Odd Bluescreen of Death Behaviour

[Snabben]

Hello there,
Recently I bought an XFX 7800GTX (490mhz version).
So befor Installing the card i formated my harddrive, installed windows, all the updates and so on. Now, after a while playing abit games this GPU works great, however, I encountered a problem:

Ultra high frequenzy sound in my headphones and freezing picture, followed by a Bluescreen of death (Been several diffrent kinds). This happends usualy in Everquest 2 after loading a zone or starting the game, but very rarely, somedays it dont, but other it may happend twice or more. The other game is Bet On Soldier Demo, it happends constantly here, after 5-10 (15) min play, it crashes to a bluescreen of death, PC restarts.

There are the only two games I have problems in though, I've played through Fable and Advent Raising, played loads of Unreal Tournament 2004 and never had any problems, not to mention the Fear Demo.

This is migthy confusing and I wonder if it could be a driver problem or a hardware problem? I've tried diffrent drivers and I still got problems, my friend allsow got one of these cards, he has tried quite a few drivers and has no problems. I've reformated computer aswell, no luck.

I did have a crash running Windows Update once aswell.

Rest of system is:
A64 3500+
nForce 4 SLI (Asus) [Which btw, Asus Update cant seem to ID, but thats Asus for you]
2gb Ram PC3700/3200 (I've discounted this a possible factor for failour)
Audigy 4 Pro

Its worth mentioning that the Chipset fan on my motherboard has stopped, erm, however the MB temprature has never gone above 44c nomatter how much stress I put on the system.

Any help and ideas would be great


Edit:
Oh and the Chipset fan was faulty long befor I got the GPU.

 

[Nohr]

What PSU do you have?

 

[Snabben]

Got an Mist 480 Watt.

Its an Norwegian brand, dont think it ships worldwide, but its pure quality, costs quite alot aswell (Read 100$ +), never had any problems with the lovely thing.

Edit:
Wasn't able to find a link for the 480watt one, they only produce 500watts now apperantly.

 

[mechBgon]

If the Audigy 4 is not already in the bottom PCI slot, that appears to be the one with the least IRQ sharing, so consider moving it to that slot as a fact-finding step.

 

[Snabben]

Will do now and we'll se the results in BOS

Edit:
Did a few tweaks, moved the Soundcard etc.
However, the Demo of BOS didn't Like that I moved the soundcard, so It wont run now, jippe Anyways, ill be playing around normaly and if the problem continues ill post again here

 

[Snabben]

Well, just got another BSOD, this time though it was while patching/scanning files for Everquest 2, this brings to mind that it may be bad sectors on the drive, though non shows..

However, I know the drive should be defragmented, think it could be that bad, causing BSOD?

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: Snabben
Well, just got another BSOD, this time though it was while patching/scanning files for Everquest 2, this brings to mind that it may be bad sectors on the drive, though non shows..

However, I know the drive should be defragmented, think it could be that bad, causing BSOD?

The best way to figure out what's going on with a BSOD is to have someone read the minidump so they can try to see exactly what's going on, rather than guessing.

Sometimes some folks on here can read them; I'm happy to give it a shot if you'd like.

You need to first do ALL Windows updates, and then do ALL driver updates (vid, aud, etc.), and THEN if you can *still* reproduce the problem, send me the minidumps found in c:\windows\minidumps made *after* you did all the driver updates.

Also run MPSReports and send me the corresponding .CAB file it makes when it finishes.

 

[Snabben]

Ok will do,
Thanks alot


Edit:
Oh and yeah, uninstalled and installed all drivers (updated once) etc, but still encounter the same problem, this time it was in a game again, seems to be quite random where it strikes :S

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: Snabben
Ok will do,
Thanks alot


Edit:
Oh and yeah, uninstalled and installed all drivers (updated once) etc, but still encounter the same problem, this time it was in a game again, seems to be quite random where it strikes :S

Please run MPS Reports from the link in my .sig. You sent me something else entirely. It's the Setup-Perf version of MPS Reports, not the Exchange version.

 

[dclive]

From the dumps:

1. Problem here:
Module[136] [C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\NV4_DISP.DLL]
Company Name: NVIDIA Corporation
File Description: NVIDIA Compatible Windows 2000 Display driver, Version 78.03
Product Version: (6.14:10.7803)
File Version: (6.14:10.7803)
File Size (bytes): 3909632
File Date: to aug 25 11:18:00 2005
Module TimeDateStamp = 0x430e1498 - Thu Aug 25 20:57:28 2005

That's odd because nvidia.com shows 78.01 as the latest driver. ???

2. Problem in win32k.sys (But that's probably not correct)

3. Ditto.

4. SYMBOL_NAME: nt!KdPitchDebugger+ef4
MODULE_NAME: nt
IMAGE_NAME: ntkrnlpa.exe
DEBUG_FLR_IMAGE_TIMESTAMP: 42250a1d
FAILURE_BUCKET_ID: 0x9C_IA32_AuthenticAMD_nt!KdPitchDebugger+ef4
BUCKET_ID: 0x9C_IA32_AuthenticAMD_nt!KdPitchDebugger+ef4

5. Ditto.

So then I thought you had a hardware problem (due to the wide variation in issues), but I jumped all the way back to 8/31, and saw the problem with vax347b.sys, which looks like Alcohol's device driver.

So, in summary, you've got a few issues. For now I suggest you go back to released nvidia drivers (if not using them already, and nvidia simply screwed up the versioning info) and remove (not just disable - remove it completely) alcohol's software, and see if anything gets better. If it's hardware that won't fix anything, of course, but it's something that you can easily try.

Also please confirm you are not overclocking at all.

 

[Snabben]

Hey, will send you the Report anew.

I can comfirm that im not overclocking my system, the drivers you speak of though:
Its correct that the once that you mentioned is the latest standar release, the .03 version however is an offical release that includes a quick fix for a flickering problem iin the .01 version, labeled Beta atm, but the problem persists with the .01 drivers aswell if you wonder.

I've uninstalled the Alcohol 120% drivers now, will try to recreate the problem, thanks

 

[Snabben]

My bitter luck, the problem was recreated, woke up this morning to a BSOD again.

Curious though, if this was the GPUs fault, it should crash at more specific tasks, and not just randomly in Windows, Games etc?

This problem is damn frustrating, gah.

 

[dclive]

Good - so now Alcohol is eliminated, so send me that latest dump and we'll see what it says.

 

[Snabben]

Sent em abit earlier, forgot to mention here, should have them by now, trying to "produce" a few more crashes aswell.

 

[dclive]

I'd say you've got a hardware problem. The first one says "hardware" the second says "memory corruption", which typically means hardware (not memory).

If you put your old video card back in, does everything work normally and without bluescreens?

 

[Snabben]

Thats my problem, I sold my old graphics card, hurray for me, and I dont got backup PCI-Express.

I can say for certian though that it aint the memory, and most likely not CPU.
I have increased th Vcore on my CPU from 1.5 to 1.6 after advice from my friend here, this has stopped the Bluescreens of Death for now, but as its sporadic and without totaly random intervals, I wont know if that helped me out. Anyways, if I get another crash im going to return the graphicscard tomorrow.

Thanks for looking through my Minidumps though, helped clear quite a few questions I had.

One question though, someone mentioned PSU, however, if that was the cause, wouldn't it crash under harsh load mostly and not randomly even in Windows without any particular load?

Edited:
Im thinking if I was lacking the watt/Amp on my lines I mean.

 

[Snabben]

I've been looking around abit and have decided to try a new PSU befor doing anything else, here is my idea for an PSU:

http://www.acryan.com/_powersupply/ACR-PS2100.shtml

Sadly I cannot see any technical specifications on the site, but this should surely supply more than 24A on the 12v line? Which is my main concern.

Think it would hold for a A64 3500+ with 2GB Ram, an XFX 7800GTX EOE 490mhz with 6 Harddrives?

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: Snabben
I've been looking around abit and have decided to try a new PSU befor doing anything else, here is my idea for an PSU:

http://www.acryan.com/_powersupply/ACR-PS2100.shtml

Sadly I cannot see any technical specifications on the site, but this should surely supply more than 24A on the 12v line? Which is my main concern.

Think it would hold for a A64 3500+ with 2GB Ram, an XFX 7800GTX EOE 490mhz with 6 Harddrives?

Here's a thought - rather than spending all that money, remove power from all hard drives except for what you absolutely must have to boot (ie hopefully one drive), and see if your BSOD problems go away.

 

[Snabben]

I disconnected a few, no luck, the once I left on I need. Anyways, looking more into the problem I've come to the conclusion that its either a harddrive or the PSU, befor I go messing around with my harddrives which I hate to do, ill change the PSU tomorrow and see what happends

 

[CoSWill]

I have a very similar problem with Bet on Soldier sp demo.

The game starts up just fine and will let me go through the setup menu just fine. Both demo missions load good, but when the action begins my video comes to a grinding halt (maybe 1 or 2 fps) then it crashes and the sound squeels. After that I get a bsod and the machine reboots. Happens every time.

All my games run flawless: Doom 3, HL2, Riddick, Far Cry etc.

A64 3500+
evga Nforce 4 Sli motherboard
evga 7800 GT
Audigy 2 ZS
Antec 550 watt PSU (SLI ready)
Windows XP with SP-2 (all updates installed)
Seagate 120 GB 7200 IDE HDD

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: CoSWill
I have a very similar problem with Bet on Soldier sp demo.

The game starts up just fine and will let me go through the setup menu just fine. Both demo missions load good, but when the action begins my video comes to a grinding halt (maybe 1 or 2 fps) then it crashes and the sound squeels. After that I get a bsod and the machine reboots. Happens every time.

All my games run flawless: Doom 3, HL2, Riddick, Far Cry etc.

A64 3500+
evga Nforce 4 Sli motherboard
evga 7800 GT
Audigy 2 ZS
Antec 550 watt PSU (SLI ready)
Windows XP with SP-2 (all updates installed)
Seagate 120 GB 7200 IDE HDD

Update all the drivers & do all Windows updates. If the problem continues, send me an e-mail with the .cab file output from MPSReports (see my .sig) and send me the minidumps made AFTER you updated all your drivers, found in c:\windows\minidump.

 

[Gagh]

Hm.. i think i might be having a similar issue here. Thought it might be related to the issues ive been having with my a64x2, but after screwing around with the amd drivers, the problem persists. I run...

AMD a64x2 4800+
MSI k8n nforce 4 platinum sli
2gig OCZ ddr400 (running default spd timings)
two EVGA geforce 7800 gtx cards runing sli
Audigy 4 platinum
OCZ 600 wat powerstream psu
windows xp sp2 (all updates installed, up to date nforce, nvidia and amd drivers, cd drivers for the audigy, as the creative driver update just breaks things)

Now the game ive got issues with is Eve-Online. All was running well with the game till this past week, where a new patch for the game was released, which in turn introduced the jerkiness issue with the x2 processor to the game. Setting affinity fixes it, but since then i get random BSODs in that game, could happen at login, could happen after playing for 4 hours.. totally random. Whenever it happens my screen will either go black or freeze, followed by popping/thumping noise from my speakers, and then the blue screen for 5 seconds before it auto-reboots. Nothing i can think of to do has made any difference, and i dont get to see the blue screen for more then a fw seconds before the reboot. From what i can gather they have been page fault issues.. I dunno. Ive stability tested it with prime95 in both the memory and cpu tests with no issues, which makes me think my hardware is fine.. that and the fact that i had no issues prior to the beginning of this week. Any ideas?

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: Gagh
Hm.. i think i might be having a similar issue here. Thought it might be related to the issues ive been having with my a64x2, but after screwing around with the amd drivers, the problem persists. I run...

AMD a64x2 4800+
MSI k8n nforce 4 platinum sli
2gig OCZ ddr400 (running default spd timings)
two EVGA geforce 7800 gtx cards runing sli
Audigy 4 platinum
OCZ 600 wat powerstream psu
windows xp sp2 (all updates installed, up to date nforce, nvidia and amd drivers, cd drivers for the audigy, as the creative driver update just breaks things)

Now the game ive got issues with is Eve-Online. All was running well with the game till this past week, where a new patch for the game was released, which in turn introduced the jerkiness issue with the x2 processor to the game. Setting affinity fixes it, but since then i get random BSODs in that game, could happen at login, could happen after playing for 4 hours.. totally random. Whenever it happens my screen will either go black or freeze, followed by popping/thumping noise from my speakers, and then the blue screen for 5 seconds before it auto-reboots. Nothing i can think of to do has made any difference, and i dont get to see the blue screen for more then a fw seconds before the reboot. From what i can gather they have been page fault issues.. I dunno. Ive stability tested it with prime95 in both the memory and cpu tests with no issues, which makes me think my hardware is fine.. that and the fact that i had no issues prior to the beginning of this week. Any ideas?

Update all the drivers & do all Windows updates. If the problem continues, send me an e-mail with the .cab file output from MPSReports (see my .sig) and send me the minidumps made AFTER you updated all your drivers, found in c:\windows\minidump.

 

[CoSWill]

I have a second machine that I installed the bet on soldier sp demo on and it too crashes and reboots. The demo must be at fault here, because my second machine has been running very stable for over a year.

P4 3.2
Abit IS7
2 GB Corsair Value Ram
BFG 6800 GT
Window XP ( all updates )
120 GB Seagate IDE HDD
Hercules Fortissmo Sound

Both of my machines pass Prime 95 24hour torture test.

I like the gameplay of B.O.S. but I won't buy it until I am sure the full version won't crash. It has Starforce Protection, and I have read some horror stories about that.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: CoSWill
I have a second machine that I installed the bet on soldier sp demo on and it too crashes and reboots. The demo must be at fault here, because my second machine has been running very stable for over a year.

P4 3.2
Abit IS7
2 GB Corsair Value Ram
BFG 6800 GT
Window XP ( all updates )
120 GB Seagate IDE HDD
Hercules Fortissmo Sound

Both of my machines pass Prime 95 24hour torture test.

I like the gameplay of B.O.S. but I won't buy it until I am sure the full version won't crash. It has Starforce Protection, and I have read some horror stories about that.

Update all the drivers & do all Windows updates. If the problem continues, send me an e-mail with the .cab file output from MPSReports (see my .sig) and send me the minidumps made AFTER you updated all your drivers, found in c:\windows\minidump.

(Let's just say it isn't the demo that's causing the OS to crash. A bluescreen & reboot happens because a driver than runs in ring 0 crashes - it has nothing to do with an application, which inherently cannot crash the machine.

Again, this is the fault of a driver. Don't blame a program for exhibiting a flaw in a driver.

If you'd like me to look at what's caused this, check out the paragraph starting with "Update all...".