Win7 x64 BSOD 0x00000109

[VivienM]

Okay, so I had a stable system with an E5200, Asus P5QL-E, 7900GT, Seasonic 380W PSU in a crappy case.

I replace the E5200 with a Q8300. Seems to work fine.

I get a new case (and don't put in an old Audigy). It starts randomly BSODing. Different flavours of BSOD. One every few days.

I test RAM with memtest86+. It passes.

I discover that I had screwed up the fan on the 7900GT. I fix that. No change.

I figure the 7900GT must have gotten cooked from running obscenely hot. So I put in a 7100GS that was lying in a box. Now the errors seem to be 0x00000109 more than anything.

Well, the final plan called for putting in a 5770 and a new HD, so I order those, along with a shiny 750W Corsair PSU. Put in the new PSU Saturday. Another BSOD today.

Video card and HD are on their way. I figure I will clean install W7 on the new drive, test the new video card, and see... but...

Honestly, I am going crazy with this. I think it smells like a RAM problem, but memtest86+ passes with flying colours. So what could be wrong? Bad video card (could my 7100GS on the shelf have been bad too?)? Some kind of screwup in the way I mounted the board? Bad processor (but I think the problem started AFTER the new case)?

 

[Ultralight]

How long did you run Memtest, i.e. # of Passes?

 

[HoochShepherd]

Did you check to make sure you aren't arcing or anything? Also are all the fans plugged in and running? Honestly, its a pain but... Iif it all started with the new case the problem could lie in there. You could try running it out of the case entirely if your careful and see if it's an issue of an arc shorting anything out.

Also, what ultralight is eluding to memtest should to run for a series of passes before it will give a reliable result.

 

[VivienM]

I've been memtesting since I posted my earlier post, no errors so far...

How do I check for arcing? and as for running it out of the case, given it takes 2-3 days to crash, that's risky...

 

[VivienM]

Okay, well, the 5770 and new HD arrived. Clean Windows install.

After twoish days, BSOD. 0x0000001a, which apparently points to some memory issue.

I'm memtesting it again, this time I think I'll leave it running all weekend... *sigh*

 

[Ultralight]

Keep in mind 0x1A errors can be due to other hardware as well.

In addition to memtest try this: Find the memory voltage setting designed for by the manufacture and compare it to the voltage setting as found in your BIOS. Do they match?

 

[VivienM]

Keep in mind 0x1A errors can be due to other hardware as well.

In addition to memtest try this: Find the memory voltage setting designed for by the manufacture and compare it to the voltage setting as found in your BIOS. Do they match?

I only ever use RAM designed to run at stock voltages, e.g. Kingston ValueRAM.

I got screwed once on OCZ higher-voltage things, no more...

Keep in mind that this RAM ran perfectly on this board for over a year until the ill-fated case transplant. But I once fried RAM while swapping a power supply (how, I don't know!), so anything can happen.

It's 11 hours into its memtesting, btw. Nothing so far.

 

[VivienM]

23 hours, so far no errors.

Another 36-48 hours to go...

 

[RebateMonger]

You might consider starting over. Put back everything that was in the orignal, working PC and see if it works. I guess you'll have to use a different video card, but it doesn't sound like the video card by itself is the problem anyway.

If it works with all the old components, then start swapping a single new component at a time until the failures start again.

 

[VivienM]

Problem with that is, I don't have the original case anymore.

I guess I do have the old CPU (E5200), so I could try that...

This is so beyond frustrating. Waiting 2-3 days to test each change is insanity...

The thing is, I think I'm down to four possibilities:
- RAM got fried in a way that isn't detected by memtest (at least in 34 hours, which is what it's up to)
- bad CPU and my memory is off - it started doing it in the old case with this C2Q (which I did have some trouble installing - it wouldn't POST the first time)
- improperly-mounted motherboard
- I broke something on the motherboard
(oh, and motherboard hates the new SATA DVD burner that was put in with the new case)

I've tested three video cards, two OS installs, two hard drives, etc.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaait a second. I just realized something else I changed. Before, in the old case, I was running an ancient SB Audigy. I took that out and enabled onboard audio when I moved it in to the new case. Could my onboard audio chip (which I've used with a couple different Realtek drivers) be borked?

 

[RebateMonger]

You could just pull your motherboard out of your case and power it up sitting on a table. That's a common way to test for an accidental electrical short to the case and gives you a chance to take a good second look at your connectors. Removing the MB from the case is one of the first things I do if a new PC build has gone sour.

 

[VivienM]

Well, I've turned off the onboard audio for now.

Testing it outside the case is next, I guess. But don't forget it takes two days to BSOD... and two days outside a case creates a high likelihood of something stupid happening (e.g. something falling) that would break things more.

 

[VivienM]

2 days and 8 hours later, so far, still running, no BSOD. Knock on wood.

 

[nboy22]

How many sticks of RAM? If you have more than one, I would say it's highly unlikely that more than 1 stick of ram is bad. I've had Ram go bad before, but usually only one stick at a time. Maybe you could try running your computer with 1 stick at a time and see if the BSODs occur with individual sticks.

If errors still occur with individual sticks, I would also try swapping the cpu again and looking into getting a new motherboard if that didn't work.

 

[VivienM]

3 days and 2 hours later, still running, no BSOD.

I'm about 99% sure the onboard sound must be to blame. Which begs the question, what to do? RMA the board (insane hassle), or just buy a sound card?

 

[nboy22]

Interesting that the onboard sound would cause such an issue.. I had a pretty insane problem about a month ago where my battlefield bc2 would just freeze with sound loop and required me to full hard reset the computer. I narrowed it down the the crappy Realtek sound card that comes onboard the mobo. I bought an ASUS Xonar DS and it solved all my problems.

 

[VivienM]

4 days, 10 hours. Still no BSOD.

Seriously looking at the ASUS sound cards. How good are their drivers in x64 W7?

 

[nboy22]

Mine seems pretty nice and I just went with the ASUS DS, which is like the basic model. The sound card manager program has a few less options than in my Realtek manager, but I've had no issues with it so far. I'm running W7 64bit too.

 

[VivienM]

Picked up the Asus DX last week. Box runs great.

(Go figure. Onboard audio causing BSODs. I assume the onboard audio was always bad, and I never broke a thing changing it into a new case, but given I had the Audigy before, I never noticed the audio was bad...)

 

[nboy22]

Very nice. I was really surprised when I popped my Asus sound card in and there were no more freezes with BF:BC2. It just doesn't make sense to me why a sound card would cause such an issue, especially one that's built into almost all motherboards nowadays.