I've got a machine that is rebooting consistently when running VLC.exe (a machine we built for streaming purposes). The Minidumps are pointing to different things, so I want to see if there's some commonality among them that I can't detect.

We've ran through most of the hoops to get to this point (memtest, hd test, updated bios, drivers, etc.).

We're getting three primary errors in the dump files:

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL (a)
DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL (d1)
PFN_LIST_CORRUPT (4e)

Bug checks attached.

Attached Files

Mini031309_03.zip (9.0 KB, 1 views)

Your 0xD1 cited the driver l1e51x86.sys which is an Atheros AR8121/AR8113 PCI-E Ethernet Controller ndis miniport driver - Atheros AR8121/AR8113 PCI-E Ethernet Controller by Atheros. This would go a long way to explaining your issues with VLC.exe.

How long did you run Memtest? The 0x4E errors (you had 2) are strong indicators of memory issues. Did you check the voltage and timings of your RAM?

Can you elaborate on that?

A few passes. I was planning on giving it a longer run today. It's very time consuming to test the ram for several hours; we're on a tight schedule to get this machine ready.

I assume I would check the voltage/timings in the bios? I am not a very knowledgeable hardware guy; we've got three people who have helped build this rig. I just happen to be the guy who is good and finding forums and making posts

What would I be looking for with the voltage/timings issue?

As for the voltage/timings system memory will have parameters designed by the manufacturer as to the correct voltage and timings for your RAM. I would suggest if you know anyone who can look for this in your BIOS it will only take them a few minutes to find out.

The 0xD1 error cited that driver as the cause for system crashes. It belongs to your NIC and/or LAN card which connects to your internet. VLC.exe belongs to your VLC Player which must also connect to your internet for streaming purposes.

Update your drivers for your NIC card from Atheros.

Update your VLC Player.

Drivers for the Aetheros were updated a few days ago. We've been running the latest version of VLC for a while (0.9.8a).

It seems possible to me that the network card could just be bad, and I'm going to try and swap it as soon as our network guy wanders around (he's real busy putting out fires today).

A couple other pieces of information:

We've got two Osprey-450e video capture cards installed in the machine. We're using those to capture from DISH network satellites, DVD's, etc. When I look under the capture cards in Hardware -> Device Manager I notice that there are four Osprey-450e Bridge Devices, and four Osprey-450e Capture Devices listed. The Bridge Devices have a Resources tab, and when I check those I see IRQ's 17, 18, 16, and 17. I also notice that IRQ 16 is being shared with a RAID controller and the NVidia GeForce video card.

I know Windows XP is supposed to handle all the IRQ assignments automatically, but could we be having an IRQ problem here?

Another thing I'm seeing: The Osprey cards have the latest drivers installed. I am not seeing any problems streaming via vlc.exe when streaming from a file source. The crashes are occurring when I am streaming from one of the inputs on one of the capture cards. However, the files I've had to test with are only 5-7 minutes long. The crashes - when streaming from the devices - happen at different times. Sometimes right away, after I start streaming from a device, and sometimes it takes as long as 15-20 minutes.

I've also got a crash (with a different debug error) when I tried to use Windows Media Encoder.

So I am not convinced yet exactly what it might be. Seems to me it could be the NIC, but then why do the file streams work? It could be one of the capture cards, but do the errors in the debug dumps point to that?

Lots of work to do still, I think, to figure this out.

Drivers for the Aetheros were updated a few days ago. We've been running the latest version of VLC for a while (0.9.8a).

It seems possible to me that the network card could just be bad, and I'm going to try and swap it as soon as our network guy wanders around (he's real busy putting out fires today).

A couple other pieces of information:

We've got two Osprey-450e video capture cards installed in the machine. We're using those to capture from DISH network satellites, DVD's, etc. When I look under the capture cards in Hardware -> Device Manager I notice that there are four Osprey-450e Bridge Devices, and four Osprey-450e Capture Devices listed. The Bridge Devices have a Resources tab, and when I check those I see IRQ's 17, 18, 16, and 17. I also notice that IRQ 16 is being shared with a RAID controller and the NVidia GeForce video card.

I know Windows XP is supposed to handle all the IRQ assignments automatically, but could we be having an IRQ problem here?

Another thing I'm seeing: The Osprey cards have the latest drivers installed. I am not seeing any problems streaming via vlc.exe when streaming from a file source. The crashes are occurring when I am streaming from one of the inputs on one of the capture cards. However, the files I've had to test with are only 5-7 minutes long. The crashes - when streaming from the devices - happen at different times. Sometimes right away, after I start streaming from a device, and sometimes it takes as long as 15-20 minutes.

I've also got a crash (with a different debug error) when I tried to use Windows Media Encoder.

So I am not convinced yet exactly what it might be. Seems to me it could be the NIC, but then why do the file streams work? It could be one of the capture cards, but do the errors in the debug dumps point to that?

Lots of work to do still, I think, to figure this out.

Drivers for the Aetheros were updated a few days ago. We've been running the latest version of VLC for a while (0.9.8a).

It seems possible to me that the network card could just be bad, and I'm going to try and swap it as soon as our network guy wanders around (he's real busy putting out fires today).

A couple other pieces of information:

We've got two Osprey-450e video capture cards installed in the machine. We're using those to capture from DISH network satellites, DVD's, etc. When I look under the capture cards in Hardware -> Device Manager I notice that there are four Osprey-450e Bridge Devices, and four Osprey-450e Capture Devices listed. The Bridge Devices have a Resources tab, and when I check those I see IRQ's 17, 18, 16, and 17. I also notice that IRQ 16 is being shared with a RAID controller and the NVidia GeForce video card.

I know Windows XP is supposed to handle all the IRQ assignments automatically, but could we be having an IRQ problem here?

Another thing I'm seeing: The Osprey cards have the latest drivers installed. I am not seeing any problems streaming via vlc.exe when streaming from a file source. The crashes are occurring when I am streaming from one of the inputs on one of the capture cards. However, the files I've had to test with are only 5-7 minutes long. The crashes - when streaming from the devices - happen at different times. Sometimes right away, after I start streaming from a device, and sometimes it takes as long as 15-20 minutes.

I've also got a crash (with a different debug error) when I tried to use Windows Media Encoder.

So I am not convinced yet exactly what it might be. Seems to me it could be the NIC, but then why do the file streams work? It could be one of the capture cards, but do the errors in the debug dumps point to that?

Lots of work to do still, I think, to figure this out.

Sorry for the double-post. Having a real tough time with some web sites today.

Windows will often assign the same IRQ Level to two different entities. This is quite common.

The Debug reports no where pointed to your capture cards. What security software are you running?

No security software. Firewall is disabled. This server is on its own network and can't get out to the wide world.

Things get more interesting with this machine. It just recently rebooted five times in a row. The first time after it rebooted I tried to copy dump files from it and it immediately rebooted. It then rebooted when I tried to login. And again when I tried file copy. The dump files point to the l1e51x86.sys file which points back at the NIC again.

I had been informed by our network guy that it's got the latest drivers, but I checked. It's sporting version 1.0.0.27, but I found a version 1.0.0.34 on the web. Going to update and see what happens.