Windows 10: BSOD Kernel Security Check Failure

Doing the memory test at this point. It's been 13 and a half hours and it's on the 3rd pass? I'm not sure.

 

The memory test didn't finish, unfortunately. We are currently in the dark because of an issue with SMUD (our power utility provider). They said there's two lines to our area and one of them got knocked out, probably by a vehicle. I'm going to try the wireless driver replacement when we get the power on again. If that fails, guess I'm starting the memory test again.

*sigh*
Makes me wish I had an APC unit.

 

For Memtest 86+ version 5.01 it takes approximately 1 - 2 hours / GB RAM.
The computer has 16 GB RAM.
There are a significant number of false negatives if fewer than 8 passes are made.
A false negative is a test pass when there is malfunctioning RAM.
If there is just 1 fail you can abort testing. Just 1 fail indicates malfunctioning RAM and the next task is to determine which RAM module is malfunctioning. Then test 1 RAM module at a time in the same DIMM for 8 or more passes.
The motherboard has a dual channel capability.
If RAM modules are tested 1 at a time the dual channel capability is not tested.
So for computers that have 16 GB RAM or less the dual channel is tested by testing both RAM modules at the same time.
There was a thread within the past 2 months where an OP had 64 GB RAM and decided to test all of the RAM over nearly a week. This was not the norm.
When there are two or more malfunctioning hardware drivers it is useful to check the RAM / DIMM /Motherboard.
So far 2 hardware drivers were identified: Nvidia GPU drivers, and Realtek wireless driver.
The Nvidia was a recurrent misbehaving driver.
And BSOD occurred after the removal of the ESET drivers.
It is time consuming but the Memtest86+ versioin 5.01 testing needs to be continuous.
It will be useful to rule in or rule out RAM as a cause or contributor to the BSOD.

 

The power came back on, so I'm going to turn it on again in a bit and try the wireless driver. I'll report back.

 

I can't get the wireless driver installed. I tried DELETING the damn driver, and Windows just keeps reinstalling it over and over again. I've tried installing the driver manually, through legacy install, through any other method I could find, and it just won't replace the crappy broken one.

EDIT:

Got it installed, finally. Had to choose "pick from a list of hardware," etc and "have disk," and so on. Gonna reboot and give this PC some time to test it out.

 

Well, that didn't fix the problem. Crashed again after about an hour and a half of use. Guess it's back to the memory test again.

 

There is another approach to this that can be taken to determine if a 3rd party driver is causing the crashes. You can perform a clean boot disabling all the non-Microsoft services and apps. Test to see if the system is stable. Then gradually introduce back the programs at startup in groups until you trigger the problem again. By a process of elimination you should be able to pinpoint what is causing the system to crash.

Perform a Clean Boot in Windows 10 to Troubleshoot Software Conflicts

 

It froze when I ran Linux for 10 minutes.

So I'm dreading this, but I'm sure at this point it's one of the RAM sticks.

 

Well, crap.
After 45 hours, I come home to this.

 

OK, so now you know the RAM is bad. You need to find out which one is the faulty stick, remove one of them and repeat the test with one at a time until you find whether it's just one or both that give the errors.

 

I wish Memtest86+ would tell you which slot is bad... Sigh.

I'm fairly certain which one it is, too. I had just installed a new CPU, and I might have damaged the one closest to the CPU seat in the process. That is also the old one that came with this PC when I recently bought it, so it's likely the culprit. I took it out and started the PC up, I've been using it for the past 45 mins with no problems. Hopefully I'm right.

 

I tried running the PC with one stick of RAM at a time. Crashed both times.

Could it be the processor in this case? Things were running fine until I installed that.

 

You have to work through the possibilities systematically. Memtest86+ needs to be run on each RAM stick to confirm which one is faulty. Remember that it could be the slot of the Motherboard so the proper way is to test the faulty RAM in the other slot to confirm this.

 

Ok, testing the second RAM stick, and it's on the 7th pass, 10th test, with no errors so far. The first one threw an error about halfway through the 4th pass. I'm going to check the thermal paste on the new CPU once that's done.

 

Consult the owner's manual to see the maximum amount of RAM that can be used in any DIMM. Then decided on your needs. When replacing RAM make sure the modules are in pairs with the same SKU so that there is no mismatched RAM. This scanner is often useful to get an idea about what is available: Crucial System Scanner | Crucial.com