Newbie help: How to debug W7 blue screens' dumps with WinDbg?

[Ant]

Hello.

I am trying to figure out an updated 64-bit Windows 7 HPE's random blue
screen crashes' dump files (mini, kernel, and small) with WinDbg
v6.12.0002.633 AMD64. I am not a developer/programmer to understand the
these technical results, but I would like to see if I can get more
clues. I understand that they have commands and ways to dig deep like
"!analyze -v" command. What else are good to know?

I also have weird freezes/hangs as well. Both of these issues can happen
even after rebooting and idling before logging in. It can take minutes,
hours, days, and weeks to reproduce so it is random. I already tried
memtest86s, prime95, KNOPPIX liveCD, etc. for days without any problems.
So maybe it is a driver or something? I tried to find the latest drivers
from Dell's web site, but they all seem to be updated from 2009. I
noticed the problems/symptoms got worse and worse over the last few
months.

Looking at WhyCrash shows these blue screen dumps:

C:\Windows\Minidump\092011-17128-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe
(nt+0x705C0)
Bugcheck code: 0xD9 (0x1, 0xFFFFFA8008247070, 0xFFFFFA800A1AEDD0, 0x40)
Error: LOCKED_PAGES_TRACKER_CORRUPTION
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This indicates that the internal locked-page
tracking structures have been corrupted.
This might be a case of memory corruption. More often memory corruption
happens because of software errors in buggy drivers, not because of
faulty RAM modules.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is
caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.

C:\Windows\memory.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: vmx86.sys
(vmx86+0x508D)
Bugcheck code: 0xD9 (0x1, 0xFFFFFA8008247070, 0xFFFFFA800A1AEDD0, 0x40)
Error: LOCKED_PAGES_TRACKER_CORRUPTION
file path: C:\Windows\system32\drivers\vmx86.sys
product: VMware kernel driver
company: VMware, Inc.
description: VMware kernel driver
Bug check description: This indicates that the internal locked-page
tracking structures have been corrupted.
This might be a case of memory corruption. More often memory corruption
happens because of software errors in buggy drivers, not because of
faulty RAM modules.
A third party driver was identified as the probable root cause of this
system error. It is suggested you look for an update for the following
driver: vmx86.sys (VMware kernel driver, VMware, Inc.).

C:\Windows\Minidump\091911-19718-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe
(nt+0x705C0)
Bugcheck code: 0x4E (0x99, 0x5FE52, 0x0, 0x11B5D2)
Error: PFN_LIST_CORRUPT
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This indicates that the page frame number (PFN)
list is corrupted.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be
caused by a hardware problem. This might be a case of memory corruption.
More often memory corruption happens because of software errors in buggy
drivers, not because of faulty RAM modules.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is
caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.

C:\Windows\memory.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntkrnlmp.exe
(nt!KeBugCheckEx+0x0)
Bugcheck code: 0x4E (0x99, 0x5FE52, 0x0, 0x11B5D2)
Error: PFN_LIST_CORRUPT
Bug check description: This indicates that the page frame number (PFN)
list is corrupted.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be
caused by a hardware problem. This might be a case of memory corruption.
More often memory corruption happens because of software errors in buggy
drivers, not because of faulty RAM modules.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is
caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.

C:\Windows\Minidump\071511-39702-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe
(nt+0x70700)
Bugcheck code: 0x1A (0x41287, 0x12A5678C0, 0x0, 0x0)
Error: MEMORY_MANAGEMENT
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This indicates that a severe memory management
error occurred.
This might be a case of memory corruption. More often memory corruption
happens because of software errors in buggy drivers, not because of
faulty RAM modules.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is
caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.

C:\Windows\Minidump\071111-37190-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe
(nt+0x70700)
Bugcheck code: 0x1A (0x403, 0xFFFFF68000141DC0, 0xC9700000A7CD2847,
0xFFFFF6FC8061ADDA)
Error: MEMORY_MANAGEMENT
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This indicates that a severe memory management
error occurred.
This might be a case of memory corruption. More often memory corruption
happens because of software errors in buggy drivers, not because of
faulty RAM modules.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is
caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.

C:\Windows\Minidump\070711-33602-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe
(nt+0x70700)
Bugcheck code: 0x1A (0x403, 0xFFFFF68000052B30, 0xA5F00000AAB52867,
0xFFFFF6FC80626652)
Error: MEMORY_MANAGEMENT
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This indicates that a severe memory management
error occurred.
This might be a case of memory corruption. More often memory corruption
happens because of software errors in buggy drivers, not because of
faulty RAM modules.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is
caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.

C:\Windows\Minidump\070511-37003-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe
(nt+0x70700)
Bugcheck code: 0x109 (0xA3A039D89D1EA667, 0x0, 0x1CCE998271631324,
0x101)
Error: CRITICAL_STRUCTURE_CORRUPTION
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This indicates that the kernel has detected
critical kernel code or data corruption.
This might be a case of memory corruption. More often memory corruption
happens because of software errors in buggy drivers, not because of
faulty RAM modules.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is
caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.

C:\Windows\Minidump\062311-18751-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe
(nt+0x70700)
Bugcheck code: 0x1A (0x41287, 0x142FE78C0, 0x0, 0x0)
Error: MEMORY_MANAGEMENT
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This indicates that a severe memory management
error occurred.
This might be a case of memory corruption. More often memory corruption
happens because of software errors in buggy drivers, not because of
faulty RAM modules.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is
caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.

C:\Windows\Minidump\061011-21465-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe
(nt+0x70700)
Bugcheck code: 0x1A (0x5003, 0xFFFFF90000812000, 0x4D7F, 0x81B500009AEE)
Error: MEMORY_MANAGEMENT
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This indicates that a severe memory management
error occurred.
This might be a case of memory corruption. More often memory corruption
happens because of software errors in buggy drivers, not because of
faulty RAM modules.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is
caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.

C:\Windows\Minidump\060811-20654-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe
(nt+0x70700)
Bugcheck code: 0xDE (0x2, 0xFFFFF8A01935C8F0, 0xFFFFF8A01BC29909,
0x2B2BB8C0)
Error: POOL_CORRUPTION_IN_FILE_AREA
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This indicates that a driver has corrupted pool
memory that is used for holding pages destined for disk.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is
caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.


Here is what I did already so far over the last few months in details:
-Ran Prime95's default tests nonstop over the weekend (~63 hours)
without any problems.
-ran some of dell utility's tests (couldn't leave all overnight due to
required medias and interactions; up to SATA HDD test and media drives)
-Memtest86+ v4.2 (USB flash) passed without errors with 8 GB of RAM
after a whole weekend. Old UPS was beeping when returned though (battery
replacement needed).
-Memtest86 v4.0 (CD-RW) passed without errors with 8 GB of RAM overnight (almost 16 hours).
-tried cleaning old drivers and reinstalling the latest ATI drivers
again.
-disabled ATI Catalyst AI
-resetted ATI driver settings with factory defaults and each section's
defaults button.
-disabled UAC
-uninstalled free partition programs and Zentimo
-unplugged headphone cable, network, and all USB devices during six days
vacation. No BSoD, but starting to freeze and then hard lock up after
logging in. Event logs showed it started three days before my return.
-replaced with a new and powerful UPS.
-tried a new monitor (Acer instead of Philips).
-loaded CMOS/BIOS settings back to defaults (didn't seem to change even
after twice)?
-enabled Intel SpeedStep and C-State Tech
-disabled SAS service.
-disabled virtual memory/pagefile
-upgraded Realtek audio driver to the latest.
-changed power AC cable
-uninstalled N360
-no malwares found with the latest Spybot S&D, SuperAntiSpyware,
MalwareBytes AntiMalware, The Cleaner v8 portable, LUed N360 v3 and v4,
and MRT.
-used two different USB keyboards (Acer and Dell)
-disconnected UPS' USB cable
-ran a disk defragger
-ran SmartCTL's long tests for HDD problems (all passed)
-Virtual Disk service from manual to started automatic
-disable all memory card readers
-disable power sleep for USB devices
-upgraded DVD burner drive's firmware from 102 to 103.
-upgraded Gears driver

SYMPTOMS:
-almost 17.3 minutes to a over weeks uptimes. Used to be longer like
months in the before those short uptimes.
-Sometimes blue screens without memory dumps and anything recorded.
-Hanging/freezing with spinning mouse cursor (can move, but no click and
keyboard reactions [even lights]). Unplugging and reconnecting USB and
DVI did not help, but DVI showed a blank screen (still has video signal)
-Saw a freeze/lock up with a Windows login screen after a reboot over a
weekend.
-Freezes, but sometimes come back but still freezes.
-Seen this hang problem with old default three 1 GB of RAM, but no blue
screens.
-Blue screens during usages and idled times (most big programs (Office
2007, VMware Workstation v7.1.x, Mozilla's SeaMonkey v2.0.x, etc. are
closed/exited, even after a reboot).
-Nothing odd in event logs.
-During Memtest86 v4.0 (CD-RW) after almost 16 hours, all keyboard
lights were on and not responding. Had to reconnect USB devices
(keyboard too) to make it work to reboot.
-Most of the times, memory.dmp is created. A few times, they aren't.


Thank you in advance.
--
Quote of the Week: "The shadows now so long do grow,... That brambles
like tall cedars show,... Molehills seem mountains, and the ant...
Appears a monstrous elephant." --Charles Cotton's poem
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[Yousuf Khan]

Hello.

I am trying to figure out an updated 64-bit Windows 7 HPE's random blue
screen crashes' dump files (mini, kernel, and small) with WinDbg
v6.12.0002.633 AMD64. I am not a developer/programmer to understand the
these technical results, but I would like to see if I can get more
clues. I understand that they have commands and ways to dig deep like
"!analyze -v" command. What else are good to know?

I learned the WinDbg stuff some time ago, and then I found
BlueScreenView and never bothered with WinDbg again.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Unk]

Hello.

I am trying to figure out an updated 64-bit Windows 7 HPE's random blue
screen crashes' dump files (mini, kernel, and small) with WinDbg
v6.12.0002.633 AMD64. I am not a developer/programmer to understand the
these technical results, but I would like to see if I can get more
clues. I understand that they have commands and ways to dig deep like
"!analyze -v" command. What else are good to know?

I also have weird freezes/hangs as well. Both of these issues can happen
even after rebooting and idling before logging in. It can take minutes,
hours, days, and weeks to reproduce so it is random. I already tried
memtest86s, prime95, KNOPPIX liveCD, etc. for days without any problems.
So maybe it is a driver or something? I tried to find the latest drivers
from Dell's web site, but they all seem to be updated from 2009. I
noticed the problems/symptoms got worse and worse over the last few
months.



Thank you in advance.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/app_crash_view.html

Unk

 

[Ant]

I am trying to figure out an updated 64-bit Windows 7 HPE's random blue

I learned the WinDbg stuff some time ago, and then I found
BlueScreenView and never bothered with WinDbg again.

OK, I tried v1.40 and it seems to say it is caused by ntoskrnl.exe
driver from these two minindumps:
092011-17128-01.dmp 9/20/2011 10:59:19 AM
LOCKED_PAGES_TRACKER_CORRUPTION 0x000000d9 00000000`00000001
fffffa80`08247070 fffffa80`0a1aedd0 00000000`00000040
ntoskrnl.exe ntoskrnl.exe+705c0 NT Kernel & System
Microsoft® Windows® Operating System Microsoft Corporation
6.1.7600.16841 (win7_gdr.110622-1503) x64 ntoskrnl.exe+705c0
C:\Windows\Minidump\092011-17128-01.dmp 4 15 7600 274,912

091911-19718-01.dmp 9/19/2011 6:01:27 PM PFN_LIST_CORRUPT
0x0000004e 00000000`00000099 00000000`0005fe52
00000000`00000000 00000000`0011b5d2 ntoskrnl.exe
ntoskrnl.exe+705c0 NT Kernel & System Microsoft® Windows®
Operating System Microsoft Corporation 6.1.7600.16841
(win7_gdr.110622-1503) x64 ntoskrnl.exe+705c0
C:\Windows\Minidump\091911-19718-01.dmp 4 15 7600 274,912

Hmm. How accurate is this program for you? I find it interesting that
this program can't handle full dumps.
--
Quote of the Week: "The shadows now so long do grow,... That brambles
like tall cedars show,... Molehills seem mountains, and the ant...
Appears a monstrous elephant." --Charles Cotton's poem
/\___/\ Ant @ http://antfarm.home.dhs.org (Personal Web Site)
/ /\ /\ \ Ant's Quality Foraged Links: http://aqfl.net
| |o o| |
\ _ / Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail. If crediting,
( ) then please kindly use Ant nickname and AQFL URL/link.

 

[Ant]

I am trying to figure out an updated 64-bit Windows 7 HPE's random blue

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html

See my earlier reply about this one.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/app_crash_view.html

Hmm, it doesn't say much like:
Version=1
EventType=BlueScreen
EventTime=129610151963097219
ReportType=4
Consent=1
ReportIdentifier=4a0b7925-e3b2-11e0-974f-005056c00008
IntegratorReportIdentifier=092011-17128-01
Response.type=4
DynamicSig[1].Name=OS Version
DynamicSig[1].Value=6.1.7600.2.0.0.768.3
DynamicSig[2].Name=Locale ID
DynamicSig[2].Value=1033
UI[2]=C:\Windows\system32\wer.dll
UI[3]=Windows has recovered from an unexpected shutdown
UI[4]=Windows can check online for a solution to the problem.
UI[5]=&Check for solution
UI[6]=&Check later
UI[7]=Cancel
UI[8]=Windows has recovered from an unexpected shutdown
UI[9]=A problem caused Windows to stop working correctly. Windows will
notify you if a solution is available.
UI[10]=Close
Sec[0].Key=BCCode
Sec[0].Value=d9
Sec[1].Key=BCP1
Sec[1].Value=0000000000000001
Sec[2].Key=BCP2
Sec[2].Value=FFFFFA8008247070
Sec[3].Key=BCP3
Sec[3].Value=FFFFFA800A1AEDD0
Sec[4].Key=BCP4
Sec[4].Value=0000000000000040
Sec[5].Key=OS Version
Sec[5].Value=6_1_7600
Sec[6].Key=Service Pack
Sec[6].Value=0_0
Sec[7].Key=Product
Sec[7].Value=768_1
File[0].CabName=092011-17128-01.dmp
File[0].Path=092011-17128-01.dmp
File[0].Flags=589826
File[0].Type=2
File[0].Original.Path=C:\Windows\Minidump\092011-17128-01.dmp
File[1].CabName=sysdata.xml
File[1].Path=WER-36176-0.sysdata.xml
File[1].Flags=589826
File[1].Type=5
File[1].Original.Path=c:\temp\WER-36176-0.sysdata.xml
File[2].CabName=Report.cab
File[2].Path=Report.cab
File[2].Flags=196608
File[2].Type=7
File[2].Original.Path=Report.cab
FriendlyEventName=Shut down unexpectedly
ConsentKey=BlueScreen
AppName=Windows
AppPath=C:\Windows\System32\WerFault.exe
--
Quote of the Week: "The shadows now so long do grow,... That brambles
like tall cedars show,... Molehills seem mountains, and the ant...
Appears a monstrous elephant." --Charles Cotton's poem
/\___/\ Ant @ http://antfarm.home.dhs.org (Personal Web Site)
/ /\ /\ \ Ant's Quality Foraged Links: http://aqfl.net
| |o o| |
\ _ / Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail. If crediting,
( ) then please kindly use Ant nickname and AQFL URL/link.

 

[Yousuf Khan]

OK, I tried v1.40 and it seems to say it is caused by ntoskrnl.exe
driver from these two minindumps:
092011-17128-01.dmp 9/20/2011 10:59:19 AM
LOCKED_PAGES_TRACKER_CORRUPTION 0x000000d9 00000000`00000001
fffffa80`08247070 fffffa80`0a1aedd0 00000000`00000040
ntoskrnl.exe ntoskrnl.exe+705c0 NT Kernel& System
Microsoft® Windows® Operating System Microsoft Corporation
6.1.7600.16841 (win7_gdr.110622-1503) x64 ntoskrnl.exe+705c0
C:\Windows\Minidump\092011-17128-01.dmp 4 15 7600 274,912

091911-19718-01.dmp 9/19/2011 6:01:27 PM PFN_LIST_CORRUPT
0x0000004e 00000000`00000099 00000000`0005fe52
00000000`00000000 00000000`0011b5d2 ntoskrnl.exe
ntoskrnl.exe+705c0 NT Kernel& System Microsoft® Windows®
Operating System Microsoft Corporation 6.1.7600.16841
(win7_gdr.110622-1503) x64 ntoskrnl.exe+705c0
C:\Windows\Minidump\091911-19718-01.dmp 4 15 7600 274,912

Hmm. How accurate is this program for you? I find it interesting that
this program can't handle full dumps.

When I had learned how to use WinDbg I compared it to the information I
was getting from Bluescreenview. I found Bluescreenview was right on the
money, showing everything in seconds that I had found out the hard way
by hand using WinDbg (probably took 15 minutes by hand). I now no longer
remember how to use WinDbg, but I don't care Bluescreenview is all I need.

As for not being able to handle the full dumps, I think the reason for
that is because the full dumps and the minidumps are formatted in
different ways. Most of the major problems can be handled by the
minidumps, anyway. I think the full-dump is just a legacy feature left
over for programmers who do kernel or device driver development, and
they need the full dump feature to debug problems that they caused from
their own code.

You can now concentrate on doing a search for PFN_LIST_CORRUPT and
LOCKED_PAGES_TRACKER_CORRUPTION errors on the ntoskrnl.exe through
Google, rather than learning WinDbg and all of that other crap.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Paul]

You can now concentrate on doing a search for PFN_LIST_CORRUPT and
LOCKED_PAGES_TRACKER_CORRUPTION errors on the ntoskrnl.exe through
Google, rather than learning WinDbg and all of that other crap.

Yousuf Khan

And then deal with the disconnect, where the evidence shows it's
a memory related problem, and all the testing to date shows no memory
problems. What to do ?

Something doesn't add up.

Paul

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

And then deal with the disconnect, where the evidence shows it's
a memory related problem, and all the testing to date shows no memory
problems. What to do ?

Something doesn't add up.

Paul

Every now and then I post somewhere about the problem I thought might be
memory. The memory tests were all happy with my memory, but eventually I
swapped memory around anyway, and lo! I cured the problem

 

[Paul]

Every now and then I post somewhere about the problem I thought might be
memory. The memory tests were all happy with my memory, but eventually I
swapped memory around anyway, and lo! I cured the problem

That's what I'm thinking at the moment. Time to ignore the test results.

If it was an NVidia chipset, I'd be dropping the memory clock speed,
setting command rate to 2 instead of 1, and then start removing
sticks until it behaved itself. If I was down to one stick,
set to DDR2-533, command rate 2, and the thing was still throwing
wobblies, I'd throw it in the garbage I have a VIA board that's
rock solid with those settings, and if you can't do better than a
VIA chipset, in the garbage you go

Paul

 

[Yousuf Khan]

And then deal with the disconnect, where the evidence shows it's
a memory related problem, and all the testing to date shows no memory
problems. What to do ?

Something doesn't add up.

Are you having the same problem as Ant? One of the good features of
Bluescreenview is that it shows the list of previous function callers
before the Blue Screen happened. You can then run something like
Microsoft's Driver Verifier or just attempt to update that driver somehow.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Ant]

When I had learned how to use WinDbg I compared it to the information I
was getting from Bluescreenview. I found Bluescreenview was right on the
money, showing everything in seconds that I had found out the hard way
by hand using WinDbg (probably took 15 minutes by hand). I now no longer
remember how to use WinDbg, but I don't care Bluescreenview is all I need.

Hmm, for me WinDbg's !analyze -v and BlueScreenView show different
results on what possible causes.

As for not being able to handle the full dumps, I think the reason for
that is because the full dumps and the minidumps are formatted in
different ways. Most of the major problems can be handled by the
minidumps, anyway. I think the full-dump is just a legacy feature left
over for programmers who do kernel or device driver development, and
they need the full dump feature to debug problems that they caused from
their own code.

I got a reply from Nir, the developer about the full memory dumps on
Sun, Sep 25, 2011 at 11:16:34AM -0700: "No, It doesn't support
memory.dmp files. In fact, I already tried to to support memory.dmp
files, but I found out that some information (like the drivers list)
cannot be easily extracted from the memory.dmp file like I do with the
minidump files."

You can now concentrate on doing a search for PFN_LIST_CORRUPT and
LOCKED_PAGES_TRACKER_CORRUPTION errors on the ntoskrnl.exe through
Google, rather than learning WinDbg and all of that other crap.

Yeah, I did that too. Still puzzled why. People say run memory testers
(used memtest86 and memtest86+), Prime95, etc. All passed.
--
"Ladies and gentlemen, hoboes and tramps...Crosseyed Mosquitoes and
bow-legged ants...I've come to tell you the story..." --Bob Holman
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Ant is/was listening to a song on this computer: meinsla - {Meinsla}
Celestial Drift (ID: 447405)

 

[Ant]

And then deal with the disconnect, where the evidence shows it's
a memory related problem, and all the testing to date shows no memory
problems. What to do ?

Something doesn't add up.

I was reading that it could be driver related. Right now, I am focusing
on my onboard audio. I disabled it through device manager so far, so far
no crashes YET. Too early to conclude that it is the cause. We'll see...
And yes, I got the updated drivers from Dell's web site for this PC from
end of 2009. I even tried RealTek's driver.
--
"If I want to be a robber, I rob the king's treasury. If I want to be a
hunter, I hunt the rhino. What is the use of robbing beggars and hunting
ants? So if you want to love, love God." --Swami Vivekananda
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( ) If e-mailing, then axe ANT from its address if needed.
Ant is/was listening to a song on this computer: Namice - Namice -
Memories (ID: 446931)

 

[Ant]

Every now and then I post somewhere about the problem I thought might be
memory. The memory tests were all happy with my memory, but eventually I
swapped memory around anyway, and lo! I cured the problem

Swapped like in its slots? I only have two RAM pieces.
--
"It doesn't matter what your D&D manual says, you did not get 5
experience points for killing the giant ant in your kitchen." --BBspot's
Geek Horoscopes (7/30/2004)
/\___/\ Ant @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
/ /\ /\ \ Ant's Quality Foraged Links: http://aqfl.net
| |o o| |
\ _ / If crediting, then use Ant nickname and AQFL URL/link.
( ) If e-mailing, then axe ANT from its address if needed.
Ant is/was listening to a song on this computer: NanvanNoord - NM - Cod
Barley Promo Mix (ID: 447324)

 

[Ant]

That's what I'm thinking at the moment. Time to ignore the test results.

If it was an NVidia chipset, I'd be dropping the memory clock speed,
setting command rate to 2 instead of 1, and then start removing
sticks until it behaved itself. If I was down to one stick,
set to DDR2-533, command rate 2, and the thing was still throwing
wobblies, I'd throw it in the garbage I have a VIA board that's
rock solid with those settings, and if you can't do better than a
VIA chipset, in the garbage you go

It is a Dell Studio XPS 8000 with 8 GB of RAM (two pieces of Crucial
from
http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=F4FCAEEFA5CA7304 ).
I don't know what chipset exactly. I don't think it is NVIDIA and VIA. I
will have to run a hardware checker to see when I get to that PC.

Did I mention even idling at login screen after a reboot can still blue
screen or just hang/freeze?
--
"May 10,000 ants never invade your underwear drawer." --unknown
/\___/\ Ant @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
/ /\ /\ \ Ant's Quality Foraged Links: http://aqfl.net
| |o o| |
\ _ / If crediting, then use Ant nickname and AQFL URL/link.
( ) If e-mailing, then axe ANT from its address if needed.
Ant is/was listening to a song on this computer: NanvanNoord - NM - Cod
Barley Promo Mix (ID: 447324)

 

[Ant]

Are you having the same problem as Ant? One of the good features of
Bluescreenview is that it shows the list of previous function callers
before the Blue Screen happened. You can then run something like
Microsoft's Driver Verifier or just attempt to update that driver somehow.

I don't see any newer drivers from Dell.com. Most of them are from 2009.
I even tried the latest RealTek driver for its onboard audio, but that
didn't help (thought it did for a couple weeks). Grr. Annoying.

I briefly tried Driver Verifier, but don't quite understand it even
after reading about it. I tried enabling all drivers to verify last
week, rebooted, and my PC/64-bit Windows 7 was super slow! I left it
overnight like this, and no problems when I came back. I turned all
drivers verifications off since the slow downs were bad on this quad
core (Intel i5) system. Then, I tried only one unsigned driver
(forgot what it was). Its speed wasn't bad. I started up VMware
Workstation v7.1.4 and a guest image, and boom blue screen. WinDbg
blamed VMware, but BlueScreenView pointed (I know, it is not accurate)
on ntoskrnl.exe. See, it is confusing!

Oh speaking of blue screens, I am also trying to debug my father's old
Dell PC's updated Windows 2000 SP4 that rarely and randomly blue screens
too. BlueScreenView points to uhcd.sys (USB related?).

Argh!
--
"He who cannot pick up an ant, and wants to pick up an elephant will
some day see his folly." --African
/\___/\ Ant @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
/ /\ /\ \ Ant's Quality Foraged Links: http://aqfl.net
| |o o| |
\ _ / If crediting, then use Ant nickname and AQFL URL/link.
( ) If e-mailing, then axe ANT from its address if needed.
Ant is currently not listening to any songs on this computer.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Swapped like in its slots? I only have two RAM pieces.

Actually, I removed one stick and ran the system, and then the other and
ran it again. One stick caused the crashes, the other didn't. Details
fuzzy after 6 or 7 years...

Not every board will let you run single sticks, however.

I just remembered a laptop I had around the same time that came with two
memory slots and it had one stick in slot one. I bought a second stick
of another brand, and found that the computer wouldn't boot unless I put
the new stick in slot one and the original in slot two. Go figure.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

It is a Dell Studio XPS 8000 with 8 GB of RAM (two pieces of Crucial
from
http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=F4FCAEEFA5CA7304 ).
I don't know what chipset exactly. I don't think it is NVIDIA and VIA. I
will have to run a hardware checker to see when I get to that PC.

Did I mention even idling at login screen after a reboot can still blue
screen or just hang/freeze?

That makes me think of hardware...

 

[Ant]

That makes me think of hardware...

But what can it be? Grr.
--
"This is the ant. Treat it with respect. For it may very well be the
next dominant lifeform of our planet." --Empire of the Ants movie
/\___/\ Ant @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
/ /\ /\ \ Ant's Quality Foraged Links: http://aqfl.net
| |o o| |
\ _ / If crediting, then use Ant nickname and AQFL URL/link.
( ) If e-mailing, then axe ANT from its address if needed.
Ant is currently not listening to any songs on this computer.

 

[Ant]

Actually, I removed one stick and ran the system, and then the other and
ran it again. One stick caused the crashes, the other didn't. Details
fuzzy after 6 or 7 years...

Not every board will let you run single sticks, however.

I just remembered a laptop I had around the same time that came with two
memory slots and it had one stick in slot one. I bought a second stick
of another brand, and found that the computer wouldn't boot unless I put
the new stick in slot one and the original in slot two. Go figure.

At least you were able to reproduce the symptoms quickly. Mine is so
random and rare.
--
"This is the ant. Treat it with respect. For it may very well be the
next dominant lifeform of our planet." --Empire of the Ants movie
/\___/\ Ant @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
/ /\ /\ \ Ant's Quality Foraged Links: http://aqfl.net
| |o o| |
\ _ / If crediting, then use Ant nickname and AQFL URL/link.
( ) If e-mailing, then axe ANT from its address if needed.
Ant is currently not listening to any songs on this computer.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

But what can it be? Grr.

Yeah. The $64 question...

Not to mention that I might be wrong anyway :-(