BSOD Experts please help.........

[SpeedDog]

Greetings all,

Hopefully the technical experts in our community may be able to help with a
problem I have been having for quite some time.
Problem:- PC Blue Screens intermittently, but there is a pattern.
The BSOD is usually the "IRQ not less than or Equal" type but sometimes just
plain blue and only occur when playing games (no game in particular either),
NEVER during any other applications or desktop works. The other fact that I
have determined about the BSOD's are that they NEVER occur during actual
playing of the game, they ALWAYS occur when you are either exiting out of
the game through the game menus, OR going through the game menus to start a
game!

I have rebuilt a number of times with various BIOS configurations and
Windows configurations and of course have the system stock (not overclocked)
and the BIOS settings including RAM timings set to SPD default to try and
determine the root cause of the crashes.

Here are my system specs :-

Main Hardware:-
Intel P4 3.0ghz Northwood CPU
Asus P4C800E-deluxe (Intel 875P chipset)
Corsair PC3200 LL 2x512 matched modules
Audigy 2 ZS PCI sound card (Creative EAX4.0 drivers)
Gigabyte X800 XT PE platinum with Arctic Cooler HSF (Catalyst v4.12 drivers)
Thermaltake 1000 Xaser (7 cooling fans)
Antec 550watt Tru PSU

Software:-
Windows XP Pro Corp / Service Pack 2 / DirectX 9.0C
Intel motherboard chipset drivers: v6.2.1.1001
Audigy2 ZS EAX 4.0 drivers from Creative
Catalyst official ATi drivers v4.12

BIOS:-
Plug & Play OS = yes
Hyperthreading = yes
CPU vcore = 1.55v
DIMM voltage = 2.75v
AGP = 1.7v

Please let me know if you have any suggestions or solutions asap.

Regards
IceDOG (aka Gary)

 

[Wanescotting]

Are you overclocking?

 

[Uncle Bob]

Nothing obvious here and it happens at stock speeds huh?

Couple of suggestions;
Try moving you're sound card to a different PCI slot (I'd suggest the slot furthest away from from the video card - from memory that slot doesn't share an IRQ with anything important in the system)

Disable **any and all** unused motherboard devices (i.e disable both serial ports if you're not using them, likewise with the parallel port, and obviously make sure on-board sound is disabled)

I'm not sure of the details, but I've heard some reports regarding some versions of the Audigy drivers giving problems - try an older version of the drivers

When you get the BSOD 'IRQL less or not equal' there will normally be a reference to a specific driver/application which caused the error at the bottom of the screen - is this usually the same file each time?

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: SpeedDog
Greetings all,

Hopefully the technical experts in our community may be able to help with a
problem I have been having for quite some time.
Problem:- PC Blue Screens intermittently, but there is a pattern.
The BSOD is usually the "IRQ not less than or Equal" type but sometimes just
plain blue and only occur when playing games (no game in particular either),
NEVER during any other applications or desktop works. The other fact that I
have determined about the BSOD's are that they NEVER occur during actual
playing of the game, they ALWAYS occur when you are either exiting out of
the game through the game menus, OR going through the game menus to start a
game!

Send me the minidumps found in c:\windows\minidump. Zip them up prior to sending.
Send me the COMPUTERNAME.CAB file generated when you run MPSREPORTS (the Setup-Perf version), found on Microsoft's website.

 

[SpeedDog]

Thanks dclive,

I have run the report and zipped it up together with the minidump.
I have uploaded the zip file to my Website located at:-

www.itg1.com/avrr/avrr-downloads.html

You'll see the link to the zip file at the bottom of the webpage here (890k).

Thankyou very much for taking the time to help out with this technical issue, its really appreciated! Let me know if you find the application/hardware that is causing the issue/conflict asap.

Regards
Gary

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: SpeedDog
Thanks dclive,

I have run the report and zipped it up together with the minidump.
I have uploaded the zip file to my Website located at:-

www.itg1.com/avrr/avrr-downloads.html

You'll see the link to the zip file at the bottom of the webpage here (890k).

Thankyou very much for taking the time to help out with this technical issue, its really appreciated! Let me know if you find the application/hardware that is causing the issue/conflict asap.

Regards
Gary

I don't see the problem yet.

Can you run Setup-Perf's version of the MPS Reports and mail it to me? I think you ran the Exchange version. Thanks..

Do you have any other dumps to show me?

If you boot in safe mode does this happen?

 

[dclive]

Oh, and update your BIOS too, please. There are a few microcode issues with the old revision you have.
Then re-test. Who knows - that alone might do it.

 

[SpeedDog]

....sorry I dont know how to run "Setup-Perf's version of the MPS Reports" where do I get this?

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: SpeedDog
....sorry I dont know how to run "Setup-Perf's version of the MPS Reports" where do I get this?

Added to my .sig - you want the Setup Perf version nearly at the bottom of the linked page. 6th from the bottom, I think.

 

[shekondar]

Are you using any anti-virus software? I have similar problems if I try to run any games while Norton/Symantec AV is running (I have to turn off the "file system realtime protection", otherwise I get BSODs.

 

[mechBgon]

Corsair 3200LL on an i875P board, huh? Follow my instructions in this thread to relax your memory timings. I see you've already got the memory voltage up to spec. :thumbsup:

edit: BTW, also disable onboard Firewire, MIDI, Gameport and audio, and put the Audigy in PCI slot 4 so it has its IRQ to itself (onboard FW being disabled). Or Uncle Bob's suggestion too, he is correct about PCI 1 and 5 only sharing chipset IRQs with eachother, according to the manual, but still disable all the onboard stuff that the Audigy 2 duplicates.