HELP! Random BSODs!

[Cares]

I've tried every jumper setting already. Master /w slave (had 2 IDEs attached), jumperless (single drive), etc etc. I've tried having my HDD and CDROM on 1 parallel IDE cable and 2. Still doesn't budge. I've tried running different ram. Both sticks of Corsair ram at once. Each of them individually. To no avail... I have a feeling something is really wrong with the motherboard.

 

[mechBgon]

Are you giving the memory its full rated voltage, or are you ignoring my advice on that?

 

[Cares]

Well I had my motherboard all packaged up and ready to return but I decided to give it one last try. For some reason it started to install. I didn't change anything. Before it wouldn't even go into the installation. I just hope I don't BSOD.

If I fail, I'll change my voltage to 2.8 and run optimized settings or whatever.

 

[Philippine Mango]

You know what you could do... is get a FDD and try a start up the machine with a boot disk. Then try to install windows and see what happens...

 

[Philippine Mango]

also put your HDD on cable select, same with the CDrom drive because bioses can get bitchy if you FORCE it to be Master/Slave, it goes both ways though and really depends on the system.

 

[Cares]

Okay, so I got it working but there's TONS of problems now. Sometimes I can boot but sometimes I can't. I would get to the Windows logo.sys and after that it BSODs and restarts. It loops forever until sometimes it gets into Windows. Other times, it'll just restart without BSODing. Sometimes it'll BSOD when I'm in Windows without restarting. All different messages at different times. Oh yeah, and it won't shut down when I tell it to, it just hangs.

When I start Windows, sometimes it tells me that I have an error and it reports it. It says:

"Error Caused by Graphics Device Driver"

Error Message: STOP 0X000000EA THREAD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_DRIVER

Is this simply a conflict between my graphics card and motherboard?

XFX Geforce 6600GT PCI-E
DFI Lanparty UT NF4 Ultra-D

Correction: It will restart, but it takes a minute or so to restart/shutdown. There is no HDD activity though so I don't know why it hangs like that.

 

[mechBgon]

Got your memory voltage up to snuff yet?

 

[Cares]

I raised it to 2.8 already, still had the same problems. It's at 2.8 still.

I'm starting to think its a hardware conflict between my videocard and motherboard and RAM somehow. Is this possible or am I completely off the mark?

 

[Cares]

PFN_LIST_CORRUPT is one of the BSODs. It's really hard to see the errors since they blue screen and then restart automatically.

Another is

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

as well as...

DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

 

[mechBgon]

1) consult your owner's manual to see if there's a preferred pair of slots for your memory modules. Some boards do have a preferred pair to use first.

2) ensure that you have all your power cables hooked up, including your ATX12V cable (duh)

3) set your WD's jumper to Single Drive (which is done by removing the jumper from the pins and leaving it off).


If it still won't work, I'd consider trying a different power supply if you (long shot here) have another compatible one that you could try or borrow. It could be the motherboard does need RMA'ing though 🙁

 

[Cares]

All done. Different PSU used. Dual channel memory is required to be used on DIMM 2 and 4. Single on DIMM 2. All tried already.

 

[Cares]

Currently I'm running Prime95 to see if it is my motherboard, processor, or RAM. If it is the mobo/processor, I'll never buy from MonarchComputer again. Their "pre-tested" system has caused me so much trouble and wasted almost 24 hours of my time. The Corsair ram can be simply RMA'ed so no problem.

 

[stoma]

AlphaQ,

I'm having the same problems myself, I even have a very similar setup as you:

CORE HARDWARE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Power supply OCZ ModStream 520W ATX 2.0
Motherboard DFI Lanparty UT NF4 Ultra-D (MB & CPU pretested at Monarch)
Revision Initial Release
BIOS 1/25/2005
CPU Athlon64 FX 55
Memory (2) 512MB OCZ 4000 Gold VX modules


CARDS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Primary video card Gigabyte ATI X850 XT PCI-E

PCI slot #1 (top) empty

PCI slot #2 empty

DRIVES
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Boot drive 2x WD Raptor 74gb SATA

Optical drive #1 LG DVD-RW

OS AND SECURITY
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Operating System WindowsXP Professional
Service Pack SP1

Internet connection Cable

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Have you gotten any further in your setup? Any help is appreciable, thanks.

 

[Smilin]

A somewhat unstable system, bluescreens are random (more than 3 different stop codes is almost ALWAYS hardware).

System has a terribly hard time booting, bluescreens/lockups/dead on start.
Tends to "mostly" run once booted...

Sounds like power supply dude.

Since you're about to pull your hair out and start RMAing left and right, do this first (it will cost you less time and money than packing up and shipping something):

1. Goto radio shack, pickup a 20W, 10Ohm resistor (typically ceramic block kind). You should be able to get it for less than a buck. If you don't already have a multimeter, grab a cheapo one for 14.95 or whatever.

2. Completely disconnect your power supply from your motherboard, drives etc. Flip power supply switch off in back.

3. Use a paperclip to ground pin 14 (green) to any ground (black). This will allow your PSU to kick on without being connected to mobo/case.

4. Stick one end of the resistor plus your black multimeter lead into a ground (black wire)

5. Stick the other end of the resistor + the red lead into a power line (yellow/red). The multimeter and resistor should be in parallel (serial baaad).

6. Fire up the PSU and see what kind of voltage you are getting. You should be within +/1 10% for your 12v and 5v lines. Testing with no load will often give you perfect voltages. Placing a load (the resistor) is going to give you the true story.

 

[stoma]

Well, I'm not sure what I did, but I have everything working now. I didn't touch any hardware, all I did was poke around in the BIOS. I'm not sure what it was, the only thing I think may have been significant, is I change the startup Video Card setting to PCIE instead of PCI. I haven't attempted any overclocking or voltage changes, so I know that had nothing to do with it. The only other thing I did was changed the RAID setting to enabled...but I did that before and it did nothing. Hope this helps, it may just be BIOS related and not hardware. I have yet to upgrade my BIOS from the original version. I think I will do that next.