I'm afraid another BSOD

[potherbe]

Hi there,
My relation has asked me to look at her computer as it keeps going to a BSOD. Anyway I have it for 2 days and it has happened on 2 occasions after being on all day. There is no new hardware, no new software, and I am at a a loss as to what can be causing it as there are so many possibilities. HOWEVER, as I am used to opening up desktop/towers etc to take out ram , graphics cards etc to test them I must explain that this is sony vaio all in one pc/monitor ref VGC-VA1. The workings are all in a box underneath the monitor. Anyway thats the background, it has windows xp media centre installed and has an Intel pentium 2.8 ghz processor and ati mobile radion graphics card x700 and just over 1 gig of memory She says it's always going off but like I say it has only happened twice in 2 days. The BSOD reads
MACHINE_CHECK _EXCEPTION and list a STOP 0X0000009C then (0x00000000, 0XF7730050, 0XB2000000, 0X104008OF)
After reading some of the thraeds I downloaded a program called sensor pro and all seems well on the voltage side of things BUT I did notice that the temperature of the hard drive was above what it should be ie 60 C was actually 66C And I am thinking maybe this is it! I notice that you people can seem to "read" the exception numbers and maybe give some clues? Sorry for the long e mail just trying to paint a picture and appreciate any input
Cheers
potherbe

 

[B00kWyrm]

It would seem to be a hardware issue.

Please check the following link
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/329284

Alternatively, you could step through the instructions here...
https://www.techspot.com/vb/topic51365.html

This post includes instructions on what to do before and then how to post your minidumps.

 

[LookinAround]

@potherbe
Please excuse this temporary interruption to your thread....

@B00kWyrm
Welcome back :wave:
Haven't seen you in awhile...

 

[potherbe]

More Information for HELP

hi there, to follow up my problem, I have enclosed the last 5 minidumps and all of them are exactly the same STOP numbers in every case. I also carried out the "before you post dump read this" to the letter ie page file, defrag, de dust there was a hell of lot of dust and I must admit the 2 system fans are a lot less active now! I must say that it went a good 9 hours before the machine check exception occured and I was actually not doing anything just letting the machine si t there idling and I had just stated that it looks as though the process I had c arried out might have worked and then BSOD. I have run mem test, sensor pro, Everest, and all report no problem EXCEPT each one tell me my hard drive is running at 64,65, 67,degrees.I have also enclosed a report filr that Everest produced and intrigued to know what the section VIDEO BIOS means when it states connectto video card? Anyway hope someone can thro some light on the subject as I am at a loss why it happens so infrequently but IS annoying.

 

[B00kWyrm]

Sorry to be delayed getting back to you...
This is the critical line in your Everest Report...

SMART Hard Disks Status FAIL

This is consistent with the 9c stop code.
What this means is your hard drive is on its way out.
Migrate all important data to another drive immediately.
Prepare to replace the drive.

I'll look at the minidumps and post again afterward.

---- additional information appended based upon minidump analysis---
Re the 9c bugcheck code:
1: _VAL_UC_EN_PCC_BUSCONNERR_F
DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID: DRIVER_FAULT
PROCESS_NAME: ehshell.exe

2: _VAL_UC_EN_PCC_BUSCONNERR_F
DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID: DRIVER_FAULT
PROCESS_NAME: iexplore.exe

3: _VAL_UC_EN_PCC_BUSCONNERR_F
DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID: DRIVER_FAULT
PROCESS_NAME: avgcsrvx.exe

Please note that the driver fault is additional information, sometimes helpful in tracking down where the main issue went wrong. Each of the issues is 9c, which is a hardware bugcheck requiring manufacturer debugging.

Note WinDbg report

This error code can be reported back to the manufacturer.
They may be able to provide additional information based upon this error.
All questions regarding STOP 0x9C should be directed to the hardware manufacturer.

See here for information that relates.
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/joshpoley/archive/2007/12/03/debugging-a-bugcheck-9c.aspx

Note this quote:

After doing some additional research on the web it looked like the most common causes of this issue is due to a faulty motherboard, CPU, power supply, or memory.

In the light of this, I think it possible that the hard drive failure may be secondary to another on-board failure. Or it is possible you have two hardware failures.

Questions: How is your ac power?
Do you have an undamaged surge surpressor?
Is your ac subject to brown-outs or to surges?
These are possible issues to explore, but...

Please Note:
It looks like you should consult the seller or else the manufacturer directly.
You said that it is a "Sony Vaio All-in-One"
I have no experience with Sony service.
So... How old is the system?
and ... Is it possible to get warranty service?

 

[potherbe]

im afraid another bsod

Hi BookWyrn,
Thanks for the info, Sorry for the delay I have been away for a few days. I thought all along that the temperature readings I was getting off the hard drive ( rarely below 64 degrees and upto 70 degrees) was an alarming figure. I have Wd drives in all my other computers and they run really cool. I did check the voltage issues and they all seemed to be ok, the motherboard is a bit worrying though. Like I said it is for a relation and she said it was annoying, I then took a look at it and it was very intermittent like nothing happened for 14 hours the it would just go into the bsod. The system is over 5 years old so warrenty is out, I have opened it up and can get at the hard drive so thats easy enough but if the motherboard is faulty then thats another story, and maybe it's time for the unit to be disposed off. as a hard drive is cheap then I may suggest that route and see how it goes if it does fail after that then the hardrive can always be salvaged. I appreciate your help. It is funny though that I have it running for over a week and nothing has happened lol.
Thanks again
Paul

 

[B00kWyrm]

On a five year old system, dust may have accumulated, acting as an insulator, causing the heat build-up.
If you are comfortable doing so, it would not hurt to try to check for this issue, while you are replacing the drive.
As you note, the drive is a relatively cheap fix, and at the very least,
If it does not fix the system, can be migrated to an enclosure for use with another system.

I hope you have the needed disks to reload the system once you replace the drive.
Be sure to use a utility like ghost (etc) to back up your data first.
Let us know how it goes.

 

[potherbe]

I'm afrais another bsod

Hi B00kWyrm,
Well you are not wrong there my friend ! It was one of the first things I noticed that dust had settled on the outside of the vents but when I got into it WOW it was all over the cooling fins you couldn't see it! so it has all been given a thorough clean. so much so the 2 fans that were on constantly now only come on very rarely. The hard drive though is still running hot ie 62 degrees and the computer isn't doing anything. I don't have ghost but I will make a backup of the disk as there no operating disks it is on another partition on the drive . I will let you know how things go in due course.
Thanks again for your input
Regards

Potherbe

 

[LookinAround]

I don't have ghost but I will make a backup of the disk as there no operating disks it is on another partition on the drive .

Should you need it, EASUS Todo Backup is a good freeware alternative to create a full backup image of your HD (it lacks some of the features you get in $$ products but will let you backup/restore complete drive images)

 

[potherbe]

Cheers for that advice lookinaround. I will look it up and try it out
Regards

Potherbe