What's causing the CTD/Bluescreens

EagleOC

EagleOC

EagleOC

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For a while now when running games my system has been having CTDs or, more frequently, bluescreening (blank with a rapid soundloop).

I've gone from (1Gb RAM and a ATI Radeon 9800 Pro) to (2Gb RAM and a NVIDIA 512Mb G6800 GS). The same problems still occur (although, so far the 6800 GS has only seen CTD) so I think we can discount the cards/memory.

I can now (finally) play games at 1280x960 with FSAA on without any stutter - but how do I begin to troubleshoot the crashing/freezing problems? Can anyone help? :)

Spec:

• Abit NF7-S v2.0 mobo
• Athlon XP3000+
• NVIDIA 512Mb G6800 GS
• 2Gb Corsair 2GB DDR XMS3200C2PT RAM
• Enermax 550W PSU
• Soundblaster Live 5.1 (some say this could be the issue as last drivers were released in 2003!)
• Maxtor 40Gb HDD (OS/Program files)
• Maxtor 160 Gb HDD (Data)
• Win XP installation is about 16 months old.
• nForce_5.10 drivers

• Can post DXDiag if needed.

Looking forward to getting this solved. Cheers! :)
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Oh my, bluescreens :(

-Start > r.click My Computer > properties > advanced tab > startup and recovery settings > untick "automatically restart" > OK > OK

Now the bluescreens will stay, allowing you to read them. The important bits are the line near the top that will look similar to this:

THREAD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_DRIVER

ie. message may be different but it's all caps and with underscores instead of space. The other one is the bunch of numbers near the bottom - you only need the first little group, which will be something like 0x0000008E.


Now, error conditions. See if we can narrow it down to a specific event.

-Which games?
-When? How long can you play from a cold boot?
-Any artifacts on the screen?
-Tried the games with the sound disabled to eliminate that sound driver?

Always worth checking for BIOS updates too.
 
Could possibly be faulty memory so check it with memtest 2 passes should be enough.

As _AD_ said could possibly be a faulty driver uninstall your Graphics driver and use driver cleaner then reinstall.

If you think its the sound card remove it then see if you get any crashes.

Try that and then let us know how its going.
 
I've used two different sets of RAM so it can't be faulty memory.

Current drivers are 84.43 forceware... but I think that's largely irrelevant in this case.

The bluescreens are blank, generally - with a soundloop. :(

-Which games? (X³ Reunion, Tomb Raider: Legend, Star Wars Battlefront II).
-When? How long can you play from a cold boot? Between 2 mins and 2 hours (with X3)
-Any artifacts on the screen? (Nope, all fine and dandy. :) Fast frame rates too).
-Tried the games with the sound disabled to eliminate that sound driver? (Might just try a new sound card...)

Cheers so far. :)
 
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Well, I've had a very unproductive evening... :(

Installed latest nForce Drivers - CTD

Disabled Sound (in-game) - CTD

Physically removed soundcard - CTD

Replaced Soundcard - CTD

Installed Omega Drivers (Nvidia Omega Drivers 1.6693 (Forceware 66.93)) - nearly hosing my system in the process. :mad: - CTD

Installed default nVidia Drivers (on the CD) - BSOD - STOP number as follows:

0x0000008E 0xC0000005, 0xE1F98787, 0xBABBEB58, 0x00000000

I've recently also been getting the occasional BSOD when installing software (and occasionally just after boot-up). Latest STOP number:

0x0000008E 0xC0000005, 0x8054A95B, 0xF7465B4C, 0x00000000

Help! :(
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Run memtest just to be totally sure its not your RAM or a related problem such as a dodgy RAM slot. My mate had exactly the same problem last year and refused to do memtest cause he said the RAM was new and when he finally did run it it failed (not due to the memory but a fault with his motherbaord). So i would recomend you try it just to totally eliminate the possibility.Also cheack the memory timings in the bios are correct?

What harddrive do you have? How is it connected?

Also what are your temperatures like? Have you changed from the stock cooler on the graphics card?
 
caister said:
Run memtest just to be totally sure its not your RAM or a related problem such as a dodgy RAM slot. My mate had exactly the same problem last year and refused to do memtest cause he said the RAM was new and when he finally did run it it failed (not due to the memory but a fault with his motherbaord). So i would recomend you try it just to totally eliminate the possibility.Also cheack the memory timings in the bios are correct?

What harddrive do you have? How is it connected?

Also what are your temperatures like? Have you changed from the stock cooler on the graphics card?
Click to expand...
Cheers. I might do that today. I have to make a bootable CD though? Not sure how to do that... :(

Timings are correct.

Temps are fine. GPU temp is 47 deg during gaming. Bear in mind though that this happened with two different hardware configs.

My hard drives are connected with IDE cables.
 
Just search for memtest86 in google. You can boot it off of a cd or floppy disk shouldnt take to long to complete let it do at least two cycles of the test though.

Temps seem fine. Maybe later change the IDE cable thats connected to the harddrive over sometimes they can be faulty.

Let us know how it goes.
 
Thanks, got it.

I don't know how to create a bootable CD though (I don't have a floppy drive). Any ideas?

I've switched the IDE cable for new ones - still no joy.
 
EagleOC said:
-When? How long can you play from a cold boot? Between 2 mins and 2 hours (with X3)
Click to expand...

I know when I first got X3, it was a nightmare to get working, I could only play for a max of a few minutes at a time before the game would lock my PC up completely or CTD. Apparently there were sound codec problems... I got it working with a combination of a new soundcard and the latest patch for X3:)

Edit: Just seen you've got a Live 5.1, thats what I used to have before upgrading and as far as I can tell it was causing the problems...
And you should be able to make a bootable CD with Nero, select CD (boot) or something along those lines at the start, then just add the files you want to it:)
 
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Well, here's the test result and I'm relieved (but not surprised) to see it passed... :D

pa55.jpg


I've tried running the game (Star Wars Battlefront II) without a soundcard attached - so could it still be the soundcard? I'm happy to change it though - what would you guys recommend (budget £40ish). :)

-------

As an aside, my C:\ drive is:

9% Total Fragmentation
19% File fragmentation

And that's after a defrag!!!

Would a format help? (I'd rather buy a new soundcard, tbh as I don't really have the time to reinstall.

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Street said:
I know when I first got X3, it was a nightmare to get working, I could only play for a max of a few minutes at a time before the game would lock my PC up completely or CTD. Apparently there were sound codec problems... I got it working with a combination of a new soundcard and the latest patch for X3:)
Click to expand...
What souncard did you buy? :)
 
I've now installed a brand new Audigy 4 soundcard - CTD. :(

I've removed the USB Modem before playing - CTD.

On reboot, I encountered a BSOD.

0x0000008E (0xC0000005, 0x8054A95B, 0xAD669B4C, 0x00000000)

I am not running out of diskspace.

I'm at my wits end... :(
 
Well if your ram passed memtest i would have thought it wouldnt prove allot.

Ive had allot of problems with maxtor drives (even though i still use them!) so a dodgy harddrive could be the problem. Head over to maxtors site find your harddrive under the products section and download POWERMAX then put it on a cd and boot off of it. Go through the options on screen and it will check your drive for errors if you get one write down the code it gives you. Be careful not to format the drive while your in this utility.

Apart from that im running out of ideas!!!
 
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