BSOD when downloading

joshlane · 15 Sep 2007 at 12:22

right this is doing my head in.

when i'm downloading anything off the net every now and again i get a BSOD, the computer then restarts and boots back into windows. the BSOD is never up longer enough to catch the event ID, so the only thing i can go by is the event viewer in windows.

prior to every crash there is a common event:

Tcpip Event ID: 4201

The system detected that network adapter NVIDIA..controller - Packet Scheduler Miniport was connected to the network, and has initated normal operation over the network adapter.

is this causing the crash.

i have an Asus A8n-SLI dlx, and i use. the onboard network card, this is connected to a belkin router (with a cable) then the router goes through virgin media BB modem.

there is one other computer connected to the network via wireless.

i'm running XP sp2. and the original nvidia network drivers.

it happens only when i'm downloading - presumably putting a larger than browsing load on the net.

any ideas?

thanks in advance,

Josh

Teaf · 15 Sep 2007 at 12:30

Firstly I would turn off automatic restarts on BSODS. You can do this by right clicking "My Computer" and clicking "Properties", then go into the "Advanced" tab, and click the "Settings..." button for the Startup and Recovery Options. In there is a tick box for something called "Automatic Restart", untick that.

I assume you've uninstalled all the Nvidia chipset drivers, used a driver cleaner, then reinstalled the latest ones? You can get "Driver Sweeper" from Guru3D to help you with this.

You can also download the Debugging Tools for Windows, which will help you identify the BSOD in question as you missed the info when it did restart. When you download and install that you can follow the next steps:

1. Open the program and click File menu, then "Symbols path"
2. Type in "SRV*c:\symbols*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols" without the quotes
3. Then click File -> Open Crash Dump and browse to C:\Windows\Minidump and open the latest crash dump
4. When you open it, it'll take a while to load in but when it does you'll be connected to the debugger
5. When you are connected type in "!anaylze -v" without the quotes to get info on why the computer rebooted.

It might take a while to reach step 5, sometimes it takes around 30 seconds so be patient. What this will do is give you a full page of information regarding the error that you have had. You should if possible do that and paste the contents here so we can take a look at it, namely the filename that caused the problem and the actual BSOD message (such as IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL - it's generally near the top of the report).

If possible I would also try a PCI network card and disable the onboard lan to make sure that it is definetly the network controller and not a front for a more underlying problem with the board, but I doubt that is the case however worth checking if you can.

joshlane · 15 Sep 2007 at 12:40

woah!

thanks for that the gf is buggin me to get the tesco shop done but i will systematically follow your instructions.

a google search get a few issues of a imilar thing happening to others but with no real answer. some suggest upping the memory voltages to increase stability - little unsure on that.

i'm sure i've got network card kicking around somewhere so will try that too, do you think using a pci card would actually be better anyway?

right i've disabled auto restart and downloaded driver sweeper.

off shopping now but will be back in an hour (i hope

) to sort it out. i'm sure its a driver/ netowrk on mobo issue as this is the first time i have hard wired to broadband and nothing else has changed.

thanks again for your help!

joshlane · 15 Sep 2007 at 12:44

one more thing,

just been to guru3d to find the latest chipset drivers for my Nforce4 board and it says they are 6.86 windows xp 32-bit.

are these the latest ones?

should i download the latest dirvers from the asus site.

any links would be gratefully recieved!

Greenlizard0 · 15 Sep 2007 at 12:44

Cracking reply Flibby.

You didn't say that you were using it, but you did indicate that problem occured while downloading. If you're using uTorrent, it has problems with the Nvidia firewall causing BSOD's.

Teaf · 15 Sep 2007 at 12:45

joshlane said:
a google search get a few issues of a imilar thing happening to others but with no real answer. some suggest upping the memory voltages to increase stability - little unsure on that.

Me too, I wouldn't touch the memory voltage.

i'm sure i've got network card kicking around somewhere so will try that too, do you think using a pci card would actually be better anyway?

I always personally use them over onboard where I can, sometimes I can due to space in the computer, but if you can then I would recommend using one or even temporaily in this circumstance to try to pinpoint the problem to the onboard LAN. If you do try the PCI card route though, make sure to disable the Onboard LAN from the BIOS in case it conflicts and still causes the machine to BSOD when using the PCI card.

off shopping now but will be back in an hour (i hope ) to sort it out. i'm sure its a driver/ netowrk on mobo issue as this is the first time i have hard wired to broadband and nothing else has changed.

Yeah I'd put it down to a driver/network issue. It's either software related or a hardware related problem with the onboard network.

joshlane said:
just been to guru3d to find the latest chipset drivers for my Nforce4 board and it says they are 6.86 windows xp 32-bit.are

these the latest ones?

Yep, those are the latest drivers for you.

should i download the latest dirvers from the asus site.

I would never, ever recommend getting drivers from the motherboard manufactuers website when possible

joshlane · 15 Sep 2007 at 12:56

throw this guy some stars!

cheers for that flibby, awesome reply as mentioned above.

i have been downloading the high stakes poker 4th season through azureus, my defence is that the 4th season is not going to be aired in the UK ever according to my poker mags....

however it has been doing it when downloading other bits and pieces even when downloading a wallpaper from plasmadesign.com!!!

NV firewall is installed, never had the problem when i was suing wireless tho....

joshlane · 15 Sep 2007 at 13:01

think i will update the drivers, then disable onboard lan and buy a new network card as i can't find one anywhere, probably been sued as coasters lol.

may end up being a trip to a well known highstreet retailer (that should only delivery its goods in unicorn drawn carriages) but hey my lack of patience gets the better of me!

masterk · 15 Sep 2007 at 13:20

Nvidia firewall is nothing but trouble, packet loss etc etc.

Swap it for the Windows Firewall and you will have much less trouble.

joshlane · 15 Sep 2007 at 16:36

uninstalled the drivers, asked to reset so i did.

came back on relaised thre was a marvel lan driver still installed so checked the back of the motherboard and realised there was 2 LAN points so all i've done is move the cable over and its been running fine for 38mins.

dunno if this is a proper fix but everything seems fine in device manager....