Hi

I was here a little while ago and was suffering from BSOD's, you helped out (thanks) it turned out to be a memory crash and was a timing issue in the bios. My system has been fine for a while and now i am back to bsods. I have checked the memory and run the memtest etc and all seems ok.

Some advice please

Well, since I dont have the debugger installed, I can't check you minidump... (too lazy to install it )
I'll leave that to Howard

However, more information would help in spite of you providing the minidump.
Like - when does the crash happen - at random, gaming, running some app...?
When did it start happening - can you remember if you updated drivers about that time or installed a new program?

Have you tried loading 'safe defaults' in the bios and if the problem is gone, start changing settings to your previous ones until you encounter the problem itself?
Are you overclocking? - it's known that even though memory or CPU can take a certain bump in the beginning, this bump in frequency tends to get lower and lower over time - thus requireing lowering the OC or slack timings... (or upping voltage, which in turn may or may not help, or even makes the problems worse).

Just guessing for now, until someone analyzes the minidump (hint to howard )...

One of your minidumps crashes at ShldDrv.SYS. Panda antivirus.

Two minidumps crash with memory corruption. Faulty ram? One points to vmx86.sys. This is the VMware kernel driver.

Hope this helps.

Regards Howard

Hi

Thanks for the advice

The system has crashed once a day for the last 6 days or so

I have run MemChk twice overnight and it comes up with no faults...

I dont understand why vmware would cause a crash as it wasnt being used ?

Panda is on all the time as its my firewall and antivirus etc

Last night the machine crashed and i am pretty sure no apps were running.

it is not consistent and crashes no matter what app is oipen or not open ( it seems !)

i dont run games or have any installed...

At a liitle bit of a loss and starting to feel the need to beat the pc with a LARGE stick!

Thanks for all help and advice

6 more mini dumps included

Happy New Year

Dave

2 minidumps crash at ShldDrv.SYS. Panda. They have bugchecks of 0A, and 50.

2 minidumps crash with memory corruption, and a bugcheck of 4E.

2 minidumps at ntoskrnl.exe. Windows boot up kernel. They have a bugcheck of 8E.

0x0000000A: IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

Typically due to a bad driver, or faulty or incompatible hardware or software. Use the General Troubleshooting of STOP Messages checklist above. Technically, this error condition means that a kernel-mode process or driver tried to access a memory location to which it did not have permission, or at a kernel Interrupt ReQuest Level (IRQL) that was too high. (A kernel-mode process can access only other processes that have an IRQL lower than, or equal to, its own.)

0x00000050: PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA

Requested data was not in memory. An invalid system memory address was referenced. Defective memory (including main memory, L2 RAM cache, video RAM) or incompatible software (including remote control and antivirus software) might cause this Stop message, as may other hardware problems (e.g., incorrect SCSI termination or a flawed PCI card).

0x0000004E: PFN_LIST_CORRUPT

This indicates that the memory management Page File Number list is corrupted. Can be caused by corrupt physical RAM, or by drivers passing bad memory descriptor lists.

0x0000008E: KERNEL_MODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED

A kernel mode program generated an exception which the error handler didn’t catch. These are nearly always hardware compatibility issues (which sometimes means a driver issue or a need for a BIOS upgrade).

Faulty ram is probably the culprit. It could also be caused by faulty video ram/L2 cache ram of your cpu/Faulty mobo/psu

Check your mobo for bulging, or leaking capacitors. See HERE for more info.

Download and run Prime95 to stress test your system. http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4363

Try running your system with just one stick of ram.

Regards Howard

Thanks Howard

Ill d/l the stress test, check m/b and remove ram sticks

The sticks i have are all corsairs and are supposed to be excellent, at least they have a lifetime warranty!!

Whats there returns like, does anyone know, are they good ?

Thanks again for the advice, ill be back if i do/dont solve this frustrating issue!

regards

Dave

repair your windows. just reinstall your windows it will help

You obviously think this is a software/OS problem.

What leads you to believe this?

Have you seen something in the minidumps, that I may have missed?

Regards Howard

BTW. Hello and welcome to Techspot. :wave: :wave:

0x0000000A: IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL - A "user" layer method tried to access a "kernel" layer process. Will also give the access permission exceptions.

0x00000050: PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA - Some method tried to update static memory area.

0x0000004E: PFN_LIST_CORRUPT - Related to cache & cpu queue suddenly passing invalid instruction pointers.

0x0000008E: KERNEL_MODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED looks like this:

super method blah;
try {
call method a
call method b
call method c
} catch {
general exception handler

method a (or b) (or c);
try {
instruction -> data
} catch {
specific error handler

It means the problem is unknown as it was not handled by specific handlers in any of the sub methods.

Primary problem: The processor gets corrupted instructions from the memory subsystem.

In order of culprits:
50% - Drivers
30% - Corrupted Software
15 % - Corrupted OS kernel / HAL layers
5 % - Hardware ... most likely RAM timings ... likely TCCD (RAM Driver chip) or Addon Card interface ... less likely Memory controller ... least likely processor.

Repair ? Or ReInstall ? Will this mean i have to reinstall all my apps ?

Or Should i just re-apply SP2 ?

Confused !?!

Just ran Prime 95

It ran for less than 1 minute and then gave the attached error ?

Run a second time and it ran for 2 minutes then gave the same error ?

Unfortunately your attachment doesn`t give me any specific info, other than you have a hardware failure. Your Jpeg says "hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file.

What does the stress.txt file reveal?

Regards Howard

Hi,

I believe the culprit is faulty memory. Your windows is crashed randomly and this is the symptom of hardware error. One minidump has one bit memory corruption and one minidump has memory access fault. All of the evidence show that it is faulty memory. Failed memory hardware, such as memory modules, Level 2 (L2) SRAM cache, or video adapter RAM.

I don't think you have to run memtest as the minidump confirms that it is faulty memory.

Suggestion
1. Check the temperature of the CPU and make sure that it is not overheat (ie temperature < 60C)
Make sure that the CPU fan works properly
2. Reseat the memory stick to another memory slot. Reseat video card as well.
3. Downclock the ram. Check to default setting if you video card is overclocked.
4. Clean the dust inside the computer case
5. Make sure that the ram is compatible to the motherboard
6. Check the bios setting about memory timing and make sure that it is on
For example : DIMM1 and DIMM2 do not have the same timing.
DIMM1: Corsair CMX512-3200C2 512 MB PC3200 DDR SDRAM (2.5-3-3-8 @ 200 MHz) (2.0-3-3-7 @ 166 MHz)
DIMM2: Corsair CMX512-3200C2 512 MB PC3200 DDR SDRAM (3.0-3-3-8 @ 200 MHz)
DIMM3: Corsair CMX512-3200C2 512 MB PC3200 DDR SDRAM (3.0-3-3-8 @ 200 MHz)
7. Make sure that your PSU have adequate power to drive all the hardware including USB devices
8. Run chkdsk /r at command prompt
9. Run 3DMark 2005 to test your video card
10. Upgrade BIOS and make sure that the motherboard has no leaking capacitor

If it still crashes, diagnostic which memory stick is faulty
Take out one memory stick. If windows does not crash, the removed memory stick is faulty.


Mini121905-01.dmp
BugCheck 1000000A, {fffff124, 1c, 0, 804e3336}

Probably caused by : memory_corruption

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: fffff124, memory referenced
Arg2: 0000001c, IRQL
Arg3: 00000000, value 0 = read operation, 1 = write operation
Arg4: 804e3336, address which referenced memory

Debugging Details:
------------------
READ_ADDRESS: fffff124

CURRENT_IRQL: 1c

FAULTING_IP:
nt!KeUpdateRunTime+c
804e3336 8b9824012000 mov ebx,[eax+0x200124]

CUSTOMER_CRASH_COUNT: 1
DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID: CODE_CORRUPTION
BUGCHECK_STR: 0xA

LAST_CONTROL_TRANSFER: from 804e32f6 to 804e3336

STACK_TEXT:
ac319ac0 804e32f6 b2582a00 b2582a00 000000d1 nt!KeUpdateRunTime+0xc
ac319ac0 b2583215 b2582a00 b2582a00 000000d1 nt!KeUpdateSystemTime+0x137
WARNING: Stack unwind information not available. Following frames may be wrong.
ac319b44 0000006a b2902000 8850b540 00000008 vmx86+0x4215


CHKIMG_EXTENSION: !chkimg -lo 50 -d !nt
!chkimg -lo 50 -d !nt
804e333a - nt!KeUpdateRunTime+10

[ 00:20 ]
1 error : !nt (804e333a)

MODULE_NAME: memory_corruption
IMAGE_NAME: memory_corruption
FOLLOWUP_NAME: memory_corruption
DEBUG_FLR_IMAGE_TIMESTAMP: 0
MEMORY_CORRUPTOR: ONE_BIT
STACK_COMMAND: kb
FAILURE_BUCKET_ID: MEMORY_CORRUPTION_ONE_BIT
BUCKET_ID: MEMORY_CORRUPTION_ONE_BIT

Followup: memory_corruption

Mini123005-01.dmp.txt
BugCheck 4E, {99, 0, 0, 0}
Probably caused by : memory_corruption ( nt!MiRestoreTransitionPte+161 )

STACK_TEXT:
f78baad4 8052231a 0000004e 00000099 00000000 nt!KeBugCheckEx+0x1b
f78baaf4 80515ec6 89e02fa0 ffffffff 89dce198 nt!MiRestoreTransitionPte+0x161
f78bab0c 80515d59 89e02f68 804f55cb e2963bc0 nt!MiRemovePageFromList+0xd5
f78bab14 804f55cb e2963bc0 e272ccc8 00000000 nt!MiRemoveAnyPage+0x56
f78bab44 804f522a 00010000 e2963bc0 89e02ff8 nt!MiResolveMappedFileFault+0x3d2
f78bab74 804e91e7 00000000 d0e30000 c03438c0 nt!MiResolveProtoPteFault+0x122
f78babf0 804ebace 00000000 d0e30000 c03438c0 nt!MiDispatchFault+0x13b
f78bac40 804f7383 00000000 d0e30000 00000000 nt!MmAccessFault+0x5bc <--- faulty memory
f78bac80 80503db1 d0e30000 00000000 80556618 nt!MmCheckCachedPageState+0x461
f78bad2c 80503b65 8a3c2288 80561440 8a3c2830 nt!CcPerformReadAhead+0x1f1
f78bad74 804e426b 8a3c2288 00000000 8a3c2830 nt!CcWorkerThread+0x147
f78badac 8057be15 8a3c2288 00000000 00000000 nt!ExpWorkerThread+0x100
f78baddc 804fa4da 804e4196 00000000 00000000 nt!PspSystemThreadStartup+0x34
00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 nt!KiThreadStartup+0x16

@howard

Dump attached with last nights crash (nothing running) and included is stress.txt

Thanks for help

@cpc2004

1. Check the temperature of the CPU and make sure that it is not overheat (ie temperature < 60C)

CPU 47C
MB 26C

Make sure that the CPU fan works properly

All fine and speed controlled on temp

2. Reseat the memory stick to another memory slot. Reseat video card as well.

Three memory sticks, three slots, one removed see below
3. Downclock the ram. Check to default setting if you video card is overclocked.

Video card not overclocked
Ram at SPD for the moment one stick removed

4. Clean the dust inside the computer case
Not alot but done

5. Make sure that the ram is compatible to the motherboard
It Is, checked this carefully when purchasing

6. Check the bios setting about memory timing and make sure that it is on
For example : DIMM1 and DIMM2 do not have the same timing.
DIMM1: Corsair CMX512-3200C2 512 MB PC3200 DDR SDRAM (2.5-3-3-8 @ 200 MHz) (2.0-3-3-7 @ 166 MHz)
DIMM2: Corsair CMX512-3200C2 512 MB PC3200 DDR SDRAM (3.0-3-3-8 @ 200 MHz)
DIMM3: Corsair CMX512-3200C2 512 MB PC3200 DDR SDRAM (3.0-3-3-8 @ 200 MHz)

Done see below

7. Make sure that your PSU have adequate power to drive all the hardware including USB devices

Will check

8. Run chkdsk /r at command prompt
Done a few weeks ago

9. Run 3DMark 2005 to test your video card

Will do when i find and download it

10. Upgrade BIOS and make sure that the motherboard has no leaking capacitor

Will check but think (from memory) am running latest mb bios

Nothing strange seen on MB

MB is Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe Bios Version 1012

Latest BIOS is 1013 have downloaded and will upgrade soon

ONE STRANGE thing i have found about the memory is the following

All three sticks are

Corsair CMX512-3200C2PT
XMS 3200 512MB 400Mhz CL2

Now on the corsair web site i can only find a reference to Corsair CMX512-3200C2 memory which has a CAS Latency of 2,3,3,6. On this http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=428726 site i can find the Corsair CMX512-3200C2PT memory and its has CAS Latency of 2,3,3,6

Whereas the timings reported are as ou stated

DIMM1: Corsair CMX512-3200C2 512 MB PC3200 DDR SDRAM (2.5-3-3-8 @ 200 MHz) (2.0-3-3-7 @ 166 MHz)
DIMM2: Corsair CMX512-3200C2 512 MB PC3200 DDR SDRAM (3.0-3-3-8 @ 200 MHz)
DIMM3: Corsair CMX512-3200C2 512 MB PC3200 DDR SDRAM (3.0-3-3-8 @ 200 MHz)

BIOS is set to SPD and Auto and Shows 200mhz and 3,3,3,8

So why the difference ?

Why when all three sticks are the same does one report back (2.5) different ?

Anyways the stick in Dimm 1 has been reomved this morning just to see how things run over next 24 hours

All help appreciated

Cheers

Dave

Your latest minidump crashes at NDIS.sys. This is the Windows 5.1 wrapper driver. it has a bugcheck of 7E.

Looking at your ram timings, the fact that one stick is at different timings may well be the problem.

since you have now removed this stick see how it goes. If your problems continue, try running your system with just one stick of ram.

I`m still of the opinion that this is a ram problem of some description.

Regards Howard

Hi Howard

Thanks for all the help

Looks like that stick with different timings made no difference

I attach the latest 3 minidump crash files

I will tonight take another stick of ram out and see how it goes over the next few days

Cheers

Dave

Your latest dumps crash with the following.

1 with Pool_Corruption, and a bugcheck of 8E.

1 at ntoskrnl.exe, and a bugcheck of 8E.

1 at TDI.SYS, and a bugcheck of D1. TDI Wrapper driver.

0x000000D1: DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

The system attempted to access pageable memory using a kernel process IRQL that was too high. The most typical cause is a bad device driver (one that uses improper addresses). It can also be caused by caused by faulty or mismatched RAM, or a damaged pagefile.

Regards Howard

Thanks again Howard

Have just removed another stick so only got one left, will leave system for a couple of days to see what it does. then ill remove the last stick and replace with the stick i took out today..........

On the device drivers front, if it turns out to not be the RAM then how do i go about tracing / eliminating drivers ??

Cheers

Dave

One other thing thats been happening more and more over the last week or so and i havnt a clue if this is related

IE (version see attached) has started crashing on an almost 4 times a day basis, sometimes more!

I have to go into task manager and click end task to stop IE hanging...

This doesnt cuase a blue screen but sometimes the pc need a reboot for IE to behave again.

It happened a few minutes ago and i clicked the see what info we will send MS dialog box to see if the IE crash gave a dump file. I think it did and i have attached it ( i may be wrong though !)

I cant find the ie crash dump of today, but i found a couple from december, attached........

First. niether of the files you attached are minidumps, so I can`t read them.

Second. Re your pm. I don`t know where to find the drivers you requested, but here are a couple of suggestions.

Maybe doing a Google search will bear fruit, or you can check out http://www.driverguide.com/

Keep running the ram test as you are, and report back when you`re done.

Regards Howard