Unpredictable BSOD on XP Pro SP2--need help

[Evenkeel]

About two weeks after I built this system (been up and running for a couple months now), I would occasionally and unpredictably get a serious crash. Until recently, I kept forgetting to uncheck that setting in "Advanced System Properties", "Startup and Recovery", to automatically restart Windows after a crash. I finally remembered, and tonight I got the BSOD to read. Here's the pertinent info:

At the top:
DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

Further down:
Stop: 0X000000D1
USBPORT.SYS--Address B973B2B5 base at B9736000

So if it's telling me the USB driver is the prob, I'm not sure why. No new USB hardware is added or subtracted just before these crashes happen. This crash has probably happened 5-6 times since I built the system

System specs:
Intel 925XCV mobo
Intel P4 550 CPU
Crucual 2 GB DDR2
Two Maxtor 200 GB in RAID 0-SATA
One Maxtor 300 GB-SATA
NEC 3520A DVD burner on IDE

System had clean install of XP SP2.

I hope someone else here has seen this error and can help me get rid of it. Thanks.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: Evenkeel
About two weeks after I built this system (been up and running for a couple months now), I would occasionally and unpredictably get a serious crash. Until recently, I kept forgetting to uncheck that setting in "Advanced System Properties", "Startup and Recovery", to automatically restart Windows after a crash. I finally remembered, and tonight I got the BSOD to read. Here's the pertinent info:

At the top:
DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

Further down:
Stop: 0X000000D1
USBPORT.SYS--Address B973B2B5 base at B9736000

So if it's telling me the USB driver is the prob, I'm not sure why. No new USB hardware is added or subtracted just before these crashes happen. This crash has probably happened 5-6 times since I built the system

System specs:
Intel 925XCV mobo
Intel P4 550 CPU
Crucual 2 GB DDR2
Two Maxtor 200 GB in RAID 0-SATA
One Maxtor 300 GB-SATA
NEC 3520A DVD burner on IDE

System had clean install of XP SP2.

I hope someone else here has seen this error and can help me get rid of it. Thanks.

Run MPS Reports (see my .sig's URLs) and then send me the resulting your-computer-name.cab file. Then send me the dumps found in c:\windows\minidumps, zipped up.

Before doing this, update ALL the drivers on your system.

Thanks.

(Find my e-mail address in my .sig)

 

[Cares]

I have somewhat similiar problems. I'm getting DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL bsods. Newly built system. Had tons of trouble getting it installed and also when I did, it BSODs on boot randomly. Sometimes during shutdown or other times when accessing programs. Usually its that BSOD but sometimes others. What's the problem? Could it be hardware incompatibility. I've swapped out all the hardware and tested everything except the video card since I don't have another PCI-E card to test this hypothesis.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: AlphaQ
I have somewhat similiar problems. I'm getting DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL bsods. Newly built system. Had tons of trouble getting it installed and also when I did, it BSODs on boot randomly. Sometimes during shutdown or other times when accessing programs. Usually its that BSOD but sometimes others. What's the problem? Could it be hardware incompatibility. I've swapped out all the hardware and tested everything except the video card since I don't have another PCI-E card to test this hypothesis.

Do the same - do all your updates from windowsupdate.com (ALL of them) plus any driver updates you can find for your motherboard and such, and then send me any new dumps from c:\windows\minidump, plus run MPS Reports and send me the resulting yourcomputer.cab file. Find the info you need in my .sig - the link to MPS Reports and my e-mail address.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: AlphaQ
I have somewhat similiar problems. I'm getting DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL bsods. Newly built system. Had tons of trouble getting it installed and also when I did, it BSODs on boot randomly. Sometimes during shutdown or other times when accessing programs. Usually its that BSOD but sometimes others. What's the problem? Could it be hardware incompatibility. I've swapped out all the hardware and tested everything except the video card since I don't have another PCI-E card to test this hypothesis.

Did the errors happen when you installed the OS, before you put third party software on there? If so, it's a hardware issue, and there's not much I can do for you. In that case I'd suggest replacing every part of your hardware out (borrow someone's PCI-E video card somewhere) for testing. Turn off all overclocking, and go back to your BIOS's "safe mode" or simplest setup, if it has one.

 

[Cares]

Okay here's what happened. First I was installing Windows and everything was fine. You know how it copies installation files in "DOS" and then restarts into "Windows" to complete the install? Well when it restarted, it BSODed and then it was all downhill from there. It took forever until Windows would finally install. I just kept retrying basically. I swapped out all the hardware except the PCI-E video card (I don't have a second one) and reset the CMOS and everything I could think of. Eventually it worked. But now, sometimes when I boot, after the Windows "logo.sys" it'll BSOD on me. Or sometimes when I'm in CS:S or HL2 and I alt+tab and return to the game, it'll BSOD.

I'm going home soon so I'll have to do all the analysis in a few hours. Thanks for your help. I'll try updating to the newest Forceware drivers first.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: AlphaQ
Okay here's what happened. First I was installing Windows and everything was fine. You know how it copies installation files in "DOS" and then restarts into "Windows" to complete the install? Well when it restarted, it BSODed and then it was all downhill from there. It took forever until Windows would finally install. I just kept retrying basically. I swapped out all the hardware except the PCI-E video card (I don't have a second one) and reset the CMOS and everything I could think of. Eventually it worked. But now, sometimes when I boot, after the Windows "logo.sys" it'll BSOD on me. Or sometimes when I'm in CS:S or HL2 and I alt+tab and return to the game, it'll BSOD.

I'm going home soon so I'll have to do all the analysis in a few hours. Thanks for your help. I'll try updating to the newest Forceware drivers first.

I don't know if I'd bother with drivers; if it crashes in a Windows install, you have a hardware problem.

 

[Cares]

Any idea why it takes 1-2 minutes to shutdown or restart?

 

[dclive]

You've got a non-Microsoft program running that won't shut down would be my guess. Use MSCONFIG to disable all services not made by MS, and then remove everything else you can from the programs-to-run-at-startup list (also in MSCONFIG ... the rightmost and second-from-the-rightmost tabs, IIRC.) Then restart, then after that's done, see if the problems go away.

 

[Evenkeel]

Originally posted by: dclive

Run MPS Reports (see my .sig's URLs) and then send me the resulting your-computer-name.cab file. Then send me the dumps found in c:\windows\minidumps, zipped up.

Before doing this, update ALL the drivers on your system.

I've been coming to AnandTech for awhile, but haven't used the Operating System forum much yet, so I'm guessing I don't know exactly how things work here. So please forgive me for asking, but what exactly will you do w/the info that I send you? We haven't gotten to know each other, and I looked at some of the files that you would receive--there is quite a bit of system specific info in there. There are also files I don't know how to read (the minidumps), and really have no idea what's in them. I'm probably overly-paranoid, but sending that stuff out into the ether makes me nervous.

I know by now I've probably insulted you, and your generous offer to help me out w/this problem, and I wouldn't blame you if you withdrew your offer. And please don't take it personally--I haven't even sent this info to Microsoft.

Anyway, if I haven't completely burned my bridges w/you, could you please tell me what sort of info is in these files, the potential for any personal info having gotten captured in the files, and what you would do w/the files if you received them? Thanks for your understanding.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: Evenkeel

Originally posted by: dclive

Run MPS Reports (see my .sig's URLs) and then send me the resulting your-computer-name.cab file. Then send me the dumps found in c:\windows\minidumps, zipped up.

Before doing this, update ALL the drivers on your system.

I've been coming to AnandTech for awhile, but haven't used the Operating System forum much yet, so I'm guessing I don't know exactly how things work here. So please forgive me for asking, but what exactly will you do w/the info that I send you? We haven't gotten to know each other, and I looked at some of the files that you would receive--there is quite a bit of system specific info in there. There are also files I don't know how to read (the minidumps), and really have no idea what's in them. I'm probably overly-paranoid, but sending that stuff out into the ether makes me nervous.

I know by now I've probably insulted you, and your generous offer to help me out w/this problem, and I wouldn't blame you if you withdrew your offer. And please don't take it personally--I haven't even sent this info to Microsoft.

Anyway, if I haven't completely burned my bridges w/you, could you please tell me what sort of info is in these files, the potential for any personal info having gotten captured in the files, and what you would do w/the files if you received them? Thanks for your understanding.

You can search the forum here; I've been doing this for a while. If it's hardware, typically there's nothing I can do. If it's software, I can tell you about the offending driver and give you a plan to fix the problem.

The minidumps don't have user-specific data in them, and it's such a small amount of overall data (64KB) that it's not terribly informative either way.

Microsoft would charge $245 to read your dump. I know.

There's nothing I'd call personal info in that file, but there's lots of machine info in there. By all means read the readme and go thru the files. It's nothing terribly interesting about you - just the machine.

I have programs that can read the minidump and tell you why your system crashed. The minidumps plus the eventlogs and such gives me a good picture of your system, and typically I can tell you what crashed and why.

 

[Cares]

You've got mail dclive

 

[Cares]

Originally posted by: dclive
You've got a non-Microsoft program running that won't shut down would be my guess. Use MSCONFIG to disable all services not made by MS, and then remove everything else you can from the programs-to-run-at-startup list (also in MSCONFIG ... the rightmost and second-from-the-rightmost tabs, IIRC.) Then restart, then after that's done, see if the problems go away.

I think I fixed my BSOD problems. I still can't find out what program is causing my system to hang on shutdown. Also, the same Windows Critical update keeps trying to install. I install it but when I reboot, its there again!

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: AlphaQ

Originally posted by: dclive
You've got a non-Microsoft program running that won't shut down would be my guess. Use MSCONFIG to disable all services not made by MS, and then remove everything else you can from the programs-to-run-at-startup list (also in MSCONFIG ... the rightmost and second-from-the-rightmost tabs, IIRC.) Then restart, then after that's done, see if the problems go away.

I think I fixed my BSOD problems. I still can't find out what program is causing my system to hang on shutdown. Also, the same Windows Critical update keeps trying to install. I install it but when I reboot, its there again!

Try using MSCONFIG, as I detailed.

 

[amccrawford]

dclive,
I am having the same problems. I have updated as requested/suggested.
Would you mind if I sent you the same information?
With best regards
Alexander Crawford

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: amccrawford
dclive,
I am having the same problems. I have updated as requested/suggested.
Would you mind if I sent you the same information?
With best regards
Alexander Crawford

That's fine. Please do all Windows updates, then do all driver updates (ALL of them - esp. video, sound, plus any USB or PCI add-in cards you've put in there), and ensure SP2 is on there, and then if the problems still happen, by all means send me the MPSReports (see my SIG) yourcomputername.cab file, and also the minidumps.

 

[amccrawford]

A public note of thanks to dclive whose tremendous help guided me to the correct conclusion that my problem was hardware and not software. I ultimately managed to track the problem down to a bad DIMM (with the help of Memtest 86).

 

[tdx]

Dclive: I've been searching for weeks for help with my BSOD minidump files. I can't get windbg to run correctly. (User error, I'm sure, and I don't know what else to try.) I've hit a brick wall. I've been searching online for weeks, asking around, asking at other forums -- all to no avail. May I send you my information? I'd be most grateful.

Thanks.
Terry

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: tdx
Dclive: I've been searching for weeks for help with my BSOD minidump files. I can't get windbg to run correctly. (User error, I'm sure, and I don't know what else to try.) I've hit a brick wall. I've been searching online for weeks, asking around, asking at other forums -- all to no avail. May I send you my information? I'd be most grateful.

Thanks.
Terry

Sure; send it my way.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: tdx
Dclive: I've been searching for weeks for help with my BSOD minidump files. I can't get windbg to run correctly. (User error, I'm sure, and I don't know what else to try.) I've hit a brick wall. I've been searching online for weeks, asking around, asking at other forums -- all to no avail. May I send you my information? I'd be most grateful.

Thanks.
Terry

All three dumps point to the Intel modem driver, so I suggest updating that or removing the driver and disabling the device to see if the errors you see will stop. Can you consistently reproduce the problem? If so, that would be a very easy test.

 

[tdx]

:thumbsup:
I've updated the modem driver, and can't thank you enough, dclive, for your help. I had no idea it might be a modem driver, as I was told by computer mfg. the errors suggested HD failure (which it isn't). Same mfg. also doesn't have update for modem, which isn't surprising. Back to OEM. This is a good reminder to keep those drivers updated.

TDX

 

[dclive]

Did that completely fix the problem?

 

[tdx]

Probably have to wait and see? Can't reproduce the error, and the BSODs were random. Since BSODs occurred each time while I was online, this is a great start.