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I got a BSOD when my computer was almost idle (only utorrent was running) with stop error code 0x000000F4.

Also at the blue screen it got stuck at the 2nd step (don't remember what it says) and as a result I don't have a minidump file.

My pc specs are:

Motherboard: ASUS Rampage III Extreme

CPU: Intel i7 - 950 @ 3,00GHz

RAM: 3x2GB @ 1866MHz

Windows Drive: 60GB SSD (OCZ Agility)

OS: Windows 7 Ultimate Sp1 64bit

This has happened quite a few times during the 1 year I have this computer. The previous times the SSD I had (Corsair F60) stopped working. (2 SSDs dead)

The problem is that I cannot reproduce the problem so that we find out the cause. Is it something with the controller of the motherboard? What should I do?

Thank you for your time!

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if only when "idle" for a long time, and normally has no problems, could it be any of the win7 Scheduled items , if your computer is normally wonderfull but fails at 3am every night :-) Check out the history in the scheduled tasks. That particular error is attributed to hardware and driver issues most. – Psycogeek Oct 4 '11 at 0:51
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The problem rises not only when idle but also if I recall correctly when I was watching a youtube video. How to check the history in the scheduled tasks? But how can I determine which driver might be faulty? – Chris Oct 5 '11 at 22:33
I have had a weird problem with the way they use the video card for 3D processing the mostly 2D stuff on the desktop. the very light load on the video card. I applied more GPU FAN using a fan graph, and those problems went completely away. I suspect that the video ram was not being cooled well enough. Could play 3d games harsh 3d test, but when it came to this slow low burn :-) the fan wouldnt kick up well enough. video card screws up. – Psycogeek Oct 5 '11 at 22:57
My gpu is gtx280 o.c. by msi. It does reach high temps. But what do you mean? What can I do? :S If this isn't the problem I don't want the fan of the GPU (a small one) making all that noise :S – Chris Oct 6 '11 at 1:06
it was just one thing, MSi afterburner (utility) has the ability to create a fan graph. so you can have better cooling and still control things. For TESTING a problem, excessive fan speeds temporarily can be usefull. sure nobody wants to hear that, but I need to find out what causes the problem. – Psycogeek Oct 6 '11 at 1:24

2 Answers

up vote 3 down vote

I suffered the dreaded F4 stop error and discovered it was all due to power management.

In the latest install, I have disabled BIOS support for power management on my MSI-7522 mobo (X58 chipset, Core i7-920, 24GB RAM) and selected Performance power profile with no modifications.

System was crashing during the night, always at idle, and research told me a critical thread was being terminated and the system restarted to avoid other unpleasant conditions.

No BIOS PM support, no Windows changes to the performance profile, and the box remained stable for fifteen days. Looks like I found my problem, hope this helps you, too.

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How can I turn off power management at BIOS? I have looked around at my BIOS but didn't find any of these options. Also, I don't want to change the profile to performance because CPU minimum load is 100% and thus it's working in full load all the time. – Chris Oct 5 '11 at 22:37
CE states and stepping are the power mananagement items in the bios, the new boards really work well with theses things, especially stepping is working good even OCed. plus any standby states, how far it can go down on standby S1 S3 not sure if you have them. at the Overclock site, they select only specific CE states for some reason. – Psycogeek Oct 5 '11 at 23:09
up vote 1 down vote

BSOD issues come in many shapes and forms and have been covered here, I suggest checking other questions and answers on SuperUser.

In particular because you have the OCZ Agility check my answer here, as it also uses the SandForce controller that's causing issues for a lot of people:

Vertex 3 with Asus P8P67 Pro (B3) locks up

Other debug/BSOD info:

Any advice on what to do when getting a cryptic blue screen in windows?

How to diagnose Blue Screens in Windows 7 (64bit)

What can cause a BSOD

Diagnosing BSOD hardware issues .

Microsoft Bug check page for F4

.

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I have just found out that the RAM I use is not at the qualified vendor list. Mine is OCZ3B2000C9LV2G (3x2GB for triple channel).Also I had set at the BIOS the DRAM freq at 1866MHz and it automatically O.C. the system. Now I have set it at 1600MHz which is one of the default freqs my motherboard supports. Could that be the problem? Also the SSD's firmware is 2.06. Should I upgrade it to the latest? Additionally, about the BSOD this is what I have found at the log viewer about critical events happened in a weeks period: dl.dropbox.com/u/44329838/event41%20kernel-power.txt – Chris Oct 6 '11 at 0:41
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Didn't have chars left, so I continue here: What also troubles me is that the F4 BSOD has happened before but with an Corsair F60 SSD. At your reply you mention these solutions: 1) Attempt to get it refunded under warranty / place of purchase (check with manufacturer) ->have already done this twice (with the 2 Corsair F60 SSDs) 2) Attempt to qualify for a replacement (check with manufacturer) 3) Update BIOS on your motherboard -> latest BIOS 4) Disable hibernate ->done 5) Wait for OCZ and SandForce to fix it. -> With the 2 previous SSDs the device itself malfunctioned after a while. – Chris Oct 6 '11 at 1:00
Which means that it couldn't be recognised at the BIOS. – Chris Oct 6 '11 at 1:03

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