Hello.
I have had an intermittent BSOD problem for a while now and I would like to get to the bottom of what is causing it, as it is slowly driving me mad.
The Situation
I build up my own pcs gradually when certain parts become old or too slow. My current system is good spec:
AMD Athlon 64 3200+
1GB PC3200 DDR
MSI K8N Neo mobo
X800XL AGP 256Mb Graphics
Mobo Onboard sound feature Realtek AC97
The problem is this:
When playing 3dgames (noticeably World of Warcraft and Half-Life 2) I sometimes get a BSOD which is BLANK, i.e. no text just a blue screen.
I have to reboot and load up my mini-dumps using WinDbg to actually find out what caused the BSOD. I have had about 30 crashes over the past 3 months and they all either point to ati2dvag.dll or ati3duag.dll.
As far as I know these are ATI driver files in their cat drivers. These BSOD’s have been ongoing since I purchased the card and first installed cat 5.5v. Every time I install a new version I do it by the book going into safemode, deleting old versions etc. But it doesn’t seem to help, eventually after a reinstall a blank BSOD is inevitable.
What I Have Tried
First of all I wanted to check out the ram since I know BSOD’s are a common result of bad memory. I have run both memtest64 and prime95 for 8 hours each and both have come up with zero errors.
Another possibility was my temperatures. As im writing this my pc has been on for about 10hours, played many games and the core is at about 50C.
I have been through the power calculation tool and it says I need no more than 300W for my setup. I have a Chieftec 350W PSU Model: HPC-340-201 (about 3 years old from a AMD 1800+ system) still in place, and after checking voltages using SystemFan the +12V seems normal going between 12.07 and 11.85.
I have tried switching the ram sticks around but no joy.
What is curious is the BLANK BSOD, and is this a symptom of a specific problem? I am at a loose end now and any advice would be much appreciated. As you can imagine I would like to find the problem and not resort to buy a brand new system to relieve my torment
. As stated earlier this is intermittant. I could go days without a BSOD then get three within 3 hours. When the computer is idling is runs like a dream, only problem is when I game.
Thanks in advance,
DF
I have had an intermittent BSOD problem for a while now and I would like to get to the bottom of what is causing it, as it is slowly driving me mad.
The Situation
I build up my own pcs gradually when certain parts become old or too slow. My current system is good spec:
AMD Athlon 64 3200+
1GB PC3200 DDR
MSI K8N Neo mobo
X800XL AGP 256Mb Graphics
Mobo Onboard sound feature Realtek AC97
The problem is this:
When playing 3dgames (noticeably World of Warcraft and Half-Life 2) I sometimes get a BSOD which is BLANK, i.e. no text just a blue screen.
I have to reboot and load up my mini-dumps using WinDbg to actually find out what caused the BSOD. I have had about 30 crashes over the past 3 months and they all either point to ati2dvag.dll or ati3duag.dll.
As far as I know these are ATI driver files in their cat drivers. These BSOD’s have been ongoing since I purchased the card and first installed cat 5.5v. Every time I install a new version I do it by the book going into safemode, deleting old versions etc. But it doesn’t seem to help, eventually after a reinstall a blank BSOD is inevitable.
What I Have Tried
First of all I wanted to check out the ram since I know BSOD’s are a common result of bad memory. I have run both memtest64 and prime95 for 8 hours each and both have come up with zero errors.
Another possibility was my temperatures. As im writing this my pc has been on for about 10hours, played many games and the core is at about 50C.
I have been through the power calculation tool and it says I need no more than 300W for my setup. I have a Chieftec 350W PSU Model: HPC-340-201 (about 3 years old from a AMD 1800+ system) still in place, and after checking voltages using SystemFan the +12V seems normal going between 12.07 and 11.85.
I have tried switching the ram sticks around but no joy.
What is curious is the BLANK BSOD, and is this a symptom of a specific problem? I am at a loose end now and any advice would be much appreciated. As you can imagine I would like to find the problem and not resort to buy a brand new system to relieve my torment
. As stated earlier this is intermittant. I could go days without a BSOD then get three within 3 hours. When the computer is idling is runs like a dream, only problem is when I game.Thanks in advance,
DF
