My first PC build. What a nightmare! I've learned to fix some problems myself with the help of these forums. Now I'm stuck. I've had to reinstall vista 4 times on 3 different sets of hardware because of defective MOBO/HD/video cards. Finally I have hardware I think is functional and now this.
The BSODs started only when running 3D games /applications ie WoW or solidworks. Now they have progressed to random bsod while not doing anything specific. System specs:
Vista home prem 64
GA-ep45ds3l MOBO
HIS 512M radeon 4670
550W Rosewill 2x20A rails
2x4G Gskill 1033
Q9300 quad core
I've:
run scandisk, windows memdiag tool, Un/Reinstalled latest video & chipset drivers, uninstalled MOBO utility SW, ran CCleaner, flashed bios & loaded deafaults, and played with BIOS settings to no avail.
I can make the problem worse, but not better. There is a bios setting for 64bit HPET (manual said use for vista 64), but that didn't help.
The Logitek drivers for my wireless keyboard were flakey, so I updated and that seemed to amplify the problem.
I still need to burn memtest and run it, and I haven't installed Antivirus sw yet as I've only had the system a week and haven't been doing any unusual DLDs.
I'm getting tired of reformatting. Anyone had any luck with running windows repair from the install disk?
The fact that I had no problems initially until running 3D stuff makes me think the problem must be drivers rather than memory. I get cryptic msgs from bsod such as page fault in non paged area, IRq not less than or equal to, blank, and various hexidecimal numbers. There are over 1000 errors in event viewer such as:
//./root/CIMV2
SELECT * FROM __InstanceModificationEvent WITHIN 60 WHERE TargetInstance ISA "Win32_Processor" AND TargetInstance.LoadPercentage > 99 0x80041003. Whatever that means. Hopefully there will be a light bulb somewhere in those attached memory dumps. Anyone?
Thanks.

Your error codes are 0x7E, 0x50 (x2), 0x3B, and 0xA. With the exception of the 0x3B that simply stated hardware is the problem all the remaining minidumps cited Windows drivers which are too general to be of much help.

However, twice the Windows driver dxgkrnl.sys was noted and this is a DirectX Graphics Kernel.

Couple that fact with your error 0x3B: SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION
This indicates that an exception happened while executing a routine that transitions from non-privileged code to privileged code.

This error has been linked to excessive paged pool usage and may occur due to user-mode graphics drivers crossing over and passing bad data to the kernel code.

* I am taking an educated guess here but with your history of games and BSODs its quite possible either your issue lies with DirectX or your video card drivers; possibly even the card itself.

* Can you swap cards out with a friend to test this?

* Also, test your PSU with a multimeter.

* One other thing, have you tried running with just 2 gigs of RAM?

Whoa it's a damn shame if you Gurus aren't getting paid for this. What do you use to analyze those dump files?
Yes I bought an nVidia 9600 card also, and was having less luck with that. It was fine until I installed the drivers then instability/blue screens. I figured it was nvid drivers though and got an ATI card because I wanted audio suppport through HDMI(which works now). As a last resort I can exchange the ATI card, but it would have to be bad luck to get 2 defective cards in a row.
Direct X 10 came with vista, and MS download site makes it hard to find the latest version to install. I figured it may update itself through windows.
I have an old multimeter, but some PSUs wont output correctly when not under load. A shop may have a testing widget if that is the case.
I will try with 1x 2G stick of ram, but my mobo claims to have dual channel support.
I'll also try downclocking the mem, and un/reinstalling the latest ATI drivers only without the control center GUI.
One more thing: After vista install I got an error msg saying there was a compatibility issue between windows and ICH10(southbridge chipset) SMbus controller. After installing the P45 chipset drivers the error didn't disappear, but didn't recur after it was reported to MS. Maybe nothing, or maybe I should try the earlier drivers on the Intel site rather than the ones on the MOBO site?
Thanks.

There is a nifty too called Win-debugger that you can off of Major Geeks.com They will tell you how to set it up and use it. When I did my [then]new build almost three years agoafter a 6 year hiatus I was getting BSODs left and right and it drove me crazy from may through September when I found TechSpot and peterdiva told me it was my firewall driver. Ever since I've learned tons here. It would be well worth you to try it. And googling a driver, etc. is how one learns what belongs to where.

When you switched out your cards did you do a complete uninstall of the old drivers and they utilizing the free version of Driver Cleaner Pro before reinstalling/updating?

Here is another thing about Vista 64: There are well documented conflicts between the 64-bit OS and ATI drivers, though many people have no issues at all.

About drivers: if it isn't broke don't fix it. Are your current chipset drivers seeming to be working fine now?

Thanks I'll try win-debugger on my next minidump although I fear interpreting the results may be a bit like reading the entrails of some poor sacrificed animal if I don't know what to look for.

Yes I uninstalled all the nVid drivers/utilities before switching cards, but didn't use driver cleaner. Silly me assuming Windows would be able to uninstall drivers properly without 3rd party tools. I'll try it.

I ran memtest86 2.11 all night and after 14 pass it returned 22 errors & 0 ECC error.
I couldn't figure out how to scroll the error window, but the ones I did see were from test 4 (moving inversion random pattern). The memtest site states that it tests CPU/MOBO cache, as well as DIMMs, and that you can't tell which caused the error. It also stated that errors could occur from good ram due to incompatibility. So I guess this only confirms a problem? I'll try underclocking the DIMMs and run again tonight.

My chipset drivers are probably OK, but I just know they are like the foundation of a building. If something were wrong it could be throwing everything else out of whack. Since you didn't see those drivers in any of the dumps they are likely not the problem.

Whoa, if you got errors using memtest you have RAM that must be replaced. Corrupted memory will cause all kinds of problems and throw out all kinds of error codes. I've seen it happen time and again. Even new memory can be faulty right out of the box and GSkill makes some of the best.

However, it appears that you have overclocked and my next suggestion was going to be that if you are ocing to ease back on timings, voltage, etc. and see if that brings stability. Your new RAM may be fine afterall.

Look forward to what you find out.

OK, I figured it out! sort of....
After running an arduous series of 12-24 hr memtests in every possible channel/clock configuration I have found:
I can only get errors when running at the Ram's native speed of 1066. Sometimes it took 56 passes to get errors in single channel mode. My MOBO supposedly has dual channel 1066 support.
After downclocking to 800Mhz I got NO errors no matter how long the test or what configuration. I've been running at 800 since and no instability/BSOD
Strange that after downclocking, Memtest showed it as running at 5-5-5-15 (it is 6-6-6-18 mem) and I didn't adjust timing in the bios.

So either my board will not handle 1066 mem, it won't handle this particular model of Gskill@1066, or the mem is faulty. The only way to find out is to spend more $$.
For now I think I can live with 800Mhz memory.

If I have any more BSOD I'll be ready with windebugger. Thanks ROUTE.

BTW the only thing I could find on majorGeeks was a link on a forum to the MS windows debugger tools. I could find no 3rd party "win-debugger".
Were you referring to the Microsoft windows debugging tools?

Thanks.

Hey, thanks much for getting back to us. Resolved issues are a big help to others. GSkill makes nice memory. I wonder if a BIOS upgrade might resolve this but then, again, you've just gained stability.

MS Windows Debugger Tools is actually the correct title. Sorry that i wasn't more clear. Microsoft just recently released their latest version.

If you ever find out the memory issues and your motherboard we would love to know what your found.