10 BSOD's..
OK this is geting silly now. I have just made my first computer, and everything''s working fine. Except that I am getting loads and loads of random BSOD's. Most of these happen at start up, but some, like 7E and 8E happen randomly. They dont allways occur, and the computer has stayed alive for about 2 hours one time. List of stop messages:
Many times:
0x0000007E (3 today)
8E (4 today)
50
0A
Once:
BE
24
C2
C5
19
D1
I have run windows memory diagnostic, 12 positive passes, and also Memtest-86, 10 positive passes. I have installed SP2
System:
P4 SKT478 3.0 HT (Prescott)
Zalman CNPS9500-LED Aero Flower
6 and 20GB HD
512MB PC3200 3,3,3,8
MSI 865PE NEO2-P Platinum Edition
Geforce FX 5950 256MB
a couple of extras: at 2.5,3,3,8 I still get bsods. During OC'ing (with Corecenter, a prog that came with the MB) I almost always get 8E or 7E, and once C2, randomly. All the other errors that happened did not happen during OC'ing. The CPU idles at 20'C.
Could it be that the memory is incompatable? But I still managed to get it running for a while, and played a game on it - Deus Ex 2. Prob needs a lot of memory, and worked fine.
Many times:
0x0000007E (3 today)
8E (4 today)
50
0A
Once:
BE
24
C2
C5
19
D1
I have run windows memory diagnostic, 12 positive passes, and also Memtest-86, 10 positive passes. I have installed SP2
System:
P4 SKT478 3.0 HT (Prescott)
Zalman CNPS9500-LED Aero Flower
6 and 20GB HD
512MB PC3200 3,3,3,8
MSI 865PE NEO2-P Platinum Edition
Geforce FX 5950 256MB
a couple of extras: at 2.5,3,3,8 I still get bsods. During OC'ing (with Corecenter, a prog that came with the MB) I almost always get 8E or 7E, and once C2, randomly. All the other errors that happened did not happen during OC'ing. The CPU idles at 20'C.
Could it be that the memory is incompatable? But I still managed to get it running for a while, and played a game on it - Deus Ex 2. Prob needs a lot of memory, and worked fine.
0
Comments
Don't even try to overclock yet, wait until you can get it stable at stock speeds before you try to push it.
On the memory issue, you could try to slow down your bus speed and/or widen your timings to see if this will improve things. Still, memtest should've caught it.
I tend to suspect something with the system board/CPU. Check that your case circulation is okay- chips radiators are clear of being covered or having air being prevented from clearing the heatsinks, etc. Since it is a new-build I'm also half-tempted to suggest reseating and pasting the cpu. BE SURE to remove any excess thermal compound around the CPU and make sure that you didn't/don't put too much on when applying. Compounds, like Artic Silver, can make quite a mess. It splatters quite nicely too- so look for possible spots on your board. Also look for anything unusual- like loose screws or wires. You might as well just go ahead and reseat your boards while you are at it (don't forget to turn off your machine here!).
On the software side- you may want to make sure that all your system board chipset drivers/BIOS are installed and current.
Other better versed people may have better ideas, but this is what I'd do.
I hope that helps
I got the RAM from eBay so all I can say is
184 PIN Memory, 3.2 GB/sec, 400Mhz, 2.5 Volt Module, DIMM 32x8, Non-ECC, Non-Parity, CAS Latency 2.5
Which doesn't help at all. Soon I will buy another 512, but I'll get some decent Crucial stuff.
All I know about the PSU is that it is second hand, and 400w.
And I have tried updating the BIOS etc, but the program, Live Update 3, can't download anything; it comes up with error code 997 when I try to dowload things, and I can't find any help for it. I have tried disabling all firewalls, and I am connected to the internet.
Any tips?
If it makes it through at least two passes of that, you are most likely looking at a driver issue. Let us know how it goes.
I think your problem is drivers that are not correctly installed, not installed, or conflicting with a previous system's drivers that are still on the hard drive.
The problems you describe are not symptomatic of an MSI board solid Windows and drivers installation.
If you have hardware instabilty at all, stay away from overclocking until the system is completely stable.
But, we can't help you if you are running in three directions all at once. We'll all just end up running in to each other, potentially making the problems worse. I had considered consolidating all your threads into one, but that would have been a huge plate of spaghetti, without one being able to sort out the different themes, even though they are all probably related.
Here's what we are going to do. To avoid confusion and to keep problem solving from turning into chaos, I am closing the other threads, leaving a link to this thread. The problems described here seem to be the worst, so lets solve this before we move on.
I am not criticizing you, but mererly want you and us to focus on one thing at a time.
First: tell us about your Windows XP setup. Is it a fresh installation? Is it a "repair" installation. After you've answered those questions, we'll see where we need to go next.
Until will get these problems sorted, please return your computer to completely default settings. No overclocking yet, please.
I have tried Memtest-86 and also the windows memory diagnostic, about 10 positive passes each.
The C drive was formatted, with a fresh installation of XP home on it. All the drivers/etc currently on it are from: Windows Update, Microsoft Update, the ASUS VGA Driver cd (came with the GFX card) and the Drivers and Utilities disk that came with the motherboard, and the nVidia update from the site.
Try getting into Safe Mode and see if your problem may happen there. If it does, your problem may not be software. If it does clear up, then you are likely on the "find the guilty driver" road. I'd start with the video card drivers and go from there one component at a time until you nail it.
I'd like to think software or even SVT, but generally code will have a consistent, repeatable failure and behavior. This intermittent battery of failures and the kind of failures that are appearing is making me suspect something hardware on the system bus or the bus itself. So I'll focus there-
You might start swapping out components. This should be able to help isolate a guilty component. It also requires that you have access to a substitue for most of them.
You might first remove (if you set BIOS to boot from HD first, you should have no message) or swap out the optical drive and see how you fare. If your problems vanish, you know your optical was bad.
You might do the power supply next- being sure that all the connectors are well seated. Be sure to connector up your mobo and vid card correctly. Try again and see if there are still problems.
What the hey- try swapping out the memory boards if you can. We may have something to write to Memtest about.
Try the video card next. Even just a cheapoid PCI will do. Does THAT stabilize the system?
The idea is to eliminate the current component as the culprit.
Try another CPU if you can.
... etc.
Try another HD- but dang, this involves having a working image to try it out on your machine. You could try your HD maker's diagnostic utilities (generally comes with the drive or is downloadable from their website). Does adding your HD (NOT as boot!) maybe crap out another PC?
At any rate, you get the idea of MY ideas. Others may well have a few dandy and better ones of their own.
I would also check on my RMA options for that mobo if you start running out of ideas. But ... knowing something of that particular maker, I would make sure that it's not something else or something I'd done before I'd go there. I'm also sorry that it doesn't just wham/bang happen, so this may take a while- and we know that sux.
Still- we hope something helps!
Regardless, nice job, deicist and thanks!
I hope that got it, PC.
I have three hard drives at the moment. The old, 160GB one, a new SATA 200GB, and a very old 6GB that I used to boot up the new computer before I bought the Sata HD. For some reason whenb I boot with the 6gig and have the 160gig as secondary, I can see it, but when I boot with the (sata) 200gig and have the ide 160gig in as well, I can see both, but the 160gig appears to be unformatted (was getting a little worried.. but put it back in my old computer and it worked fine).
I'm getting a bit frustrated atm, so if anyone can shed some light on this, please!
info:
its a 150 sata
the 160gig appears unformated with sata as boot drive
but fine with the 6gig IDE as boot
Thanks for the time people
Patrick
I have two computers, a dell dimension 4400 and a custom built one:
MSI 865pe neo2-p
3.0 HT Prescott (478)
GeForce FX 9590 256
400W Jeantech PSU
200GB Sata (working fine)
The broken HD is in the Dell.
Running Sata as boot drive, with 160gb plugged in as well:
On 'Computer Management' it appears to have a healthy but unformatted 130GB section and an unpartitioned 30GB bit, which is what it was like before hand. I was trying to transfer files from that onto a new Sata Hd, so booted up with the Sata with windows and SP2 installed. I could see the 160GB hd but it appeared unformatted. I then put the 160GB back in my old computer and it booted up fine with that, so I put it back in the custom built computer, and same problem. Later when I switched back yet again to use the old computer, the hard drive wouldn't work at all!
I havn't got a clue what this was caused by, except that I noticed the blue leds on the CPU hsf dim this morning. I had another two hard drives, a 6GB and a 20GB, running on the custom built pc at the same time as the 160 went 'wrong'. At the moment, I have all the hard drives on another, 250W PSU and the computers running fine.
Can anyone recommend anything? Sorry for the long post! Thanks for reading this far.
(I noticed a few days ago when I was using the 6GB as the boot drive, with the formatted sata in as well, that the sata appeared unformatted and I had to reformat it again... could that have been fluke, or the same problem?)
You got it, man. I've never met anyone who was sorry that they had too many backups.