Machine Exception Error

[Route44]

Yeah! Before we get to the BIOS I want you to look at two pages.

The first is listed as 1-4 (p.13 according to your PDF reader) and it has a drawing of your motherboard. On the lower right hand side it lists and numbers your SATA ports. Please tell me what port numbers you have already tried.


Then go to 2-7 (p.21 per your PDF). According to the drawing what configuration do you have your memory set as?

Edit Update: I have done further research and one thing I have learned is that your experiences with the SATA ports could be due to an inadequate power supply. To be honest I have always been suspect of the one you have in terms of qiuality power output. But we have to determine first if your SATA is enabled in the BIOS. This is important.

By the way, since you only have one harddrive it doesn't matter what SATA port you choose. It just needs to be enabled.

 

[Joscelin]

First of all, my motherboard doesn't have 7 SATA slots, it has 4+1. I have tried all 5 slots.

About the RAMs, i have installed my RAMs to slots A1 and A2. There is no such configuration in the manual though.

About enabling the SATA slots from BIOS, i haven't done such a thing and do not know how to check it.

 

[Route44]

First of all, my motherboard doesn't have 7 SATA slots, it has 4+1. I have tried all 5 slots.

About the RAMs, i have installed my RAMs to slots A1 and A2. There is no such configuration in the manual though.

About enabling the SATA slots from BIOS, i haven't done such a thing and do not know how to check it.

So are you saying that the manual I linked to you is not the one that goes with your motherboard? Is your motherboard the MSI MS-7360 P35 Neo?

If it is your motherboard Dual Channel is enabled by installing your memory in DIMM_A1 and DIMM_B1 slots or DIMM_A2 and DIMM_B2 slots. If your RAM is filling the A1 and A2 slots your are not in Dual Channel Mode. However, I doubt this is causing your restarts.

 

[Joscelin]

The manual belongs to my motherboard, i'm positive that it's MSI MS-7360 P35 Neo.

All i'm saying is that, in the manual 7 SATA slots are shown, my mother board has 5, as you can see from the link below;

http://www.ixbt.com/mainboard/ddr3-rmma/msi-p35-big.jpg

I don't think there is a connection between the placements of the RAMs and the restarts, because i haven't changed their slots since i bought the computer and in 2 years no restart problem ever occured. They were installed in A1 and A2 slots all along.

 

[Joscelin]

On page 2-13 of the manual, i found this;

*SATA5 & SATA6 are for ICH9R only.

I don't know what ICH9R is, but i don't think have it =P

 

[Route44]

Thanks for the motherboard picture. I now know why I was confused. Your motherboard model is actually MS-7365 as opposed to the 7360 but you are correct in that the manual you have is the same for the both versions.

The ICH9R is a controller that you don't have to worry about. So are you ready to look at your BIOS? It would probably help you to print out pages 3-2 through 3-10 and follow along. 3-3 will be a big help in navigating the BIOS.

1. Shut down your PC and attach your harddrive to the SATA1.

2. Boot up and immediately continue hitting the Delete key until the screen found on 3-4 comes up. This is your BIOS' Main Menu screen.

3. On that screen to your left is a series of features. You want the very one at the top entiled Standard CMOS Features. Press Enter.

4. The screen on page 3-6 should come up.

5. Now look at > SATA1 and to the right of it does it say detected? If not scroll to where it says [Not Detected], press Enter and enable it.

6. Once you do that press F10: Save. Then Exit and then Escape. It might say Do you want to Save your changes. Yes you do (often a flashing lower case y).

7. The computer will boot through now.

Any restarts?

 

[Joscelin]

On Standard CMOS screen, i got this;

SATA1 : HARDDISK
SATA2 : Not Detected
SATA3 : Not Detected
SATA4 : Not Detected

I quit BIOS, ran Windows and naturally it restarted again.

 

[Joscelin]

Also, the BSOD message i got was;

"Hardware Malfunction - Call your Hardware Vendor for Support"

 

[Route44]

Also, the BSOD message i got was;

"Hardware Malfunction - Call your Hardware Vendor for Support"

*Sigh* Read your previous post. The harddisk was enabled obviously and your BIOS is reading it.

1. Okay, shut down, reboot hitting Delete key. (Attach your DVD drive as well).

2. Main Menu will pop up and this time go to the Advanced BIOS Features and press Enter.

3. On your list on your left scroll down to > Boot Sequence and at 1st Boot Device enable your harddrive and then in the 2nd Boot Devive enable you DVD drive. If you have a Floppy make it third.

4. Then press F10: Save, then Exit and then Escape.

* It should like last time load through. Same issue again?

 

[Joscelin]

*Sigh* Read your previous post.

I'm not clear with this, did i do something wrong?

Anyway, i did as you told me, attached my DVD drive, restarted and on BIOS--> Boot Sequence i enabled 1st Boot Device Hard Drive first and 2nd Boot Device DVD drive. (I have no Floppy) I saved and restarted. Right after windows started and my dektop screen came up, the screen went blank and PC restarted again.

What do you have in mind?

 

[Route44]

You didn't do anything wrong. I certainly wasn't directing it to you. Sorry if it sounded that way.

This is where Joscelin the tedious work comes in. Go back and uninstall your DVD drive and reboot. What happens? If it reboots go back and attach to SATA 2 and then go to the BIOS and see if it is enabled.

Also, when you placed your harddrive in your friend's PC and it didn't restart for 5 hours did you do anything else besides having a jpeg on the screen?

I have a hard time believing all your SATA ports are bad on your motherboard; by the way, nice motherboard.

* When you can please tell me the make and model of your power supply.

 

[Joscelin]

For the first 2 hours after i installed my hard drive to my friend's pc, i used mozilla firefox, windows live messenger, winamp and last.fm scrobbler programs. After that, i had to go to school, so i closed all other programs and opened a .jpg file to see if the PC restarted in the 3 hours i was gone. The file was still open when i came back.

I'll start changing SATA ports and checking BIOS to see if they're enabled. I'll take a look at the PSU as well.

A quick question though, could it be a general motherboard problem that causes the restarts other then the SATA ports or will we start looking elsewhere if they come out ok?

 

[Joscelin]

My case is Asus TA951 350W and i have not replaced its PSU so it's the default PSU for that case.

I don't know if it has a specific name or model but i can remove the PSU if you want me to.

 

[Route44]

Excellent question. We know that the CPU, Video Card, RAM, and Monitor all work and cause no restarts. We know your harddrive works well in another system. We also know that when you attach your harddrive to your own system the restarts begin.

Yes, it could be your motherboard. It could be your SATA controllers are messed up. How old is this system and is it still under warrenty?

It has been a long process so I might have forgotten but can you/could you ever boot into Safe Mode?

What do the reviews have to say about your PSU? JHow reliable? I am just wondering if you are underpowered or that the PSU isn't putting out what you need. Do you know of anyone who has a multimeter to test your PSU?

 

[Joscelin]

First of all, just in case it escapes your notice;

My case is Asus TA951 350W and i have not replaced its PSU so it's the default PSU for that case.

I don't know if it has a specific name or model but i can remove the PSU if you want me to.

My system is just 2 years and 2 weeks old. Some parts are still under warranty while some are not. (The motherboard for instance is under warranty, while hard drive warranty is 2 years)

I have been booting into safe mode since the problems began, in fact i'm in safe mode right now. Sometimes the PC restarts even in safe mode but i don't know how that'll effect the diagnostic.

I have not searched for reviews about my PSU, all i know is that stock PSU's are most of the time useless. I do not own a multimeter myself, but i think i can test my PSU at school. (My field is electrical and electronics engineering)

 

[Route44]

"I do not own a multimeter myself, but i think i can test my PSU at school. (My field is electrical and electronics engineering)"

If you can do this great. With your background you should be able to handle a multimeter.

Please check out this link and notice especially the final response. That is excellent information to have. http://images.google.com/imgres?img...g+multimeter&ndsp=18&hl=en&sa=N&start=54&um=1

And this one: http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/cputopiaonline/mp3atx40.jpg

 

[Joscelin]

Thanks for the links Route44. One small problem is that i'll have to wait until monday to test the PSU though.

I've already tried installing my friend's PSU and the PC kept restarting but i don't think it was a healthy test (his case is older than mine and he also still uses the default PSU). Do you think i should try to find a good quality PSU and test my computer with it?

 

[Route44]

You are able to access the BIOS now and that is a good thing just as long as you only deal with the things we have worked with. Again, I realize this can be tedious but try different SATA connections and make sure they are enabled in the BIOS.

As for the PSU, I certainlty don't want to see you spend money you don't have to until we have exshausted other possibilities. I would study up on multimeters and when you can get to your PSU then make sure all connections are working.

Keep in mind your psu must be plugged into your motherboard and turned on for the multimeter to work. Save yourself grief and use a digital model.

Also, when using the probe you should be able to get an accurate read within 5 to 10 seconds. You don't want to leave it connected longer. You'll find setting the multimeter to 20 volts more than enough to test.

* It is a shame that I don't have a day to physically work with your system. I have the equipment to help.

 

[Route44]

I've been doing further research on your motherboard. Because it is a MS-7365 it is the P35 Combo version. Please see this link and scroll down to the middle of the page.

Link: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/460

Your motherboard can run both DDR2 and DDR3 memory. You have DDR2 memory and thus your sticks need to be placed in the Green and Orange slots. The Blue and Pink are designed for DDR3 memory.

* I know your harddrive passed all the SeaTool tests but somewhere along the line you may want to slave your HD to your friend's PC and run antivirus and malware scans. We are trying to eliminate every possibility for cause.

 

[Joscelin]

Hello.

An old friend of mine came over for the weekend so i couldn't do much. Today, i couldn't get a multimeter either, i'll try to get one tomorrow.

All i did was reinstalling the RAMs according to the link in your message and testing the SATA slots.

I tested 4 SATA slots (1-2-3-4) , BIOS shows them as "enabled". There is no SATA 5 in BIOS, so i didn't test that one.

Since i couldn't get a multimeter and test my PSU, i used my other housemate's PSU (It's a 400W Artemis PSU, don't know about it's reliability) and the PC restarted at the "Welcome" screen before my desktop screen even showed up. Second time i started the computer, i did see the desktop but immediately afterwards i got the Machine_Check_Exception BSOD.

I really need a lot of equipment for the tests and my housemates' PC's are not available most of the time and other equipments are either too expensive for me to buy or noone has them so i can borrow. I think it'd be worth the long and extremely tedious testing if we manage to pinpoint the source of this problem.

I don't think i'll be able to run antivirus tests on my PC today and since i do not have a multimeter, it looks like there's not much i can do today.

If only i could get my hands on a software to thoroughly test my motherboard.