Multiple BSOD, Possibly Hardware, Need Advice

[Denthead]

Hey everyone,
I've been getting relentless Blue screen errors for a couple months now on a self-built rig that's about a year and a half old. I've been using google to check my error parameters in an effort to discover the problem, and this site is consistently among the top hits for such errors, and there is a wealth of good advice here, so I thought I'd throw myself at the mercy of the forum, as it were, in a desperate plea for help with my problem.

The Problem.
At first, under normal operation and while playing WoW for most of the life of the computer, I never experienced any blue screens whatsoever. Recently (2 months or so) I purchased half life 2 and have been playing CounterStrike:Source pretty often. This is when the problems began. I would get several blue screens in a single cs session, and finally i resolved to fix the problem. The blue screens now happen, very rarely, when i'm NOT playing counter strike, and they also happen occasionally as I'm exiting Counter Strike.

What I've Tried.
1) Fully updating every driver I can possibly think of. Vid card, sound card, chipset, flashing bios, network card...even my friggin mouse for crying out loud.
2) Clean install of windows.
3) Monitoring my hardware temps with Motherboard Monitor, and finding nothing unusual. Just for grins I pointed a fan into my computer, and this error still occured.
4) Used memtest to test my memory in all different configurations: Single chip in slots 1, 2, 3, and 4; both chips in slots 1,2, and slots 3,4.
5) Run both AdAware and a virus scan in safe mode to ensure is isn't malware or a virus.

Its also important to note that when the problem began to occur, about a month in, my PSU and Video card blew up. I have since Upgraded both pieces of hardware and the problem continues.

My specs:
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3000+
Mobo: Abit AV8, running the K8T800 Pro Chipset
PSU: Rosewill SL-8500BTX 550W
GPU: Nvidia 7600 GS 256 MB
Sound Card: Creative Audigy 2 ZS
RAM: 1GB Corsair PC3200 DDR SDRAM
My only disc drive is a DVD/CD Burner and I'm running Windows XP Professional with Service pack 2.

Here are my last 5 minidumps:
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Please don't hesitate to ask if there is anything else I need to post. I'm committed to helping you help me solve this problem as quickly and as easily as possible.

Thanks,

Adam

 

[Route44]

ctoss2k.sys comes up twice which is a Creative audio driver. Sometimes a BSOD can occur if the sound card isn't firmly set.

nv4_disp.dll showed up once and that is an Nvidia driver.

atapi.sys also showed up and that is an IDE driver. If you google it you can read more.

* It could be that the drivers you have indstalled don't play well with these games and vice-versa.

 

[Denthead]

Re:

That's possible, but I've also recently been getting rare BSOD's outside of these games too, sometimes even when I'm exiting out of them. Is it possible it could be a bad motherboard?

 

[Route44]

That's possible, but I've also recently been getting rare BSOD's outside of these games too, sometimes even when I'm exiting out of them. Is it possible it could be a bad motherboard?

I reread your post and I missed the part about the PSU and video card "blowing up." When you say "blow up" can you give more details? A bad PSU can be a major headache and if it went bad it could very well have affected your mobo. Your minidumps are all over the place as to errors.

It would also be prudent to run a harddrive diagnostics at this point.

If you do find you need a new Socket 939 mobo it will take some doing but they can be found.

By the way, if I may, I suggest another gig of RAM since you are a gamer.

 

[Denthead]

re:

Well, basically what happened is I was getting a ton of restarts (because I had the restart option checked for windows, so that it just restarted instead of showing me a BSOD). After it happened one time in particular, I logged back into Counter Strike Source and had some weird graphical glitches going on. It ran for about three minutes that way and then the computer just shut down.

I couldn't get it to turn back on and work properly until later, when I swapped out both my vid card and my psu with a friends. Well, that's not entirely true, i got it to boot after just having swapped the psu, but the screen was entirely messed up--a problem that was fixed by swapping out the vid card.

So anyway, I'm not sure what happened, to this day. They couldn't have overheated as I've always monitored the temps and they were never even close to dangerously high. I suppose its possible lightning caused a surge, but that wouldn't explain why only two parts went bad.

I'm not totally ruling out that its a bad mobo, but as you said yourself socket 939 (and I need an agp slot, no less) is getting hard to find. For that reason I'd like to be sure its the mobo before I do that.

Also, you mentioned hard drive diagnostics, how would I go about doing that?

Adam

PS: Thank you for helping me.
PPS: Noted about the extra gig of RAM. When I get this problem fixed I'll do that.

 

[Route44]

Both Seagate and Western Digital supply free harddrive diagnostics tools that you can get online.

Your vid card sounds like it was artifacting which is a major sign of a dying card. When you swapped the vid card out did you get rid of the old drivers?

The only motherboard I found for AGP is at the following link: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3318077&CatId=1569

The thing is it is a Neo-F2 and with that VIA chipset I am not sure how it handles gaming graphics. I do like MSI. Google it and see what kind of reviews you get.

NewEgg does have some Foxconns but only in PCI-E. If your motherboard is fried you might consider going the PCI-E route.

 

[kirock]

Wow dude it seems like a lost cause, but it's not! It's PSU, as you said when you put your friends PSU in you booted no problems, but when you used his
gfx card you had a black screen. That's because you didn't have the drivers for his card. So. what really happened was, you put your card back in and it all worked well. So it's your PSU.

If you think replacing your socket 939 mobo is practical (AGP video) you are dreaming. Replace your PSU first then if that doesn't fix it, buy a new AM2 or Intel CD2 board. Now your onboard with a decent gaming rig.

I have a 939 3500+ and MSI Neo 4 platinum/ sli mobo, with a 7900GT 256Mb and I'm about to throw this in the garbage.(self built)

It could be that your drivers are out of sink, your mob drivers can be only so mature, but gfx drivers can go on and on! Try rolling back your gfx drivers to start.

 

[Denthead]

re

When i swapped the parts out, I did a fresh install of windows, and reinstalled all the drivers. The annoying thing is the problem that I'm having was going on before i swapped out these parts, which kind of ruled out in my mind that it was those parts causing the problem.

I've had my eye on that motherboard, but like I said, i want to make sure that that's the cause before i spring for one. The problem is its hard to just swap out motherboards with a friends to test it, hah.

The VIA chipset is pretty good. I'll test my HD and get back to you.

Thanks.

Adam

 

[Denthead]

Re

Tested my hard drive with seagate's tools, and it passed the long, thorough test. I think I'm starting to whittle the possibilities down to the motherboard, but I'm still not sure. I'm gonna post up a few more minidumps, and could you all take a look and let me know what you think?

I ran iteration tests with prime95 and found that i definitely have some sort of hardware problem. So now I'm thinking mobo but I just want to be sure before i spring for a new one.

Here are some more minidumps.

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Is there any additional information I should know, based on these, that would point to the motherboard?

By the way, if you could point me in the right direction about where to find information on how to read these minidumps so I can analyze them myself, that would be great. That way I dont have to keep bugging you.

 

[Denthead]

Wow dude it seems like a lost cause, but it's not! It's PSU, as you said when you put your friends PSU in you booted no problems, but when you used his
gfx card you had a black screen. That's because you didn't have the drivers for his card. So. what really happened was, you put your card back in and it all worked well. So it's your PSU.

This was after my original PSU and vid card broke. When I used my OLD (the broken one) video card with his PSU after my old PSU blew up, it booted with bad graphical bugs. It went something like this:

Old PSU, old vid card: no boot.
Friends PSU, old vid card: boot, but with awful graphical problems.
Friend's PSU, friend's vid card: Boot and graphics are normal.

I have since replaced the old, broken video card and PSU, and am still having the same problems. So I'm not sure its the PSU.

And yea, I know 939 is dinosaur, haha. Unfortunately I don't currently have the means to replace anything.

 

[kirock]

Set your Vdimm to at least 2.6V, I use 2.65V for my DDR-400 OZC ram.

 

[Denthead]

re

My Vddr is currently set to 2.65. I'm starting to really think its my motherboard. Do you guys know of anything I can use to test mine to confirm this? I'm pretty sure I've eliminated everything else.

Adam