HDD.

Running OS X off the SSD in an enclosure, I checked the drive with SMART and everything checked out (with 11000 hours on the clock, impressive).

I then read this.

In any case, I've seen several posts on several different sites where people were reporting insulation break down on some of the SATA cables. Apparently the insulation breaks down and the cable starts shorting to the case.

The consensus among many other threads is that the insulation on the SATA cables of 2009-2010 MacBook Pros is cheaply made and appears to wear down and start to short to the aluminum case. So I put electrical tape on the cable and the HDD back in.

Windows is installing right now. I will report back.

 

[Apples555]

Well, install crashed with disk read errors. At least, it wasn't a BSOD. I think the drive's age is a factor.

I put the SSD back in. Let's see how the insulated cable does.

 

[Apples555]

Tossed in another old HDD and Windows is running. Had one BSOD from a bad IR receiver driver (from Apple) but so far so good.

Developments to come...

 

[Apples555]

I can't reproduce the issue with a mechanical HDD.

 

[axe0]

I assume the HDD is connected with a cable with electrical tape on it.

So I put electrical tape on the cable and the HDD back in.

How was it going with the SSD?

 

[Apples555]

Yes it is.

The SSD is currently in an external enclosure. I'll keep using the HDD to make sure the BSOD doesn't show up again, then I'll reinstall clean onto the SSD and hope it works.

 

[axe0]

OK, let me know how it goes

 

[Apples555]

Of course. Thank you for your help!

 

[Apples555]

So the BSODs did not return, but the characteristic audio stuttering did, so I flipped over the machine with music playing, and started looking at things.

I took the HDD, moved it around and didn't get much of a reaction.

Then, on a whim, I disconnected the idling optical drive.

This produced the stutter. The machine didn't BSOD. I put the cable back in and the drive spinned up. I took it out again and the stutter happened again.

Perhaps I taped the wrong SATA cable. I'll completely remove the optical drive and see what happens.

Here's a picture of the motherboard by the way (you can see how the machined metal case can wreak havoc on those soft cables).

 

[Apples555]

Just for kicks, I tried removing the HDD cable as the machine was playing music.

It didn't even BSOD. It just stopped playing music after a while. When I plugged the cable back in, everything went back to normal.

Certainly different from the OD stuttering.

I'll keep this thread updated!

Now to reproduce the problem, back in goes the SSD.

 

[Apples555]

Dare I say it, its a wrap.

Without an optical drive, the stuttering and BSODs are completely gone. I've tried everything I can to get it to crash but have not been successful.

I'll keep running without an optical drive for some time to confirm then work on getting the optical drive back in. The problem must've been an intermittent connection between the motherboard and OD. The fault is likely with the drive itself, the cable, or the connector on the motherboard. Or maybe the ZIF connector was simply loose.

Strangely this isn't the first time I've experienced a stuttering issue related to an optical drive. 7 or 8 years ago I had a Sony VAIO that would hard stutter when downloading something over wireless or ethernet. After going through everything I could think of, I had run out of ideas. In an unrelated event, I updated the OD's firmware and the issue was completely gone. That computer still works well (but is quite slow now).

To this day, I don't know why this is so.

Updates to come...