Random BSODs

[mcmousley]

I keep getting random BSODs (random times, random messages, including page_faults) on what is now a second complete rebuild of a system (after RMAing the RAM, then CPU and motherboard for different items). Windows crash consistently says device driver.

I'm now using:
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (rev. E3);
ASUS A8V;
Antec Trueblue 480W (+5V:38A,+12V:28A,+3.3V:30A,-5V:0.5A,-12V:1.0A,+5VSB:2.0A);
1GB (2x512mb) Kingston KVR400X64C3AK2/1G;
Generic 3.5" (Beige) 7-in-1 Card;
ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon (32MB, AGP 4x);
Western Digital Caviar Special Edition 120 GB (WD1200JB-00CRA1) PATA harddrive at IDE ch. 0;
Maxtor 160 GB (6B160M0) SATA harddrive at IDE ch. 1 (system and boot drive, using SATA RAID drivers);
Norcent CD-R/RW 32x10 drive at IDE ch. 1 (slave);
Matshuita DVD-RAM LF-D310 drive at IDE ch. 1 (master);
Generic floppy disk drive;
Microsoft optical mouse and keyboard;
Windows XP Pro, SP2.

Memtest produces no errors with this RAM (on this system and on this system with an MSI K7N2-Delta2-LSR with Athlon XP 3000+, the previous system).

My best guess is the video card, given problems with ATI and this ASUS board and the fact that it (the video card) is the oldest component in the system. I've tried using the newest driver and the first driver with CATALYST, but neither seems to affect the BSOD issue.

Minidumps are attached, which I can't make heads or tails of.

Can anyone help?

 

[mcmousley]

still scratching my head

I've played around with different versions of the driver for the video card since putting up the original post, but nothing seems to stop the BSODs. I'm ready to get a new video card to verify that that's the problem, but I'd really like some assurance that it's not something else...


Can anyone make sense of the minidumps (it's Greek to me!)?
Any suggestions...anyone?

 

[Tedster]

ATI is known not to work with the K7N2 motherboard. I had an ATi card and it constantly crashed even with updated drivers. Until I switched to an NVIDIA baed card. I haven't had problems since.

 

[cpc2004]

Hi,

Your version of Norton AV has a lot of known software problem. Upgrade or de-install Norton AV. If it still crashes reseat the memory or downclock the ram.

Your Debug report
Mini112205-01.dmp BugCheck 1000007F, {d, 0, 0, 0}
DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID: CODE_CORRUPTION
Probably caused by : memory_corruption

Mini112505-01.dmp BugCheck 24, {1902fe, b86eb8c8, b86eb5c4, f729c17a}
DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID: CODE_CORRUPTION
Owning Process 86e4ada0 Image: gcASCleaner.exe
Probably caused by : memory_corruption

Mini112505-02.dmp BugCheck 10000050, {ee31798c, 1, 8058fc06, 0}
DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID: CODE_CORRUPTION
Owning Process 86cc5678 Image: ati2evxx.exe
Probably caused by : memory_corruption

Mini112705-01.dmp BugCheck 1000008E, {c0000005, f835b985, b8b0b88c, 0}
DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID: CODE_CORRUPTION
Owning Process f8c5ab90 Image: javaw.exe
Probably caused by : memory_corruption

Mini120205-01.dmp BugCheck 1000000A, {40000, 2, 1, 806ffa2a}
DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID: DRIVER_FAULT
Owning Process fec2c738 Image: CCAPP.EXE
Probably caused by : Ntfs.sys ( Ntfs!NtfsCopyReadA+249 )

Mini120205-02.dmp BugCheck 1000008E, {c000001d, 80591b57, b842cc54, 0}
DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID: CODE_CORRUPTION
Owning Process 82ca3800 Image: CCPROXY.EXE
Probably caused by : memory_corruption

Mini120305-01.dmp BugCheck 100000D1, {cf2b7e0d, 2, 1, bae87862}
Owning Process 82ee0490 Image: System
Probably caused by : SYMTDI.SYS ( SYMTDI+4862 )

Mini120805-01.dmp BugCheck 10000050, {ffff6d9e, 0, ffff6d9e, 0}
Owning Process 82ee0490 Image: System
Probably caused by : hardware ( nt!_except_handler3+61 )

Mini120905-01.dmp BugCheck 1000008E, {c0000005, bf8011e7, f81d7a48, 0}
Owning Process 82bfdc08 Image: csrss.exe
Probably caused by : win32k.sys ( win32k!TimersProc+68 )

Mini120905-02.dmp BugCheck 1000007F, {8, f8797d70, 0, 0}
Owning Process 82274da0 Image: CCEVTMGR.EXE
Probably caused by : ntkrnlmp.exe ( nt!KiTrap0E+24 )

Mini121205-01.dmp BugCheck 1000007F, {8, f8797d70, 0, 0}
Owning Process f9065020 Image: firefox.exe
Probably caused by : ntkrnlmp.exe ( nt!KiTrap0E+9 )

Mini121405-01.dmp BugCheck 1000008E, {c000001d, 8057f14a, b80dd8e8, 0}
Owning Process fb97fda0 Image: gcasDtServ.exe
Probably caused by : hardware ( SAVRT+4b2be )

 

[Arcanum]

Ouch, checking these minidumps doesn't reveal much of a software problem...

Ranging from memory corruptions to exceptions in DLL that are an integral part of Windows - I'm guessing it's bad RAM.

Try going into BIOS and loading safe defaults.
Also, try downloading and running memtest.

 

[mcmousley]

Working on it...

Thanks for the suggestions, guys!

Tedster, thanks for the note re ATI and the K7N2 board. That's the board I had before and had similar problems. Now I'm using the Asus A8V board, but I understand from other posts that there are known problems with ATI and this Asus board...that's why I'm looking into new cards, though I really like the ATI All-in-Wonder...any suggestions for something similar (ie has TV tuner and capture) that's not ATI-based?

Cpc2004 and Arcanum, I really appreciate the help with the minidumps, but I'm not sure you were looking at the ones I posted...I only posted 10 (not 12), I didn't post any from 112205 or 112505 (all were in December), and I don't have Norton AV installed (using Trend's Pc-cillin). Also, I saw firefox.exe in one of the minidumps you decoded, but I don't have that installed either. Unless I'm really missing something (which I wouldn't rule out!), I'm guessing we're not on the same page...Did I mess up in posting the minidumps?

I'll run Memtest tonight and see what comes up...Any suggestions in the meantime?

 

[cpc2004]

Hi,

I make a mistake and the debug report of my previous post belongs to another problem. I download your minidumps and the culprit is faulty ram.

Two minidumps are crashed at pc-cillian maybe they are related to faulty ram.
If the blue screen occurs after your upgrade PC-cillian, you had better upgrade fallback the uprade of the pc-cillian.

Mini121005-01.dmp BugCheck 10000050, {c15f23b8, 0, f7372742, 0}
Owning Process 867c6830 Image: System
Mini121005-01.dmp Probably caused by : Tmpreflt.sys ( Tmpreflt+1d10 )

Mini121105-01.dmp BugCheck 1000008E, {c0000005, 805446f3, b7c1c8b8, 0}
Owning Process 8649cbc0 Image: explorer.exe
Mini121105-01.dmp Probably caused by : ntkrnlpa.exe ( nt!ExAllocatePoolWithTag+673 )

Mini121105-02.dmp BugCheck 1000007F, {8, 80042000, 0, 0}
Owning Process 854d9da0 Image: CLI.exe
Mini121105-02.dmp Probably caused by : ntkrnlpa.exe ( nt!KiFastCallEntry+100 )

Mini121105-03.dmp BugCheck 10000050, {c43d4908, 1, 8062a600, 0}
Owning Process 867c6830 Image: System
Mini121105-03.dmp Probably caused by : ntkrnlpa.exe ( nt!CmpCleanUpKcbCacheWithLock+50 )

Mini121805-01.dmp BugCheck 10000050, {c1841890, 0, f73718d3, 0}
Owning Process 867c6830 Image: System
Mini121805-01.dmp Probably caused by : Tmpreflt.sys ( Tmpreflt+7a83 )

Mini121805-02.dmp BugCheck 1000008E, {c0000005, 805446f3, b0b3b6e4, 0}
Owning Process 854d1020 Image: winamp.exe
Mini121805-02.dmp Probably caused by : win32k.sys ( win32k!HeavyAllocPool+74 )

Mini121805-03.dmp BugCheck 10000050, {c439cb14, 1, 805446f3, 0}
Owning Process 85471bc8 Image: winamp.exe
Mini121805-03.dmp Probably caused by : win32k.sys ( win32k!HeavyAllocPool+74 )

Mini122105-01.dmp BugCheck 10000050, {c15cc008, 0, 805437b2, 0}
Owning Process 857ba7d8 Image: winamp.exe
Mini122105-01.dmp Probably caused by : Pool_Corruption ( nt!ExDeferredFreePool+ac )

Mini122205-01.dmp BugCheck 10000050, {c57d2e54, 1, 805446f3, 0}
Owning Process 85d92020 Image: winamp.exe
Mini122205-01.dmp Probably caused by : win32k.sys ( win32k!HeavyAllocPool+74 )

Mini122205-02.dmp BugCheck 1000008E, {c0000005, 805446f3, ac8e5150, 0}
Owning Process 85b0fda0 Image: WINZIP32.EXE
Mini122205-02.dmp Probably caused by : win32k.sys ( win32k!HeavyAllocPool+74 )

 

[Ruder]

Again it is a driver problem ...

Get the correct AIW drivers.

 

[Arcanum]

Well, I did look the right minidumps the first time, and I still stand by my first reply:
"Ouch, checking these minidumps doesn't reveal much of a software problem...

Ranging from memory corruptions to exceptions in DLL that are an integral part of Windows - I'm guessing it's bad RAM.

Try going into BIOS and loading safe defaults.
Also, try downloading and running memtest."

It's probably bad RAM as I said before...

What it's not is a driver problem - Ruder, just look at where the exceptions happen, no near the driver memory or it's DLLs, it's all at the integral XP sys's and exe's, not connected to drivers in any way...
The BSODs happen when the program references the DLL/sys and it's already corrupted in memory.
The BSODs may happen when running those progs, but these progs themselves are not the cause.

And the Pool corruption says it all - memory corruption, try running memtest and loading safe deafults in BIOS as I've said.
You could try to install one of the Omega modded Catalyst drivers and see if it helps, but I somehow doubt it.

 

[mcmousley]

Thanks for the input...I really appreciate the help!

I can't believe it seems to be the ram! I've already rma'd the ram from my first build (generic Samsung chips to the Kingston sticks I have now). Any way to tell whether its a compatability issue (and the solution is to get a different brand/type of ram) or just bad sticks (and the solution could be to rma the ram...again)? I'll doublecheck the BIOS settings (though I think they are already at defaults) and let you know what memtest shows...

 

[mcmousley]

Ok, checked the BIOS settings and noticed ECC was enabled, which I then disabled because the Kingston KVR400X64C3AK2/1G is non-ECC. I didn't touch any of the other auto settings.

I then ran Memtest86+ v1.55 for 12 hrs/26 passes last night and got 1 error (test 7 pass 17).

Since then I've read reports on other forums that it's better to enter memory configurations manually on this board, so now I'm in memory timing/configuration hell! I get the whole 3-3-3 corresponds to CL-TRCD-TRP, but the BIOS on this board also allows configs (in CLK values) for TRAS, TRRD, TRC, TRFC, TRWT, TWCL, and TWR. Doesn't help with the spec sheet for the RAM gives values for some of these items in "ns" values. Not to mention that the BIOS also has settings for AsyncLat, Read preamble setting, 2T command, bank interleaving, memory hole, and burst length, all of which are foreign to me.

Obviously I have some homework to do, but, in your collective experience, is it likely that my crashes are caused by incorrect memory timings or is it more likely that the RAM is just bad and needs to be replaced? I.e., will I be wasting my time hunting down these values or tinkering around with them when the ram just needs to be replaced?

Thanks again for all your help, everyone...it is very much appreciated!

 

[Arcanum]

Well, if you loaded 'safe settings' profile from the BIOS and you still got errors in memtest, the RAM is bad...

If that was the case, save your time and RMA the RAM if you can, or buy new sticks.

Wish there was a way without involving to replace it, but it all points to bad RAM.

 

[Tedster]

I hate to tell you this, but I had TWO kingston Value select memory sticks go bad on my system. They carry a lifetime warranty and I sent them in for new ones and then sold the replacements on ebay. I have since replaced them with crucial and have not had a problem yet.

I run an MSI K7N2 Delta 2 platinum with 3 (512mb) sticks of crucial.

 

[Ruder]

Exception thrown by Kernel as Unhandled Exception. A generic error that can be caused by corrupt data in memory / cache, or by something that corrupts the data before it gets to the processor queue. Devices and their Drivers read/write directly to these blocks.

Do a clean install of XP with no drivers ... see if it still BSODs ... if it does there is a number of things ... if it does not ... then it was drivers.

Don't rule out corrupt data on disk ...

 

[mcmousley]

Ok, now I'm really confused...
I manually set memory settings that I had values for (see above) and set others to auto, ran Memtest for 21 hours (52 passes) and got NO errors. Could the memory still be bad? I'll run the system this week and see what the BSOD situation is...

Ruder, re a fresh XP install, I had the system up and running for a week with fresh, windows-only drivers (and freshly formatted/partitioned drives) and I was getting BSODs. From there I was systematically installing the newest proprietary drivers and the BSODs continued, that's why I thought it was a hardware compatability issue.

 

[Ruder]

Confirm you did not load mobo / sound / vga drivers?

If that is the case ...

1) Update the BIOS on your board.
2) Use 1 x 512 stick in one slot and test if it bombs. Test each slot. Then try the other stick.

If that does not work, then I have bad news...

BTW: post a hijack report.