Doctor Doctor i suffer WAY too many Blue Screens

[Akaskero]

Hi there.

I have been using this site loads and find it a valuable resource for all my computer needs, however now is my time to add to the ever evolving forum and lace a new thread willingly and ambitiously in the great weave of problems that need resolving.

Like many other Windows operated machines out there, my one also Blue screens way too much.

Ok, so i am on my machine playing Warcraft and it Stops giving me one of these many things i have written down so far.

Bad_pool_header
Driver_IRQL_not_less_or_equal
Bugcode_USBdriver

and at the bottom i have found on different occasions:

USBbohci.sys
USBport.sys
dxg.sys

I un installed Mcafee because i read in a few place that the Naiav driver can cause blue screen, then i cleaned the registry of all Mcafee entries.

In the system event viewer, the ipod service came up as a fatal error so i un installed itunes. Still getting blue screen. My PC is well maintained and i take it for walks but it's HATES me and i don't know why haha

Can i be the start of a new bluescreen solving quest?

Thanks, i wait eagerly for a reply.

 

[kirock]

First of all we need more info on your system.
OS, CPU, mobo, Ram, HDD, video card, PSU, and peripherals (floppy, dvd etc.)

Typical BSOD problems are:

1) Hardware Issues:
bad RAM/not enough RAM
under powered PSU
over temp of CPU or RAM or video card or all
IRQ address conflicts.

2) Software Issues:
faulty/corrupt driver (edit: or outdated drivers including motherboard and video drivers)
page file size too small
not enough RAM
IRQ address conflict
a corrupted Windows file
Virus/trojan/adware

I'm not even one of the experts here by far and I can give the above list, others can fill a page of possible faults with any PC. So you see it's a diffcult process. But 1st thing you should do is set your PC to create a mindump log file. If you have WinXP: R click My Computer/properties/Advanced/Start-up Recovery/settings-check "write an event to sys log"
also in the Advanced window click on error reporting. Enable.

If you want help post bk with sys specs., temperature issues and what wattage your PSU is.

Cheers

 

[Akaskero]

Hi there.

Thankyou very much for your reply.

I typed 'dxdiag' and saved all information, and have had 5 blue screens today alone so i can give 5 minidumps for your perusal. Even while writing this it bluescreened. I had a long reply but now i will keep it short for fear of crashing AGAIN!

Just to say, it normally does it once or twice after i start up and after it's reset, then it may not do it again all day or night until the next day when i start her up again or when i leave it off for a long period of time. So it happens a couple of times when i first start to use it but once i get through that, it's ok. weird.

Ok i have the dxdiag file but the minidump.dmp files wont upload because it's an invalid file type. Sorry to be a n00b. I have the files u need though. What do i do to change them?

Ty very much for your help and time thus far

Akaskero

 

[howard_hopkinso]

Hello and welcome to Techspot.

Go HERE and follow the instructions.

If that doesn`t help. Zip 5 or 6 minidumps together, and attach them here.

Regards Howard :wave: :wave:

 

[kirock]

Well howard is one the experts I was talking about so you're in good hands.

A couple of points:

1)From your DxDiag log I noticed this: Page File: 165MB used, 3834MB available. This seems pretty small, I set mine at 1.5XRAM size, in both our cases it would be 1.5GB. To set this: R click "My Computer"/properties/Advanced/Performance Settings/Advanced Tab/Virtual Memory Change. While on this page make sure CPU and RAM are set to programs.

2) You have 3 HDD and 2 DVD and a GeF 6600GT and P4 3GHz CPU all this takes a fair amount of power. Can you tell us what make and wattage of your PSU? On the label you should be able to a number like 450Watt, 12V @30A, 5V@45A etc.

My gut feeling is the PSU strains when booting and initializing all those components, but after the 3 HDDs are read etc the OS doesn't need to access them all so the power drain reduces and you sort of have a stable platform for awhile. But that's just my gut talking Also add some case fans for cooling and a lower end PSU and you have an excellent brew for BSOD.

When you can post some minidumps Howard can see if there is a driver conflict and even an IRQ ( which is another strong candidate). IRQ conflicts would occur during boot/initialization as each device tries to talk to the OS.

Cheers,

 

[Akaskero]

More and more

Hi there. I must first thank you for your help, but writing this is very difficult because of the frequency to which my PC Blue screens now. I have 2 more from just now that i will add in the log for you to view.

Very interesting u mentioned power though, sometimes when i start up, my disc drive (floppy) will click once or twice. Completely seperated from this event, my Monitor, although in good condition, will turn off and i have to turn it on again. If i right click a media file, the screen will go black as if it were changing resolution and come back on again. These particular events have only started happening since i got the new GForce card.

I would love to change my Page size but i'm not entirely sure what you meant. So should i have 3072 page file or more?

Hope these files are going to help u to solve the problem.

Thanks again

Akaskero

 

[Akaskero]

PSU Power

I forgot to mention the power for my PSU?

Here:

It's a 'Seasonic model SS-300GS ACTIVE PFC'

AC Input = 200-240V - 3.8A 50/60Hz

DC Output = +3.3V +5V +12V -5V -12V -5Vs
28A 30A 15A 0.5A 0.8A 2A
180W (40A) max / 0.8A max
300Watts

Thats exactly like the label on the side.

Thanks again

 

[howard_hopkinso]

1 minidump crashes with hardware, and a bugcheck of 7F.

2 minidumps crash at usbohci.sys, and a bugcheck of D1. OHCI USB Miniport Driver.

You have some kind of hardware problem.

This could be ram/video ram/hdd/psu/mobo/cpu etc.

Your page file is usually set at 1.5X the ammount of ram in your system.

Check your mobo for bulging/leaking capacitors. See HERE for more info.

Did you run the Memtest86+ programme, in the link that I gave you?

If so what were the results?

Regards Howard

 

[howard_hopkinso]

Your psu may be under powered/faulty.

Look HERE at this psu wattage calculator.

Regards Howard

 

[howard_hopkinso]

This is the meaning of your bugchecks.

0x0000007F: UNEXPECTED_KERNEL_MODE_TRAP

One of three types of problems occurred in kernel-mode: (1) Hardware failures. (2) Software problems. (3) A bound trap (i.e., a condition that the kernel is not allowed to have or intercept). Hardware failures are the most common cause (many dozen KB articles exist for this error referencing specific hardware failures) and, of these, memory hardware failures are the most common.

0x000000D1: DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

The system attempted to access pageable memory using a kernel process IRQL that was too high. The most typical cause is a bad device driver (one that uses improper addresses). It can also be caused by caused by faulty or mismatched RAM, or a damaged pagefile.

I would`ve given you this info earlier, but I couldn`t contact the relevant site.

Regards Howard

 

[Akaskero]

Memtest

Hi there. Thankyou for your swift reply.

I have checked my motherboard for the bulging/leaking capacitors luckily to no avail. They all seem to be like the good one in the picture on the link you gave me to my relief.

I tried to work Memtest but after i Dl the .zip version, i click to open it and i don't seem to be able to operate it. I will double click to unzip the file but there's nothing in the .zip file. I'm obviously doing something wrong here. But what?

Thanks again

Akas

 

[howard_hopkinso]

Are you downloading the ISO version, or the floppy version of Memtest?

If it`s the ISO version. You need to unzip it just once, and then burn the resulting file to cd as an image. You should then be able to boot from the cd.

Regards Howard

 

[Akaskero]

How embarrassing

Hi there

I Dl the version (Download - Pre-Compiled Bootable ISO (.zip) which is the second one down. I then unzip the 42kb winrar zip archive 'Extract here'. Then appears a winrar archive of 900kb. I then drag this to my ReWriteable CD and it appears on the CD as a winrar file of 900kb. How do i save the 900kb winrar archive as an image to my disc?

Sorry to be a pain. .

Akas

 

[howard_hopkinso]

The only reason the resulting file looks like another archive, is because you have winrar associated with iso files.

This isn`t a problem. The resulting file is still an ISO image.

It needs to be burned as an image, with your cd burning software. You cannot just drag the file to a cd, it won`t work.

Maybe you should consider downloading the floppy version.

Regards Howard

 

[Akaskero]

Mem is ok

Ok i just finished the memory check and all was clear and ok.

What's the next thing for me to do to solve this problem?
If it's not RAM and i have rescently done a C: Format to my drive and checked that for errors, what could it be?

So if ure sure it's hardware, can i send any other information to help diagnose the issue? What Kirock said about the starting up of my system and sucking all that power makes such good sence. That would explain why i get BSOD at the first use of my PC each time.

Thankyou again for your help thus far.

By the way, my total paging file for all drives is 9216 now. 3072 Initial size and maximum size for each all 3 drives. Well, 2 drives and 3 partitions. Is that too much?

Akaskero

 

[howard_hopkinso]

First, as for your paging file.

It is too big IMHO. I have 512meg of ram, and my page file is set to 768meg, with no problems. A page file of 768meg or 1024meg should be more than adequate

Your psu is deffinitely a suspect. However, the only way to test out that theory, is to try another more powerful psu. A good quality psu of around 400 to 450 watts should be ok.

By good quality. I mean Antec/Enermax/Fortron

Take a look at this excellent article on psu`s. The psu thread.

Regards Howard

 

[Akaskero]

I will go and purhcase

Thankyou for all ure help there.

I have had this problem for many many months now and i am convinced that the PSU is to blame.

It makes so much sense.

What i will do is go forth and buy a good one, fit it and see if that solves the problem.

I will keep up to date with the posts and reply here in a couple of weeks when i buy one To let you know if it solved the problem.

A bit broke atm ya see.

thanks again for ure help

Akaskero

 

[kirock]

Sorry guys, i was busy yesterday so never got a chance to log back on. As I knew Howard would/could, he's helped you out more then I could anyway.

With Howard's diagnosis of a 7F fault ( which is often related to hardware failures) I'm strongly believing it is a PSU problem. 300Watts is pretty small and with 3 HDD and 2 DVD drives and a 6600GT you need at least 450W. Low power can cause all sorts of systemic faults and simulate hardware and/or memory failures.

Your page file size was set to only 165MB which is quite small and can sometimes cause large applications to crash. I use a setting of 1.5X my RAM size. So if you have 1GB you can set your page file size to 1.5GB. To set this: R click "My Computer"/properties/Advanced/Performance Settings/Advanced Tab/Virtual Memory Change. While on this page make sure CPU and RAM are set to programs.


One thing you can try to see if it's the PSU, is disconnect the extra HDDs and 1 of the DVD drives. Of course leave your C: drive connected. This will minimize your power requirements and allow you to run the PC and even play games to see how stable she is. Your BIOS should automatically adjust to not recognize those drives anymore, but if not you'll have to manually enter it and edit the BIOS if they still show up in Windows. Disconnect both the ribbon cable and the power connector. (if you want to try this procedure) It's quick and painless and will give you a good idea if the PSU is being over taxed.

Cheers.