Blue Screen of Death Madness

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
R

ricleo2

Golden Member
Feb 18, 2004
1,122
11
81
For about 3 months now I have been having intermitent problems with my computer rebooting itself or the infamous blue screen. I have replaced the video card (thanks EVGA) and the motherboard to no avail. I have tried reinstalling winxp with the replacement MB but keep getting the blue screen after set up says it is "starting windows".
Western Digital's utilities says all my 4 hd's are fine. After two passes of memtest, there are no errors. Anybody know how I can troubleshoot this thing further?

MB's tried: ASUS maximus 2 formula
INTEL DP43TF

Memory: Mushkin 2 sticks at 2 gigs each

Cooler Master 1000 watt power supply

E8500 CPU

2 dvd burners: Sony and Lite-on

EVGA 9800 GX2 video card, also tried a cheap Galaxy card

Thanks for any help.
 
nboy22

nboy22

Diamond Member
Jul 18, 2002
3,304
1
81
Does the blue screen say anything specific? Are you able to write down what it says? Also, are you able to boot into safe mode by holding the F8 key at the bootup of your computer?
 
R

ricleo2

Golden Member
Feb 18, 2004
1,122
11
81
nboy22 said:
Does the blue screen say anything specific? Are you able to write down what it says? Also, are you able to boot into safe mode by holding the F8 key at the bootup of your computer?
Click to expand...

Well, during windows install the blue screen says disable any shadowing or caching which I tried, but no use. When booting to my desktop sometimes it will reboot itself, but the blue goes so fast I can not see it. And sometimes I am able to boot into safe mode.
By the way, I just ran memtest86 all night long with no errors. Right now I'm suspecting the power supply. I think I will run to Fry's and get a replacement. Thanks for any other help.
 
K

Ken90630

Golden Member
Mar 6, 2004
1,571
2
81
In my experience, the most common cause of BSODs is a bad driver. If you can consistently boot into Safe Mode, I'd bet that's the problem.

I've also seen a botched Norton installation result in BSODs on a Vista machine.

That said, a bad PSU can of course cause a PC to keep rebooting. That bit about the "shadowing" and "caching" is a little odd -- maybe you've got something set wrong in the BIOS? (And is the BIOS up to date?)

Another possibility is the RAM voltage being off. Did you check the mobo manual and make sure you're running the RAM at the recommended voltage (again, in the BIOS)?

You might also make sure you don't have a jumper in the wrong position on one of your HDs.

Lastly -- and no offense intended -- what on earth do you need a 1000-watt PSU for? Sounds like overkill to me.
 
Last edited:
Computers_Plus

Computers_Plus

Member
Oct 9, 2010
115
0
0
computersplushome.com
here is something you might want to check in the BIOS SATA settings if you have it set to AHCI mode try changing it to native IDE AHCI can be trouble on some chipsets and cause the exact issue you are having
 
K

Ken90630

Golden Member
Mar 6, 2004
1,571
2
81
Computers_Plus said:
here is something you might want to check in the BIOS SATA settings if you have it set to AHCI mode try changing it to native IDE AHCI can be trouble on some chipsets and cause the exact issue you are having
Click to expand...

The poster doesn't say whether his HDs are IDE or SATA, but obviously if they're SATA he shouldn't set the BIOS setting to IDE.
 
K

Ken90630

Golden Member
Mar 6, 2004
1,571
2
81
Computers_Plus said:
Not exactly true it is a common issue if you don't believe me research it AHCI is broken on some chipsets
Click to expand...

Well, that may be and maybe I just haven't heard of it. Is it really "broken," or is it just a matter of people not installing the correct SATA controller drivers? That can be a little tricky, particularly when people get confused re the native or PCI controllers.

That aside, wouldn't switching to IDE in the BIOS cause other problems if he's using SATA drives? I'm not an expert on this, so I welcome any education anyone wants to throw my way here.
 
K

Ken90630

Golden Member
Mar 6, 2004
1,571
2
81
Computers_Plus said:
the SATA controller can be set to RAID AHCI or IDE
Click to expand...

Right. It's my understanding that it's best to set it to AHCI when using SATA hard drives (even if hot swapping or NCQ aren't utilized) and set it to IDE when using IDE (PATA) hard drives. Am I mistaken?
 
K

Ken90630

Golden Member
Mar 6, 2004
1,571
2
81
Computers_Plus said:
Yes you are mistaken an IDE drive connects to the IDE controller port not a SATA port the IDE setting is basically a compatibility mode thats all
Click to expand...

I think you need to read my question again. I didn't say that an IDE drive should connect to an SATA port. Obviously, it can't (the connector is different).
 
R

ricleo2

Golden Member
Feb 18, 2004
1,122
11
81
Well, to make a very long and painful story short, I think I have narrowed the problem down to my replacement EVGA 9800 GX2 SC video card again. After I install the drivers, the machine reboots just before it gets to the desktop. I can boot in safe mode, remove the drivers, and it boots just fine with generic drivers that winxp uses. I have, in my journey of troubleshooting, replaced the motherboard, memory, power supply and even my dvd burner to no avail. The only part I have not replaced is my E8500 CPU, but it runs prime95 fine. I even installed a cheap Galaxy G200 that works great. Evga sent me this 9800 as a warranty replacement. I suppose I will use there rma service again. Any other ideas? Thanks for all the responses.

Two things you may or may not care about:
1. I replaced the thermal paste on my cpu, lowering my idle temp from 56-26.
2. I could not reinstall winxp from my original disk, it is damaged somehow. I made a copy of it from my wife's laptop and the copy installed fine. But these two things did not fix my problem.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom