Classic bsod case

Well since my roommates are heading back home for a week, one of their father's is that tech support person I mentioned before. He's going to run some tests (using his equipment) to see if anything is broken and also help me figure out what to do from here. Basically this computer was the sum of my saving for nearly 2 years so I'm kind of in a spot where I don't know what I can do in getting a back up. This current one is far too weak to do anything.

I realize I made a mistake in choosing the power supply I had. It was a sigma innovation monster power supply, which I am trying to see if I can collect the warranty on it (it has a 3 year). However I've heard that the company is MIA and impossible to get a hold of.

I don't know if there are any bulging caps, I already have it packed up to travel down with my roommate. However I'll keep everyone updated as soon as I receive some extra information.

I do know that when I opened it after wards I didn't see any physical changes to the motherboard or anything that looked burnt except for the power supply and the cord to it which was partially melted

I got the reply back from the tech. Apparently everything is fine with the motherboard, ram, harddrive and CPU, the only thing that was fried was the power supply.

However, he thinks to have found out the reason behind the possible crashes (aside from the faulty power supply)

He's not 100% sure so I'll open it up for you guys. Apparently he said that my motherboard slots, even though they can go up to 2.0 volts, are designed only up to 1.8 volts. Because the ram I chose is 2.0-2.1 volts, it may not be able to be 100% compatible with the motherboard.

To be precise

Ram x 2 (aka 4 sticks)

Motherboard


Do you guys have any input or idea if this could be the cause of the blue screens? Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated.

Another suggestion (though by someone else) was that the power supply was far too big for my system and that was the reason. I chose an 850 watt due to my plan to eventually purchase a larger graphics card that would require more power (I wanted to be more safe than sorry since my roomate's comp doesn't have enough power for her graphic card of similar specs that I'm interested in)

Any thoughts?

I'd have to actually speak with the tech to understand exactly what he/she means. I recently had a customer relay to me what a tech at a store explained and it sounded like hogwash. Then I spoke to the tech and got a clearer explanation and it was correct.

When it comes to desktop MoBos, the types of RAM modules are pretty standard. Currently there are 3 types: DDR, DDR2 and DDR3. There was SD-RAM but that's virtually obsolete now. All desktop MoBos memory slots are "notched" as are the memory sticks types to ensure you don't insert the wrong type or insert the stick backwards. As for speed, most MoBos BIOS programs read the speeds of the individual sticks and clock to the slowest. There is the occasional MoBo BIOS that insists all sticks be of the same speed. As for voltage, that's really part of the memory type (DDR, DDR2, DDR3) So either the tech doesn't know what's he's talking about or there's more to his explanantion.

Yes, it is possible to have more than one cause for BSODs. A bad PSU certainly can cause a BSOD. I'd wait and see if it happens again and take it from there.

-- Andy

well my current issue is I don't have a power supply, since it's completely unusable.

The tech finally returned my computer and he gave me the manual for the mother board with a phrase circled '4 x 1.8V DDR2 DIMM sockets supporting up to 16 GB of system memory)

He said that the power supply was just faulty, but didn't give me any information if it could of been the cause of the BSOD or not.

He did think that there was compatability errors with the ram sticks and the motherboard because of the voltage. (thus the circled phrase)


So the situation is that I want to know if I should just go and look into buying a new power supply instead of sticking with a refunded sigma PowerSupply


If the motherboard and the ram sticks aren't compatable due to voltage, I was considering purchasing these Other ram sticks to stop the BSOD. I dunno. Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

I also am considering suggestions for a different power supply due to this last one seeming to have a history of blowing out after a few months (from other customer reviews I've dug up)

I'm beginning to seriously wonder about this tech you used.

If the PSU is faulty, not only can that cause the BSOD, it needs to be replaced!

If you have the right type of memory for your MoBo, then it should work fine. The only problem could be speed as I explained above but in that case, the system wouldn't boot! His argument about compatitbility just doens't make sense.

Replace the PSU and see if the BSODs stop.

-- Andy

jacket, can you give us your other system specs as well such as video card, harddrive, etc. so we can help you choose a good power supply.

@ almcneil, thanks for looking in on this; I asked him to jacket.

Ah, well he left getting a new power supply up to me I just wasn't able to get a conclusive answer on what he believed my power supply should be (size wise).

The ram is the correct speed, it's just that they're 2.0-2.1 volts and he says that the my motherboard supports only 1.8 volts possibly.

The full list of my supplies would be

GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P motherboard
Intel Core 2 Quad 2.83GHz
8GB G.SKILL 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 Dual Channel Kit
Western Digital 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
ZEROtherm CF800 92mm CPU Cooler for the cpu fan
FireGLv3600 (was going to replace eventually to a higher power )
and it's in a termaltake armor with lots of fans



Thank you both though for all your help. I really appreciate all the help and insight~

First, congratulations on selecting a great motherboard. I was doing research on it and even though it isn't the newest out there it is loaded and can do Crossfire as well (if you can afford it).

1. You have several cpu choices.

2. You can easily upgrade to a better video card.

3. It is stable and as I said it is loaded.

* I went to Gigabyte's website for your particular mobo specs and they list your slots as 1.8v so what you were told is correct. A shame too because those sticks you have now are really good memory.

* In my research over at Overclockers forums I looked at several people's rig set-ups and paid particular attention to the power supplies that were being utilized. They ranged from the 600w to the 700w.

I went to NewEgg and I believe this one will do you very well; it has excellent reviews, nice price, great performance and it will supply you what you need when you finally upgrade to a better video card.

All in all jacket with a new video card, good psu, and correct RAM you'll be good to go with this set-up for some time.

PSU link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005

*** I do have one very important question though: Did your tech tell you that the mobo and the rest is okay in spite of your old PSU's major fail? In other words, your mobo, etc. is good to go because it wasn't damaged by the psu failure, correct?

yea I got the motherboard for the possibility of crossfire.

Thank you for all the help~

I was considering getting these ram sticks for a possible replacement towards the 2.1 volt ones. (sadly it's too late to return them to new egg)

Possible ram replacement

RAM looks good. I like GSkill. You may be able to sell your current RAM and get a decent return. That psu I linked you to is definitely Crossfire ready.

Your welcome on the help.

* Let us know what you eventually do.

I have a quick question/ want to know your opinion about one thing before i make a full decision.

I was talking with my roomate and I eventually am considering to get another internal had drive and I have 2 dvd drives atm

Given this do you think I should go for the 650 watt or the 750 watt

I just am torn I guess, I'm worried about making another mistake regarding power supplies

The major thing about power supplies is quality and not wattage per se (though you do need the correct amount of power as well). Just because a psu says it delivers a certain amount of wattage it doesn't mean it actually does. This is why a quality power supply is so critical to a system. It is the backbone so to speak. far too often people will put a load of money into all kinds of quality parts and then skip on a low priced psu to save money. Or they buy a case with a power supply thinkingthey are saving money. The thing is, with possible exception of Antec and maybe a few Thermaltake offerings, psu's that come with a case are garbage.

Corsair makes quality power supplies and both are 80 plus certified which means they are very good at supplying the needed power. The 650 should do you fine but go with what makes you comfortable.

Okay, thank you. I went ahead with the 650 power supply. I also ordered the 2 gig x2 ram from gskill (4 gigs total). I figured I'll get more when I can get a 64 bit os

Thank you again for all your help, I really appreciate all the input and putting up with all my questions.

got the new parts (power supply and new ram sticks) and put them in. So far so good, wish me luck for not having more BSOD

Oh, I sure hope so! Let's see, after 2+ months it looks like you finally have stability. Thanks for getting back to us; this information is important to this community and others as well.

Heh... Bluescreened again.

This time I only had aim open and nothing else. The system had been on probably 3 hours and just randomly crashed.

I'll upload the minidump.

So much for stability eh? I'm guessing it's narrowed down to either my OS is not correct or it's my motherboard.

Your error is 0x0000009F: DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE
A driver is in an inconsistent or invalid power state. Typically occurs during events that involve power state transitions, such as shutting down, or moving into or out of standby or hibernate mode.

The driver cited is disk.sys.


Disk.sys is an important Windows system file that has to do with the drive(s) management subsystem. without it no disks work, copying to self or other devices is not possible.

Reinstall may be needed because most likely this file has been changed somehow, unless you can copy it from the install CD, but if the error is due to an incompatible piece of hardware, this won't help. Perhaps running chkdsk / r might be a prudent step.

Finally the possibility of your HD having bad sectors or even failing means a harddrive diagnostics is in order

* Iwould test the hardware first and then chkdsk / r.

I just finished scanning with chkdsk / r Here's the log it gave me.

I am not sure how to read this so i'm just sending the results to you. If I do have to wipe and reinstall I'm considering waiting since I already have a copy of windows 7 on order for later this month.

Code:

+ System 

  - Provider 

   [ Name]  Chkdsk 
 
  - EventID 26212 

   [ Qualifiers]  0 
 
   Level 4 
 
   Task 0 
 
   Keywords 0x80000000000000 
 
  - TimeCreated 

   [ SystemTime]  2009-10-17T23:06:43.000Z 
 
   EventRecordID 5323 
 
   Channel Application 
 
   Computer Saber 
 
   Security 
 

- EventData 

   Checking file system on C: The type of the file system is NTFS. Volume label is DRV1_VOL1. WARNING! F parameter not specified. Running CHKDSK in read-only mode. 238976 file records processed. 196 large file records processed. 0 bad file records processed. 2 EA records processed. 44 reparse records processed. 292634 index entries processed. 0 unindexed files processed. 238976 security descriptors processed. Cleaning up 3487 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9. Cleaning up 3487 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9. Cleaning up 3487 unused security descriptors. 26830 data files processed. CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal... 35153616 USN bytes processed. Usn Journal verification completed. Windows has checked the file system and found no problems. 488383528 KB total disk space. 139954660 KB in 210534 files. 105808 KB in 26831 indexes. 0 KB in bad sectors. 301448 KB in use by the system. 2048 KB occupied by the log file. 348021612 KB available on disk. 4096 bytes in each allocation unit. 122095882 total allocation units on disk. 87005403 allocation units available on disk.  
   80A50300409F03000782060000000000000100002C0000000000000000000000 


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Binary data:


In Words

0000: 0003A580 00039F40 00068207 00000000 
0008: 00000100 0000002C 00000000 00000000 


In Bytes

0000: 80 A5 03 00 40 9F 03 00   €¥..@Ÿ..
0008: 07 82 06 00 00 00 00 00   .‚......
0010: 00 01 00 00 2C 00 00 00   ....,...
0018: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........

I honestly have never read one of these logs before but it did note that no files were corrupted and it did clean up unused processs - quite a few of them.

I would not do a harddrive diagnosis with the free utility supplied by your harddrive manufacturer. Do the extensive tests, not just the S.M.A.R.T. test.

well what would you suggest? This is muddy water for me so I'm not entirely sure how to go about testing it. Any suggestions?