Windows keeps crashing. Maybe a video card problem...?

[BonRouge]

I built a new PC recently. Just in case any of it's relevant, here's the whole thing:

[*]Case: Antec Sonata II
[*]CPU: AMD Athlon64 3200+ Venice
[*]CPU cooler: ThermalTake Silent 939 K8
[*]Motherboard: MSI K8N Neo-F
[*]Video card: ATI All in Wonder X1900
[*]Memory: 2 x Crucial PC3200 512MB
[*]Hard disk: WesternDigital WD2000JS
(but I'm also using my old hard disks)
[*]DVD: Sony DW-Q120A

I installed Windows and installed the drivers for the motherboard and the video card with the software that came with them. Then I installed any updates to those drivers. Windows XP is having real problems though. I can't use it for very long without it crashing. (I have Windows Service Pack 2 and I've updated it with Windows Update). I think it's a problem with the video card and/or its drivers because I got a couple of responses from the Windows error submission thing that said it was something like that (unfortunately, I didn't get a hint as to how to fix the problem)

I kind of gave up on Windows until I think I can sort this problem out and I installed Fedora Core 5 as a dual boot option. I'm using Fedora now and everything's great, except when I opened the GIMP (image editor) it crashed...

Any advice/pointers/whatever would be most appreciated.

 

[SultanEmerr]

By crash, do you mean reboot, freeze or shut off?

 

[BonRouge]

Actually, it usually freezes, but it sometimes reboots.

 

[imported_nocturne]

First of all, you need to turn off Automatic Restart in case of BSOD (in system properties). This will give you a BSOD instead of just rebooting. From there you can use the stop code(s) to get closer to the problem (I wrote a quick how-to about crashing/random rebooting a while back -- just do a search.

Try also updating the BIOS, seeing as the video card is much newer than the mobo. The current version BIOS date is 9-9-2005.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: BonRouge
Actually, it usually freezes, but it sometimes reboots.

Sounds like it's video card related. You can view my web page (see .sig) and download the Windows debugger and debug your dumps, but I suspect if you have an old video card lying around, swapping that would be the first thing I'd do.

You've got a hardware issue if you can repro essentially the same problem in multiple OSs.

 

[BonRouge]

Just to (hopefully) close this....
I looked at the pages and software you suggested and they were very useful. I think my problems are over now (maybe) but I'm not sure what exactly fixed it. I opened up the case and made sure everything was firmly in place (connections and whatever), then i updated my ATI software. I hadn't realised that I needed to uninstall the old software before installing the new. I did that and the problems seemed to be fixed. I then installed the ATI media centre software, and after that, the system crashed, but I think I'll be OK.

Cheers for all your help.

 

[dclive]

When you looked at the latest crash in the MS debugger, what was the culprit?

 

[BonRouge]

It was this: i8042prt.sys ( i8042prt!I8xQueueCurrentMouseInput+67 )

 

[BonRouge]

Hey.

I guess I was much too confident before. I got this same thing a couple of times, and I tried to find a solution, but I couldn't actually find one...
Now though, it's just crashed three times tonight.

Here's what the Windows de-ah heck said:

Microsoft (R) Windows Debugger Version 6.6.0007.5
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.


Loading Dump File [D:\WINDOWS\Minidump\Mini101806-02.dmp]
Mini Kernel Dump File: Only registers and stack trace are available

Symbol search path is: SRV*d:\debug*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols
Executable search path is:
Windows XP Kernel Version 2600 (Service Pack 2) UP Free x86 compatible
Product: WinNt, suite: TerminalServer SingleUserTS
Built by: 2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.050301-1519
Kernel base = 0x804d7000 PsLoadedModuleList = 0x805531a0
Debug session time: Wed Oct 18 02:26:02.562 2006 (GMT+9)
System Uptime: 0 days 0:42:25.128
Loading Kernel Symbols
...............................................................................................................................
Loading User Symbols
Loading unloaded module list
...............
*******************************************************************************
* *
* Bugcheck Analysis *
* *
*******************************************************************************

Use !analyze -v to get detailed debugging information.

BugCheck 100000D1, {c4589c3, 9, 0, f77d4283}

Unable to load image AmdK8.sys, Win32 error 2
*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for AmdK8.sys
*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for AmdK8.sys
Probably caused by : i8042prt.sys ( i8042prt!I8042MouseInterruptService+aee )

Followup: MachineOwner
---------

kd> !analze -v
No export analze found
kd> !analyze -v
*******************************************************************************
* *
* Bugcheck Analysis *
* *
*******************************************************************************

DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL (d1)
An attempt was made to access a pageable (or completely invalid) address at an
interrupt request level (IRQL) that is too high. This is usually
caused by drivers using improper addresses.
If kernel debugger is available get stack backtrace.
Arguments:
Arg1: 0c4589c3, memory referenced
Arg2: 00000009, IRQL
Arg3: 00000000, value 0 = read operation, 1 = write operation
Arg4: f77d4283, address which referenced memory

Debugging Details:
------------------


READ_ADDRESS: 0c4589c3

CURRENT_IRQL: 9

FAULTING_IP:
i8042prt!I8042MouseInterruptService+aee
f77d4283 f60008 test byte ptr [eax],8

CUSTOMER_CRASH_COUNT: 2

DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID: DRIVER_FAULT

BUGCHECK_STR: 0xD1

PROCESS_NAME: Idle

LAST_CONTROL_TRANSFER: from 8054071d to f77d4283

STACK_TEXT:
80548d9c 8054071d 863d3738 86563c88 00010009 i8042prt!I8042MouseInterruptService+0xaee
80548d9c f776f552 863d3738 86563c88 00010009 nt!KiInterruptDispatch+0x3d
WARNING: Stack unwind information not available. Following frames may be wrong.
80548e30 ffdffc70 80523f55 ffdff000 80551b80 AmdK8+0x3552
80548e50 80540cc0 00000000 0000000e 00000000 0xffdffc70
80548e54 00000000 0000000e 00000000 00000000 nt!KiIdleLoop+0x10


STACK_COMMAND: kb

FOLLOWUP_IP:
i8042prt!I8042MouseInterruptService+aee
f77d4283 f60008 test byte ptr [eax],8

SYMBOL_STACK_INDEX: 0

SYMBOL_NAME: i8042prt!I8042MouseInterruptService+aee

FOLLOWUP_NAME: MachineOwner

MODULE_NAME: i8042prt

IMAGE_NAME: i8042prt.sys

DEBUG_FLR_IMAGE_TIMESTAMP: 41107ecc

FAILURE_BUCKET_ID: 0xD1_i8042prt!I8042MouseInterruptService+aee

BUCKET_ID: 0xD1_i8042prt!I8042MouseInterruptService+aee

Followup: MachineOwner
---------

I'd really appreciate some help.

Cheers

 

[dclive]

The above points to a keyboard/mouse (ie PS2 port) issue. However, unless you've really got something odd on that part, it's pretty unlikely that's the problem.

Do all of your dumps say the same thing?

If you disable the PS2 port, and switch to 100% USB for K/M, does anything change?

If you can reproduce OS-level crashes in multiple OSs, you have a hardware issue. That's where I'd look next, but using USB for K/M is a quick, simple test if you're so inclined.

 

[BonRouge]

No, they're not all the same.

Here's the second-to-last:

Microsoft (R) Windows Debugger Version 6.6.0007.5
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.


Loading Dump File [D:\WINDOWS\Minidump\Mini101806-01.dmp]
Mini Kernel Dump File: Only registers and stack trace are available

Symbol search path is: SRV*d:\debug*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols
Executable search path is:
Windows XP Kernel Version 2600 (Service Pack 2) UP Free x86 compatible
Product: WinNt, suite: TerminalServer SingleUserTS
Built by: 2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.050301-1519
Kernel base = 0x804d7000 PsLoadedModuleList = 0x805531a0
Debug session time: Wed Oct 18 00:36:45.937 2006 (GMT+9)
System Uptime: 0 days 0:03:40.500
Loading Kernel Symbols
....................................................................................................................................
Loading User Symbols
Loading unloaded module list
.....
*******************************************************************************
* *
* Bugcheck Analysis *
* *
*******************************************************************************

Use !analyze -v to get detailed debugging information.

BugCheck 1000000A, {f98, 2, 0, 804e7808}

Unable to load image SYMEVENT.SYS, Win32 error 2
*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for SYMEVENT.SYS
*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for SYMEVENT.SYS
Probably caused by : SYMEVENT.SYS ( SYMEVENT+70d8 )

Followup: MachineOwner
---------

kd> !analyze -v
*******************************************************************************
* *
* Bugcheck Analysis *
* *
*******************************************************************************

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL (a)
An attempt was made to access a pageable (or completely invalid) address at an
interrupt request level (IRQL) that is too high. This is usually
caused by drivers using improper addresses.
If a kernel debugger is available get the stack backtrace.
Arguments:
Arg1: 00000f98, memory referenced
Arg2: 00000002, IRQL
Arg3: 00000000, value 0 = read operation, 1 = write operation
Arg4: 804e7808, address which referenced memory

Debugging Details:
------------------


READ_ADDRESS: 00000f98

CURRENT_IRQL: 2

FAULTING_IP:
nt!CcGetVirtualAddress+98
804e7808 66837f0800 cmp word ptr [edi+8],0

CUSTOMER_CRASH_COUNT: 1

DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID: DRIVER_FAULT

BUGCHECK_STR: 0xA

PROCESS_NAME: msnmsgr.exe

LAST_CONTROL_TRANSFER: from 8055daf1 to 804e7808

STACK_TEXT:
9f2908a4 8055daf1 0013b590 9f290904 00000000 nt!CcGetVirtualAddress+0x98
9f290940 f7372cc8 84fd7bc0 00203e00 000001ff nt!CcFastCopyRead+0x279
9f290998 f73fd9a2 84fd7bc0 9f290a30 00000200 Ntfs!NtfsCopyReadA+0x1bf
9f2909c0 aaebb0d8 84fd7bc0 9f290a30 00000200 sr!SrFastIoRead+0x40
WARNING: Stack unwind information not available. Following frames may be wrong.
00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 SYMEVENT+0x70d8


STACK_COMMAND: kb

FOLLOWUP_IP:
SYMEVENT+70d8
aaebb0d8 ?? ???

SYMBOL_STACK_INDEX: 4

SYMBOL_NAME: SYMEVENT+70d8

FOLLOWUP_NAME: MachineOwner

MODULE_NAME: SYMEVENT

IMAGE_NAME: SYMEVENT.SYS

DEBUG_FLR_IMAGE_TIMESTAMP: 450b9023

FAILURE_BUCKET_ID: 0xA_SYMEVENT+70d8

BUCKET_ID: 0xA_SYMEVENT+70d8

Followup: MachineOwner
---------

and here's the one before that:

Microsoft (R) Windows Debugger Version 6.6.0007.5
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.


Loading Dump File [D:\WINDOWS\Minidump\Mini101706-01.dmp]
Mini Kernel Dump File: Only registers and stack trace are available

Symbol search path is: SRV*d:\debug*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols
Executable search path is:
Windows XP Kernel Version 2600 (Service Pack 2) UP Free x86 compatible
Product: WinNt, suite: TerminalServer SingleUserTS
Built by: 2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.050301-1519
Kernel base = 0x804d7000 PsLoadedModuleList = 0x805531a0
Debug session time: Tue Oct 17 02:35:30.078 2006 (GMT+9)
System Uptime: 0 days 0:11:48.640
Loading Kernel Symbols
..................................................................................................................................
Loading User Symbols
Loading unloaded module list
...
*******************************************************************************
* *
* Bugcheck Analysis *
* *
*******************************************************************************

Use !analyze -v to get detailed debugging information.

BugCheck 1000008E, {c0000005, 6158739f, 9fa8bbdf, 0}

Probably caused by : Unknown_Image ( ANALYSIS_INCONCLUSIVE )

Followup: MachineOwner
---------

kd> !analyze -v
*******************************************************************************
* *
* Bugcheck Analysis *
* *
*******************************************************************************

KERNEL_MODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED_M (1000008e)
This is a very common bugcheck. Usually the exception address pinpoints
the driver/function that caused the problem. Always note this address
as well as the link date of the driver/image that contains this address.
Some common problems are exception code 0x80000003. This means a hard
coded breakpoint or assertion was hit, but this system was booted
/NODEBUG. This is not supposed to happen as developers should never have
hardcoded breakpoints in retail code, but ...
If this happens, make sure a debugger gets connected, and the
system is booted /DEBUG. This will let us see why this breakpoint is
happening.
Arguments:
Arg1: c0000005, The exception code that was not handled
Arg2: 6158739f, The address that the exception occurred at
Arg3: 9fa8bbdf, Trap Frame
Arg4: 00000000

Debugging Details:
------------------


EXCEPTION_CODE: (NTSTATUS) 0xc0000005 - The instruction at "0x%08lx" referenced memory at "0x%08lx". The memory could not be "%s".

FAULTING_IP:
+6158739f
6158739f ?? ???

TRAP_FRAME: 9fa8bbdf -- (.trap ffffffff9fa8bbdf)
ErrCode = 00000010
eax=800005b8 ebx=00000000 ecx=e2541b30 edx=ffffff0c esi=000089e8 edi=80614d94
eip=6158739f esp=9fa8bc53 ebp=a8bc8800 iopl=0 nv up ei ng nz na pe nc
cs=0008 ss=0010 ds=0023 es=0023 fs=0030 gs=0000 efl=00010286
6158739f ?? ???
Resetting default scope

CUSTOMER_CRASH_COUNT: 1

DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID: DRIVER_FAULT

BUGCHECK_STR: 0x8E

PROCESS_NAME: ccPwdSvc.exe

UNALIGNED_STACK_POINTER: 9fa8bc53

LAST_CONTROL_TRANSFER: from 00000000 to 6158739f

STACK_TEXT:
9fa8bc4f 00000000 00000000 0000f400 00000000 0x6158739f


STACK_COMMAND: .trap 0xffffffff9fa8bbdf ; kb

SYMBOL_NAME: ANALYSIS_INCONCLUSIVE

FOLLOWUP_NAME: MachineOwner

MODULE_NAME: Unknown_Module

IMAGE_NAME: Unknown_Image

DEBUG_FLR_IMAGE_TIMESTAMP: 0

FAILURE_BUCKET_ID: 0x8E_ANALYSIS_INCONCLUSIVE

BUCKET_ID: 0x8E_ANALYSIS_INCONCLUSIVE

Followup: MachineOwner
---------

 

[dclive]

Oh - well, that's easy - take off Symantec (everything), see what changes.