New Vista installation unstable

[sellmesanity]

I thought my vista was being unstable because of my RAID so i took off the RAID and formatted both disks. I installed Vista on one disk, and it is still being unstable and blue screening...I have one minidump file. Can someone point me in the right direction as to what this is? When I turn off the computer I can hear a loud spindown on the WD which leads me to test the hard drive. I am doing a diagnostic on the hard drive but that's all I can think of.

I have an Epox 9npa+ Nforce 4 Ultra socket 939 motherboard
2 gb gskill ddr400
8800gt video card
wd 160gb
samsung 160gb

Thanks.

 

[sellmesanity]

The crash is giving me different error codes. I've posted 3 minidumps in this zip. WD Diagnostics and memtest were clean.

 

[Route44]

Hey, I have two of the same boards in my home PCs. The best build experiences I have ever had with a motherboard. It is a crying shame EPoX went out of businesss. Anyway this what your minidumps point to:

First error 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).

Second is 0x0000007E: SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
A system thread generated an exception which the error handler did not catch. There are numerous individual causes for this problem, including hardware incompatibility, a faulty device driver or system service, or some software issues.

The third is 0x8E and these are almost always caused by hardware issues though sometimes by drivers.

Unfortunately all three cite Windows drivers which are too general to be helpful. However, it is leaning to hardware (not ruling out software), but what hardware has yet to be determined.

I was going to suggest a harddrive diagnostics but you are wisely doing that already.

I would also do Memtest on your RAM for a minimum of 7 Passes. www.memtest.org

* Get back with your results and let us know what you found.

 

[sellmesanity]

I will check that tonight. I forgot to mention that these errors usually only happen during bootup, right before I get into the login screen. I don't know if that makes a difference.

 

[sellmesanity]

The 7e errror kept increasing in numbers...my ram tested clean. No hard drive software helped me out, I just took out the hard drive I thought was bad and I am not getting BSOD's yet. If i do I will update this.

 

[Route44]

I am wondering if was the harddrive controller and/or cables.

 

[sellmesanity]

One of the SATA cables to the good hard drive looked like the end connector where the wire meets the head was becoming loose, but it still looked intact. I also switched the cables with the better condition cable. Man this hard drive is slow on Vista. It got a 5.2 rating...I think I want a Velociraptor.

 

[sellmesanity]

Turns out I was wrong. So after I switched HD's I had to reinstall vista and things have been stable til this morning when the computer was on and it restarted out of nowhere. I got this minidump but I was never shown a code or saw any blue screen.

 

[Route44]

Your error is 0x00000024: NTFS_FILE_SYSTEM and this is how auhma.org defines as well as suggests how to diagnose:

A problem occurred within NTFS.SYS, the driver file that allows the system to read and write to NTFS file system drives. There may be a physical problem with the disk, or an Interrupt Request Packet (IRP) may be corrupted. Other common causes include heavy hard drive fragmentation, heavy file I/O, problems with some types of drive-mirroring software, or some antivirus software. I suggest running ChkDsk or ScanDisk as a first step; then disable all file system filters such as virus scanners, firewall software, or backup utilities. Check the file properties of NTFS.SYS to ensure it matches the current OS or SP version. Update all disk, tape backup, CD-ROM, or removable device drivers to the most current versions.

I looked back over you posts and you stated that no harddrive software helped you out. What software have you used?

Also, you mentioned in your first post that you took off the RAID; have you reconfigured back to RAID?

 

[sellmesanity]

Let's see. I used Parted magic to create the NTFS file system on this single hard drive. The RAID is done with because I got rid of my other drive which was a Western Digitial and the one I am using now is a Samsung. I am trying out Avira Antivir for the first time on Vista...I wonder if that could be the problem. I don't have any backup utilities or any extra programs running in the background. It's a clean installation.

As for what programs I used for the hard drive i used WD Diagnostics, Smartmontools, (i tried to read the drives with multiple SMART programs but none went through), and I forgot but i used 2 hard drive error scanning programs in the Ultimate Boot CD. I think one was called Bart's tools. I will try running chkdsk and getting rid of the virus scanner.

 

[Route44]

Avira is one of the best antivirus sotftwares on the market. I am wondering if there is not an issue with Partition Magic. it wouldn't be the first time this software came up and harddrive issues. And it may be the reason why the WD diagnostics (which is an excellent utility) and other HD diagnostics hasn't worked (which is confounding).

 

[sellmesanity]

Parted Magic, it's a linux spinoff of Partition Magic...Hmmm why would that cause a problem though? I used the Vista CD's installation formatting tool as well I believe. I mean, does this mean I should format again with only the Vista CD creating the NTFS partition? Maybe Vista won't let my computer report the SMART values because of the Nforce 4 controllers I have that might be old? I installed the latest drivers (15.23) for the Chipset, so that's odd. I will search for more harddrive testing tools and retest memory for more than 9 passes. Any suggestions for good hard drive testing tools?

 

[Route44]

Seagate's SeaTools is another excellent utility and should work with your Samsung (it works with many brands). If you use it make sure you run the Long DST. To repeat myself, I find it significant that several good harddrive diagnostic utilities are not able to complete their tasks.

It would be interesting to see if using only the Vista CD for the NTFS partition would work. By the way, you are doing some good diagnostic work.

 

[sellmesanity]

Another 8e bsod. Strange, multiple bsods....

Oh yeah I am not unfamiliar with computer probs I am just stumped by this one. It seems like no matter which HD I use it still crashes. This Samsung just had data in it and nothing booted from it while the WD had Vista, which is another reason why I thought it could be the WD. So by taking it out it should have gotten rid of this issue, unless somehow it actually was the Samsung that was bad all along. Usually when drives go back they make sounds, but this drive sounds as if it is in perfect health. It isn't loud at all and the reading and writing sounds from the drive are very linear. Or maybe it's Vista and the way the Chipset behaves with the drivers. Regardless Vista is somehow directly involved I feel, especially since none of this happened in XP.

When I had XP I had no blue screens, and that was with the RAID. I think I should go back to XP and see if I get blue screens.

I ran Seatools and it doesn't seem to see my Samsung, only USB Drives like my iPod. In Vista the Samsung and WD are seen as SCSI drives because of the drivers. Perhaps that's why Seatools isn't seeing it and SMART isn't working. My computer BSODs without these drivers installed as well and also without the Avira.

 

[SNGX1275]

Is your RAM good?

 

[sellmesanity]

I ran memtest for 11 passes and the ram came out good. I tested the hard drives with a surface and remap scan from some program in Ultimate Boot CD. They both came out clean with no errors.

I think my hard drives are getting old nonetheless, but I don't think they're the problem because just as I thought happened. When I went back to XP no BSODs at all. I even have a RAID in xp with these drives, because I can't get the RAID running in Vista anymore. Even when I had RAID in Vista, it was still giving me BSODs. There is something in Vista that is unstable

When I was in Vista I kept getting the 7e BSOD error multiple times and the other errors just once. Regardless, I still feel like I failed in finding exactly what was wrong.

 

[Route44]

That is the problem with error 0x7E :SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED

The definition is so broad it covers virtually everything:

A system thread generated an exception which the error handler did not catch. There are numerous individual causes for this problem, including hardware incompatibility, a faulty device driver or system service, or some software issues.

Did you happen to check Event Viewer (EventVwr.msc) for additional information?

 

[sellmesanity]

No, I thought all the readable information was in the minidump...

:-(