Sporadic Blue Screens of Death (Booting, Watching Movies, Idle, etc..)

[Reaganomics]

To Start Things off my Computer Specifications.

Specs:
CPU: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 6000+
Motherboard: LP UT NF590 SLI
Ram Speed, size and #sticks: DDR2, 4096 MBytes, 2x 2 Gig, Dual Channel
GPU: 2x Geforce 8800 640mb in SLi
PSU (do not leave this out): ABS Tagan BZ Series BZ900 ATX12V / EPS12V 900W
OS: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 2 (Build 2600)

Problem:
As i described in the title the BSODs are completely sporadic. I have found no pattern to when they occur other than the occasional BSOD during the boot process. This BSOD occurs during the Windows XP boot screen.

History:
I recently upgraded to the AMD 6000+, the second 8800 gts, and the PSU. The system was very stable up till a couple nights ago. No hardware or software changes were made to my knowledge.

Additional Info:
I had noticed that my Chipset fan had stopped spinning (It is very very close to the second 8800 gts), but with a couple taps it is back into action. I also have a monitoring tool that came with my MB to keep track of the temps / fan speeds. Everything checks out.

All of my drivers and my BIOS are up to date, and no registry values have been modified.

I will include the Minidump files i have.

Thanks in advance for any help provided.

 

[ramboaz]

Hello,

I am by no means an expert, but based on some mini-dump research I recently had to do for myself, I'd like to offer some suggestions.

From the first dump, I see the following:

Bugcheck analysis: KERNEL_MODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED_M (1000008e)

DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID: DRIVER_FAULT

BUGCHECK_STR: 0x8E

PROCESS_NAME: vlc.exe

Two observations I've made here are that 0x8E (0x0000008E) the BSOD/STOP code that you received points to RAM. It also looks like there's a problem with the VLC driver, or media player.

The second dump looks a little different, indicating bugcheck analysis: ATTEMPTED_EXECUTE_OF_NOEXECUTE_MEMORY a

I still see

DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID: DRIVER_FAULT

BUGCHECK_STR: 0xFC

PROCESS_NAME: vlc.exe


I hope this information helps you, or the other people who might be offering some support. I would be interested in learning (from them) if I am on base with the above advice. I would also like to know if there is a way of analyzing more than one dump without having to close the WinDbg program between dumps.

 

[Reaganomics]

Thank you for the information.

I have no idea what sort of data is in the Minidumps that i uploaded, but from what you discovered, it seems Windows only made a dump of the 2x times the computer crashed while viewing a movie in VLC Media Player.

My assumption for these 2 BSODs was the movie was broken, and VLC offered to fix it. It was playing fine, up until the BSOD.

Thank you for helping to narrow my search, however, I still hope to find what is causing the numerous other blue screens.

Thanks again.

 

[ramboaz]

I am glad to help, although a Techie, this area of support is something I'm still learning.

I'm wondering if you have any other dumps, error codes or information. Hopefully one of the veterans here will be able to guide us in the right direction, but I think this could be related to the RAM. I hate having to "down" my machine, but try running Memtest and see if you get errors.

I hope that others will be able to point you in the right direction. Good luck, and please post the outcome.

 

[Reaganomics]

Initially i thought it might be the memory as well. I had a similar problem to this before, and upon running Memtest64, I received some 100+ errors. This led to me ordering new memory, and the machine ran flawlessly after that.

When i first started investigating my problem, i initially tested all of the hardware components (RAM, Harddrive, Firmware). Everything seemed to check out. I ran the Memtest for about 3 hours... Perhaps longer is required?

As for other error messages, the only logs of any errors i know how to find are the Minidumps that i uploaded.

Thanks again for helping me get to the bottom of this.

 

[Cinders]

I'm no expert but you are running a 32 bit OS and over 5GB (4GB of system memory plus 2 X 640MB of video memory) of memory. The best a 32 bit operating system can do is 4GB of memory and it can only use that much system memory if you disable Windows virtual memory. I'm thinking that perhaps you should try removing 2GB of system memory just as a test to see if the BSODs continue. If they don't then you may want to purchase Windows XP Pro 64 bit so you can use all of your memory. If the BSODs do continue then you know that you have a different problem.

When testing your memory for errors you need to allow Memtest to run for at least eight complete passes. With four GB of memory it would take longer than an overnight run to allow Memtest to check all the memory.

My other thought was that your memory may not be getting the correct amount of voltage. It's just something to check into.

 

[Reaganomics]

Well, all was going well until today. I had been out of town for the past week, and my computer seemed to be doing fine before i left. The machine was off the entire time i was gone. However, in about 30 minutes of doing random things (checking e-mail, web browsing, playing music, etc..) i managed to run into 2 BSODs.

I will be running a memory test all day today in order to hopefully out my Memory as the culprit. If the memory checks out, I will look into the issue with 32-bit XP and too much memory. Are there anyway REAL big downsides to using 64-bit XP?

To add to the irony, I just received a BSOD while typing this... Luckily FireFox caches these sessions..

Attached are the new minidumps from the past 3 BSODs.

Any information on what these minidumps entail would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Reaganomics]

Well after running about 8 and a half hours of Memtest64... I received some messages upon checking back.

I read somewhere that even 1 error is enough to know the ram is boinked, but, I would like to see what the experts have to say about the results. I do hope that it is not my ram, as I don't think I can RMA this late after the purchase. It is not even 3 months old. I purchased it after having the same problem with my old ram...

Attached is a screenshot of the Memtest64 results.

Thanks in advance.

 

[ramboaz]

I'm pleased to see that we're narrowing this down, although it looks like two DIMMs seem problematic. As I had been advised, try running Memtest on each DIMM separately and see if either or both of them have errors.

Most RAM comes with a lifetime warranty, especially some of the more common brands.

 

[Reaganomics]

Thank you for following this up. I will take your advice and test them one at a time in order to determine which stick is hosed.

Also, could you look at the 2 new minidumps i uploaded? None of the BSOD's happened while i was using VLC this time, which furthers the erratic behavior of the computer.

As for 64-bit XP, are there any major cons to running that instead of 32-bit?

Thanks.

 

[ramboaz]

I don't have any first-hand experience running Windows XP 64-bit, however only Windows XP Professional has a 64-bit version. My concerns would be drivers and software compatibility. (See http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/64bit/facts/top10.mspx for Microsoft's suggestions or follow http://www.google.ca/search?q=windows+xp+32+bit+vs+64+bit for some other tech reviews.) One of the advantages, in fact, the most relevant one would be getting access to the full 4GB RAM that you are running. (Windows XP 32-bit allows for about 3.25GB)

I am unable to analyze your dumps at the moment, but I'm hoping some of the more experienced guys here can help us out on that.

I hope this helps, please let us know the outcome of Memtest. Good luck!

 

[Bigfellla]

I'm no expert but you are running a 32 bit OS and over 5GB (4GB of system memory plus 2 X 640MB of video memory) of memory. The best a 32 bit operating system can do is 4GB of memory and it can only use that much system memory if you disable Windows virtual memory. I'm thinking that perhaps you should try removing 2GB of system memory just as a test to see if the BSODs continue. If they don't then you may want to purchase Windows XP Pro 64 bit so you can use all of your memory. If the BSODs do continue then you know that you have a different problem.

When testing your memory for errors you need to allow Memtest to run for at least eight complete passes. With four GB of memory it would take longer than an overnight run to allow Memtest to check all the memory.

My other thought was that your memory may not be getting the correct amount of voltage. It's just something to check into.

i agree with above

 

[Cinders]

It looks like you have a memory problem. It looks like you're overclocking your memory, and that could be the problem right there. I'm assuming that you have DDR800 and you've clocked it at 861MHz. Now if you had set your motherboard to failsafe defaults and not overclocked you memory then the error results would have indicated broken memory. But with the overclock in place you may have a BIOS setup problem instead.

I hope you're DFI LanParty UT worthy. Those boards are a pain in the tush to run if you're not an overclocking expert. I had one for about a year before it died on me (after a water cooling accident, so it died because of me sniff sniff) and I never did get the thing to push my processor to any significant overclocks simply because I didn't and still don't know enough about overclocking to run the thing well.

I'm running Windows XP Pro 64 bit with zero problems. You have an NVIDIA based board so you shouldn't have a problem getting 64 bit drivers for your motherboard or video cards if you do decide to switch to a 64 bit OS. DFI, Realtek and Silicon Image all have drivers for the devices on your motherboard. The only problem I might foresee is an older printer or scanner or some other device you haven't mentioned may not have a 64 bit driver ready for you to install.

 

[Reaganomics]

Thanks for the information Cinders. I am by far an expert on over clocking and haven't touched a single thing on this motherboad in the over clocking area, simply because i haven't purchased an after market heat sink. However, i do not have the knowledge on how to over clock memory. Perhaps it came pre-overclocked? As i've said, it is fairly new memory, so i would be rather shocked it if was broken already. Perhaps i'll look in the BIOS and try to find a fail safe default for the memory or something along those lines.

Thanks again.

 

[Reaganomics]

Just a little update. Yesterday and a last night i finally got around to running the memtest86 on each stick individually... Oddly enough, both passed without any errors. I also checked the BiOS settings to see if the motherboard may have defaulted then memory to some over clocked setting. Sure enough the timings were all the same as inscribed on the memory. I did however notice the memory said 1.8v-1.9v. The mother board had this set to 1.85v by default. So i figured i'd crank it up to 1.9v just for kicks.

So far haven't had any errors, or BSOD's. This is only my second boot though since running the individual memory tests. I'll keep an eye on how it goes, hopefully the memory just needed more voltage or something. Also if the problem persists, i have a copy of x64 Windows pro standing by, so i may make the switch to that. When i took out just 1 stick of memory to test it, the computer didn't seem to have any problems. Maybe more than 5 gig is conflicting? Any way, i'm starting to talk to my self here, so thanks to everyone who helped me get this far, i seriously appreciate it.

 

[TimHoff]

Random BSOD

My first post.

I have a new home-built PC with Windows XP SP2 and all updates. After downloading all updates, I started getting random BSOD reboots. I finally figured out how to gather info and found the following entry in the system event log. "The system has rebooted from a bugcheck. The bugcheck was: 0x10000050 (0xf000e55f, 0x00000000, 0xbf9f4622, 0x00000002). A dump was saved in: C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\Mini011908-01.dmp.

A link supposedly to a related knowledge Base article said the KB article was not currently available.

Can you help me?

Thanks,

TimHoff

 

[Cinders]

Hey TimHoff you may want to attach the Mini011908-01.dmp file to the next post in this thread if you haven't already done so else where.