Good 'Evening all (and apologies for the incoming wall of text),
A couple of weeks ago I built myself a new computer with the following specs:
Intel i7 920 (D0 Stepping)
Thermalright Ultra-Extreme with 2x Noctua NF-P12 (Push-Pull)
Gigabyte EX58-UD5
6GB Patriot Viper DDR3 RAM
Asus Tri-Fan 4870 X2
Be Quiet! 750W Dark Power Pro
2x Samsung F1 SpinPoint 1TB
Auzentech X-Fi Forte
LG GGC-H20L Blu-Ray Drive
Lian-Li PC-V2010B
I was very much looking forward to the performance of this beast as my previous desktop was running an FX-55, 1GB DDR RAM and an x850!
So I built the PC, albiet over a few days as I had to wait for the 4870 X2 to arrive in stock. In terms of hardware compatability and whether it worked out of the box or not, things seemed to be fine. The system boots, no error messages/codes from the MB, and I was able to begin installing the OS.
I chose to install the Windows 7 Beta for now, as purchasing a retail version of Vista seemed a bit silly to me, given how stable W7 is already, and how it is only a few months before it's available to buy. Just for reference, I am installing the 7127 build (although I don't think the build will have much of an effect on my problems).
Now for the problem. I was able to install W7 perfectly fine, no problems there. Before I began the onlsaught of installing numerous drivers and software, I wanted to see what score the system would achieve on the Windows system rating scale. So I began running the tool, but noticed that once it got to the Direct3D10 tests, the OS froze, and then once it started responding again a little notification popped up saying that the display driver had stopped responding and was recovered. I thought that perhaps it was just the buggy driver that was bundled with W7, so decided to install the latest ones. I downloaded the 9.5 drivers as part of the catalyst control center package and began installing them. However, at a random point whilst installing them, the PC crashed and I was presented with a BSOD. The main stop error was 0x00000116, and it also referred to the atikmdag.sys file. Upon booting the same BSOD occured just before the startup routine reached the login stage.
I immediately google'd this error, and it turns out I am not the first to come across this mysterious problem (although this wasn't always a big help as most people were running Vista). However, I couldn't find many reports of the exact same problem as mine, and the most similar ones said it could be caused by almost anything! I set about trying to narrow it down via some tests, so I'll go through what I have done:
- Run Memtest86+, no errors. Also run the memory diagnostic with the W7 installer, again no errors found.
- Run the Samsung HDD diagnostic tool, the HDD I installed Windows on had nothing wrong with it.
- Currently running Prime95 as I type this, and so far no problems. (Not sure if it would as the CPU is at stock speeds, but I thought it was worth a try.
I have also done some mixing and matching with software and hardware, such as:
- Installing the 9.6 drivers as part of the CCC, and standalone, same problem as before.
- I borrowed a Vista CD and installed that, tried installing the drivers and got the same BSOD.
- Tried just one stick of RAM, didn't work.
I can be pretty sure it is not heat related, as the BSOD occurs at the exact same point, meaning it's not random. I'm sure I have done some other things but have forgotten.
So now I need your help, any suggestion is welcome. If there is perhaps some software I can run to check the GPU/stress it, either to find out if GPU is faulty, or if it is perhaps a driver/OS compatability error.
Over to you now!
Thanks, Simon
Update: Prime95 appears to be running fine, none of the 8 workers have failed. I believe I also received a 0x000000EA stop error, but I missed it the actual BSOD so cannot be sure.
I also forgot to mention that I originally updated the BIOS to F8b, and today I 'down-graded' to the latest official BIOS on the Gigabyte website which is F7. Neither BIOS solved this problem.
A couple of weeks ago I built myself a new computer with the following specs:
Intel i7 920 (D0 Stepping)
Thermalright Ultra-Extreme with 2x Noctua NF-P12 (Push-Pull)
Gigabyte EX58-UD5
6GB Patriot Viper DDR3 RAM
Asus Tri-Fan 4870 X2
Be Quiet! 750W Dark Power Pro
2x Samsung F1 SpinPoint 1TB
Auzentech X-Fi Forte
LG GGC-H20L Blu-Ray Drive
Lian-Li PC-V2010B
I was very much looking forward to the performance of this beast as my previous desktop was running an FX-55, 1GB DDR RAM and an x850!
So I built the PC, albiet over a few days as I had to wait for the 4870 X2 to arrive in stock. In terms of hardware compatability and whether it worked out of the box or not, things seemed to be fine. The system boots, no error messages/codes from the MB, and I was able to begin installing the OS.
I chose to install the Windows 7 Beta for now, as purchasing a retail version of Vista seemed a bit silly to me, given how stable W7 is already, and how it is only a few months before it's available to buy. Just for reference, I am installing the 7127 build (although I don't think the build will have much of an effect on my problems).
Now for the problem. I was able to install W7 perfectly fine, no problems there. Before I began the onlsaught of installing numerous drivers and software, I wanted to see what score the system would achieve on the Windows system rating scale. So I began running the tool, but noticed that once it got to the Direct3D10 tests, the OS froze, and then once it started responding again a little notification popped up saying that the display driver had stopped responding and was recovered. I thought that perhaps it was just the buggy driver that was bundled with W7, so decided to install the latest ones. I downloaded the 9.5 drivers as part of the catalyst control center package and began installing them. However, at a random point whilst installing them, the PC crashed and I was presented with a BSOD. The main stop error was 0x00000116, and it also referred to the atikmdag.sys file. Upon booting the same BSOD occured just before the startup routine reached the login stage.
I immediately google'd this error, and it turns out I am not the first to come across this mysterious problem (although this wasn't always a big help as most people were running Vista). However, I couldn't find many reports of the exact same problem as mine, and the most similar ones said it could be caused by almost anything! I set about trying to narrow it down via some tests, so I'll go through what I have done:
- Run Memtest86+, no errors. Also run the memory diagnostic with the W7 installer, again no errors found.
- Run the Samsung HDD diagnostic tool, the HDD I installed Windows on had nothing wrong with it.
- Currently running Prime95 as I type this, and so far no problems. (Not sure if it would as the CPU is at stock speeds, but I thought it was worth a try.
I have also done some mixing and matching with software and hardware, such as:
- Installing the 9.6 drivers as part of the CCC, and standalone, same problem as before.
- I borrowed a Vista CD and installed that, tried installing the drivers and got the same BSOD.
- Tried just one stick of RAM, didn't work.
I can be pretty sure it is not heat related, as the BSOD occurs at the exact same point, meaning it's not random. I'm sure I have done some other things but have forgotten.
So now I need your help, any suggestion is welcome. If there is perhaps some software I can run to check the GPU/stress it, either to find out if GPU is faulty, or if it is perhaps a driver/OS compatability error.
Over to you now!
Thanks, Simon
Update: Prime95 appears to be running fine, none of the 8 workers have failed. I believe I also received a 0x000000EA stop error, but I missed it the actual BSOD so cannot be sure.
I also forgot to mention that I originally updated the BIOS to F8b, and today I 'down-graded' to the latest official BIOS on the Gigabyte website which is F7. Neither BIOS solved this problem.
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