BSOD in Windows 7 on 5 MacMini's

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Level 2

330 points

BSOD in Windows 7 on 5 MacMini's

I have been trying to determin what the cause is of this for over a week now but I am getting really frustrated with constant failures and could use a little direction.

I have 5 Macmini's that I am setting up for work with Windows 7 x64. This is a VLK version not retail. Four of the Mini's are late 2012 Models, one is a mid 2010 version. The 2012 Mini's are running Bootcamp 4.1 software and the 2010 Mini is running Bootcamp 3.3 software. They all seem to function correctly except for the random shutdown after a BSOD. Most of the time it happens after work hours or maybe once or twice during the day when I am not around to see it. Below is an image with some information about the crash:

I thought at first it was a bad copy of the OS so I burned a new disk from the VLK image we have on a server, and also tried an official Retail Disk that I had as well but both still gave the BSOD. So I thought maybe an update is problematic so I installed it with only Bootcamp drivers and Kaspersky but it is still giving the BSOD. The image above is from this last minimal attempt. It is always the same BSOD error though Paramiter 2, 3, and 4 are slightly different. I don't really have much exp reading and understanding dump files so not sure what to do next. I will post a link to the dump file once I get it uploaded.

Posted on Apr 11, 2013 8:44 AM

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Answer 1

Seth Myhre Author

Level 2

330 points

Apr 11, 2013 9:03 AM in response to Seth Myhre

Here is the Link to the dump file:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2511407/041113-23368-01.zip

Added by: Seth Myhre

Just to add I also have 5 other Mac Mini's that all have Win7 Pro from retail disks that were installed a while ago with Bootcamp 4.0 that I have not had issues with I think they are Mid 2011 Models. Which led me to believe it was the VLK Disk image that was problematic which was why I tried a Retail copy of Win 7 to test but when that gave same BSOD error I was stumped a bit.

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Answer 2

The hatter

Level 9

60,980 points

Apr 11, 2013 9:21 AM in response to Seth Myhre

The drivers are fine? the systems are at least running something to report temps? there is almost zero support for the fans in Windows to respond to thermal sensors.

Windows is good in one respect, it will react more often to marginal and bad RAM that is not picked up with AHT or OS X and there is Windows own single user memory test utility.

Same pretty much true for weak and bad disk sectors.

So ruling out the OS and trying to rule out drivers. Apple drivers for accessing HFSX volumes is a bit weak (and if you did have an Apple software RAID online it would crash but usually that is on startup when it tries to access and mount all volumes‚.

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Answer 3

Seth Myhre Author

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330 points

Apr 11, 2013 10:20 AM in response to The hatter

Well I am going to start with installing only the OS and see if it causes issues. If it does then I suppose its either Hardware or OS issues.

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Answer 4

Seth Myhre Author

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330 points

Apr 12, 2013 8:20 AM in response to The hatter

Well seems like the culpret might be Bootcamp drivers for one of the machines, since it hasn't blue screened after installing just the OS. Havent had the time to test the others yet. Installing Bootcamp 3.1 drivers on the older Macmini and will see how that fairs.

Thanks for getting me back to reality Hatter. Frustration was getting in the way of keeping a level head about the situation.

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Answer 5

Shootist007

Level 6

16,703 points

Apr 12, 2013 5:58 PM in response to Seth Myhre

Why are you using that version of the boot camp drivers? Apple has all Updated drivers. An update for 4.1 and the newest 5.0.5033. Why not try those?

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Answer 6

Seth Myhre Author

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330 points

Apr 12, 2013 6:06 PM in response to Shootist007

Simply because Bootcamp 4.x+ drivers dont work on the oldest macmini and the Newest Mac mini's downloaded 4.1 I didn't see any updates beyond that. I can certainly check again but that's what came up for download.

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Answer 7

Shootist007

Level 6

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Apr 12, 2013 6:07 PM in response to Seth Myhre

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1638

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Answer 8

Seth Myhre Author

Level 2

330 points

Apr 12, 2013 6:14 PM in response to Shootist007

Well the Boot Camp drivers I tried didn't work on the oldest Mac Mini Apple website sayes 4x is supported but guess I never found the ones that work with it. As for the 5.0.5 drivers I guess I can try using those on the newest models. Sigh gotta love looking like an idiot after trying so hard......

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Answer 9

Shootist007

Level 6

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Apr 12, 2013 6:19 PM in response to Seth Myhre

Try this link.

http://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp/downloads/

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Answer 10

Shootist007

Level 6

16,703 points

Apr 12, 2013 6:22 PM in response to Seth Myhre

Also if you are planning on running Windows as the main OS on those Mac's you can install it, Windows that is, Natively without using OS X and boot camp.

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Answer 11

Seth Myhre Author

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Apr 12, 2013 6:23 PM in response to Shootist007

Thank-you for your help I shall try those when I get back to work next week.

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Answer 12

Seth Myhre Author

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Apr 12, 2013 7:05 PM in response to Shootist007

We are using mainly Windows, however, the plan is to use the Mac side as well in the future.

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Answer 13

Seth Myhre Author

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330 points

Apr 16, 2013 7:45 AM in response to Shootist007

OK. Installed the newest Bootcamp drivers on all the machines and also installed Windows Udates. BSOD is back in full force. Same exact one as before. I think...though I am not certain that the BSOD started after Windows Updates.

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Answer 14

Seth Myhre Author

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Apr 17, 2013 7:54 AM in response to Seth Myhre

I think I have somewhat solved the issue. Windows seems to suck at sleeping or something. I set two of the Mini's to never sleep and they didn't crash last night. The other three I had set to sleep after 4 hours and two of them crashed the third aparently never got to sleep so it didn't crash. A few programs were still running after I logged back in. I shall mark this as solved and continue to watch them.

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Answer 15

Shotgun00

Level 2

220 points

Apr 17, 2013 8:19 AM in response to Seth Myhre

Windows does suck at sleep mode. It is the Mini's that are probably going into some type of Deep Sleep mode from a firmware setting of some type. There has been many posts lately about problems with sleep mode on all Mac computers.

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