Boot Manager Corruption

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In the last 2 days I have had the Boot Manager file corrupt on my home PC. Yesterday, upon rebooting my PC it could not detect any boot manager, as so:

"BOOTMGR is missing.Press Ctrl Alt Del to restart"

To correct this, I simply obtained a temporary CD and booted into Windows, the issue was resolved.

In the hopes of preventing this from happening again, I copied the Win7 disk to a hard drive (thankfully). Today I have been using my PC all day and all was well. I was half way through watching something on VLC when the PC ran into a BSOD:

BSOD: 0x000000F4 - Correlating to Event 41 Kernel-Power

I have got back into the OS and have investigated the error code and also the event log (as listed above). There are a few blames around drivers and a few around cables. I have looked into all the relevant drivers using Driver Fusion Premiumand all are up-to-date. I have reviewed the cabling and all seems fine.

I then proceeded to look into Event ID 41 (Critical) Kernel-Power via Microsoft Support. The only one I would imagine relating to my instance is:

Scenario 3: The system randomly restarts and no Stop error BugcheckCode is listed, or the computer is completely unresponsive (hard hang)

This scenario usually indicates a problem with the hardware. To help isolate the problem, check the following items:

Overclocking: Disable overclocking to see whether the issue occurs when the system is run at the correct speed.

Check the memory: Verify the memory by using a memory checker. Verify that each memory chip is the same speed and that it is configured correctly in the system.

Power supply: Make sure that the power supply has enough wattage to appropriately handle the installed devices. If you added memory, installed a newer processor, installed additional drives, or added external devices, such devices can require more energy than the current power supply can provide consistently.

Overheating: Check whether the system is overheating by examining the internal temperature of the hardware.

Defaults: Reset the system back to the system defaults to see whether the issues occur when the system is running in its default configuration.

I have recently added a few fans (I can rule out over-heating) and another 2 HDD to the PC (this was a month+ ago) but highly doubt it could be the cause. I am running on a 650 watt PSU and do not believe I am under resourced. I believe I can rule out any hardware faults at this point (or at least delay delving into them).

There have been many installs and un-installs of software recently (as there normally is) in the past week or so, but nothing in the last 3 days to rule out yesterdays occurrence. I had a look in event viewer and could not see any errors in the logs for applications (apart from volume shadow copy service). I would not say there has been any difference in my computer activities yesterday and today (besides watching movies via VLC), so I am unable to track down what may be the culprit, if anything, software related.

I have run srf.exe/scannow and it appears to flag some issues. I will reboot the PC in the hopes there are no issues, and perhaps this may fix the cause. Upon reboot I will review the \CBS\CBSLog.txt to identify the errors flagged and update my question appropriately. Unfortunately there are no BSOD logs for me to investigate.

Should there be any particular information requested, please add a comment.

Update

I rebooted and opened the LOG. To my surprise (insert sarcasm) it was a tedious task to locate files. Many of the files were system sounds and .dll to software that has been disabled via Windows Features. Nothing jumped out at me, then again, this is the first time I have viewed this log. The following are the only items that seemed they may be the cause:

2015-09-20 22:30:07, Info                  CSI    00000396 [SR] Repairing corrupted file [ml:48{24},l:46{23}]"\??\C:\Windows\SysWOW64"\[l:20{10}]"authui.dll" from store

2015-09-20 22:30:07, Info                  CSI    00000398 [SR] Repairing corrupted file [ml:520{260},l:46{23}]"\??\C:\Windows\System32"\[l:20{10}]"authui.dll" from store

2015-09-20 22:30:07, Info                  CSI    0000039b [SR] Repairing corrupted file [ml:520{260},l:46{23}]"\??\C:\Windows\System32"\[l:24{12}]"imageres.dll" from store

2015-09-20 22:30:07, Info                  CSI    0000039d [SR] Repairing corrupted file [ml:520{260},l:62{31}]"\??\C:\Windows\Branding\Basebrd"\[l:22{11}]"basebrd.dll" from store

2015-09-20 22:30:07, Info                  CSI    000003a0 [SR] Repairing corrupted file [ml:48{24},l:46{23}]"\??\C:\Windows\SysWOW64"\[l:24{12}]"imageres.dll" from store

I did a quick "google" on what these .dll files are and would not consider them required for a boot. At this stage, I assumed there may be some conflict with a registry cleaner program I use; WiseCleaner 365. This software however has been utilised for months. Of course I understand this application with a mix of a new application may cause undesirable outcomes.

To continue, I re-performed sfc.exe and nothing was flagged. I have now enabled a FullMemoryDump via the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CrashControl.

I then installed the Windows 10 SDK for debugging. The next BSOD should generate me a Memory.DMP file I can analyse with this tool. I will keep this post updated.

System Information

The following information should give you a run-down of the system and key hardware. Should you need any more information let me know.

OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate
Version 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Manufacturer Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
System Model    Z97X-Gaming 7
Processor   Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4790K CPU @ 4.00GHz, 4001 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 32.0 GB
Total Physical Memory   31.8 GB
Available Physical Memory   28.2 GB
Total Virtual Memory    64.0 GB
Available Virtual Memory    59.8 GB
Page File Space 32.1 GB

Name    NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980
Adapter Type    GeForce GTX 980, NVIDIA compatible
Adapter Description NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980

Description Razer BlackWidow Ultimate
Description Razer Ouroboros
Description Razer BlackWidow Ultimate

Name    [00000007] Killer e2200 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller (NDIS 6.20)
Product Type    Killer e2200 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller (NDIS 6.20)

Drive   C:
Description Local Fixed Disk
Compressed  No
File System NTFS

Drive   E:
Description Local Fixed Disk
Compressed  No
File System NTFS

Drive   F:
Description Local Fixed Disk
Compressed  No
File System NTFS
windows-7
boot
memory
power-supply
bsod
asked on Super User Sep 20, 2015 by DankyNanky • edited Jun 12, 2020 by Community

1 Answer

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I found several examples of your problem around the web, many of which seem to be related to software issues.

You have already ruled out the following as possibilities:
-PSU faliure
-Overheating
-File system errors
-Driver errors

I would suggest the following to try and fix your issue
-Check for any other hardware that may have failed
-Restore your windows installation to a point before the issue started
-Uninstall any new programs that were installed just before the problem started

If none of those helped, it may be an issue with your motherboard

Seeing as 0x000000F4 is a broad spectrum error code, pinpointing the exact problem can be tedious.

answered on Super User Sep 20, 2015 by Ulincsys • edited Sep 20, 2015 by Ulincsys

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